Thanks in large part to the hobby boom that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, card grading is more popular than ever, and it’s more of a necessity than ever for safeguarding your sports cards investments and optimizing your eventual return.

Heck, during the dark heart of the pandemic, demand for grading services so fervently outstripped card grading companies’ capacities that the biggest players infamously put a moratorium on new submissions that lasted for months.

Not surprisingly, all of this unsatisfied demand gave rise to new companies who saw the opportunity for substantial financial gain in that demand-supply gap.

Today, with PSA, BGS, and other long-time industry leader ramping up their output to at least quasi-pre-pandemic levels, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what the grading field really looks like … for now.

Because, as we’ve seen time and again, the next market shift is just a cool innovation or cultural catastrophe away.

For the moment, though, here is a mostly complete list of card grading companies plying their trade to help collectors and investors make the most of our hobby, presented in alphabetical order and with a brief description of the services (and price points) they offer.

Check back often, though, because this lineup could change tomorrow!

Ace Grading

Our leadoff hitter is a bit of an oddball on this list since Ace Grading focuses almost exclusively on grading and authentication services for Pokemon cards and collectibles. They’re also based in the United Kingdom, which probably makes them less than an ideal logistical choice for collectors in the United States.

Still, the Ace website provides many of the features you’ve come to expect from hobby giants, including a Pop Report. And you never know who might branch out into other areas (i.e., sports cards) and when.

In terms of service levels, Ace offers grading options that range from a 40-business-day turnaround for 10 pounds (about $11 as of this writing) per card, all the way up to their “Ultra” services, which trumpets a turnaround time of two business days for 30 pounds (about $33) per card.

Beckett Grading Services (BGS)

Beckett Grading Services is one of those aforementioned “giants” of the grading industry, along with PSA and SGC (at least to some).

Formed in 1999 as an offshoot of the Beckett price guide empire, BGS became an immediate force in the hobby and gave PSA their first real competition as the new millennium dawned.

Today, BGS is an indisputable heavyweight, with many preferring to see that BGS label, instead of the PSA label, on a high-ticket card. There is a sentiment in at least some hobby circles, too, that BGS grading is more stringent and strict that their competitors, and the more explicit breakout of condition components (edges, corners, etc.) is a favorite feature, as are the fractional grades.

Beckett grading costs range from $25 per card for their Economy service (with no sub-grades) with a turnaround of 30-60 business days, all the way up to $250 per card for the Premium package, which features a turnaround of 2-7 business days.

The company also offers the Beckett Vintage Grading (BVG) service for older cards.

Certified Guaranty Company (CGC)

Long a stalwart in the comic book field, Certified Guaranty Company launched CGC Trading Cards in 2020, leveraging their strong reputation to catapult into the new venture.

As of September 2022, the CGC Population Report lists only Pokemon and Magic the Gathering cards, but with nearly two million entries between those two realms, it’s clear CGC is no shrinking violet when it comes to car grading. They also maintain a long list of non-sports cards that they will grade.

Service levels range from their Bulk offering at $15 per card for a turnaround of 30 working days to Unlimited WalkThrough at $150+ per card for a turnaround of three business days.

(At present, CGC does not grade sports cards, funneling those through their affiliate company, Certified Sports Guaranty, discussed below.)

Certified Sports Guaranty (CSG)

As mentioned above, CSG is directly affiliated with CGC, to the extent that the two companies are owned and managed by the same groups (as are coin and paper money graders NGC and PMG). And, according to their website, CSG offers the strongest guarantee of grade and authenticity in the industry.

In terms of grading levels, CSG’s offerings span from their Bulk service at the low end ($15 per card with a 25-card minimum, turnaround of 20 working days) to their Unlimited WalkThrough level ($150+ per card, 3 days).

Collectibles Grading Service (CGS)

Based in Austria, Collectibles Grading Service may not be the first name that comes to mind when you’re thinking about having your cards graded, but they handle cards from pretty much every manufacturer. Like others on this list, Collectibles Grading also maintains a searchable database of cards they’ve graded.

Grading costs range from about $12.50 per card with a turnaround time of 40 business days, up to about $35 for a single card returned in five business days.

Cosmic Grading Service

Cosmic Grading Service was founded in Germany and runs its operations out of Ireland, adding a bit of international flair to the grading scene. And, though, their Pokemon affinity hits you in the face as soon as you land on their website, Cosmic also grades sports cards across the spectrum.

Cosmic obviously has an uphill battle to stand toe-to-toe with PSA and other bigwigs in the field given their non-U.S. base and relative newcomer status, so it will be interesting to see their story unfold.

For now, service levels range from Standard, with prices starting at about 20 pounds per card and a turnaround of 12-25 business days, all the way up to Cosmic, offering same-day service at about 60 pounds per card. Cosmic also offers a couple of membership options that cost but that also provide grading discounts to members.

GMA Grading

Although it’s hardly as well known as some of the big names in the hobby, GMA Grading has been in business since way back in 2000.

More recently, they made hobby news and some waves by flashing low price points even during the pandemic, when most of the rest of the card grading companies were raising prices, cutting services, or both.

