Pre-Grading Analysis Pt. 3 - MEGA Maddux Collection

All right. So, this is part three of our pregrading analysis video. And so, we're going to go ahead and take a look at these cards and see what uh what we think they're going to grade. We'll start here with this uh Crusade Purple from 98 Donnress Crusade. So, this is a duplicate for me. Um but I will say that the uh the other one I have has a very noticeable refractor line across the top. And so I may want to keep this one as an upgrade. It is a little bit heavy on the right side here as far as centering goes. And the surface looks really clean here. And let's make sure the corners are good. Although I suspect they will be. Let's check the back here. All right. What's this little little thing here on the top edge? Yeah, just a little h It's just a little uh little flake, a little nick there, huh? Okay. Well, yeah. Can't uh I can't win them all. Yeah. I mean, this um depending on the centering, it it feels like this could be an eight. Um it it might be a little bit too far beyond that 6040 uh to fall within the nine tolerance. So, uh that would give an eight. And I think with a little tiny nick on that top edge on the back, um that would fit in with an A2, I think. So, I suspect that's what we're looking at. My current uh Crusade Purple I have is a PSA 7. And so I I do think that in this case the eight looks better than the seven that I have, but that does not always work out that way. So I'll put this in the eight pile [clears throat] and we'll take a look at this $98 elite status. So uh this card is also a duplicate. And so this one I have already in a PSA assigned eight. And I'm not convinced this would get any higher than that, but uh let's take a look at it. Beautiful card. Looks like there might be a little nick on the top edge there, but that's just kind of I don't know. At the end of the day, that's kind of just how all these edges look. I don't see it as any. [clears throat] Yeah, it's nothing uh nothing terrible there. I do notice we have a little surface. I don't call it scratch or something here and something there. Very minor, but they are there. Rest of the surface looks pretty good. Let's check the back and especially the back edges on these insane die cuts. Yeah. Looks big old scratch. Oo, look at that. Right down there. Yeah, at least it's on the back of the card. But, uh, yeah, that hurts a little bit. So, that's probably going to take it down, I would guess, maybe down to a seven, something like that. Yeah, that's my that's my guess. I'll throw it in the pregrading seven pile. That's what we'll do. Okay, now this next one. Oh boy. Oh boy. Fleer Showcase Legacy. I am just a little bit obsessed with this card. This set is bonkers. And so we're going to go ahead and get this card naked. Oh boy. Wow. Check out the corners. Very high quality production. The surface is really great. Corners are really great. Wow. Let's check out the back. Yeah, just a little touch in that corner. Boy, is that a beautiful card. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You know, um gosh, you know, I I I think this probably has a shot at a nine. I know it's got a touch on the back corner there. It's relatively small. I still think this could have a shot at a nine. And this is a heck of a card. Wow. Boy, this card is this card is special. I mean, could it get an eight? Yeah, absolutely it could. I'm going to I'm going to think optimistically and put this in the nine [clears throat] pile, I think. All right, we have another autograph. 98 Donnress signature century marks and numbered out of 100 right here. Let's take a look now. Again, just the fact that it's got the autograph on there. If I want to go PSA, if I want to go PSA and I'm grading card condition, I I care more about the autograph grade, I think, than I would the actual card grade. Um, these are really condition sensitive cards. This is a little offcentered. A little heavier on the right than the left, a little heavier on the bottom than on the top. Um, but also these cards were were handled. Um, they were sent to the players, they were assigned, they were sent back and um, you of course packed out and then pulled by whoever pulled them. So, they were handled quite a bit. And with all these dark borders, dark edges, these corners are actually quite good all things considered. So yeah, this this could be something like an eight. Might be something like a PSA 8, maybe an auto 9 or 10. But again, if I want to get it dual graded and have that autograde shine, like I mentioned before, that's going to be like 50 bucks through PSA right now. And honestly, I think I might want to go Beckett on this to just add the autograph grade for five bucks. So, that might be the direction I'm going to go here. I'm thinking this could be anywhere between like a what would be a PSA 8 auto 10 um and with Beckett, who knows? Maybe it's an 85 auto 10. I think Becket tends to grade a bit more leniently than PSA currently is. And it's not because Beckett's inaccurate. I think if anything, it's because PSA is too harsh. [laughter] Uh or at least that's what they've been doing anyway. Okay, up next we've got an amazing card. This is a shining stars pulsars from 99 fleer brilliance. So, let's take a look at this beauty