The Holidays In Gradingland

If you are thinking about taking advantage of some of our latest specials and submitting cards to BGS for grading but are wondering about turnaround times, you are in luck. As many know, BGS turnarounds are guaranteed, no matter the time of the year. All turnaround times are business days. For instance, the 10-day turnaround usually takes about 2 weeks to ship. That’s 10 business days plus a few weekend days.

BGS will be closed 3 business days this year. We will be closed Christmas day and the following day as well as New Years Day. Since BGS turnarounds are guaranteed, there is no worry about holiday rush. That means no matter the amount of orders in house, your order will be completed on-time or it is free.

You will know the exact day your order is due and will be a part of the process from beginning to end. When your order is received and invoiced, you will receive an email stating your order has been received and your turnaround time has started. Then your cards will be verified. This is the point where your cards are bar coded and separated from anything that would identify you to the graders. Once verified, you will receive email #2 that will give you a link showing the actual date your order will ship. The final step in the process is packing and shipping. This is the step where you will receive your 3rd and final email. This email will give you tracking information for your shipment.

- Andy Broome, BGS Grading

Complete BVG-graded Goudey Sets Among Mastro Auction Highlights

Two complete Goudey baseball sets - 1933 and 1934 - graded by Beckett Vintage Grading are among many items up for grabs in the Mastro Legends Live Auction that ends this weekend. The 1933 set includes the four Babe Ruth and two Lou Gehrig Rookie Cards above, along with 233 others all slabbed and examined by BVG. The opening bid, which has been met, was $10,000. The set does not include the short-printed Nap Lajoie, which books for $25,000 raw. The 1934 set includes 96 cards - most notably two Gehrigs and Hank Greenberg’s RC - and has a starting bid, which has been met, of $5,000.

Both of these sets book for substantially more than the opening bids (1933 at $40,000, 1934 at $16,000) so expect them to generate more action before the final gavel. But keep this in mind, too — vintage cards in stronger grades such as these seem to rarely be impacted by a tightening economy. Why? There just aren’t as many collectors who can afford them.

Have a Question?

Q: I just received my grading order from Fed Ex and one of the cards I bought on Ebay is labeled as "Card Restored." What does this mean? I do not do anything to the cards I send in for grading and am not sure what this label means.

A: This is a great question and one that we get several times each week. If a card is examined by our graders and the card appears to be altered in any way, we have to list the card as "restored." There are people in this hobby that will try to cover flaws on the card in order to deceive the buyer. This might be trimming down an edge that has some chips, coloring in an area on the card that is missing paper, etc. When the card is examined, and looks different from other cards in that set, we will mark it as "restored." This is a great reason to purchase Beckett graded cards because if the card is in our case, it is one we feel is authentic and unaltered.

The graders that look at your cards will return the card with you along with a note showing you the area on the card that appears to be altered. Take a look at the notes and you should be able to see what the graders are pointing out. Examine the area noted with a magnifying glass if necessary. Knowing what to look for on ungraded cards could save you a lot of money so if you do get a card back that BGS feels is restored, hopefully the notes on the card will help.