What’s your minimum grade for cards by decade?

[livealoha]

What is your minimum grade that you like for your cards by decade? For example

1950’s- PSA 3-4
1960’s- PSA 4-6
1970’s- PSA 7
1980’s-present- PSA 9

[discodanman45]

My PC centers around HOF RC's and also player runs. For most HOF players I only want collector's grade for the decade. I mainly buy raw and will only grade if I feel the card has a chance to be 7 for the 70's or 5 for 50's. If the card won't grade that high, it stays in a top loader and I wait until I can upgrade. Once cards get above $100 for a collectors grade, I just get the best card I can. For instance I am happy with many of my Hank Aaron cards being a nicely centered 4 with great registration. I am not going to chase a 6 for a 1960 Topps Aaron.

When I do grade and get a very high grade, I don't mind trading or selling the 8/9 from the 70's to downgrade to a nice 7. I would much rather have 20 nice 7's instead of the one 9 from the 70's. Things spike very high once you get above collector's grades.

[jtclockwork]

For individual cards, I don't really have one. Most of my collection is pre-war, so I'm happy to get what I can get. And a good chunk of my post-war collection are foreign issues which tend to grade lower.

For sets, I have a 1933 Goudey set which I am trying to upgrade to a 3 or better. I also have a 1954 Bowman set which is mostly 6 or better than I may work on getting the last few over a 6 but it's low priority.

I'm also working on a 1966 Marte Ataca set. I'm trying to just get a clean set without creases and good eye appeal with the majority of the set a 2 or better, but its extremely difficult to find a whole set that doesn't have some cards in poor condition.

[Sluggerrr]

Even for the 50's it depends on the set for me. Price really varies year by year.

[here2havefun]

No grade minimum for me. I love nice looking Auth or PSA 1's.

[TheWrightStuff]

I don't care about the grade, I care about centering and eye appeal. I have seen many 2's id take.over a 6.

[sheetskout]

I have been concentrating on eye appeal as well but very generally I like at least 6's in the 1950's and 7's or better in the 1960's.

[NickyCards]

I'll take a nicely centered lower grade over a off centered higher grade

[TheWrightStuff]

I agree. Centering is the biggest thing for me

[crazy4kinsler]

When I first started getting into vintage a few year back, I decided to only go after raw and NM to NM-Mt cards. I don't own any vintage cards now, but I'm thinking about getting back into (for reasons that would take too long to mention). But I'm wanting to delve into graded vintage. I've been seeing some really nice PSA/SGC 4-6 graded key HOFers (Aaron, Mays, Clemente) for really good prices. I think I'm going to start there and buy a few. Maybe get 5-10 cards that are worth about $500 and see what happens.

[Gary]

Depends on the set,but i stay at collector grade up thru 73,otherwise its so pricey it takes the fun out of it.74 and 80's i go 1 grade over the decade so 8's for 74-79 and 9's for 80's as the prices are still for the most part affordable.

[Facilitypro]

For my '53 Bowman set I opted for PSA 5. Fives are decently affordable and still have good eye appeal (esp if centered).

For my '85 Topps WWF set, PSA 8 and 9.

[discodanman45]

Some people hate the word collector's grade, but holds true for a lot of 60/70/80's cards. If someone asked me what 1979 Ozzie Smith card to buy graded, I would say a 7. PSA/SGC 7's can typically be bought for under $100. PSA/SGC 8's start to approach $300.

It is up to each card, but there is typically a grade that makes sense to buy. I look for the best priced grade and try to buy a nice looking card in that grade.

[mfw13]

Originally Posted by TheWrightStuff

I don't care about the grade, I care about centering and eye appeal. I have seen many 2's id take.over a 6.

Same here....

If you don't care about back damage, you can get some nice cards with great eye appeal that have been downgraded due to paper loss or pen markings on the back.

[gmunay]

Originally Posted by livealoha

What is your minimum grade that you like for your cards by decade? For example

1950’s- PSA 3-4
1960’s- PSA 4-6
1970’s- PSA 7
1980’s-present- PSA 9

I would describe the following as my target grade by decade:

1990s to present: PSA 9
1980s: PSA 8/9
1970s: PSA 7
1960s: PSA 6
1950s and prior: PSA 3-5

For the 70's and prior, I'm always willing to go a little lower for a card that presents nicely for the grade, particularly if it sells for far less than my target grade.