of a card. Let's get rid of that. Okay. Okay. [sighs] Wow. Great corners, great edges. The surface has a little bit of a little bit of a like a blemish there. Can't really tell. Definitely some little spots on the surface. Huh. Like just these little little spots here. Little spots by the stars up here. You don't notice them at first in the starfield in the background, but they're kind of there, huh? Interesting. Wow. This is heck of a card. If I can see the the little embossings of the stars. Wow. Yeah, I think it's um I think it's got a shot at a nine. Yeah, these aren't uh these aren't like coming off or anything. So, yeah, we'll have to see what uh what PSA does with that. But that is just fine with me. This kind of card will shine so much light into your eyes. [laughter] All right. Oh, put it in the nine pile. All right. Coming up next, we have an 04 Donnress elite status. And this is numbered out of 24. Let's take a look. Okay. Yeah. 2004. I don't really make a habit of collecting cards after, at least not much after 2000. And I'm just realizing too, this sleeve is not is not cut. There we go. That's good. We can get the card back in there now. Wow. What is that? Shiny card. Interesting. So, it's got some of this stuff on there that I thought I was going to brush off right there. It's not really coming off. Huh. I will say the die cuts are very sharp. Wow. Wow. Well, these cards are really something. Yeah, probably not a 10 with that, but like I said, probably probably has a shot at a nine. Yeah, let's go ahead and put this back in and let's move on to our next one. which is another very pretty, very shiny card. But then again, that describes quite a lot of these. All right, here we go. 99 Bowman's best best performers atomic out of a hundred. Let's go. Woo. All right. And once again, this one needs a little. There we go. Cut in the corner because these are not ones. Okay. So, I see a little touch just to the side here. Yeah. What is What is that on the surface there? a scratch. Yeah, it looks that way. Well, that's a shame. Let's see what else we got. Yeah, just a little tiny scratch. That would probably take it down to an eight right there. It's funny that size and severity of a surface scratch kind of reminds me. I had a 85 Dris Clemens rookie. I had a very similar size and shaped surface flaw like that. And the card basically looked perfect. I mean, we're talking perfect centering, perfect I mean, kind of like this card. It basically looks perfect aside from that. And so with that being really the only detractor there, I mean, I think eight's a little harsh, but um see here. I think I may have just sprayed a little bit when I talked. Okay. Let's make sure we're good. Okay. There we are. Yeah. Probably an eight. Let's get that into the eight pile. But uh but hey, you know, who knows? Sometimes uh sometimes we get shocked by these things. We get some surprises. All right. So, here's one for sure that we want to send to Becket. It is a thick card. Is a memorabilia card. It's an autograph card. All of these are signs that point to Beckett as our grading company of choice for this card. And look at this beautiful canvas card stock. Oh, that's a beautiful auto 10. I love how you can see the Dris embossing stamp right there in the background if the light gets on it. Game used jersey. Look at this. I mean, boy, that foil border, it's really nice for a thick card. You know, this it's hard to get these thick cards in like a mint nine, but this this might be an example of one. Wow. Yeah. Jersey Kings. Wow. Boy, is that really clean. Yeah. I'm thinking this could be mint n auto 10. Yeah. from from Becket. Could it have a shot at a 95? I don't know. I will say the 95s do seem a lot easier to get than PSA 10s. And they're supposed to be both technically gem mint. Okay, we will add this to the becket pile. That looks, really good. Wowza. Okay. All right. Three cards left. We have another elite status. This is the generation subset. I remember looking at this one thinking about an eight. Probably made sense for this card. Let's look it over and uh see if we can see why. All right, surface looks pretty good. With these die cuts, it's always the corners, the edges, particularly the back edges. All right, so this die cut did not get a clean corner. Like there's extra material there in that [laughter] in that corner. Um, which like I I don't I don't know how that's going to impact grading. Of course, we got just a little bit of general edge wear with the dark border. Just a little bit there. These are actually these are not dots on the card. This is like a stars and a space theme. So, it's fine. Uhhuh. These are just how the edges look on these cards. Wait a minute. Uhoh. Uhoh. Wait a minute. I see some Oh, is that a wrinkle? Oh, no. It's a wrinkle, I think. Yeah. Look at that. Right there. The corner. Oo. Oh. Yikes. Man, disappointing, man. That's gonna It's going to kick it right down to a PSA 6. Dang. Well, and then Okay. So, so if it does that, it's going to kick it down to a PSA 6. Then then I have to wonder like again, this is one of those things where it's is it is it worth grading it if that's what it's going to do. And I'm I'm not sure I know the answer. You know, maybe not. Um, honestly, what I