News from SGC
 

Video dropped from Sgc today:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjX6LGCO-Qs/?hl=en

Bluf: lower prices from SGC moving forward.

Good news. But thought on the video? Maybe it is the lighting, but took a darker tone. Macroeconomics? Stock market? Seemed concerning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2j8kypHO4U

My initial thought was the video reminded me of the Schooner Tuna commercial from the movie Mr. Mom. Linked above.

Sgc
 

Maybe they can start making drastic improvements by having a customer service contact phone with a human being attached!

Looked like a politician looking for votes..

Layoffs.....

Peter is a smart, ambitious guy who sometimes suffers from diarrhea of the mouth.

I was fixing to vote for him!!!!

lol !

Ouch
 

Tough to watch.

Good message about lower costs and quick turnaround.
But ominous tone about the backstory since they are really just stumping for business. Hope they are solvent.

Still, I like SGC cards so I may try them again after a few idle years of not sending…

A story of missed opportunity, could have repositioned themselves as a leader during covid with a couple of moves, registry being one. I'm always perplexed why none of the new graders like CSG, or PSA for that matter, offers a black apron, if they did they would put SGC out of business.

Totally agree, Phil!
Aesthetics matter to me. SGC cards present nicely in the black apron.

I’m not selling now anyway so I’m not too worried about the resale of PSA 7 + (because I don’t have any of those…)

I hope they last , as they do have a strong presence in the hobby even if they have been tough to figure out sometimes.

I’m going to send them a few cards from the “I’ll grade these someday “ pile.

Swipe at PSA....
 

If that's the extent of what they plan to do for "branding", PSA for sure and perhaps even CSG (who's grading is so far inferior) will eat their lunch! 2 of the top 3 selling sports cards are in SGC holders! If it were my company, I'd be plastering it all over the hobby (like PSA does! ). Agreed the set registry needs to come back too. They run a quality company , just missing the registry and some real $$$ behind marketing.

It was shocking to me how doomed and gloomy he was. Like the hobby is on the edge of breaking. Really? The last time I checked all the major auction houses are still blowing out numbers. Maybe specifically for their company, it’s this dire…Idk just thought this was a very weird video.

I think he was doom and glooming the economy instead of the hobby. Which of course, has a direct effect on the hobby.

I would tend to agree however it doesn’t seem to stop the bidders in REA ML and Heritage. I tend to think the buyers in those platforms are white-collar where the economy affects them to a lesser extent. The trickle-down effect is that middle-grade collectors and lower-grade collectors they are affected by the US economy because for the most part, they’re blue-collar. Auction houses talking about the big cards like the person who spent 300,000 on that 1952SGC5 Mickey Mantle are white-collar.

I just want my registry back.

Can someone sum up the price drops?

edit: nevermind:

https://www.gosgc.com/assets/img/car...Structure.jpeg

card graders were 'hailed as heroes' during the pandemic?? :eek:

I found it interesting and video tried to relay much more than just a price drop. He came across as being honest and motivated - Don Quixote with PSA being the windmill kind of thing.

I do agree with everyone regarding the darkness, too bad he couldn't afford the proper lighting. Typically we associate with good news with lights, music, ballons, happiness. Presenting good news in darkness doesn't quite set the atmosphere.

I have a lot of respect for SGC and their grading. I did turn to them when PSA shut down and they will continue to receive some of my submissions. I TOTALLY agree they should be marketing the Mantle.

😱

The guy offers a discount on graded cards and everyone complains.???????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????

Maybe because everyone remembers how much grading USED to be. Kinda like when people hail $3.23 gas a great thing, when it was $1.27 just 4 years ago.

It was great news, as I was just readying over 260 T206s to send in to PSA, and now will switch to SGC simply due to the turnaround times.

That being said, it was unbelievably cringe-worthy and made me feel awful. Who was responsible for choosing the lighting? Goodness it was awkward. I was fast forwarding just to get to the actual news.

That is all I had running through my head too as I listened to it.

Schooner Tuna, the Tuna that cares!

Too funny!

Butch

Around 5 years ago I done a SGC sub of around 200 cards. A complete 59 Fleer Ted Williams set with the rest being T210s and 50s-60s star cards. I paid $4 per card.

Just a strange video overall..."hailed as heroes"??? WTF Dude..."stocks are down and my cards are down"??? Cards are down? Is he crazy? Does he even look at auctions or sale prices of cards in the last 2 years?

