I have played the cross over game both in the holder and out of the holder. I do tend to think you have a better shot out of the holder but that is where all of the risk is. Whether it is position bias or not being able to see the card it is impossible to know. There is absolutely no case here that can be brought against grading companies and I am quite surprised it is even being discussed in a serious matter as if one would ever have a legit chance of moving forward with any level of success.
Under no circumstances can anyone prove the motives of a grading company when it comes to analyzing cards in other companies holders. PSA has such a dominate position that they couldn't care less what SGC does. They have no need to beat them further into submission. The market has.
This notion that all grades are equal in third party holders is laughable. I have seen numerous examples where cards can go up or down from company to company. I have had BGS 9's turn into PSA 10's and BGS 9's turn into PSA 7's. Even worse BGS 9'5's turn into PSA 8's.
Years ago I tried crossing over several BGS 8.5's and a BGS 9 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A Andre The Giant. No luck. Cracked them out along with several others and had a BGS 8 go to a PSA 6, two 8.5's go to 8's, a BGS 9 that went to a PSA 7 the first time and then an 8, and another BGS 9 go to a PSA 8. This example is why a PSA 9 will out sell a BGS 9.5 for this card.
The registry is not the only driving force that differentiates prices. Those with large SGC and BGS positions tell themselves this to make themselves feel better but the collective market is smarter than this and has created quite the divide in prices. No grading company is perfect but in my view on the margin PSA is definitely the toughest. I have submitted to all three by the way.
The only SGC 98 1982 Wrestling All Stars Series A Hulk Hogan was a PSA 9 that had been subbed time and time again raw and for review at PSA with no luck of landing the first PSA 10. It was cracked and sent to SGC to get the Gem Mint grade. When it sold it went for just over $100 more than the PSA 9. Why? Because it is a PSA 9 sitting in an SGC 98 case. Examples like this destroy your case.
There are numerous comments over the years about SGC being more lenient on centering than PSA. BGS having the four sub graded scoring system where a 9 corner subgrade with three 9.5's has no chance to cross over in or out of the holder to PSA. Once again there is wayyyy too many examples that show that third party grading isn't perfect and that one companies grade may be different than another.
One of the primary reasons that many cards sell for a big spread is dealers in so many cases will pay a one grade discount on SGC graded cards. Why? Because the market has built the expectation that they are over graded vs. PSA. Is this true? In some cases yes and in other cases no but enough times that the risk reward analysis points to not paying an equal value.
If cards were graded by computers and we could prove that there was virtually no variance in grading and then they didn't cross over perhaps you might be on to something but with all of these scenarios I have laid out there is absolutely without question no case here.
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