think I might do with this card, because it's not going to get a nine or a 10, it won't actually add value. And I I know some people think I'm weird for doing that, but I I do like to grade even my PC cards if it will add value. If it's going to add more than the cost to grade uh to the card's value, then I go ahead and do it. In this case, I don't think that's going to matter. I don't think it's going to matter that it's uh you know, a six is not going to add value. So, I'll throw it in the six pile. But um what I may end up doing is just throwing that in a magro and calling it good. I'm just just gaping it. Okay, we got two cards left. Um, and really both of these could be Beckett submissions. We've got the precious metal gems from 98, and we've got the select numbers also from 98. Now, we'll uh we'll save the big boy for last. But um but this card, I was informed recently, like just a day ago, that PSA is no longer grading these cards. They went through a brief moment in time where they were. And so that's probably why well partially why the pop report is very low on them because well they're only might be like 10 in existence but also okay. Uh oh. Yeah. All right. So if this will ever focus. All right. I'm seeing a little a little uh groove in that side. very similar to what what the case was with that collector's choice 98 home run star quest. That one doesn't go all the way down, though. It stops half a centimeter down. All right. Well, let's take a look at the rest of it. Gosh, this card is almost too shiny. But yeah, with a little little ridge, a little dent in it like that, I do wonder uh because again PSA is not going to grade this. I do wonder what Becket would do. Got a little scratch on his head there. Very tiny scr. There it is. Yeah, rest of the card looks pretty darn good. No corners. surface edges are fantastic. Yeah, just the surface. Just the surface. And who knows if I send this to Becket, maybe uh you know, maybe if it gets like a I don't know, surface eight or something. Or no, probably Surface 7. Maybe uh maybe the overall card could be brought up to an eight if everything else is really good. That's that's not bad. But again, this card is it falls into the category of being so rare that uh I basically, you know, basically have to put it in some kind of encapsulation. Okay, [clears throat] we saved the biggest for last. 98 metal PMG. [sighs] Oh boy, this card. There's one card that I don't want to spray any saliva on. It would be this one. Okay. This is a big boy card. I don't care who you are. All right. Okay. [sighs] Here we are. Boy, that's sharp. And boy, those edges are good. Wow. I think just by his foot here, just a tiny maybe maybe maybe tiny bit of edge wear. I mean, that's really Wow. Look at the surface. My gosh, this looks like a perfect surface. All right, now on to the back. All right, we have a little touch of white on some of these very black edges. That's fine. That is to be expected. But let's check out these corners. Hesitate to say I don't think there's any real edge damage. It's just how these things are cut. Yeah. Like even that it's not really a ding. That's just how the edge is cut. Boy, I tell you what, this is a clean card. Oh my goodness. I feel like we're looking at an eight. Wow. Wowza. Okay. Wow. All right. So, I don't think I would want to risk this with PSA. I know this is for my own PC. I am not planning on selling this card. This is a long-term This is a long-term hold for me. The biggest grail card I have in my collection right now. And um yeah, I am I am not looking to to sell this beauty, but it is fantastic. the edges, the corners, the surface surface is really good. Wow. But I think that um yeah, I kind of I kind of don't want to give PSA the upcharge money, you know. So, I I think I'm going to I think I'm going to do Becket probably with this. That's my plan. I do like the durability of those slabs. It'll be safe there. I think they may even grade it a little bit less harshly than PSA. I think that, you know, if PSA if they might grade it a seven or an eight, I think Becket might give me an 85, you know, and so, hey, who knows? But honestly, if I if I get an eight from Becket, I will be I will be over the moon. That would be unbelievable. Wow. All right, so Uh anyway, so our um let's do a quick little recap here. Okay, so with our recap, let's go ahead and take a look. And so here here are the cards and with the corresponding grades I think uh that they would get based on what I'm seeing here. So, this is a stack of all the ones that I can see that um I suspect would get something like a PSA 6. And so, because I think that they're going to get a six, some of these like I think I'm just going to put this in a Mag Pro and call it good. Um yeah, I think uh same with this card. I don't think I'm going to go ahead and grade that one either. And same with this circ. I don't think I'm going to grade that either. This one's interesting because it does have significant damage on it because of the red foiling, but it's so rare and there's so few on the POP report. I think I might go ahead and send it anyway. Um, so there's that. Uh, this is also kind of a kind of a weird case, too. This 2000 finest, because there's only two in the Pop Report also. And