Trying to understand the value of 'obscure players' cards

[DarcyWakaluk]

Hi!

I'm new to this forum and I have a first question for you guys:

I'm using the site 'Sports Cards Pro' to check the cards value but there's something I dont understand: why sometimes I see cards from obscure players to worth more than all stars players. for example I was checking the 1990 PRO SET and the top 4 cards in terms of value for a PSA 10 are : Craig Berube, Kelly Buchberger, Dave Brown and Tim Hunter...

https://www.sportscardspro.com/conso...ow-images=true

thanks in advance for the explanations!

[SilverSurfer77]

If I had to guess probably very hard to find mint copies of fringe players, and lots thrown away. People would be more careful with their Fedorov and Sundin rookie cards.

[DarcyWakaluk]

yeah that was one of my theory. it makes sense. but at the same time, its a big gamble to pay for grading a card like that and hoping that you'll find buyers for that.

Originally Posted by SilverSurfer77

If I had to guess probably very hard to find mint copies of fringe players, and lots thrown away. People would be more careful with their Fedorov and Sundin rookie cards.

[slightlyrounded]

With all due respect: there is literally 1 sale of each card in a PSA 10 (or any grade for that matter)....the players aren't anywhere obscure as the data you're citing.

[SilverSurfer77]

I would image there are folks with deep pockets who would want to collect PSA 10 graded cards of most everything.

Graded cards are a bit weird. There is a new company called TAG grading, and I noticed someone got 2 Center of Attention inserts graded, Crosby and Zegras. Those cards ungraded sell for 75 cents, so...I don't know. Technically, they are 1/1s simply because no one else will bother to grade them. Are they actually rare and worth more?

[glorbgorb]

Originally Posted by SilverSurfer77

Graded cards are a bit weird. There is a new company called TAG grading, and I noticed someone got 2 Center of Attention inserts graded, Crosby and Zegras. Those cards ungraded sell for 75 cents, so...I don't know. Technically, they are 1/1s simply because no one else will bother to grade them. Are they actually rare and worth more?

Isn't that part of the problem with grading? Artificial rarity because those are the only ones slabbed? Were the people who graded those two particular cards specifically looking at TAG because no one else would pick them? TAG is clearly a third-tier company (see here). What's worse is that those cards are now "worth" about 75 cents plus whatever the cost of the grading is, and there aren't too many people who would be willing to absorb the costs of grading those particular cards.

In short, grading has gotten out of hand. A while ago.