Info on a Kris Bryant card

[WRXchillin]

Hi All,

New to the forums, have recently just got back into collecting baseball cards after a brief 20 year break. A random pack caught my attention a few months ago at a local store, and from there, many lunch breaks have been spent at a local hobby shop.

Anyways, I recently picked up a couple of 2016 Topps Finest boxes, they have a couple of guaranteed autos and I like the style of the card. Out of one of those boxes, I pulled a Kris Bryant autograph, red parallel, numbered 1/5. I was a bit shocked as I hadn't pulled much aside from a few #/25 or higher, so this was a nice surprise. Couple of questions,

First, my mind is obviously curious about the worth of this card. I tried to find some similar, but the best I could find is some of the orange parallels on ebay numbered /25. I'm a little torn as to whether to keep or not, as myself am a Giant, but at the same time, I feel the odds of pulling this number again are pretty slim.

Second, what do you think about grading something like this? I've heard conflicting opinions, some say just keep it as is in a magnetic case, others, grade it for longevity.

Thanks for any help, and very glad to have found this site to fuel my old hobby.

[rngrdanny22]

That's a monster pull. Congrats!

[okumeister]

Great pull!
I personally love the look of Finest cards, and KB is of course a great name to get.

The 2017 Finest red #/5 auto raw condition of him sold for $400 in July (listed $999 BIN BO, and settled at $400).
I wouldn't be surprised if someone wants to pay over $500 to get it too though.

It of course depends on the actual condition of your card, but I think Finest cards generally grade well.
If there is no obvious flaws you can see, I would grade it.

[WRXchillin]

Thanks for the response. The card looks pretty clean, nothing obvious that I can see. I'll have to read up on the grading process a bit more, but the shipping and extra human handling definitely makes me nervous. I suppose this one would stay in the collection for a while, unless of course I can find a great trade for some Joe Panik items...

[Darth Bryzzo]

Originally Posted by WRXchillin

Thanks for the response. The card looks pretty clean, nothing obvious that I can see. I'll have to read up on the grading process a bit more, but the shipping and extra human handling definitely makes me nervous. I suppose this one would stay in the collection for a while, unless of course I can find a great trade for some Joe Panik items...

I'm a serious Bryant collector, and for what my opinion is worth among many Bryant collectors, I'd recommend you have it graded. If that got a BGS 9.5 or PSA 10, it could easily be a $1000+ card if/when Bryant really heats up again.

His stuff got into crazy bubble territory over the winter and into the early spring, following the Cubs' WS win and his MVP, but when the Cubs struggled this year and he was really good, but not MVP great, the market for his stuff softened quite a bit. A lot of graded Bryant cards are now going for 35-50% of early 2017 values.

If that graded high, you could probably get $500-700 for it now, being a /5, and maybe more if a serious Bryant collector just had to have it. But if you held it until Bryant is really hot again, I think easily $1000-1500.

Good luck. Great pull.

Chad

[ThoseBackPages]

welcome back to the addiction!

PSA that beauty and enjoy!

[yankee4jc]

Psa hands out 10s like candy : bgs that bad boy and see what it really gets

[unclemonkey]

Get it slabbed and protected!

There are several group submissions every month.

I have done a couple with no issues.

Piggy back one of those is your best option.

jewcer2k5 has one going to PSA this month as well as BGS

[WRXchillin]

Thanks everyone for the advice and info. I'll be reaching out to jewcer2k5 for the grading as I have a few others that I wouldn't mind doing as well.

It sounds like BGS might be the way to go? Any real difference other than they seem to grade a bit harder?

I'll update with a new photo when I get the card back.

Thanks,

[Darth Bryzzo]

Originally Posted by WRXchillin

Thanks everyone for the advice and info. I'll be reaching out to jewcer2k5 for the grading as I have a few others that I wouldn't mind doing as well.

It sounds like BGS might be the way to go? Any real difference other than they seem to grade a bit harder?

I'll update with a new photo when I get the card back.

Thanks,

The BGS vs PSA thing can quickly turn in to a whole can of worms on here, as there are some strong opinions on both sides of that question. There are several threads on here that relate to those topics, and you might want to read through those and research each company's terms and processes before you decide.

A lot of this comes down to personal preference both about the end product as well as the costs involved and time it takes to get the cards back. For example, right now there seems to be a (vocal) segment of collectors who used to prefer submitting modern cards to BGS, but are moving more to PSA right now in protest of some recent changes to BGS's cost structures for various levels of response time, and how long the cheapest service is taking.

Some of this will come down to whether you want to hold the card for personal purposes for a while vs trying to get it back quick to flip it.

