SGC....winning over with customer service?

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>Well, I just had my first experience with a submission to SGC. I will have to say the customer service involved was something I wasn't used to with "the other guys". I've never made any secrets of my preferance to PSA. However with my last couple customer service involvements with PSA along with this one to SGC...I'm THINKING of actually converting over to SGC! <br /><br />It wasn't completely smooth. I sent a card to SGC under the two day service. The second day came and went, and no grade. So I called. On the phone, he apologized and said yes, this was supposed to be a two day service...but because of computer problems from Monday it didn't make it into the system for some reason. He assured me that I would have a grade by yesterday afternoon and I should call back and he'd let me know the information. It didn't take all afternoon, I had the grade posted two hours later. <br /><br />Now...I'm trying to see why I shouldn't sell ALL my PSA graded cards...and use the money to start buying SGC? Anyone? Anyone?

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Posted By: <b>Dave S</b><p>Dave, I'll only verify what you just encountered. While I often bitch about some of their "critical" grades (as we all do with any grader!!) I can only say that SGC is consistent with their grading and will verbally explain their justification for that particular card and grade. And as you've just found out, un-equalled in customer service...never too busy to answer questions, willing to make adjustments for delays, etc. Totally your decision to cross your PSA cards, could be quite costly depending on the <font class=caTerm></font> of cards, but really don't think you'd hurt your collection or its value by doing so. And you'd certainly have a better looking slab...

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>Well, I do think it would be costly to cross them...and I don't think I'd come out ahead that way. I'd pretty much have to sell them all off as is..and then start buying SGC.

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>I use SGC almost exclusively and I too am very impressed with the total product. Yes, I've experienced a few glitches with them, but they always came through in the end.<br /><br />Do you have to go to the extreme of dumping all your PSA cards? Proabably not, they are still viable in the marketplace. But you may decide you prefer SGC and there is nothing wrong with changing teams.

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>Barry..my problem is i'm sort of "anal". I want all my cards to look the exact same...to fit in the exact same boxes...I'll admit it, I'm a neat freak.

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Posted By: <b>Scott T</b><p>I use SGC for my low grade T206 colection and have always been pleased with them.<br><br>Scott <br />

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Posted By: <b>Steve f</b><p>Dave I agree, it's repulsive to mix slabs.<br /><br /> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T9H18PXkp2U"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T9H18PXkp2U" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

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Posted By: <b>RayB</b><p>As far as switching goes; get it clear in your mind right now and don't second guess yourself. PSA and SGC are both viable entities with their individual strengths and weaknesses. <br /><br />Your choices are:<br />1. Keep at building it PSA<br />2. Build a mixed set (doesn't sound like an option based on your statements above)<br />3. Divest and start anew with SGC. (Will only set you back and cost you the time invested thus far).<br />4. Cross everything regardless of the grade to SGC (added expense; especially on lower grade cards.<br /><br />I faced this very same dilemma when I was about 100 PSA cards into the set. At the end of the day I just got it clear in my mind that there was no turning the ship around and got content with that.<br /><br />At some point you may look to build other prewar sets or add other prewar individual cards to your collection and you can keep SGC's strengths in mind when those opportunites arise. I've done that too. I'm currently working on a R312 30's Premium Oversized set and I am using SGC exclusively for that even though my T206's are PSA.<br /><br />Good luck with whatever you decide and remember always to consider how you will have the most fun.<br />RayB<br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>Martin Neal</b><p>Hey Dave,<br /> Just complete one set in Psa and do another in Sgc. (smiley face here.)

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Posted By: <b>bigfish</b><p>I have had weekly interactions with SGC and their customer service department. I send them atleast one submission a week and they are very professional on the phone despite me calling them to check on my grades every 5 minutes. I appreciate the fact that they answer the phone, know your submission and it contents, and can give you a realistic answer on what is going on. They are not perfect but I think they have the best customer service out of all the grading companies. I have only disagreed with two of their grades and respect the grades they give me. They are accurate.<br /><br />My two cents <br /><br />

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>Ray...great advice. And yes unfortunately even though I do have a few cards that I'd really hate to part with...it wouldn't make much sense money wise to start trying to cross everything over. I still think you get maximum money for PSA graded...in turn, I feel like you can SOMETIMES get a card a little cheaper in SGC's...so as long as your buying and not selling why not go with SGC? <br /><br />I still think long term value I would be better keeping them in PSA's. But have really been turned off with the last couple deals with them. They really don't care about the customer in my opinion. <br /><br />Martin...it's more likely for hell to freeze over first...lol

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Posted By: <b>Sean BH</b><p>Dave,<br />I have all my personal collection cards graded by SGC and very few by PSA which are usually in the sell pile. PSA seems to be getting a little better with times and notification of delivery and grades but I like SGC's grading standards. <br /><br />I have also worked with SGC about having some 1900-1910 rare soccer cards from England graded (their first ones) and I never had a problem.<br /><br />You can call Michael and see if he can give you a deal if you have a large amount of PSA cards to crossover; they usually will work with you on that, it might take 4 or 5 weeks but well worth it. I think that the SGC holders enhance the eye-appeal of the T206 set and many others. <br /><br />Sean BH<br />

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>I've got about 45-50 that are in PSA slabs right now..so I'm not so far in I couldn't get out....just continuing to ponder it right now.