Today, according their website, GMA’s current services range from $8 per card at the Economy level (provided you’re submitting 100+ cards at a time and don’t mind waiting 45 business days) all the way up to a still-reasonable $20 per card at the Gold Express level (5 card minimum, 15-business-day turnaround).

Hybrid Grading Approach (HGA)

If you’re looking for a card gradingd company with an unusual model (for now, at least), the HGA might be of interest to you.

To wit, HGA begins their grading process by passing each card through their suite of AI tools, which assign the grade based on usual factors like edge and corner sharpness, surface wear and gloss, and all the rest. Then, humans review those adjudications to make sure they seem reasonable.

HGA pricing ranges from $25 per card at the “Best Value” level (turnaround 60 business days) to $80 per card (1-20 cards) at the “Fastest” level (2-business-day turnaround). Note that for “Very Fast” and “Fastest,” HGA offers volume discounts.

You can read our complete rundown of HGA grading here.

Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA)

Founded in July of 1991, PSA is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the card grading wars … although you’ll find plenty of collectors who do, indeed, dispute that claim.

As with leaders in every field, PSA has had their issues over the years. The most recently visible amongst those was undoubtedly the hiatus they were forced to take from accepting submissions during the cardboard avalanche of the pandemic years.

But for any warts they may have, PSA still grades more cards than anyone else, and resources like their Population Report and PSA Price Guide are absolute staples in the modern collecting landscape.

As for PSA grading costs, you can pretty much pick your poison — they have price points ranging from $22 all the way up to $10,000 as of September 2022.

Sportscard Guaranty Company (SGC)

SGC hasn’t been around quite as long as PSA, and they didn’t swagger into the hobby with the advance publicity BGS, but they have been at this game since 1998.

With nearly a quarter century in the game, SGC has collected tons of data, just like PSA and BGS, and they make their own population report available on their website — it’s another valuable tool for collectors hoping to learn all they can about the hobby and the market.

In terms of SGC grading costs, the company offers two basic service levels, with turnaround times of 20-25 business days, or 1-2 business days. Within each of those levels, their pricing is tiered based on card value. Factoring all of that in, you could spend anywhere from $30 to nearly $4000 per card for SGC grading.

Below is a complete rundown of the PSA grading cost levels.

(Note: As of June 2021, most of PSA’s services were temporarily suspended as the company worked to chew through a huge backlog of submissions. PSA announced late in 2021, though, that some of their basic services were being reinstated, and they were mostly back to full speed by . Check the PSA site for the current status of their services.)

Basic Options

Bulk

Cost: $22/card

Maximum declared value: $199 per card

Turnaround time: 120 days

(This option available only to PSA Collectors Club members.)

Value

Cost: $20/card for a minimum of 10 cards

Maximum declared value: $499 per card

Turnaround time: 90-120 days

(This option available only to PSA Collectors Club members.)

Economy

Cost: $50/card

Maximum declared value: $499

Turnaround time: 45-90 days

Regular

Cost: $100/card

Maximum declared value: $1499

Turnaround time: 15-30 days

Express

Cost: $150/card

Maximum declared value: $2499

Turnaround time: 14 days

Super Express

Cost: $300/card

Maximum declared value: $4999

Turnaround time: 7 days

Walk-Through

Cost: $600/card

Maximum declared value: $9999

Turnaround time: 3 days

Premium Options

Premium 1

Cost: $1000/card

Maximum declared value: $24,999

Turnaround time: 3 days

Premium 2

Cost: $2000/card

Maximum declared value: $49,999

Turnaround time: 3 days

Premium 3

Cost: $3000/card

Maximum declared value: $99,999

Turnaround time: 3 days

Premium 5

Cost: $5000/card

Maximum declared value: $249,999

Turnaround time: 3 days

Premium 10

Cost: $10,000/card

Minimum declared value: $250,000

Turnaround time: 3 days

(If you want to start learning about how much PSA cards are worth, check out our rundown on how to use the PSA price guide here.)

Of course, PSA also grades items other than cards, and they also do more than just grading things.

Among their other offerings:

• Card authentication
• Ticket authentication and grading
• Pack authentication and grading
• Card and autograph dual grading (for autographed cards)
• Card reholdering (placing previously PSA-graded cards in new holders)
• Card and autograph dual reholdering
• Ticket reholdering
• Pack reholdering

PSA’s service offering change on occasion, and their pricing changes a bit more often. It’s always a good idea to check out their services page for the most up-to-date information.

PSA also offers a “Collectors Club” that you have to join in order to get the “Value” pricing list above.

Should You Get Your Cards Graded?

So, given the prices above, is it worth it to get your cards graded?

That’s the million-dollar question … or at least the $20 question, depending on the service level you’re looking at.

The answer deserves a full article of its own, but some points to consider can help get you closer to a decision:

• What grade do you *think* your card would receive? Be brutally honest, and then lop off a number or two.
• What would your card sell for if it received that grade? You can always check the “sold” prices on eBay (affiliate link) to get an idea.
• How much more — or less — is the potential selling price than the price you paid for the card PLUS the cost of grading?
• How hard would the card be to sell? How much commission or shipping or other fees would you incur?
• What is your purpose for getting your card graded?

That last question is probably the most important of all.