Before I say what I'm going to say next, I want to stress there are no universally "right" answers to the debate between the companies and their products. This is one collector's personal opinion only. You might want to see how various collectors' personal preferences play out in more aggregated fashion by researching BGS vs PSA prices for comparable cards in recent eBay auctions. If you intend to sell the card at some point, you need to take those factors into account.

All of that throat-clearing dispatched with, here goes:

I buy most of my "significant" cards graded or submit them myself. I'm generally only interested in BGS-graded cards (with sub-grades displayed). I think PSA stabbed cards look and feel cheap compared to those done by BGS. I will often go without a graded example of a card if I can't find a BGS 9.5 or 10 version of it, rather than buying a PSA 10 version. There are a couple of exceptions, including minis, which I often think look better in PSA holders for some reason. Another possible exception would be a card I really want that is so rare that I can't guarantee there ever will be a comparable BGS graded example of it available (unless I can get a gemmy raw card and build one myself). A card that is a /5 could well fall into that Exception bucket for me.

I suspect a great many collectors would strongly disagree with me on this, though, so take all of this with a huge shaker of salt.

A lot to think about and no definitively right or wrong answer. You just need to do some research, think through the relevant considerations, and arrive at the best decision for you given your personal preferences and your short and long term purposes for that great card.

Best of luck.

Chad

PS: Definitely research the grading approach differences as well in light of the specific attributes of your card. For example, at a very general level, BGS might be a little more tolerant of a light corner issue or minor edge or surface issue in still giving a card a 9.5 (as opposed to PSA maybe knocking it down to a 9), but BGS is way more punitive for centering issues than PSA. A noticeably off-center card (front or back) might still get a PSA 10 if everything else is great, whereas with BGS, if the centering is bad enough to get a 8.5 subgrade for that feature, the card can't get an overall 9.5 even if every other sub-grade is a 10.

[Rorschach]

I personally don't see the point of grading a card that is already /5. It's not going to be much rarer than that. Usually grading should be done to a relatively common card to make it rarer, if it's a nice copy.

I don't oppose slabbing the card, however, since it's an autograph. The slab will protect the ink of the autograph.

[Darth Bryzzo]

Originally Posted by Rorschach

I personally don't see the point of grading a card that is already /5. It's not going to be much rarer than that. Usually grading should be done to a relatively common card to make it rarer, if it's a nice copy.

I don't oppose slabbing the card, however, since it's an autograph. The slab will protect the ink of the autograph.

I can definitely see your point given the scarcity of the card to begin with.

Chad

[Rorschach]

Originally Posted by Darth Bryzzo

I can definitely see your point given the scarcity of the card to begin with.

Chad

If there are competing Bryant collectors on the other hand and you think you have a BGS 10, you might be able to squeeze a collector for top dog status but usually any card under /10 I don't consider for BGS condition grading. I might even go PSA so some registry set collector can now find this card "acceptable".

[WRXchillin]

Thanks Chad and Rorschach, definitely helpful information. I was actually leaning towards leaving it as is for now. I think it should be fine in a magnetic case, as I won't be moving it around too much. I guess if a decent offer comes up some time down the road, I can always use the funds to fuel my addiction!

Interesting thing, I ended up grabbing another box of the 2016 Finest during lunch today, and ended up getting a Kyle Schwarber Finest First parallel autograph, though, unfortunately it's a redemption. Interested to see the number of this one. If only I could pull a Giant... I swear I'm going to keep pulling these things until I get a Cain auto...

[Darth Bryzzo]

Originally Posted by WRXchillin

Thanks Chad and Rorschach, definitely helpful information. I was actually leaning towards leaving it as is for now. I think it should be fine in a magnetic case, as I won't be moving it around too much. I guess if a decent offer comes up some time down the road, I can always use the funds to fuel my addiction!

Interesting thing, I ended up grabbing another box of the 2016 Finest during lunch today, and ended up getting a Kyle Schwarber Finest First parallel autograph, though, unfortunately it's a redemption. Interested to see the number of this one. If only I could pull a Giant... I swear I'm going to keep pulling these things until I get a Cain auto...

I really love that Bryant card you have. I actually have two graded versions of the non-colored-refractor version of that auto card. It is one of my favorite Bryant cards. I'd love to have that red one but have bought so much lately I don't think I could swing what you'd fairly need for it right now. If you want to sell it down the road, feel free to shoot me a message, and maybe I'd be in a better spot to try to work something out for it then. It's not a must have for me, but I'd certainly like to have it someday.

Best of luck with all of your collecting pursuits. Hope you find those Giants you want.

Chad