[xstreaminsanity]

!!!!! THIS IS NOT APPROVED YET !!!!!

Ok, so I'm talking with Bill (Beckett.com admin) and someone from BGS on trying to find a possible way to do group submissions to BGS to get some lower rates. This is an idea I've been pondering and got good ideas from rj88 and htowntigger. It hasn't been approved yet, still working out some details, but here's what I was thinking of and wanted to know who may be interested. This is not for me to make a profit of any sort, just trying to get people more graded cards since some of us aren't rich enough to do it on our own. If you'd be interested, please let me know. Here's the scenario:

Frequency:

Monthly

BGS Service:

20 days

Number of Seats:

10-20 (no more, no less)

Cards Per Seat:

10 (no more, no less)

Cost Per Seat:

Around $100 (working out the details)

Cost for return shipping:

Depends on number of seats purchased.

Process (if approved by Beckett.com):

On the first of every month I will make a seating chart in the BGS forum with the title of:

BGS Group Submission: MONTH/YEAR (Example: BGS Group Submission: June/2011)

I will make a post in each of the four major forums (Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey) with the same title but I will lock the thread. This thread will have a link to the thread in the BGS forum.

If you wish to buy a seat, you will make a reply to the thread stating that you're interested and posting the cards you want to send. Your post can either have the exact description of the card as it is listed in Beckett, or you can post the link. Or, if you are fancy enough, you can post the link and the description:

Code:

<a href="http://www.beckett.com/basketball/1986-87/fleer/57-michael-jordan-rc-3022456">1986-87 Fleer #57 Michael Jordan RC</a>

When you've replied that you're interested AND listed your cards (along with your total DECLARED, not Beckett, value), your name will be placed in however many seats you're requesting in red. Red means you have yet to pay. After you see your name in the list in red, PM me and I'll give you my PayPal account information and you can give me the money that way. (If this gets approved, I'll be registering for a PayPal Debit card to make the submissions. This would be for everyone's safety). Once you've paid, your name will then be orange.

Seating will be open until 11:59:59 PM (23:59:59) of the 5th. If less than 10 seats are purchased, all money will be given back and I'll update the thread that this month has been cancelled. However, if 10 or more seats are taken and paid for, then the cards need to be shipped to me ASAP WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION!!!. Once I receive your Delivery Confirmation, your name will be green. Once your cards are received, your name will be blue.

Note:
There is no need to fill out or send a BGS Submission form. I'll have to combine all cards onto the same form for the group order. Also, if you give me permission to, I'd like to scan the cards for Beckett to put on the site. I'll send you the scans so you can get the credit for them, unless you tell me otherwise. However, this is completely voluntary as I know some people don't want to chance their cards getting lower grades.

Once all payments are received, all cards are received and I've made the submission, I'll update the thread. Once I get word in my account what the grades are, I'll share them with you in the thread.

When the cards are shipped back to me, I'll bubble wrap them and put them into USPS priority mail box along with Delivery Confirmation. However, this will be included in the amount you would put in my paypal account. I'll have to get the prices for the proper boxes depending on how many cards/seats are requested.

Notes/Consequences:
If you request a seat, pay, but do not send your cards or do not send them in a timely manner, you'll be suspended from the Group Submissions for two months. If there were only 10 seats and you not sending your cards takes it down to 9, you will be suspended for 6 months from the Group Submissions. Two of these offenses and you'll permanently be banned from the Group Submissions. To go along with this, I'm thinking that anyone in Canada wishing to participate in this will have to ship one month early. This is simply because of how long it takes for some packages to get from Canada to me (up to 4 weeks). Also, because there is no delivery confirmation from Canada to the US, I would request that you send the cards via UPS/Fedex. I will also look to see how much it will cost to send back the same way. TRACKING NUMBERS ARE IMPERATIVE!!!!!!!! I'm also trying to find out if it will be $1 or $2 for autographs.

Normally, for a user sending 10 cards with no deals or discounts for the 20 day service it would be $11 a card, $14 for ground shipping, and then $8 for insurance if the value is less than $1000. So you'd be looking at $132. At 100 cards, we get 20 day service for $9 a card and free shipping (not sure if it's ground or next day). That comes out to $98 if the total declared value is less than $1000. However, I'm thinking that 10 cards would fit in the medium flat rate box which is I think $7.95. So adding that onto the $98 it'd be $105.95. I'll also add $1 for shipping to BGS. So that would be $25.05 cheaper. Not a lot, but still cheaper. Also, these prices don't include autographs. For each autograph you want graded, it will cost a little more (still waiting on details).

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This is something that I think could help some people and may grow over time. Also, I'm hoping that the person at BGS I'm talking to will be able to get that $9 lower since I plan on doing this every month and it'll be 100 cards or more. I know I had wanted to, for myself, use the 45 day service at 200 cards because that is $5 a card and $1 per autograph. I'm hoping that if we can do 100+ cards at 20 day service, he can get it down to maybe $7 a card, so that makes it $20 cheaper ($45.05 cheaper than doing it alone). I'm hoping that he can give me a good deal.