If you want to get a card graded for aesthetic reasons, or for posterity because you intend to keep it for a long time, then it the rest of the bullet points above probably don’t matter. Grading would enhance your enjoyment of the hobby, and that’s what this whole thing is all about.

If, on the other hand, you want to turn a profit, then you really need to hone in on what a realistic margin might be for you if you do get your card graded.

So …

Should you get your card graded? It’s ultimately up to you, but just make sure you’re making an informed decision. Grading a card is an investment, and, like any investment, it can pay handsome dividends, or it can bite you in the nalga.

If you want more help in deciding whether to get your cards graded or not, check out our eBook, available on Gumroad. You can also get that book for free with a paid subscription to our Baseball Card Market Report newsletter.

(You might also enjoy our articles about BGS grading costs and SGC grading costs.)

To understand why it takes StockX longer to ship than, say, Amazon, and why shipping times can vary, it helps to first have an idea of what this unique marketplace is all about.

(Note: The following discussion contains affiliate links to the StockX marketplace. If you make a purchase after clicking one of links, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

What Is StockX?

At its core, StockX is an online marketplace (affiliate link) connecting buyers and sellers, and having several characteristics in common with other online exchanges like eBay and Amazon (which many forget does allow consumer-to-consumer sales for certain types of items).

But StockX differs from its counterparts in a few key ways.

First, StockX began life in 2015 primarily as a sort of clearinghouse for shoe collectors to buy and sell sneakers — usually rare or highly-sough-after basketball shoes. Because there is ample opportunity for counterfeiters to take advantage of consumers in that market, as well as in the clothing-fashion market at large (which StockX also plays in), the company quickly established an authentication protocol to verify the authenticity of each item shipped.

Second, to accommodate this authentication step, StockX itself handles every item sold on the platform.

Let’s tackle those in reverse order to see how they might impact shipping time.

Seller Shipping

When an item is sold on StockX, the next basic step is for the seller to ship the product to StockX so that they can put it through its paces in regards to authentication and condition verification.

Exactly how long this takes can vary a bit depending on where in the world the seller is located and just how motivated the seller is to complete the transaction.

However, StockX does require that sellers ship their item within two working days, or three for new-release footwear and five for “Supreme” items.

StockX Authentication

Today, StockX has several authentication facilities in operation, distributed across the United States and internationally, to expedite the process of verifying that each item is what the seller says it is. Still, it’s tough to be close to every location on earth, so there are still some sellers in regions that take longer to ship to a StockX center than others.

Once StockX does receive an item, however, their turnaround time for authentication and verification is generally in the neighborhood of 1-2 days.

Once an item goes through authentication, and assuming it passes muster, then StockX ships it out.

From there, it’s on the schedule of the carrier.

Holidays and Weekends

Another wrinkle in the end-to-end delivery of items purchased through StockX is that holidays and weekends are wildcards. You should generally assume that they don’t count in the published waiting times.

Indeed, StockX repeatedly mentions “working” and “business” days in their verbiage around shipping times, which means they’re probably not counting weekends and holidays in those tallies.

In other words, a 10-day turnaround is actually a 10-working-day turnaround, which means the actual elapsed time will be closer to two weeks when you factor in the weekends involved. Place an order on a Monday, and the tenth day will be the Friday at the end of the following week.

So … How Long Does StockX Take to Ship?

Add all those pieces together, and you get pretty close to the company’s stated goal of 7-12 working days for each purchase made. It’s a number that seems to hold up pretty well in reality, too, based on various reviews and forums around the internet, though you will find some reviews that mention longer wait times and other various issues with the shipping process.

Some of those may be due to expectations not aligned with the StockX business model, where consumers expect an Amazon-like experience. It’s always worth doing a bit of research when jumping into a new arena.

At any rate, StockX is a unique marketplace for sportswear and collectibles (and other stuff) and sure to hold some interesting items for just about anyone who peruses their offerings. You can check out all the goodies right here (affiliate link).

You might have wondered about that from time to time before turning your attention back to your phone or laptop.

After all …

The online baseball card community is absolutely incredible … lots of great people sharing stories about the old days (or the new days) and helping each other find the cards they “need” to take that next step forward in their collections.

And, boy, you can find just about anything you want for sale online, often at prices you wouldn’t have dreamed of 30 years ago.

In many ways, the hobby is even better today than in its 1980s and 1990s heyday.

But sometimes, you just want to walk into a real store, talk to real people, and pick up real cards, right?

Yeah, me too.

Well … you’re in luck!

Whether you’re looking for baseball card shops in your city or planning a road trip and want to do some advance scouting, the resources below will help you ferret out any real-life cardboard in your path.

So … “are there any baseball card shops near me anymore?”

Let’s find out.

Google Search

It may seem odd and unexciting to see Google at the top of the list for finding local card shops, but we’re living in the information age.

I mean, you’re reading this very post online, right?

And 99 percent of the time, the card shops you’re looking for will have some online presence, even if that’s just a physical address that shows up in the Yellow Pages.

And that means that, also 99 percent of the time, you can find all the shops there are to be found just using Google. You don’t even have to try very hard, either.

Just go to Google and type in “baseball card shops.”

Most of the time, that will do the trick because Google already knows basically where you are thanks to your IP address. Creepy but useful.