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Dave- if you like all your cards consistent then make the plunge and have them crossed over. Keep in mind they grade strictly, so you may lose a few points along the way.

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>Barry..if I had PSA 5's...I would try and cross them. But most of mine are 1-3's. I just can't invision forking out another $7 or whatever it is to cross over 1's.

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Posted By: <b>E, Daniel</b><p>Dave, I definitely recommend the change to SGC, I have been working my way through crossing everything I have over to SGC and am very pleased to have made that choice.<br />I think though that selling all your psa cards and re-buying in SGC plastic will cost you more long run than just crossing over.....<br />When I add just the packaging and shipping costs for selling a card it comes well over $10, and while I usually defer most of the cost to the buyer - on a low grade / low cost card its hard to charge more than $5 shipping. Much higher and many buyers will just move on.<br />Then you run the further hassles of runs to the post office, maintaining all paperwork until the buyer confirms the card arrived and feedback has been registered, and heaven help you if a card goes missing in the mail and you have to make a claim for insurance. <br /><br />$7 crossover seems CHEAP to me by comparison.<br /><br />All the best in your collecting, and the SGC slabs look awesome when displayed together!<br /><br /><br />Daniel

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Posted By: <b>joe brennan</b><p>Hi Dave, <br /> As you can tell by my photobucket collection I have a mix of all grading companies. They still fit nicely in a Roop black box and I am not limited to a selection of just one grading company. Once you get use to having different slabs, you don't even notice them you just see the cards. If you find you must have PSA cards I am willing to trade all my PSA for SGC cards. This will give you another outlet for buying and trading. Joe<br><br>In Rememberance of James W. Brennan Sr. 1924-1982. Dad, thanks for everything you did for me.

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Posted By: <b>JK</b><p>Dave,<br /><br />As most people probably know, I wholeheartedly support/endorse SGC. Nevertheless, I dont just buy sgc graded cards (though I prefer to). Instead, I take the more expensive route and buy whatever I need/want and if its graded by psa or gai, I pay to cross them. Since SGC is a bit stricter in most cases, I do try to buy only cards that I feel confident will cross and generally stay away from cards with no equivilent sgc grade (such as GAI 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5) unless Im willing to take a .5 drop. I also dont agree that SGC cards sell for less than PSA. That may have been the case at one time, but I think its pretty even now (there was a poster who tracked this data and can confirm my belief).<br /><br />Finally, I agree that it will likely cost you more to sell what you have rather than crossing them - In addition to the shipping costs mentioned above, there are other selling costs that are not covered by the buyer - for example, ebay fees, paypal fees, etc. I would guess if you sent a bulk order of 50 cards to sgc they would do it for something less than $7 per card.

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Posted By: <b>Dave F</b><p>I guess it is possible...I'm still just not sold on trying to cross everything...50 cards..even if they would cross them for $5 each...thats $250 that I could use towards cards instead of slabs. My PSA 1's, assuming they were bought for $25 each...add another $5-$7 for crossing over and I just dont like the sound of that...than my SGC 10's at that point I'm in $30-$32 a card...and no way I'd ever get that if I had to sell them. <br /><br />I may decide to keep my HOF'ers..maybe Southern Leaguers...cross those..and try and sell everything else. I'm still thinking...trying not to be too hasty.

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Posted By: <b>CN</b><p> Dave go with your gut feeling, which sounds like SGC. I don't think you will regret it. CN

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Posted By: <b>Cat</b><p>This is how I see the world:<br /><br />PSA's Customer Service Department indeed actually BLOWS...no doubt about it. <br /><br />VERY COMMON ANECDOTAL STORY THAT SEEMS TO OCCUR ON A REGULAR BASIS: I sent a card for grading and after two weeks I CALLED PSA and asked what was happening: "well there's a problem." We fix that and the card supposedly gets in the 2 day cue (previously in the one week cue). Three days later I call again and I am told (my paraphasing): "well so-and-so did put it in line yesterday and it should be done in two days." GREAT!!! Thanks for your hard work. Their customer service is NEVER proactive. They are vague in answering questions and seem to prefer to avoid rather than help.<br /><br />On the other hand, SGC has proactively called me several times on issues. They know the business of cards and care enough to HELP.<br /><br />So in the future I see PSA stumbling in this business line. Maybe PSA goes away (I've owned stocks of far bigger publicly help companies that no longer exist...actually an embarassing amount of them). Maybe the card grading section goes away. Anyone can speculate. In either instance the PSA set registry becomes no more than an excel spreadsheet maintained by Leon Luckey (Thanks for doing this Leon!!!) and eventually the excel file gets corrupted and dies of natural causes. Crandell's 1949 Bowman PSA 9 1 of 1 Joe Schmoe card which was purchased in 2005 for $3,500 now has a market value of $230. Ahhhh.... there is a God.

