Changes in PSA and SGC Labels Over the Years
 

When questions of fakes come up (as we see today) and, say, PSA labels are compared, it always makes me wonder how much, or little, PSA and SGC typography has changed over the years. Every time I see a label, on a slab I've bought, that looks a little (slightly) different it makes me wonder if that's what they really looked like in that period--or if it's a fake.

Perhaps someone here could provide the service or posting examples of different period PSA and SGC labels for slabs. Thanks.

Hi Greg,

Regarding PSA, I put the following together in 2010...you might find it helpful...you'll have to work your way through the thread a bit:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ighlight=style

Cheers,
Blair

Everything listed below is an archive of twiley's old thread before he deleted it. No sense in losing valuable information! :)

(pics transferred to my photobucket too)

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Hi, This has always intrigued me. The history of PSA's flips. So I decided to the best of my knowledge put this together for future reference for all to use when ever someone has a flip question. Especially if they want to know if a flip is legitimate or not. This is a work in progress and a rough draft and will be corrected if there are errors and corrections that need to be made. If something is not correct please let me know so I can make the correction on this post.

Regular standard size flip:

PSA flip style 1. 1991 - 1992 This style flip is PSA's first flip ever produced.
Note the slashes through the zeros and the bar code is long. The back of the flip has a hologram that has "PSA" within it. The hologram is bonded on the outside, but it's not a sticker. It is bonded to the plastic the same way the white PSA logo is. The T206 Wagner pictured below is PSA's very first graded/authenticated card being the very first PSA flip. It also appears that the Wagner flip hologram was an outside sticker? It looks like it is peeling off in the scan below.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...lslabT206a.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...lslabT206b.jpg

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Some more examples.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ppsNNOF414.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...psNNOF414b.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ve/03KonsF.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ve/03KonsB.jpg

PSA flip style 2. 1992 - 1999
Note The slashes through zeros are gone. The bar code is shortened and centered. The back of the flip still has the "PSA" hologram, but PSA made a change with the hologram. The hologram is bonded on the inside and not on the outside. The white PSA logo is the same, bonded on the outside. This also was when PSA starting putting their logo on the bottom right of the slab.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...6a01314945.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...6b01314945.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...mathewsa-1.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...mathewsb-1.jpg



PSA flip style 3. (This is a guess) 2000 - 200?
The flip front has no changes from style 2. The back of this flip had changed. The hologram had changed from "PSA" to "COLLECTOR'S UNIVERSE".

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...pect2a7914.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...pect2b7914.jpg



PSA flip style 4. (This is a guess) 200?- 200?
Note the bar code is now aligned to the left from this style to present day. The font numbers have been shortened and font letters are wider and rounder. Also the grade positioning is to the left and not aligned to the right. No changes on the back of this flip had been made.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...Topps312-1.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...rdanPSA9-1.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...-63wilson7.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...Mantle01-1.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...Mantle02-1.jpg



PSA flip style 5. 200? - 200?
Note this is a rarely seen flip. Note the flip front is similar to styles 2 and 3. The letter and number font has changed back to the similar font used on styles 2 and 3. The grade alignment had changed back to the right. PSA also changed the red border on the flip's front. The white field within the red border no longer has rounded corners making the white field squared. The back of the flip has changed as well. The hologram on the back of the flip is gone and replaced with "A COLLECTOR'S UNIVERSE COMPANY". The back logo and writing is now bonded to the inside of the plastic. The white PSA logo that was bonded to the outside of the plastic is changed as well. The back blue field is a light blue unlike all the styles preceding/proceeding this flip. The PSA logo is the same font lettering and positioning only now it is bonded on the inside of the plastic and is silver in color.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ipFront01a.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ipFront01b.jpg

PSA flip style 6. 200?- February 12, 2008
This flip front is exactly like style 5. The back of this flip's field is now a much darker blue. Also the back has changed from style 5. The back had changed from "A COLLECTOR'S UNIVERSE COMPANY" to "A DIVISION OF COLLECTOR'S UNIVERSE NASDAQ CLCT" which is what is used to date. The PSA logo on the back is the same as style 5. The back of these flips are the same as present day flips. Also there were a very small number of half grades issued in this style flip before they moved the numerical grade below the descriptive grade(See style 7). There is a 1954 Ted Williams photographed in the SMR announcing the half grade launch which displayed as "NM-MT+ 8.5".

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...icks6a1076.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...icks6b1076.jpg



PSA flip style 7. February 12, 2008 - Present day
Note this is when PSA introduced the .5 grading system. The only change is the positioning of the grade number (9 is under Mint). No changes on the back of the flip.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...l279a05041.jpghttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...il279b0504.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...8a14656234.jpg


if you have info on years or good examples or anything to add please post and let us all know. I think this thread could be very useful for people in the future.

I might go even further and do tall boy/larger sized, PSA/DNA, and wax/cello pack flips as well.

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Original post:
https://forums.collectors.com/messag...rentid=9881734

I don't know who twiley is, but I do know that somebody basically plagiarized my work (linked above) and posted it on another forum...I'm pretty sure that was the guy. Maybe that is why his thread was deleted...

Cheers,
Blair

grade
 

How was that 52T card PSA8 NM MT ??

with two rounded corners and off center ??

come on man

Here is the earliest SGC label I have:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...ng%20Terry.jpg

Here is an earlier SGC from before they used 1-10 grades:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...76%20Aaron.jpg

This was very informative. Thanks for sharing.

Any more on SGC labels???

No pictures, but this is what I was able to dig up about SGC flips/slabs. The dates are speculative..

(1) SG on the front(1998)
(2) SGC on the front, but no 1-10 grade(99-04)
(3) SGC on the front with 1-10 grade + gold label on the back(05-08)
(4) SGC on the front with 1-10 grade + SGC pressed into the back(09-current)

I read something about there maybe having been a change in the placement of the barcode on the "SG" flips. Don't know for sure though..

Also, a semi-related SBC flip(from 1988-90?). Apparently one of the SBC guys was involved in the early stages of SGC and they used many of the SBC concepts..