So, if you’re near St. Louis, for example, your search will return a results page that looks something like this …

A nice map of card shops right at the top, with details below and the chance to see more details by clicking “More places.”

Underneath, you’ll find websites for some of the specific shops.

And, if you’re taking a trip out of town and want to locate shops there, all you have to do is add the city or state name to your search term: “baseball card shops st. louis.”

What could be simpler or more powerful than that?

Beckett Store Locator

Beckett, of course, is the long-time leader in baseball card price guides, and those guides are often offered for sale at various baseball card shops.

So it makes sense that Beckett would maintain a database of those stores.

Hence, their Store Locator, which you can access here.

Once there, pick your location and decide what kind of Beckett seller you want to find: newsstands only, card shops only, or both together. Here is what the St. Louis results for card shops only look like:

Yellow Pages

Yep, the Yellow Pages is still around after all these years, and at least the basic functionality of their website is free to use.

If you go to YellowPages.com and type “baseball cards” in the search box and “St. Louis” in the location box, you’ll get some results:

Like Google, Yellow Pages can pick up on your location if you tell it to, and you can also filter the results by things like BBB ratings and available coupons.

Yelp

Yelp is sort of like the Yellow Pages for a new age (except, of course, we still have the old Yellow Pages…kinda).

But Yelp excels at giving us merchant ratings and review from real people — in the case of baseball card shops, that means collectors like you and me.

Yep, Yelp lists card shops!

Just go to Yelp.com, enter your search, and reap your rewards:

Topps

What?? Topps is a card manufacturer (at least for a little while, and then for a good while longer, though under the Fanatics umbrella).

How in the heck can they help find sports card shops near me?

Well, it just so happens that Topps maintains a big list of physical card shops in the United States and Canada, and they’ve posted that list as a PDF on their website right here.

And, while it’s not clear how often that document is updated (if ever), a spot check of a few stores listed there shows they are still active and open for business as of late May 2022.

Curiously, while there are several Missouri entries in this doc, none specifically call out St. Louis in their address, so there is some question as to how complete this “Hobby Store List” really is. Still, it definitely give us a wide swath of potential stores to visit, and it’s definitely a handy travel companion for any collector when they’re on the road.

Card Shop Lists

In addition to the resources listed above, several websites maintain lists of card shops, each with a slightly different focus. Check these out to see if they meet your needs …

Beckett’s The List: Vintage Dealers to Know – what it says … dealers of vintage cards

Blowout Cards Forum’s Hobby Shop Locator – This is actually a forum thread where people list shops across the nation. Not sure how updated it is.

BaseballCardPedia’s Card Shop Locator – a static list of shops (not many) with longitude and latitude included (!)

Sports Collectors Digest Industry Resources Page – static links to a bunch of cool sites, including some high-profile dealers and retail stores

—

There you go…all sorts of resources to help you find out where your next card buy might come from, especially when you just have to make the purchase in person. Nothing really stands up to the experience of a visit to the local card shop, after all.

So …

Are there any sports card shops near me?

Maybe. Probably. And now, you can find out for sure!

(Check out our other posts about baseball cards for sale here.)

Maybe you are just looking to “thin the herd” and make room for new baubles while also using your cards to fund those purchases.

Or maybe you’re downsizing after a long run in the hobby and hope to pad your nest egg with the fruits of your collection.

Or perhaps something more pressing is driving your desire to sell — college tuition, house payments … life! Any and all of them can amp up your need for cash.

Or, maybe your entire run in the hobby has been financially motivated to some extent. After all, investors enter the field of play every day, and they’re a key part of the modern sports card landscape.

You might even fall into a healthy mix of multiples of these categories — most card dealers spring from the ranks of collectors, for example, and plenty of them get their start just trying to sell off some doubles for a chance to pump a bit more money into their hobby.

Whatever your eventual motivation, you WILL eventually start thinking about selling at least some of your baseball cards, and when you do, you need a plan if you want to make sure to get maximum return for your beloved cardboard.

But it can all be confusing, especially in this helter-skelter modern landscape of ours, with so many different cards and so many players on the field (the hobby field, that is), and with everybody talking about the cards everywhere — on blogs like this one, on podcasts, on YouTube, in forums, at card shows, and on and on and on.

How are you supposed to wade through all of the available information to figure out the right venue to liquidate your cards and make sure that you’re getting top dollar for them?

Well, that’s where this guide comes in.

The following sections give you a step-by-step process to follow in evaluating and selling your cards, as well as bringing together the best resources on the web for each piece to help you both do your own research and reach out to experts when you need additional support.

So, without further adieu, let’s see if we can crack the formula on how to sell baseball cards for the most money possible.

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Identify Your Baseball Cards

Before you even think about selling your baseball cards, and before you can really even start to get an idea about their value, you need to determine exactly which cards you have.

Back in the early hobby days, and even into the 2000s, that was sometimes a pretty tall task, and the few resources available to help in your research were usually hard to come by and/or very limited and stale in their content:

• Local card dealers
• Card shows
• Hobby magazines
• Yearly price guides
• Other collectors

You’d often go weeks or months without encountering some of these, and all of them were tough to “search.”