yeah, it's got a little dent on his head. I'm kind of curious what they would do with that, but um, still on the fence about it. But I could just, you know, put this, you know, back in a Mag Pro. Um, I think I am going to send the Prism. And this one I'm I'm on the fence. I'm on the fence about. I'm not really sure. So, tough to say. This is one that only has a calculated print run of of 31 made. So, really tough. Um, these ones are not quite as rare. These are out of 100 tier inserts and out of 100 for this one and out of 150 for the uh the circa rave. So, so I feel like that while there are wow while they are rare cards and amazing cards, I just don't feel like the value ad for them would be there. So, I'm not going to bother. Um, as for the ones I thought we would get sevens, I have two cards here that seem to fit the bill. Number one, we have the uh the molten metal uh fusion sterling. Uh it just seems like it would get I don't know, just feels like it's going to come back a seven. Just get that feeling. And you know, it's not going to be a particularly large value ad necessarily, but okay, we can we can do that. This one I'm kind of on the fence about. um if I think it's going to come back a seven. It's a weird little surface thing going on there. So, I don't know. It's hand numbered at a five. This is a diamond stars insert from 2007 upper deck gouty. And this is the yellow parallel hand numbered on the front to five. So, you know, super rare. I don't know who's going to necessarily collect that particular set with Maddox on the Padres's. Who knows? Um but yeah, I have that coming back as a uh as a seven. Then the pile of cards that I think are going to be eights. We've got the uh the Bowman's Best Performers atomic refractor. That's a nice card. Um the little tiny scratch here. I think it's going to make that an eight. Centering looks great. It presents really well. Yeah, I think that's that's great out of 100. Yeah, let's go and do that. Uh this one is a better presenting crusade purple than the the uh the one that I have. So, this will be an upgrade for me. I I still do want to send it in for grading. And I believe it'll come back an eight. This one is a little bit better than the purple, I think, but um again, the centering I think could prevent it from being a nine, so maybe it comes back an eight. Also, I already have a nine, though, so again, I'll be uh liquidating one of those duplicates. Uh Lynchpins, you know, I I think I just feel like it's going to be an eight. It's a really amazing card. uh tough with its condition. MVP promotion from 2000 Tops. Uh this one is just a a sneaky ghost of a card. It looks like a regular base card. It's very different from a regular base card. Um but also Top's flagship. I mean, they they printed so much of this stuff and it's not like it's a shimmery shiny card. It kind of blends in with all the other base and you don't even realize it's anything special. Kids pull this stuff, they don't know what they they're pulling out. And so, you know, who who knows? Um, yeah, this status looks to me like it's going to be an eight. We'll find out. I think it had a scratch or something on there that would make it an eight. I think it was a big scratch on the back. Yeah. So, that's what I think. And then, uh, these two, we've got the 2000 first day issue refractor. Also had some some scratching on the front of it, which aside from that looked like a perfect card. Uh this one I mean I guess it really could it could be a nine if it's really generous, but I suspect this will come back an eight. Had just a little dent, a little pock mark type uh indent on the back edge there. And so anyway, from the front it looks like a 10. It's dead centered. And uh still think of of double Dylan every time I see this card. Um, as for the ones that look like they're going to come back uh as I'm guessing a nine, we have the uh the elite status from 04. Beautiful card. Shining stars pulsars from Fleer Brilliance 99. We've got this Fleer Showcase. Incredible legacy collection out of 20. We have the 2000 I'm sorry, the 1998 Stadium Club Triump Triumvirate uh illuminator acetate card. We've got this 97 score reserve collection rock and fire. Uh the uh 99 Upper Deck ionics holographics. We've got the uh this is the platinum press proof of 96 leaf signature series. Uh they printed 150 of these, so pretty rare. And then we have a 96 collector's choice gold signature uh card award winner subset. Those are all, you know, from best I can tell, I would I would give those a nine. Uh these are the cards I think have a shot at a 10. Doesn't mean they're going to get a 10. I'd say, you know, half the cards I think could get a 10, end up actually getting a 10. So, you know, I picked out four of them, which means I might get two that come back a 10. Uh let's see what they are. We've got the 99 team finest uh blue refrator. We've got the 99 Upper Deck MVP uh superscript, which is a ridiculous card to have in a 10, but here we are. [clears throat] Also a ridiculous card, Planet Medallion, numbered out of 50, Season Crowns. [clears throat] And last, uh, we have the 98 Studio Gold Press Proof numbered out of 300. This card just looks incredible. And so, yeah, I think it's got a shot at a 10. So, let's go