Seems the collectors worry more about "centering" than whose face is on it. I question whether those six-figure sales at auctions really take place. The grading systems seem to encourage fraud.

Am I really going to send a potential $100,000 card through the mail for grading with some company that might switch cards with me?

I was born at night, but it wasn't last night.

Indeed. These days the scams are running hot + heavy everywhere you see. It really saddens me for the main reason that it is a total collapse of honesty in dealing. That being said, I have found that dealing with other firearms people have been the exception to the rule. My son has a few photo albums full of baseball cards that he got from a renter who tried to skip on his rent bill. So he kept the cards for collateral + of course the guy never came back.

i have literally hundreds of baseball cards starting from the 50s. last year we sat down and organized em. lots of Mantle etc cards but none that are rare. lookied em up online. came very close a few times.

I am totally out of step with this collectible category these days. I hear of people spending $100.00 to grade a $25.00 card. Makes no sense to me.

I always pretended to be Willie Mays when I was young. Everyone else always wanted to be Mickey Mantle. I have about every Topps Mays card since 1957. (I have a 1955 Bowman that in PSA-9 averages $15,669.60 at auction. Not sure what mine would grade.)

In later years Nolan Ryan was my guy. I paid $100 for his rookie Topps card, then bought every year there after.

Not into baseball anymore. Quit buying cards about 30 years ago.

Mass production ruined the hobby in the mid-80s.