Below are a few of the questions asked most often by sports card collectors.
How do I protect my cards?
For single cards the standard way of protecting the card is by inserting it into a soft penny sleeve and a then into a toploader. For higher value cards some collectors may prefer a magnetic one-touch. Every sports card collector will develop their own favorite method of protecting and storing their cards.
There are a wide variety of card storage options including cardboard boxes, binders, and clear snap-tight cases. View the Essential Sports Card Supplies page for more detail on the types of sports card protection available.
Visit our links page for a link to a printable card thickness gauge to help determine the proper toploader or one-touch for your cards that are thicker than the standard cards.
Why do people cover up the certification number on graded cards?
The two main reasons people give for covering up the certification number when posting photos of graded cards are to prevent counterfeiting and to prevent others from knowing the price paid for the card. BGS and PSA both list all certification numbers publicly in their online database so hiding the number from counterfeiters is not extremely useful. There have been instances of buyers looking up the past sale of a card and using the past sale price to try and get a better deal.
What is my card worth?
The simplest way to find a value on your card is to check eBay listings. Use the search filters to choose “Sold” listings to view recent sales prices of your card. Card value is highly dependent on condition so verify the cards sold are in similar condition to your card. For rarer cards there may not be any exact matches for sale or recently sold. In that case an option is to research similar cards of the same player or the card of a different player from the same set. For example you will not find sold prices for the 1/1 you just pulled out of a pack. But there will be other players 1/1 from the same set or other sets with a 1/1 of the same player to use as a value starting point.
You can try searching for your card on cardfetcher.com to see recent eBay sales
What do people do with all the common cards?
If you have extra cards you don’t want you can donate them. Two places to consider are Commons 4 Kids and Cards for Vets.
How do you check how many graded slabs there are of a certain card?
Each grading company has a population report:
SGC: https://gosgc.com/pop-report
Beckett: https://beckett.com/grading/pop-report You will need a free account to use the BGS pop report