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Q4: How do I keep my cards in top condition ? A: There is a wide variety of storage supplies available to help you keep your cardsin the best condition possible. They range from hard thick acrylic screw-down holders to "penny" soft sleeves for individual cards to cardboard boxes that can hold from 100 cards upto "monster boxes" that hold more than 5,000 sportscards. We have a large selection available on our web site with quantities from 1 to 1,000. The Major Card Grading Companies (T6) There is almost universal agreement that the top 5 grading card companies are:     * PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator)     * SGC (Sportscard Guaranty Authority)     * BGS (Beckett Grading Service)     * SCD (SCD Authentic)     * GAI (Global Authentication) PSA is Without a doubt is the top vintage and old cards grading company. The vintage card public has accepted PSA and people pay huge premiums for vintage cards with high PSA grades. A few years ago, Beckett got into card-grading. They have been successful because they publish the hobbies top magazine and their name carries a lot of weight in the hobby. Also their BGS grading is perceived as being tougher than PSA. Unfortunately Beckett has complicated things further by actually having 3 different grading brands. BGS, BVG and BCCG. BGS is the original and considered a grade very strictly while BVG, basically designed to grade vintage cards, seems to grade a bit easier. BCCG seems to have been created for the Shopping Channel and seems to give their top grades to just about any nice recent card. These differences in grading standards are reflected in their resale prices. Off-brand grading companies There's many lesser known grading companies with more of them appearing seemingly every single day. Some are actual companies while others may be just a single individual with some fairly inexpensive equipment. A list of some of the ones we've heard of is below. It is possible that some of them do grade accurately but the market has little respect for these off-brand grading companies and their cards, if they can be sold, are usually sold at huge discounts off similarly rated cards by the top tier grading companies. This is especially true on high grade vintage cards orGEM MINT and MINT recent cards. If you want to buy graded cards by these companies, be very careful to not pay too much. DO NOT compare their price with graded cards from the top tier companies. In most cases, the going prices aren't even close. If a PSA-9 sells for $40, and a PSA-10 sells for $300, it is more likely that a 10 from an off-brand grading company sells for much closer to the $40 than to the $300. If you don't understand that the discount is this deep, and you spend $100 on this thing, you may think you got a great deal when in fact you paid double or triple or more of the cards true value. For example, we once sold a PRO-10 Shaq rookie for $30 when the PSA-10 of that Shaq rookie was valued at $300. If you see a great bargain on a vintage card then be especially careful. If a '51 Bowman Mantle is in a PRO-8 slab, you must ask yourself why is it not in a PSA slab? In PSA-8 that card would sell for more than a new Mercedes and any right minded seller would try to get the card into a PSA slab if it was possible. That they didn't do it has to be a clue that it wasn't possible. Why wouldn't it be possible? There are many reasons but the most obvious are that the card may be altered or there could be a very light crease. As far as I know, these off-brand grading services do not offer grading guarantees. If you buy an off-brand graded vintage card and it turns out to be trimmed or altered or has light creases your only recourse will likely be with seller and often their answer will be that since the card was "professionally" gradedm the card is sold as is. "Off-Brand" grading card companies     AGS (Advanced Grading Specialists)     ASA (Accugrade)     CGS (Champs Grading Service)     CEX (Certified Express)     CSA (Certified Sports Authentication)     CTA (CTA Grading Experts)     FGA (Foremost Grading Authority)     KSA (KSA Sports Card Authenticator)     MINT (Mint Grading Service)     PRO (PRO Sports Grading)     PGS (Professional Grading Services)     USA (Ultimate Sports Authority)     WCG (World Class Grading) Although some of the above may be "okay", we certainly don't recommend any of them. The market certainly doesn't treat them the same as the top-tier grading companies and in many cases their graded cards sell for the same or even less than an ungraded card. There are more off-brand grading "companies" entering the market. Some don't even use slabs, they simply put the cards in a screwdown or topload with a few drops of glue or a sticker. We've even seen "grading companies" that turn out to be just an individual seller grading and selling his own cards.

1956 Topps Baseball Cards I have a particular fondness for the 1956 Topps issue. When I first started collecting back in 1964, my friends and I would wander nearby neighborhoods in a search for "old cards". Back then, the oldest cards we ever found in dealing with other kids were 1957 Topps. Eventually I saw my first 1956 Topps card - I was hooked. It was a larger card, on a thicker, fluffier card stock making it look much, much older than the 1 year younger 1957. We even thought it looked "ancient" !!! We changed neighborhoods leaving my childhood friends behind. Before I left, I gave away all my cards except for a small cigar box full and stopped collecting in 1966. I had a great 3 year run but it sure wish I would have been collecting in 1966 and 1967 with those tough high numbers !!! Can you imagine if they would have made my cigar box instead of those 1964 Topps Felix Mantillia ! The regular 1956 Topps baseball card set, is my favorite ! Topps again went with a slightly larger (3-3/4" by 2 5/8") horizontal card design, similar to their 1955 Topps cards. Several of the portraits are even the same used on 1955 Topps cards and even back to 1954 Topps. 1956 Topps was the first issue to feature Team Cards and include checklists. In addition Topps also included cards of the 2 league presidents, William Harridge and Warren Giles. Now that Bowman was gone, Topps could make cards again of greats like Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, both who were missing from prior years. Once you get past the Mickey Mantle, this is a fun and relatively simple set to complete as there are no high numbers or extremely expensive rookie cards with Hall-of-Famer Luis Aparicio being the top rookie. The set does contain over 200 variations making things even more interesting for master set collectors. Most are the gray and white card back variations. There are also several cards that have color line variations on the card front. Most notably is the Ted Williams card which has either no line over his name or a thin green, red, blue, or yellow line between the white border for a total of five variations. Whitey Ford and Early Wynn are two other cards which have no line or a thin red or yellow line. In addition, many team cards had 3 different variations with the team name either on the Left, Centered or Right. The only errors in the set are a handful of uncorrected errors the most famous of which is card #31 of Hank Aaron which actually pictures Willie Mays sliding into home. Card #135 Mickey Mantle is also an interesting card. The card pictures Mantle leaping into the stands and making a fantastic catch. An awesome play to put on this great card - right ? Only problem is that on the real play, Mantle missed the ball. If you do some research you can find the exact photograph that the card was painted from. The artist did a great job and in his version, Mantle makes the catch ! And as always for vintage Topps sets, take a quick look at Don Mossi and his famous ears ! Collectors of 1956 Topps should also take a look at their side issue '1956 Topps Pins'. In addition to their 1956 Topps baseball card set, Topps released their 1956 Topps Pins set using the same portrait photos as the cards. In the end, collectors of the day preferred cards to pins and Topps cut back the 1956 Topps Pin set from a planned 90 pins to just 60.

1964 Topps Stand-Ups Topps most popular 1960's test issue !!! Blank-backed and unnumbered, these standard size cards were called "Stand-Ups". "Stand-Ups" refers to a type of card that was die cut around the player's picture. The background section then could be folded in half, so the card could stand up by itself while the player's picture stood alone. Directions for folding are on the background and when folded only the green background remains. 1934-36 Batter Up and the 1951 Topps All-Star sets are 2 other popular standup issues. Thanks to the green and yellow borders and the likelihood that most cards have been heavily folded, 1964 Stand-Ups are extremely difficult to obtain in top grades. The 77 card set features color photographs of the player on yellow and green backgrounds. 22 of the 77 cards were single printed making them twice as scarce and much higher in demand. The set is packed with Hall-of-Famers including MICKEY MANTLE, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Brooks Robinson, Don Drysdale, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and more !!!

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