ahead and see what they do. And uh I guess there's one last pile here. And then one last other card that I forgotten about until now. So, we'll we'll get to that one, too. This is my Becket pile. And this is everything I pulled out that I think um we'll talk about what I think is going to grade. Uh this is the 99 PMG. I I think this is probably somewhere in the 56 range. It has some significant damage on it, but um despite that, it presents incredibly well. So, if it gets a six or something, it would have one of those. Uh it would be worthy of the Mike Baker uh sticker. Let's put it that way. Um but yeah, it looks really good. This one here, I think, is probably going to get something around like an Becket 85, maybe an auto 9. Would have to see about this with just a little darker on the first stroke of each one of those autos. Um, that's my that's my best guess. This card, this is our first of our two star rubies. I think that this had a shot at like a PSA 7. So for Beckett, I'm gonna think maybe a 75. You know, it's got a ding in a corner, but other than that, it's it's pretty good. So, who knows? Um anywhere in the seven to eight range, I think makes a lot of sense. This one, the spring fling um subset as a star rubies, I I think this one is is significantly stronger. I think this is probably a mint card. I think probably a mint nine. Maybe it even has a shot at like a mint gem, like a 95. So, who knows? Um, really excited to see what this one comes back as. Uh, this one we're going to go ahead and of course get a dual graded. And so, this one I'm thinking I'm thinking could be like a Becket 85 auto 10. Maybe that would be incredible if that's what we got. But, uh, that's what we're looking for. This card uh also very exciting. I think this is a mint 9 auto 10. Does it have a shot at a 95 auto 10? I think it does. It's a thick card. Um but it's an amazing card. Looks really super good to me. We've got the select numbers. Um you know, maybe maybe like a Becket 8, maybe an 85. We get some favorable subgrades here. Um it did have a little bit of surface issues there. So, aside from that, they don't show up very much though. The corners are great, centering is great, eye appeal is great. Um, and so yeah, edges are great, but yeah, just um yeah, maybe an eight, maybe an 85 on a good day. And then this 98 PMG. Oh boy. Um yeah, look, if if I can get a Becket 8 or like an 85, oh, that would be massive. That would be incredible. Um, yeah, of all the cards that that could come back, you know, as an eight, oh, or fingers crossed, 85. I mean, that would be incredible. But, uh, yeah, this is that's that's what I'm thinking. So, with that, there's only one other card that um I'd forgotten about, but it's actually two. Well, okay. There's two other cards. One's a one's a very, very small card, which is this one. Um, I was going to send it in, but then I I measured the vertical centering and it's worse than 60/40. It's a little too thin on the top. So, that took it out of being a nine. So, we're just going to put this in a top loader binder and call that good. So, that'll be removed from our grading possibilities. The other one I'm not sure what to do about. This is a super thick card. I I am nervous about I've never graded a card this thick before. Um, I don't know what point this is, but it's it's a it's a chunky one. And I I'm nervous about putting it in a card saver one. I just feel like it's gonna damage the the edges going in there. It's going to be too too thick. I don't know. Um, would Becket yell at me if I sent it in in a top loader like this? I mean, I know that's not what they ask for, but I think in light of it being as thick as it is, I don't know. I don't know. I I I may not even send this into grade. I don't know. It's one of 10. It's really rare. It's It's pretty pretty good shape. It's just got a little tiny little tiny dent in here. It might be like an a nine or an 85, but it's a really really solid otherwise. So, maybe I'll put that aside for now. But, uh but yeah, these are the cards that I'm I'm going to be sending in. Um, like I said before, I'll make some submissions probably ahead of time online and I'll drop these off in person sometime uh next weekend at the Philly show. I'm not sure yet what day or what evening I'll be going. Um, so that all that all kind of depends. I'm going to get that hopefully ironed out um in the early part of this week uh coming up. But um but yeah, I I hope to get these sent out and that way they'll be, you know, handd delivered to people that are there. I assume I I saw that where the Becket table is going to be. I assume they're taking submissions. Um otherwise, I'll be pretty bummed and I might do something rash like sending them to PSA. But um but no, I'm I'm planning on doing these to Becket and the other ones to PSA. So that's the plan. Thank you for coming along with me for this uh very lengthy three-part grading analysis video and I will see you in the next one.

In this video, I continue the third and final installment of carefully looking over some of the bigger Maddux cards I recently acquired prior to grading them. I make my own grade predictions and then strategize about which card should be sent to which company and at which service level. Enjoy!