Nowadays, it can still be daunting to find yourself face-to-face with a card that you don’t recognize, and one that’s not giving up many clues about its identity, but the internet provides a whole host of tools and information that make solving a hunk of cardboard mystery easier than ever before.

Not always easy, mind you, but definitely easier. And, with new resources coming online all the time, your path to discovery becomes more clear by the year.

To get you rolling with that task, we’ve put together a full guide running through the best tools going right now to help identify your baseball cards, and we show you how to use each one to full effect. You can find that guide in this article, but some of the resources we cover there include:

• Search engines
• Retail websites
• Compiled checklists
• Forums
• Social media
• And even the cards themselves.

Check out the full post right here, and then come back here for the next step in the process …

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Grade Your Baseball Cards

Once you know exactly what you have, then the next step toward figuring out the value of your baseball cards is to grade them, or to have someone else grade them.

Now, I’m not necessarily talking about having your cards professionally graded, because that’s an expensive proposition best reserved for pretty special cards. But there may be cases where you do want to have at least some of your cards graded.

How do you decide whether professional grading is right for you and your cards? Well, we put together an extensive guide to help you make that decision (which is usually “no,” by the way) — it’s an 11-page e-book that you can read on your Kindle or as a PDF.

You can download that guide for free over on Gumroad if you’re interested, but we’re going to leave professional grading behind for right now and assume that you WON’T be submitting your cards to be slabbed.

But you still need to figure out what condition your cards are in to get an accurate gauge of their value. And to do that, you need to gain a solid understanding of how cards are graded, and then apply that understanding to your own cards.

Luckily, as with identifying your cards, we have created a full guide on how to grade baseball cards that can help you understand the process and start figuring out the condition of your own cards. In particular, this guide will walk you through evaluating and grading (assigning scores or making qualitative assessments) cards in each of several key areas:

• Corners: Are the card corners sharp or rounded, or in between? Are they “tight” or frayed? Especially for cards with colored borders, are the corners scuffed or discolored?
• Edges: Are the edges sharp and straight? Or are they miscut or wavy? Are they dinged or torn or frayed? Are they the right color — white or blue or red? Or are they faded, dingy, or scuffed?
• Surface: Is the card surface shiny and clear? Or is it scratched, scuffed, or dull? Are there any pits or surface wrinkles?
• Centering: Is the card centered, or is the image shifted up or down or left or right? Is it tilted so that the borders are uneven, top-to-bottom or left-to-right?
• Foreign Substances: Are there any foreign substances on the card — front, back, edges? Examples might include gum stains, wax stains, pen marks, crayon scribbles, tape, etc.
• Structural Integrity: Is the card fully intact, or is it torn? Are there pin holes or creases? Has it been trimmed?
• Image Quality: Is the image on the card clear and crisp? Are the colors rich and true? Or us the photo washed out or discolored?
• Eye Appeal: What is the overall visual impression of the card? Does it look appealing and have visual “flow”? Or do condition problems disrupt the visual impact?

All of these factors play into the overall grade — and, ultimately, value — of a card, and they apply to both the card front and the card back.

As you can see, card grading can be a complicated and nuanced undertaking, but you can become fairly proficient with a little practice. No, you may not develop the eye of a seasoned PSA Grader after a couple of passes through the guides above, but by consistently applying these principles to your own cards, you’ll definitely hone your own grading abilities.

And, once you have a general idea of what condition your cards are in, you can move on to …

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Value Your Baseball Cards

There is one last key bit of information you need before you’re really ready to pull the trigger on a deal — how much are your baseball cards worth?

That turns out to be a pretty complicated question with no clear-cut and straightforward answer because there are many, many factors that go into determining the value of a card or a card collection, including but not limited to:

• What cards are involved (you’ve already identified them)
• What condition the cards are in (you’ve already graded them)
• How many cards are involved (more on that in a minute)
• Your perspective — buyer? seller? observer? dealer? collector? investor?
• Timing

How much any particular card is worth at any particular moment comes down to how much someone is willing to pay you for it … again, at that moment.

Some cards will hardly ever command much money, no matter what the circumstances, and no matter how much you may *want* them to be worth a lot.

Indeed, many of the “can’t-miss” cards from the hobby boom of the 80s and 90s fall into that category — Gregg Jefferies rookie cards, early ’90s Fleer and Donruss cards, late-career Don Mattingly base cards, non-rookie Dwight Gooden cards, etc.

There are simply too many of these cards on the market to ever really outpace demand, especially since the players involved fell short of lofty expectations.

Then, there are cards that can sell at a significant premium, under the right circumstances — PSA 10 copy of the 1985 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card, for example, will draw plenty of attention, but a raw copy of the same card with frayed corners will be a hard pass for most potential buyers.

And, if you’re trying to sell that Big Mac in a lot of 50,000 cards that mostly consist of 1991 Donruss and 1992 Fleer base cards? Good luck getting more than a fraction of a penny per card for the batch.

Then, when you are able to establish the going market rate for any particular card, or group of cards, don’t forget to factor in the overhead involved with actually moving them.

For example …

If you want to piecemeal your cards on eBay, you can likely get close to full market value … at the cost of lots of your time and various eBay fees.