Please reply to this email if you think this is a good idea and that you might like to participate. If you want to participate in this, you will not be made to participate every month. You can do it whenever you want. However, it'd be nice to have regulars to make sure we stay above 10 seats. Also, if you have any experience of sending 100 or more cards at 20 day or better service, could you please let me know what type of free shipping it is? Thanks.

Edit:
Also, this is not the same as group box/case breaks. While it is still a gamble because it would be sending to a third party (me), it's not the same as buying a box/case of cards and risk pulling nothing. Also, there is no profit gained here while in most box/case breaks there is a profit to be had. I'm also confirming this with Bill that this is not like group box/case breaks.

[mrhurtado17]

Jason- Probably a good idea but seems WAY too complicated!

[xstreaminsanity]

Jason- Probably a good idea but seems WAY too complicated!

lol. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, but I'll take all of the headache if it helps me get more cards graded and allows me to see some cool cards along the way.

[b33rman]

Great Ideal and hope it works out. I would love to be able to send some cards to get graded. I think that the details about how many cards each person must send will be the make or break on this. And how many total cards must be sent a month to get the deal. think you are doing a great job and good ideals and hope to work with you more on this one in the future.

[xstreaminsanity]

Great Ideal and hope it works out. I would love to be able to send some cards to get graded. I think that the details about how many cards each person must send will be the make or break on this. And how many total cards must be sent a month to get the deal. think you are doing a great job and good ideals and hope to work with you more on this one in the future.

I can't work with you though. I might still your Prince cards. lol. Just playing. Yeah, I know some things may need to change over time, but for now everything has to be pretty structure. I mean, if someone wants to send 5 cards and someone wants to send 15, just so long as we get to 100 then that's cool. I just don't want it to be to where we need 100 cards and everyone only wants to send 5 cards, because then we all have to wait on 20 payments, for me to get 20 packages, and then making sure they get here on time, etc. That's why I said 10-20 seats. Also, I figured, the people who want to get cards graded would want to get quite a few done at once. I know some only want 1 or 2 at a time, but this way, for those of us like me (BROKE) getting $100 to get 10 cards graded is a good idea.

[folkertino]

I think I would be in for perhaps 1 or 2 months - but definitely not this month.
The downside for me is the tremendous cost for shipping, outbound and inbound. X-man, perhaps you can check what's the cheapest way to ship something from the States to Spain with tracking?

BTW, can anyone just briefly give me the advantages of grading, apart from slabbing? How does it affect the value of the card?

[TangoVictorMike]

I'd love to join, but i probably be able to send just a couple of cards, not 10

[xstreaminsanity]

I'd love to join, but i probably be able to send just a couple of cards, not 10

Yeah, I'm working on seeing who would be interested and if there's always enough to fill the 100 card quota, I might work it out to where there are just enough people to fill 100.

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I think I would be in for perhaps 1 or 2 months - but definitely not this month.
The downside for me is the tremendous cost for shipping, outbound and inbound. X-man, perhaps you can check what's the cheapest way to ship something from the States to Spain with tracking?

BTW, can anyone just briefly give me the advantages of grading, apart from slabbing? How does it affect the value of the card?

Value-wise, obviously depends on the card. When you get it slabbed, you are pretty guaranteed that the quality of the card is not going to change. So if you had a RC right now that is worth $20 and you slabbed it, when it becomes Vintage, Beckett may say the raw value is now $200. But your slabbed version might go for $400. I'm not saying it's always going to double, sometimes it might only get you book, but it lets people who might buy it know that it is almost 100% not a fake (saw a thread this morning of someone thinking there's fake BGS slabs out there), it was graded for quality by professionals, and that when you ship it, it's nice and secure. That's just my opinion.

[xstreaminsanity]

Ok, so here's what I've found out from the guy at BGS.

If we were to consistently send in 100+ cards a month, we can get them at $7 a card and $1 for each AU. That is 45 day pricing, but for 20 day service. The only condition is that it would have to be consistent. Another thing I'm thinking about doing is taking away the 10 cards per collector and making it just $7 per card. Also, I'm thinking it'd be better to put up the "seating" chart a month in advance so I can make sure we have 100 cards or more each time. I heard from someone that 8 BGS cards fit in the small flat rate box and that is $4.95 a box. I'm going to have to rewrite the plan and repost it on the top for everyone to look at, but I wanted to update everyone on what I've found so I can see what kind of turnout it will get. Remember, we have to fill at least 100 cards, so it doesn't matter on how many members.

Also, would everyone be ok with doing Money Orders? Sending them along with the cards because after talking to another member who's done bulk submissions on here, they said it was easier than dealing with PayPal. I'll let everyone know when I've updated the top post, might be later tonight. Thanks.

[TangoVictorMike]

Thanks for the update. If we have trouble filling the 100+ cards per month, I could get other people from other boards,who I know for sure would send in cards, to fill the need, if that's ok. And there's a lot of people looking for a BGS host, but we can't find one.