SGC - Not offering open specials

[Marchillo]

I've only submitted through SGC and I've never experienced the nightmare turnaround times that I read about for PSA and BGS. Do those companies ever suspend open specials?

I would think SGC should get a little credit for this. Maybe (probably?) has to do with the new label etc?

https://sgccard.com/MonthlySpecials.aspx

[Lorewalker]

Hats off to SGC for putting collectors on notice. Exactly what I would have expected from them too but still nice to see.

[swarmee]

PSA hasn't really offered a good monthly special in years. They've been promoting the use of their normal bulk specials (only available to collector's club members). They raised the timelines of those at the beginning of the year, and just raised their prices Sept 1, cancelling the fastest bulk rate. There were probably thousands of bulk submissions mailed out by the Aug 31 deadline.

BGS cancelled their 20-day and 10-day submissions within the last few months due to turnaround time on their "non-guaranteed". Those used to take 3 months, but are now around 1 year. They plan on bringing back the 10-day submission level once they get through the backlog, but they were still taking non-guaranteed submissions at the National and doing plenty of Raw Card Reviews at the show.

It's surprising to see SGC claim to be swamped, based on the feedback received about their National performance/attendance. Maybe they are getting a bunch of reholders even though they're not done with their iterations on their slab. Do they currently have the scanning piece and the grader's notes pieces activated? Seems like if you sent in your cards prior to those being embedded, maybe you should have waited until they were done with their transition to the new process.

[tschock]

Originally Posted by swarmee

It's surprising to see SGC claim to be swamped, based on the feedback received about their National performance/attendance. Maybe they are getting a bunch of reholders even though they're not done with their iterations on their slab. Do they currently have the scanning piece and the grader's notes pieces activated? Seems like if you sent in your cards prior to those being embedded, maybe you should have waited until they were done with their transition to the new process.

Or maybe their target now is actually 20 business days, and consider themselves swamped if they can't reasonably expect to make that target. My submission from the National came back within that 20 business day window. Granted, it was a single card, but for $8 + shipping for a $400 card it was well worth it. I'm sure YMMV.