If, on the other hand, you want to sell a big batch of cards in one shot, you’re likely going to see your per-card rates fall — eBay buyers will have to pay for shipping, after all (or you will), and dealers have to leave plenty of room in their margins to cover operating expenses and making a profit.

Now, with all that doom and gloom out of the way, the good news is that you CAN find out what your cards are worth using — surprise! — various online tools and websites. Some of these inlcude:

• eBay sold listings
• PSA Price Guides
• PWCC
• Free professional appraisals

We’ve run through some of the best pricing resources and show you how to use them in this handy guide to finding baseball card values.

As with grading, it will take some practice to feel comfortable with establishing card values, but keep at it, because it’s a vital skill to master in your quest to ultimately …

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Sell Your Baseball Cards

Finally!

Now that you’ve identified your cards, graded them, and figured out their approximate market value, it’s time to do what you came here to do … sell your baseball cards!

As with the other parts of this process, you have several options for how to go about liquidating your cards. Among those are …

• eBay
• Online marketplaces (COMC, PWCC, Beckett, etc.)
• Dealers
• Card shows
• Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets
• Garage sales, flea markets, etc.

There are other outlets, too, and there are probably some that are unique to you and your location.

Basically, though, your coarse-grain options come down to:

• Selling your cards one-by-one on your own to maximize overall revenue (selling singles on eBay, for example)
• Selling you cards in bulk to a dealer to minimize hassle, while realizing your overall take will be smaller
• Selling your cards in bulk on your own to try and expand your market — and revenue (selling lots on Facebook, Craigslist, eBay, etc.)

To help you decide on the optimal sales venue for your situation, we’ve put together this complete guide on where to sell baseball cards, with enough details about each option to let you weigh them against each other.

The nice part about some of those options is that they also present opportunities to talk through your selling situation with more experienced buyers and sellers — the social media platforms and online dealers, in particular, offer the chance to ask questions and have conversations around your cards before you sell.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you, of course, but there is no lack of options available to you.

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Conclusion

There you have it — a complete guide to selling your baseball cards that will help make sure you’re getting the best deal you can.

If you’ve read this far, you might have come to the conclusion that cashing out your cards can be a tedious and complicated process, and that can definitely be true, especially if you’re doing your due diligence.

You can avoid a lot of that hassle by just going straight to some of the large, trusted dealers in our guide to venues for selling cards, but again, any offer they make to you will have to leave a lot of room to pay for the cost of running their business and a margin for profit.

And doing that from the jump will deprive you of the joy of working through the details of your collection.

Who knows? Once you’ve identified all your cards, graded them to the best of your ability, and determined their value, maybe you’ll have fallen in love with them all over again.

And then … well, and then, selling may be the furthest thing from your mind!

(Return to Table of Contents)

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That goes for new collectors, veteran collectors, dealers, investors, and even interested bystanders — there’s always something new to learn, and there will always be cards that present mysteries to be solved.

It’s your job to sharpen your cardboard detective skills so you’re ready when that time comes, and this handy guide can get you started.

So …

Here are some of the tools that will help you positively identify just about any baseball card (or other sports card) you may encounter.

(This post is part of a complete series on How to Sell Baseball Cards.)

The Card Itself

The truth is, identifying a baseball card is pretty easy most of the time, even if you don’t have much prior knowledge of cards … like if your long lost great auntie Bertie, twice removed and three times resuscitated, leaves you a box of “old” cards in her will after that fourth time. Let’s say that one of Bertie’s treasures is this Matt Nokes:

From the card front, you can surmise that this is a Matt Nokes baseball card (duh), and that it was issued by Topps, thanks to that little trophy, which might also tip you off that this is a rookie card.

But you still don’t know what year the card is, and “Topps” may not resonate enough for you to recognize the name as a card manufacturer. Don’t worry, though — that’s a mistake you’ll only make once in this game. And it’s one you can remedy by turning the card over:

There on the back, we see the rest of the story along the right-hand side: “1988 Topps Chewing Gum, Inc.”. So, this is a 1988 Topps Matt Nokes baseball card.

Sometimes, though, the byline won’t be quite so helpful, with the year the hunk of information most often being omitted. In those cases, you can still figure it out — most of the time — by looking at the player stats. Since most cards are issued the year AFTER the season they depict in photos and in numbers, you can usually add one (1) to the last year shown in a player’s stat box to get the year the card was issued.

In the case of Nokes fn this card, we see that 1987 is the most recent year reflected in his line, which again means this is a 1988 Topps card.

But identifying a card is not always that straightforward, especially for obscure older cards or more recent cards, which often exist in many parallel forms and variations. Not only that, but a given player might appear in dozens of different sets in any particular year.

So, what do you do then, when ID’ing a card is not as easy as flipping it over?

Well, you can still take these same steps to get started. Take a look at this Pete Rose card, for example:

If you’ve never seen this type of card before, the front gives you nothing other than “ROSE” and “OUTFIELD” and a signature. So … let’s check out the card back:

Hmmm.

Both the copyright and the stats block lead us to the conclusion that this is a 1972 card. But a 1972 Xograph? I’ve never heard of that card company, and I’ll bet you haven’t either.

So, where to now? Well, how about our old friend?

