Over the past year and a half, I have been buying advertised "high-end" PSA 8's and slowly crossing them over to SGC holders. This week - I completed the last X-over and would like to share my results.

Here are the cards - all in PSA 8 holders except 1:

1968 Bill Freehan PSA 9 went to a SGC96
1959 Topps Don Drysdale crossed to a 92
1964 Topps Roger Maris to a 92
1961 Topps Roger Maris MVP to a 88 (nothing higher and this 88 can't be beat by the other 2)
1950 Bowman Preston Ward to a 92
1965 Topps Sandy Koufax to a 88 (I will put up a scan tomorrow - absolutely undergraded by SGC - unbelievable when you see the scan)
1962 Topps Don Drysdale All-Star to a 86 - 1962's are too tough to self-judge.
1964 Topps Tony Kubek - I thought the card was trimmed and resold on Ebay - lost about $20.
1964 Topps Whitey Ford - a great card at that SGC really picked on - resold on Ebay - lost about $25.

Here's my take on the whole process of PSA crossovers - an excellent way to get high-grade vintage cards that are a) not available for sale in SGC holders or b) would be priced beyond reason due to the scarcity. All of the 92's are either 1/2 or 1/3 on the SGC pop report. I think the 59 Drysdale maybe 1/1 in the 92 holder.

Even for cards that would not cross - losing $20 bucks or so is not enough of a penalty to stop a person from taking a chance of scoring a high-grade 40 - 50 year old star card by a brutally strict SGC.

I'm not a proponent of PSA - actually, I'm quite happy to say that my collection is PSA-free. I just wanted to counter some of the recent anti-PSA sentiment. Good cards exist in a lot of different holders (this time I won't include PRO like I did a year ago).

My last post will be of the '65 Koufax - seeing that most of my rambles receive little to no love from the board - enjoy the holidays and take it easy. Hope to see some of you at next years National.

STMF