PSA/DNA question-Is it worth it?

[Hawaiian BamBam]

hey guys,
i have about 400-500 brooklyn/la dodger autos that i got ip/ttm over the past almost 40 years. i was thinking about sending some in to psa/dna for authentication and get them encapsulated by psa/dna. i have a couple of questions regarding this.

1. i have always had problems understanding the psa site when it came to fees, for some reason i can never figure out the right price, so if a price for an authentication of a card is lets say $20.00 does that include both authentication and encapsulation of the card? or do i have to pay extra to get the card put in a case?

2. for baseball, there is a list of players. what if i cant find the players i need authenticated on the list, what is the price then? some of the more lesser known dodger players are not listed. can i still send them in?

3. is it REALLY worth sending in my autos to get authenticated as over time(i cant afford to send them all in at once! it would cost approx $10,000 to authenticate 500 autographs. i plan on passing my autographs down to my kids one day and they are all ip/ttm.

your thoughts please. thanks

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

anyone have any input on this?

 

[oldmarine0311]

your money is it worth spending it to you?

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

thats what im trying to figure out what others think in regards to, would they spend $10,000 to get 500 autos certified by psa?

part of me says it will be worth it in the future if i ever sell the cards, the other part of me says, thats a heck of a lot of money to spend. plus i dont know the answers to the other questions i asked.

 

[DenMan24]

I think it would be worth it. You could always start with the most popular players and work your way through as time/spare cash permits. I think the process is slow enough that a few at a time won't hurt the wallet too much.

There used to be - I only say used to be because I couldn't easily find it recently and the original link was dead - a forum on the PSA site. Usually a good read but they could certainly answer the question about the fee.

 

[dan5]

Unless you plan on selling them seems like a waste of money to me.

 

[jrchoholic83]

I think it is a great idea! I have a lot of IP and TTM that I plan on getting authenticated. I would only authenticate the few players that are tough to get though, if I did them all I would be broke.

 

[mrmopar]

Authentication is overrated.

The only autographs I would ever have authenticated, if I did it at all, would be autos that were already expensive and difficult to obtain. I would guess 90-95% of those autographs you are talking about wouldn't sell for $20 more than if they were not certified.

Some Dodgers to consider this for, just off the top of my head. They are all pretty much 50s or older Brooklyn guys who have died, except Koufax. His value remains unnaturally high, mainly due to his signing habits I would guess. Newer Dodgers, I can't think of too many that are that tough or worth paying for...Glenn Burke, Vicente Romo or Ricky Wright maybe:

Hodges
Robinson
Campanella
Koufax
Spooner
Gilliam
Cox
Casey
Wheat
Vance (Dazzy, not Sandy)

There are a number of others that played briefly for the Dodgers that might be worth it, if you had autographs of them:

Cuyler
Vaughan (Arky)
Wilson (Hack)
Waner (Paul)
Maranville
Boyer

I'd say save your money. Most of my collection is uncertified (other than cheesy certs issued by various sellers) and the pack issued cards I have obtained. However, I have tried to buy from trusted sources, learned what the signatures should look like and generally did some research before buying. I have grabbed a number of signatures on blind faith too though and I may find one day that I was burned, but I am not sweating it.

 

[Jeffo65]

I say, go ahead and spend the money to get them authenticated. This way you will know for sure.

 

[mrmopar]

By the way, you can scan and post any Dodger autographs here and I will offer you my non-professional opinion for free.

 

[oldmarine0311]

thats what im trying to figure out what others think in regards to, would they spend $10,000 to get 500 autos certified by psa?

part of me says it will be worth it in the future if i ever sell the cards, the other part of me says, thats a heck of a lot of money to spend. plus i dont know the answers to the other questions i asked.

yea thats my point who cares what others think, if the outlay of 10 grang for the process is worth potentially the return of half that value then its worth it to you. sure you may get a sweet collection but whatg do you get out of it after that? mopars right get the big names the high potential stuff done see what your return is and if you want to toss out the other cards for autos then consider the cost a cut in loss of the other positive returns.

on the other hand if this is somehting you know your going to pass down to your kids then it may be even more worth it in the long run.

but research it first can you get an already graded dna tested card off of ebay or comc for 30 bucks now? its all about cost vs return if your in it for the cash.

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

thank you all for your responses, i dont plan at all to sell my dodger autos, however i do plan on passing them down to my kids eventually. so i think for that reason alone, i will get them slowly authenticated (a few at a time) so it wont hit me all financially at once but be spread out over the next few years. ill start with the bigger stars and then finish up with the lesser known players.

i have a daughter right know and i can see 30-30 years from now some creep trying to take advantage of her when she goes and sells my cards, saying something like, oh yeah that jackie robinson card isnt worth much because it isnt authenticated or yeah, that sandy koufax, he isnt that good of a pitcher and this auto is authenticated so we dont know if it is real or not, so ill give you $5.00 for it! so to alleviate that, at least if all my autos are authenticated, then at least my kids can fall back on saying that all autographs are certified and real!

does anyone know, if an auto comes back not authentic, do we still pay psa the $20 fee? (some of my autos were bought on ebay and im not 110% sure they are real) (another reason i think authentication would be good.

even though at $30-40 a pop is way expensive now for almost 500 autos to be authenticated, i feel it would bring peace of mind to know which autos i have are authentic and which ones i got ripped off on, on ebay.

hey curt, i sent you a pm.

thanks guys for all your help. i appreciate it.