Google Search

Yep, good old Google search can help us identify baseball cards, too. (And so can Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.).

In the case of our Pete Rose card, we have a ready made search term.

Here’s what Google says about “1972 Xograph Pete Rose”:

Bingo! Big G tells us right away that this is a 1972 Kellogg’s Pete Rose card. And if that hadn’t worked out? We could have used Google reverse image search to try and match our card with other sightings online, like so …

• Go to images.google.com:

• Click the camera to bring up the image dialogue:

• Switch to the “Upload an image” tab …

• Click “Choose File” and then select the image of your card to upload (you can also drag the file into the text box)

And we have another “Bingo!” …

Google once again delivers us to 1972 Kellogg’s.

If you work through the on-card and Google gauntlets without much success, or if you just want another option, then you can always turn to …

PSA Master Set Checklists

Card grading giant PSA maintains checklists of virtually ever licensed card (and some that are unlicensed) issued during the careers of some of baseball’s best players. They do the same for other sports, too.

Here is the checklist for Pete Rose.

Since we narrowed our mystery card down to a 1972 Rose, we can page through the PSA Master Set checklist to that year, like so …

There’s no “Xograph” on this list, but we can take the cards that are listed and run *those* through Google until we see something familiar … like that 1972 Kellogg’s beauty.

And if the plain old Google results aren’t conclusive enough, you can always switch to the “Images” tab under the search box to see all the photos Google knows about that match your query:

Those Google results almost always include “for sale” listings at various online retailers, including auction marketplaces, but you can also go to those sites directly to do your research.

Indeed, another great tool in your belt for helping identify baseball cards is …

eBay

You can find just about any card you want to add to your collection for sale on eBay, which means you can also use the monstrous online auction house to conduct or augment your research.

To find out about our Rose card, we just head over to eBay.com …

Type in our search term in the “Search for anything” field and hit the Search button:

As with the Google results, we can page through these listings until we find what we’re looking for.

Bonus Tip: If you click the “Sold” checkbox in the “Show only” criteria section at the left of the page, eBay will show you only items that match your search term AND that have sold in recent weeks (usually the last three months). This is a great way to start figuring out the current market value of any given card. Here are the “sold” listings for our “1972 Pete Rose” query.

Other Research Tools

Generally speaking, the tools detailed above will take you along way toward identifying any funky or mysterious baseball cards that may come your way. But they’re not the only game in town … no way!

So, whether you strike out using the above methods or just want some other options, you can always try …

Player Checklists

Like PSA, several other websites maintain player checklists to help you track your collection AND identify the cards you’re researching. Here are a few good ones:

• Baseball Almanac — similar to the PSA Master Set checklists, and you can use them the same way; here is the Rose checklist.
• Trading Card Database — as the name implies, this massive database site maintains lists of all sorts of cards; here is their Pete Rose checklist.
• Beckett Marketplace — ostensibly a place to buy cards, hobby pioneer Beckett uses player checklists as an interface to the cards for sale in their Marketplace; here is the Rose page.

Baseball Card Forums

Long before Twitter and YouTube and TikTok and all the rest, collectors were hanging out and helping each other in online forums. And, today, several forums remain very active, and they are great sources of camaraderie, information … and assistance. Here are a few good ones to peruse when you’re trying to identify a baseball cards.

• Net54baseball: With categories for just about any hobby topic you can imagine, Net54 is fertile ground for research (and rabbit holes).
• Blowout Cards Forums: Though Blowout Cards is known for their breaks and retail presence, they maintain a rich forum where collectors discuss all aspects of the hobby.
• TCDB Forums: Yep, the Trading Card Database shows up here again, but with good reason — their forums are chock full of collectors sharing their wares AND helping each other find the cards they need, and identify the cards they’re unsure of.

Social Media

Choose just about any social media platform you want, and I’ll lay dollars to gum stains there are collectors using the space to further their hobby goals. Here are just a few of the top platforms, along with some ideas about how to use them.

• Twitter: This is probably my personal favorite when it comes to social media platforms for the hobby — the discussions on Twitter are instantaneous and organic, and collectors are super engaged … and helpful! (Follow us @WaxPackGods)
• Facebook: Everybody and his mother (literally) is on Facebook, which means you can find pages and groups devoted to just about anything. That includes hobby talk, of course, and a quick search on FB will turn up gobs of groups where you can buy, sell, and trade with other collectors, and other avenues for general discussion … including asking about your “mystery cards.” (Check out our Facebook page right here.)
• Pinterest is basically a huge, visual search engine, so you can use the same query logic we used on Google and eBay above to look for your unknown baseball cards. You can also connect with other “pinners,” just like on other social sites. (Check out our Pinterest page here!)
• YouTube: Similar to Pinterest, YouTube is a giant search engine, but with all the results being videos. You may have to finesse your searching and viewing techniques to hone in on the cards you’re looking for, but you can definitely learn a lot about the hobby on YT. (Visit our YouTube channel!)
• Instagram: Sort of a mashup between Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, Instagram supports a thriving collector community, and you can search for the cards and topics you’re interested in. (Here is our Instagram.)
• TikTok: Yeah, TikTok is hip and cool (at least here in 2022), which makes it perfect for baseball card collectors … right?? Seriously, though, there is a lot of fun hobby stuff happening on TikTok, though finding specific cards on this platform will be a little tougher. You can connect with other collectors, though, and that’s invaluable. (Check us out on TikTok!)

