Adventures in Card Dealing: 3 Stories About Traveling, A Viewer Interaction, and PSA Frustration
Chris Soule shares three stories from his baseball card dealing experiences: a humorous miscommunication about collection size requiring transportation, a blunt compliment from a YouTube viewer criticizing his humor, and a frustrating PSA grading experience where a rare 1933 Babe Ruth card was rated 1.5 despite appearing to be in 3-4 condition.
Summary
Chris Soule, a baseball card collector, investor, and dealer, presents three anecdotes from his card trading adventures. The first story, titled "Trying to hit the corner and missed," recounts a trip to Detroit to purchase a collection. Through detailed pre-purchase communication, the seller significantly overestimated the collection's volume, describing it as requiring a large SUV or cargo van. Upon arrival, Soule discovered the entire collection fit easily on a kitchen table and could have fit in a two-seater sports car, yet he had rented a large SUV. Soule acknowledges that estimating collection size is genuinely difficult when cards are scattered throughout a home, but this case was an extreme example of miscalculation.
The second story describes a brief interaction at the Toronto Sports Card Expo three to four years ago. A viewer approached Soule's booth expressing enthusiasm for his YouTube channel, praising his videos as amazing and educational. However, the viewer then directly stated, "I don't find you particularly funny" and "I just don't like your humor. I don't think you're good at this," before walking away. Soule was uncertain whether this was intended as a joke or a genuinely blunt critique, noting that his videos aren't meant to be particularly funny anyway.
The third and most substantial story concerns a 1933 Worldwide Gum Babe Ruth card that Soule purchased as part of a collection. This card is a Canadian variant of the Goudey set, extremely rare with only two Babe Ruths in existence. Soule carefully examined the card before sending it for PSA grading, measuring it, checking for alterations, and assessing its condition as excellent—featuring bright colors, clean surface, excellent left-to-right centering, minor corner wear, and a clean back. He anticipated a grade of 3 to 4. However, PSA returned a grade of 1.5, which Soule argues is completely unjustified. He compares the PSA 1.5 definition (heavy corner wear, advanced surface wear with scuffs and scratches, possible creases and brown edges) to his card's actual condition, finding no match. He further compares his card to other PSA 1.5 and PSA 2 examples, all of which appear significantly more damaged than his card, demonstrating the inconsistency of the grading.
About this episode
BASEBALL CARD COLLECTOR INVESTOR DEALER (in that order) Chris Sewall here. If you have a collection you would be interested in selling me, you can email me at: [email protected] or visit cidcards.com ============================================================ YOU CAN CHECK OUT SOME OF MY CARDS FOR SALE: My COMC account: https://www.comc.com/Users/sewall,so,... My eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/usr/sewall ============================================================ You can also support the channel but checking out some of our quality affiliates: CIA Auctions: https://collectorinvestorauctions.com/ ============================================================ CHANNEL SCHEDULE (all videos post 9:00am EST): Some WEDNESDAY: High Rollers/Regular Rollers/Misc. Every SATURDAY: Miscellaneous (Stories, Reveals, Rankings, etc) ============================================================= lebron james, baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards, soccer cards, t206 Honus Wagner, 1952 topps mickey mantle, 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson, 1933 goudey babe ruth, 1989 upper deck Ken Griffey Jr, 1993 SP Derek Jeter, 1981 Topps Joe Montana, 2017 Patrick Mahomes, 1996 Topps Chrome refractor Kobe Bryant, 1986 fleer michael jordan RC, 2003 exquisite, 2003 topps chrome gold refractor LeBron James, 2000 Tom Brady, 2017 Patrick Mahomes, Mike Trout, Steph Curry, Lionel Messi, National Treasures, 2012 panini prizm, silver prizm, panini flawless, ebay, PSA, Beckett, BGS, SGC, BVG, GEM MINT 10, PRISTINE 10, HGA, CSG, GMA, Goldin auction, Heritage auction, Pwcc, probstein123, COMC, starstock, card ladder, bowman chrome xfractor, Rookie card, rookie patch autograph, RPA, donruss optic holo
Key Insights
- Soule explains that assessing collection size remotely is genuinely difficult because cards are often scattered throughout a house in closets, attics, and basements, making it hard to imagine how much space they'll occupy when consolidated
- A 1933 Worldwide Gum is a rare Canadian variant of the Goudey set with only two Babe Ruth cards in existence, distinguished by 'Worldwide Gum' and 'printed in Canada' text on the back, making it valuable and prone to counterfeiting
- Soule argues his Babe Ruth card does not meet PSA 1.5 criteria because it lacks heavy corner wear affecting image framing, shows no advanced surface wear with scuffs or deep creases, has centering significantly better than 90/10, and has clean edges without browning
- Soule compared his PSA 1.5 rated card to multiple authenticated PSA 1.5 and PSA 2 examples, all of which exhibited substantially more visible damage, corner rounding, paper loss, and wear than his card, suggesting inconsistent grading standards
- A YouTube viewer told Soule directly at a trade show that while loving his educational videos, he finds Soule's humor not funny and not a strong point, leaving ambiguity about whether the criticism was intentional or joking
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] This is Chris Soule: baseball card collector, investor, dealer— in that order. Greetings to everyone. Time to tell stories from my adventures in the world of card trading. Today I want to share three short stories. None of them were long enough for a separate video, but all three together are just what we needed. The first two are just light memories that I remember from a long time ago . And the third is a very unpleasant situation that just happened to me, and it's related to, you guessed it, PSA. So I hope you like it. The first [0:30] story happened a few years ago, and I still remember it because I think it's funny. I called…
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