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Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>I spent 2 hours last night helping my 10 yr old with an excel spreadsheet that had 2 twelve point graphs. I am not your man for maintaining the spreadsheet.....

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Posted By: <b>Marty Ogelvie</b><p>[F11] leon [F11]<br><br>martyOgelvie<br />nyyankeecards.com

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Posted By: <b>JK</b><p>Dave,<br /><br />Think about your cards long term. You may have spent $25 on a psa 1 and cant see getting $30-$32 out of the card if its crossed to sgc. However, if you plan to hold those cards, I guarantee that they will be selling for more than you have in them by the time you are ready to sell. Two years ago, I doubt anyone was spending $25 on a psa 1 common.

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Posted By: <b>T206Collector</b><p>...I crossed all 40 of my PSA T206 cards over and have never looked back. It wasn't that costly, either...

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Posted By: <b>Mark</b><p>I would submit to PSA if not for their customer service. How hard would it be for PSA to bring a list of cards they don't grade to shows?

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Posted By: <b>Ernest Thomas</b><p>I tried to tell you good people back in 2003 that PSA was on the way down as far as grading. As most of the people on this forum agree today that SGC is without question is the best to use in grading vintage cards. PSA is all about the money and nothing else. They do no care at all about customer satisfaction. I still believe I wish I know how many cards that people have sent to PSA to have graded, and PSA told them that there card (s) were counterfeit so they offered the individual so much money for the card to take them off the market. I truly believe this is a bunch of bologna on PSA part. How do you know if was counterfeit? All you have to go with is what PSA is telling you under the buy back program. They buy the card send you some money and you never know what really happens to your card. Was the card truly an counterfeit are perhaps real? I still do not trust PSA to this day and never will. Personal I believe that the grading business would be better off with out them. Maybe they will be forced out of business one day and when that happens that will be the best day in the grading industry. SGC and BGS are truly the best in the business. Stay with them and you will be just fine. PSA is and has always been a sore eye in the grading of cards.

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Posted By: <b>Dylan</b><p>As long as SGC continues on the path its on, i couldnt see how PSA could be number one for vintage cards. And while psa may, for the time being, get top dollar in higher grade T206's(due to the long running set registry) SGC lower grade T206's sell for the same as PSA. In many other vintage sets not so connected to the PSA set registry SGC easily out performs psa. PSA has a lot of footing with poor customer service, and SGC has utilized that to great advantage.

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Posted By: <b>Fred C</b><p>I'm not a big PSA fan but I wouldn't sell everything that I have that is in PSA slabs because I think their customer service sucks. On the other hand I wouldn't exactly throw any business to PSA because I don't particularly care for their holders that much and I don't really care too much about their customer service. One last thing is that I wont let the PSA name on the slab prevent me from buying a card either.

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Posted By: <b>Mike Snyder</b><p>While reading this and other threads regarding corssover grading with SGC, I decided to give it a try. I bought this card long ago. It is graded by CTA, a not so well known grading company, but when observing this card very closely, I was sure it would come back a 60. It came back 50.<br />I have other PSA cards that are graded 5 (Cobb, Speaker, Dean, etc) that are similar in grade to this Foxx. I dont think that I will try chancing them to a crossover. All in all, this was a cheap avoiding doing anything stupid.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1176515457.JPG">

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Posted By: <b>brian</b><p>Never heard of CTA. Do they have a website?

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Posted By: <b>Mike Snyder</b><p>Well it turns out that they do! <a href="http://www.ctagradingexperts.com/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://www.ctagradingexperts.com/</a><br />I bought this card several years ago on Ebay for a couple hundred dollars, and never thought to see if they were in existense on the Web.<br />In doing some further research on them, their grading was pretty well regarded in the industry

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Posted By: <b>Russ Bright</b><p>DO they check their e-mails? I have gotten GREAT service over the phone, but as I am at work right now I can't exactly get on my phone and start chatting.<br /><br />I have written them a few e-mails in the past and once recently and have NEVER received a response. Maybe I have the wrong address? Is there someone directly I should e-mail? I always use the link which I think is info@sgccard.com or something like that - someone specific I should get in contact with? I had a question about registry specials and have a pile of raw cards i want graded...<br /><br />thanks for any help!<br /><br />R

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Posted By: <b>quan</b><p>SGC is great on the phone with any problem(s), emails can be delayed a bit. <br /><br />To me crossing cards you intend to keep, whether PSA&gt;SGC or SGC&gt;PSA is like burning money...yuck! I know, I know...the registry, collection uniformity...