Sports Card Forum - A Sports Card Community - Blogs - The Daily..lol, sometimes weekly, hopefully monthly Dose by meuandthelot

Next up, Grading - Basics

meuandthelot — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:56:12 GMT

I see A LOT of questions regarding grading and the various companies. While all grading is subjective by nature, and there have been instances where forgers-scammers and/or big money have in fact duped EVERY single authenticator(Crooks, Greed bring forth this ability)
The companies and their services have a place and merit some consideration. Signature authentication, *Reproductions, *Reprints and a safeguard with the buyback policy

#1)SGC Sportscard Guaranty- Great service all around, has large % of the Pre- War market. I'd use for selling, buying to help alleviate authenticity concerns, and my own collection.

#2)PSA PSA- Nice stackable holder, if for selling, they have the vintage market! Buying and Personal collection(IE: PC) Also, learn about "The Registry" & "Low pop commons"

#3)BGS(NOT the BCCG-Bulk quick sell service for power clients) But Beckett's BGSThey will even draw premium's for pack fresh modern issues if contemplating selling.
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#4)KSA(Canada's largest & fairly solid) I would buy, but offer a % off...Selling? I will check
#5)GAI(early & late OK, they had their troubles though, Read here- GAI Splits, read whole story Would only buy for lifetime PC

There are others that I MIGHT have encapsulate my cards for $0.75 in person, but I can't vouch for them, so I can't say yes. I'd spend the money on Toploaders with team bags, magnetic's or single screw holders.

Much more to come on this area.....

*

Learn:

Edges-

Surface-

Centering-

Corners-

Proper Lighting source-

10x Loupe-

Blacklight-

Set nuances- ex: OPC and Rough Cuts

Services that us hobbiests should or could use...

meuandthelot — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:27:40 GMT

I'm a collector, and techie-geek(i guess) Anyway, I run across things from time to time that really make my life easier, better, or just relieve some "What if" stress.

Wow, this has changed..SCF has incorporated many services into their platform, but we still traverse the wild www

Make Nesc. back-up's..archive your photo's, scans and documents-

With 1T Hard drives being so cheap, no reason NOT to have 2 HD Backup's going..I use a 1T and a 3T(main dump-upgraded every 2 years)
They are doing a few heavy tests on solid state drives and Flash memory regarding read/write stress.

Hard drives maintained with Spinrite 6.0

Use strong passwords, make sure the service you use doesn't store information in plain text.
Lastpass

I'll have other add-ons and Apps once I really trust them

WOT- Web Of Trust

longurl.org

Paper.Li
HTML Code:
Selling platforms: Many have sprung up, 2-3 look like they are truly viable options!

A collection tracker- Pay or ?? This area seems destined to be each his/her own. No platform, program(sans Microsoft or Google docs) has taken a hold in the hobby.

Show those cards, errr scans! No longer PhotoBucket or bust we have many great start-ups. A few incorporate innovative programs for bulk uploading, phone camera use, tagging, sharing..customized for collectors

NFL, Topps.. Where did they get a Magic theme?

meuandthelot — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:55:43 GMT

From the 1951 Topps Magic football card set which featured 75 of the countries top collegiate players.

The backs had a small player blurb, and a black and white photo of the player�s college, it also contained a scratch-off section that gives the answer to a football quiz...

This scratch-off quiz was added to several subsequent Topps releases.

Brief, but to the point ;)

Brrrr it's cold in here

meuandthelot — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:28:29 GMT

No Torro's, & no mercury visible in the thermo-meter...
A crisp -12(Actual)