 

[cdahlk2001]

one thing to do is KEEP A LOG! every auto you get id log it and "current" prices for an auto next to it. if you have photos in binders put a piece of paper w/ it how u got it, how much they are going for, etc etc also any side notes of WHY you got it...when your daughter or whoever has it down the line and think of you as you passed on, she can re read your notes on WHAT WHEN WHY WHERE HOW you got it and what it ment to you..... just 2 cents. i have to catalog ALOT of my stuff. my son is 3 yrs old and i have over 6 dozen baseballs i got 80% IP and need to write everything out. so if the time does come that he wants to sell. it has a COA if in IP or TTM.... just my 2 cents. i have some i want to send to PSA but dont wanna lay down the $$ maybe if i get a good deal for a small lot i may. but no rush..... good luck in your quest.

 

[dan5]

thank you all for your responses, i dont plan at all to sell my dodger autos, however i do plan on passing them down to my kids eventually. so i think for that reason alone, i will get them slowly authenticated (a few at a time) so it wont hit me all financially at once but be spread out over the next few years. ill start with the bigger stars and then finish up with the lesser known players.

i have a daughter right know and i can see 30-30 years from now some creep trying to take advantage of her when she goes and sells my cards, saying something like, oh yeah that jackie robinson card isnt worth much because it isnt authenticated or yeah, that sandy koufax, he isnt that good of a pitcher and this auto is authenticated so we dont know if it is real or not, so ill give you $5.00 for it! so to alleviate that, at least if all my autos are authenticated, then at least my kids can fall back on saying that all autographs are certified and real!

does anyone know, if an auto comes back not authentic, do we still pay psa the $20 fee? (some of my autos were bought on ebay and im not 110% sure they are real) (another reason i think authentication would be good.

even though at $30-40 a pop is way expensive now for almost 500 autos to be authenticated, i feel it would bring peace of mind to know which autos i have are authentic and which ones i got ripped off on, on ebay.

hey curt, i sent you a pm.

thanks guys for all your help. i appreciate it.

Yes, to the above bold. They have performed the service you paid for. It is not their fault it's not authentic.

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

thanks for the info guys, i appreciate it.

 

[houbb]

thank you all for your responses, i dont plan at all to sell my dodger autos, however i do plan on passing them down to my kids eventually. so i think for that reason alone, i will get them slowly authenticated (a few at a time) so it wont hit me all financially at once but be spread out over the next few years. ill start with the bigger stars and then finish up with the lesser known players.

i have a daughter right know and i can see 30-30 years from now some creep trying to take advantage of her when she goes and sells my cards, saying something like, oh yeah that jackie robinson card isnt worth much because it isnt authenticated or yeah, that sandy koufax, he isnt that good of a pitcher and this auto is authenticated so we dont know if it is real or not, so ill give you $5.00 for it! so to alleviate that, at least if all my autos are authenticated, then at least my kids can fall back on saying that all autographs are certified and real!

does anyone know, if an auto comes back not authentic, do we still pay psa the $20 fee? (some of my autos were bought on ebay and im not 110% sure they are real) (another reason i think authentication would be good.

even though at $30-40 a pop is way expensive now for almost 500 autos to be authenticated, i feel it would bring peace of mind to know which autos i have are authentic and which ones i got ripped off on, on ebay.

hey curt, i sent you a pm.

thanks guys for all your help. i appreciate it.

Just my two cents, but I would never recommend authenticating a common auto. Some of those tough, hard to find autos mrmopar suggested, well...yes. If you're doing it to protect your kids, I still think you should only do it on Dodgers like Campanella, Robinson, Koufax, Wheat, Vance, Vaughan, Waner, and Wilson. No, I would not authenticate a Durocher. He signed a bunch. Same with Alston and LaSorda. Drysldale is an easy forge, or so I gather because his script was so doggone clean, you might want to drop some coin on an authentication of his sig. However, that's really about it. If you're thinking of dropping coin on authenticating Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey, I would recommend putting that money into a high interest return fund for your kids.

 

[abeabe]

The more you send at once, the cheaper the price. Many people offer group submissions to cut down on individual fees.

 

[valediction]

mrmopar said it better than I can. Aside from a few big ones, save your money. If I read the PSA site correctly, a lot of the autos are $20 which is pretty much the minimum. The encapsulation was another $10 I thought. For very tough/expensive signatures, sure, it helps. But even HOF'ers aren't worth it a lot of times.
Fergie Jenkins authenticated and encapsulated

not even a $23.99 bid delivered when the authentication/slabbing alone is $30. That's like getting the card and auto for free, the shipping for free and over 20% off the cost of the authentication/encapsulation process, and STILL no one bit. If that's happening with HOF'ers, what's going to happen when you spend $20-30 for the Ed Roebucks and Jim Goldens that go for $2-3?

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

those are some very good points, i appreciate all of your comments, i will have to think long and hard on this one. thanks guys.

 

[sean69]

Yes I was thinking the same as Abeade, they can do a group authentication. I have never done it. But I Have purchased some cards for a group submission.
Or do the ones that are more valueable. I Have done that before just for my piece of mind or if I would ever have to part with it hopefully it will bring the higher price tag and not the normal low end without have a COA.