Card Buyers

One of the reasons that positively identifying your baseball cards is so important is that there will likely come a day when you want to sell part or all of your collection. When that day comes, you need to know what you have in order to make sure you’re getting a fair price for your treasures.

In a similar vein, the people who might buy your cards someday also have a vested interest in keeping their card sleuthing skills as sharp as possible. It’s the other side of the same coin — they want to make sure they’re paying a fair price, but not overpaying, for whatever cards they buy.

Online dealers, your local card shop, card shows, online marketplaces, other collectors — all of them are potential buyers … someday … and all of them might be able to help you figure out just what cards you have.

Our complete guide to finding places to sell your baseball cards runs through the many avenues for liquidating your cards, and any of those could be viable sources of help in identifying your cards in the first place.

And, if you’re worried that a dealer won’t want to help you figure out what you have because it might eat into his profit margin, just keep in mind that the card community is strong, and lending a helping hand can go a long way toward building word-of-mouth business. Besides, you have nothing to lose by asking!

Happy Sleuthing!

There you have it — a full rundown of hobby resources that can get your “how to identify baseball cards” chops in shape in a hurry.

And I’ll bet if you put some thought into these categories and examples, you can come up with even more creative ways to tackle the Case of the Mysterious Cardboard.

If you do find yourself struggling to identify a particular card somewhere down the road, feel free to contact us for help. I can’t guarantee a fast turnaround or a definite answer, but we’ll do our best to help where we can.

Happy researching!

Which player from MLB history is at the plate? Figure it out by guessing the letters in his name — can you identify him before you get three outs??

Below is a complete rundown of the SGC grading cost levels.

(Note: Grading companies tend to change their services and prices on a fairly regular basis. Check the SGC site for the current status of their services.)

Standard-Size Options at SGC Grading

For cards that are of typical size and weight (generally 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches):

(In addition to the prices above, SGC also applies shipping charges, offering several different options.)

Of course, SGC does other sorts of grading, too, and they also provide services beyond just grading cards. Here are some of their offerings:

• Oversized grading (for items over 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″) — prices are similar to those for standard size items, just a bit higher here and there
• Reholder service for previously graded cards, both standard and oversized
• Custom encapsulation
• Advanced research for non-standard items

As with other grading companies, SGC’s service offering change on occasion, and their pricing changes a bit more often. It’s always a good idea to check out their services page for the most up-to-date information.

Should You Get Your Cards Graded?

So, given the prices above, is it worth it to get your cards graded?

Well, that’s a great question, with an answer that depends on several factors.

We laid out some of the basic factors for helping you make that decision toward the bottom of our post about PSA grading cost. We also have a more in-depth guide available over on Gumroad (or you can get that eBook for free with a paid subscription to our Baseball Card Market Report newsletter. )

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You might also enjoy our post detailing all the current card grading companies.

Actually, there are (at least) two PSA price guides.

Here is a rundown of the tools that PSA provides for tracking cards prices, and how you can use them to your benefit.

PSA Sports Market Report (SMR) Price Guide

This is ostensibly the main PSA price guide — in fact, the PSA website recently seems to have dropped the “Sports Market Report” bit … this is the PSA Price Guide.

Here, you can search for just about any card or set you can imagine, in any grade and across all sports and non-sports issues. Heck, you can even drill down into memorabilia, like a full lineup of autograph values.

In terms of how the listed prices are derived, PSA has this to say:

Every issue contains card prices based on established price histories. No subjective pricing surveys or price ranges of ungraded cards are ever included. 

You can also subscribe to the monthly physical version, which now goes by the moniker of PSA Magazine. As you might expect, the magazine gives you a bit more insight through articles and such, but it can’t keep up with the more rapid changes in the market.

In fact, if you spend much time on hobby forums, you’ll find that’s a frequent criticism of the online PSA price guide, too — it doesn’t always reflect current pricing.

Fortunately, PSA offers an alternative …

PSA Auction Prices Realized

As the name implies, the Auction Prices Realized (APR) tool tracks actual auction selling prices for PSA-graded cards and reports on them through the website.

The APR reports on listings from across the hobby, including the voluminous sales going down on eBay and the more infrequent, generally higher-dollar transactions happening at the various auction houses.

The lag time for the APR is much shorter than what you’ll find with the SMR — usually PSA reports sales the same day they hammer down.

Organized by sets, the APR tool gives you a chance to see a list of individual sales for each card and also presents per-grade average pricing and most-recent sales numbers for each entry.

Using the data from the APR, you can break up pricing information over whatever time period you want to help determine if the card you’re considering purchasing is priced right, or maybe how you might be able to sell your own graded cards for.

So there you have it — a rundown of both versions of the PSA price guide, along with some tips on how to use them.

Of course, as with all price guides, these are just that — guides. Even PSA can’t predict what a particular card will be worth on the open market.

And, as an extra piece of cautionary advice, be forewarned — these tools are addictive, and you may just find that a couple of hours have gone by before you can even blink, should you venture a deep dive into either or both PSA price guides.