Train Your Eyes: A Quick Cheat Sheet for Spotting Sneaky 90s Parallels
Many valuable parallels are mis-labeled or blended in with base listings. This is a practical checklist for training your eye to catch golds, silvers, refractors, and proofs while scrolling.
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This is not buying or investment advice and is for informational purposes only. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing and the thoughts I have. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so. Just because a process generates profit for one card it doesn’t mean it will generate profit for another.
I’m not going to go as far as to say flipping cards is a sport, but there are elements of practice and repetition in order to improve your card-browsing and identification skills.
When I’m scouring CollX for steals, I’m not just looking for the “cool and different.” I’m constantly scanning for labels, golds, and other identifiers.
Here’s a quick guide as the things you should be checking for too. Meaning, don’t cruise by a 1995 Upper Deck without checking for that gold home plate in place of the Upper Deck logo, and don’t not stop and make sure that 1996 Leaf Signature Series isn’t a Platinum Press Proof.
My biggest tip: expect that every card is special and assume that it is mis-listed. Train your mind to accept a card is a great parallel until you confirm that it’s not.