Don't get me wrong, I love SGC cards and how they look, but I don't need all the BS and dramatics to hear that you're lowering prices. This is all just a "look how impressive I am" message. A legend in his own mind.

Bill

T206's might be the only cards where SGC is comparable, or maybe even higher than PSA. Definitely not postwar.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think he basically runs the show over there now. He probably doesn’t have anyone around him with the guts to give him constructive feedback. It reads that way anyhow. He means well but the whole thing is heavy handed.

nevermind

Registry
 

SGC can do a few things for registry

YOu could have the monster sets and the leaders right on the first page

Also like how facebook used to pick which person was the best looking

they should have people, who knows who they pick to decide who has the best 'PSA 10' as you scroll through the PSA 10s on sought after cards..

I got lots of other ideas, they arent far from me..maybe i will stop by :)

That video was just...odd. The comment about cards being down makes it seem like he is more dialed in on the modern card market, which is down A LOT. Even the gas price comment seemed off, since gas is currently cheaper (in most states) than it was before the spike earlier this year.

His delivery sounds like that of a hostage, reading propaganda from a sign, while armed guards stare menacingly just off screen...

+100 me too... they need to focus on the competitive aspect of collecting, i.e. the Registry

I find this interesting because PSA came out today with $18 grading on their bulk level service. SGC really staffed up during the pandemic and my guess is that if volumes don’t remain where they were they will have to cut the head count. Also, if there is a price war it will be tough for them to win the battle with PSA who has much deeper pockets. I remember when SGC had two graders and less than ten employees; they can probably shrink down if they need to.
Also, I don’t know this but I would bet that if there has been a decline in submissions it is mainly concentrated in the newer cards. Grading vintage cards is not a growth area. A sizable portion of better vintage cards are already in slabs. The influx in volume comes from new issues.

SGC...Into Darkness

Maybe JJ Abrams directed?

My thoughts exactly. You nailed it. Maybe PSA makes another run at purchasing the company?

If I am running PSA I’m not sure I see the beauty of buying SGC. What am I adding if I buy them? PSA already has everything they have and then some. The only reason to buy them would be to close them down and stamp out competition and the government doesn’t look favorably on that tactic.

Great points!
 

PSA has been opening up new revenue streams - just got an email that they are now grading Funko Pops!!
If there is truth to your points - such a shame for SGC as they are great quality graders just poor visionaries and marketers.
Also agree the video was weird in terms of composition and presentation.

I like Peter....let's give the guy a break. He can't wear every hat while running operations at Boca Raton. Hire a profession marketing/media team to help get their message and improvements across.

After reading all of the comments here, I felt compelled to give it a look.

It does seem like he really wanted to get us all jazzed about the new pricing and remind us that they turn items around really quickly.

Plus take a few digs at the competition while doing it.

If we’re being charitable, maybe this is how he expresses excitement and enthusiasm, at least within the context of a recorded advertising message posted to the ‘gram.

I do remember a commercial for Priceline around late 1999 with Captain Kirk, in which they spent most of the spot asserting that they were going to be around for a long time to come. However, the fact that they felt the need to reassure us about this point tended to inspire more concern than anything. In some ways, at least towards the end, this video reminded me of that commercial…

Just watched the video for the first time.
That was....weird.

A wasn't planning on watching it but after reading these comments I might, just for entertainment purposes

Agree, but wonder if maybe CSG shouldn't take a look at such an acquisition. They have at least as much, if not more, business background and experience than SGC, as well as financial backing and resources, it seems. They just happen to be the newest recognized card TPG out there, and thus have that hill to climb against the more well-established, longer standing TPG competitors out there. A move such as acquiring and combining what they do with SGC could be a huge factor then in their competing with the other main TPG competitors going forward, PSA and Beckett.

I also thought I saw/heard somewhere that CSG was going to go forward with some type of registry as well, at least at some point. But being so new, they don't really have much of a data base to create a very significant registry......yet. But taking on SGC, and maybe keeping that brand for pre-war and vintage mostly, would allow them to instantly have that data base they could use and incorporate for registry purposes going forward. Would also possibly allow CSG to think about using the black sleeves in their holders, and not just make them look like copycats of SGC. Hey, if nothing else, give your submitters a choice. How nice would that be for submitters to be able to choose if they wanted their cards displayed in such black tuxedos, or not?

No idea how the ownership of SGC would view and receive such an overture, but given the video and comments of others, there seems to be a possible/potential dark underside read into their message being sent. That may be a signal that such an inquiry by CSG wouldn't just be met with summary dismissal. Just a thought!

Tip:
Just download one of those 'sitcom laugh tracks' apps for your phone, and then watch it again while adding fun audience reactions to it, and it becomes so much less dour and gloomy.

SGC + telephone customer service = Revenue
 

Back to my original post- I would love to work with SGC again but I did not like the impersonal service policy that went into effect, no phone contact. It can be so hard to get things as efficiently in some cases if only on line service within 24 hrs is only way. Service has also has plaqued PSA but PSA is PSA.
SGC had so many great things going for them and every grading service was making a fortune but somehow, mid size collectors and mid size and smaller dealers that liked getting their cards graded to promote the line were priced out and pulled back, and speculators dumped millions into grading but the pendulum has swung....They still make a great product, wish they had consistant dealer pricing in volume or for collectors that want set quantities graded fairly.

I would bet that over 99% of all graded cards today are modern or ultra modern. This market used to be split between PSA and Beckett until the pandemic grading explosion happened. Then both companies shut down and younger collectors decided to give SGC a try because they still wanted to flip gem mint raw modem cards, and really, SGC was their only option at the time. This was their moment. They had the opportunity to capture significant market share overnight. An entirely new ocean of submitters showed up on their doorstep with boxes full of cards. But the modern market rejected them. SGC 10s often barely outsold PSA 9s in some sports, and couldn't even come close to PSA 10 prices. The problem wasn't the graders though. Peter's fatal mistake was believing that the ultra modern collectors would love their slabs because of the new tuxedo look with the black & white flips. Don't get me wrong, I like the look, it's certainly a huge improvement over the green old school flips, but just changing the flip was never going to be enough. They needed to change their slabs too. They're just way too big and bulky. The ultra modern guys started getting them in hand and thought, "WTF am I supposed to do with these?" They don't fit inside most storage solutions that the kids are carrying around these days, and they're just unnecessarily bulky. And they really do look cheap when compared to some of the nicer slabs. The long time, hard core vintage collectors here don't mind. We're used to the slabs, and to change them now would just be annoying since all of our other cards are in the dollar store slabs that they use currently. So we want our vintage stuff to match. But they really should have invested in a new modern looking slab for all these ultra modern cards that were being submitted. CSG absolutely nailed this when they came out with their new slabs. They are the nicest looking slabs on the market, and it's not even close. And when the hobby rejected their ugly green flips, they quickly corrected their mistake and redesigned them. And their slabs are the same size as PSA, and even stack perfectly with PSA slabs, so collectors can store them together in a way that looks clean and fits together nicely. SGC really missed an opportunity here. If they had offered a new slab design, while still offering the choice of the old one for those of us who still want them, then I think they could have made some serious progress toward closing that gap between them and PSA. But they failed to see that this was a move they needed to take. Peter thought that all the market cared about was fair, accurate, and consistent grades with good turnaround times. He was wrong. The market also cares deeply about the product itself. And it rejected their slabs. I don't know if it's too late to make that change now. It might be. But I wish they had offered two different slabs. One for vintage guys, and a nicer looking newer one for ultra modern. And a registry. Had they done this, I think they would be in a much better place today than they've suddenly found themselves in. But now that the ultra modern market has collapsed, especially ultra modern base cards, there's just no value at all in sending most of these cards off to SGC anymore. And they need those cards to stay afloat.

Brian Gray predicted, "it's going to be a race to $10". I think he's right. And I think SGC might end up going back to being just the vintage card specialists they were before. They failed to capture the modern market when they had the chance. I think CSG will be the beneficiaries of that.

Don’t remember the OUTRAGE when PSA lowered their f prices a fraction.

That’s your opinion. I find PSA inferior. I usually buy PSA cheap then send to SGC for a true grade.

VCP and market data disagrees with you.

I wonder how many cards they can grade and slab in an hour on the regular stuff..like if can grade 60 cards in an hour and can also do 60 slabs...that would be 2 minutes per card start to finish etc...

I love 2022 people think just saying asinine bs makes it true.