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For those of us who grade vintage sports cards, last week’s news from SGC wasn’t exactly welcome. As of Wednesday, September 2, the lowest pricing tier for grading at SGC went up from $18 to $50 per card. Yes, you read that right.

It’s admittedly still cheaper than PSA or Beckett, both of which are around $80 per card at the lowest level, but, well, that’s not saying much. Oh, and per the above article, the cheapest price at TAG is $150. Again, that’s per card.

Well, at least there’s CGC, right? They’re (currently) at $17 per card for their lowest price tier. I mean, sure, that’s a relief, but did I mention the wait time of 150 business days? That’s more than half a year.

I do have some cards that I’d like to grade, but the actual process of doing so has gotten a bit ridiculous. Due to pricing and wait time increases, I haven’t graded cards in more than two years. And I don’t know when that will change.

Admittedly, the companies are being overwhelmed with submissions, and based on this tweet from GemRate, most of the blame likely goes to TCG and non-sports cards, since they accounted for over 75% of the total cards being graded last month at PSA, SGC, Beckett, TAG and CGC.

With everything that’s happened in grading this year, are people starting to think twice about submitting? That’s been my observation so far.

Will this have card dealers in an uproar as they have to really think about what they want to submit, if anything, and what it’ll do to their profit margins if they do? That seems likely.

And for the raw cards at price points that don’t make sense to send in for grading (lower to mid-tier cards), could this increase their raw value? That’s my hope, especially as someone who was collecting in the ‘80s when grading didn’t exist.

Don’t get me wrong. I know grading has its place in the hobby, but it has to make sense for collectors, economically and otherwise. The grading companies know this and they’re depending on the willingness of (a growing group of) card collectors to wait out the backlogs each of the companies is going through, who, like me, are doing so in the hopes the companies return to more reasonable pricing and wait times.

The wait continues …

Are you still submitting cards for grading?

Comment

In this issue you'll find:

Auction highlights
News in the hobby
A 1953 Bowman baseball card set produced by a father and son team
Lynn Swann’s rookie card and player profile
ICYMI
Recent Vintage Card Voyage videos

Let’s get into it.

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Auction Highlights

In order of closing date:

Clean Sweep Auctions (ending on September 10)

Huggins & Scott Summer Auction (ending on September 10)

Collector Investor Auctions September Auction (ending on September 13)

Other active auctions:

Hunt Auctions Internet Auction (ends on September 16)

Heritage Auctions Fall Sports Card Catalog Auction (ends on September 18-19)

Goldin 2026 Monthly Sports Elite #8 (ends on September 26)

News Briefs

⚾ 1955: The Last Great Baseball Card War Kept Collectors Searching

🏈 Frank Ryan: A Quarterback, a Ph.D. and a Small Football Card Checklist

💰 Memory Lane Summer Auction Includes Rare Vintage Cards, Sets and Historic Items

⚾ Finding the Missing Ink — Collector Searches for 1958 Topps ‘Blackless’ Cards

💰 Baseball Cards of Postseason Heroes Brooks Robinson, Tom Seaver, Albert Pujols Headline Huggins & Scott Summer Auction

⚾ Top Ernie Banks Cards Every Collector Should Know

⚾ The 6 Most Iconic and Expensive 1962 Topps Baseball Cards

Set Profile: 1979 Baseball Favorites 1953 Bowman Black-and-White Extension

The 1953 Bowman baseball card set had two different versions: the color version and the black-and-white version. The color version had 160 cards, a number of popular Hall of Famers (including Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra and Duke Snider), and included one of the most well-known action photos in baseball card history.

The black-and-white version, meanwhile, had 64 cards, five total Hall of Famers (the most popular probably being Casey Stengel), and was possibly planned as another series of the color set, but there’s no confirmation of that. Compared to the color version, the black-and-white one is lacking.

So, in 1978, someone decided to do something about it.

After a lot of behind-the-scenes research and related work, in 1979, he produced a 16-card extension set, every one of them being a different Hall of Famer: Monte Irvin, Early Wynn, Robin Roberts, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, and Ralph Kiner.

Mickey Mantle

The set looks like the 1953 Bowman black-and-white set, is the same size, has the same backing (with two notable differences), and with the same card stock.

Back of Ted Williams card

The photos mostly came from Sport Magazine issues of the 1940s and ‘50s, and the biographies were written by the person who produced the cards, with help from his son.

Willie Mays

How did this set come about in the first place, you may ask? Fortunately for us, the son of the person who had the idea happens to have a YouTube channel and, more than eight years ago, gave a deep-dive into the history behind the set (which includes an explanation of the two differences on the backs of the cards noted above).

Jackie Robinson

Along with how affordable it is (I found one on eBay for less than $25) and what great photography it has, what I love about this set is the story behind it, One man decided, because the 1953 Bowman black-and-white version wasn’t much of a set, that he would make his own extension of that set, with all the baseball players he wanted to see. He consulted lawyers, figured out the photographic rights, and simply learned how to produce baseball cards.

And if you happen to have the “Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards,” you can find this 1953 Bowman extension set listed in there. Pretty darn cool, huh?

Vintage HOF Rookie Card: Lynn Swann

Along with a Hall of Fame career in football, Swann spent decades in broadcasting, including multiple stints for both the Summer and Winter Olympics along with “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”

Lynn Swann - WR

HOF Induction in 2001

Standout Stats: