Crossing over from SGC to PSA...
 

Anyone have experience doing this? Better to keep in holder or break out and submit raw? I've got this Walter Johnson in SGC 3 that's going in this week...
Thoughts?

Grade looks accurate. I would leave well enough alone. If you are a gambling man, and if your intentions are to send it to PSA, then crack it out. I think you are as good as you can get though, and it looks really nice where it resides.

If you crack it and it comes back a PSA 2 or 2.5, which is entirely possible, you will be very annoyed at yourself. I would leave just it where it is.

Similarly, I suppose, I have an SGC 3.5 CJ which looks all the world like a solid 5--even under magnification. No stains even and no hidden creases, it seems. However, it is 1/16 inch short on the width. I guess that's within limits but do they ever dock a card a grade if they can't say for sure it's trimmed--but still feel like downgrading it for this acceptable printing plant flaw? I'm at a loss to understand the grade otherwise.

Last year I sent four SGC-holdered T206s to PSA using the crossover service and only one crossed.

I then cracked the other three out and resubmitted them to PSA raw and all of them crossed (one even got a half-point bump).

I realize my experience is anecdotal but it was enough to convince me that the PSA crossover service is a waste of time and money except where the downside risk of the crack-and-submit strategy is severe, for example, where you have a high value SGC card that you fear might be rejected by PSA for evidence of trimming.

The other thing I would say is that in my opinion (others will surely disagree), generally speaking (there are surely counterexamples), PSA is tougher on corner wear whereas SGC is tougher on centering. So you might fare better crossing cards to PSA that have strong corners and/or worse centering for the grade than you would crossing cards that have weak corners and/or better centering for the grade.

It's definitely going into PSA...I guess question is whether to be safe and send it inside sgc holder with stipulation that it crosses over as 3 or better and then have that holder bias the review or get risky and break it out in hopes that I get a fair grade? I've had dealers tell me that PSA won't cross over from SGC without a downgrade or at all.

Certainly if you are willing to accept a lower grade then the PSA crossover service might make more sense. My "don't do it" analysis was based on a straight cross, e.g., from SGC 40 to PSA 3.

The whole crossover thing is kind of crazy when you think about it. The TPG (PSA or SGC) will not crack out a card unless it will meet the minimum grade. But how can the TPG know whether the card will meet the minimum grade unless they crack it out and look at it? Chicken and egg problem if you ask me. (And I think that helps explain why PSA is so tough on crossovers).

So PSA's crossover service essentially doesn't recognize SGC cards as worthy of their assigned grade. That's fairly passive aggressive on PSA's part.

It goes the same way in reverse:confused:

I've never experienced that crossing over from PSA to SGC, granted I've only done it 3 times.

PSA will not bump it if you send in the SGC holder. If you are gambling on a bump then you must crack out. It isn't much over a 3 IMO. 3.5 at best.

Wow.

A.J., I have to agree with the consensus here. The card is accurately graded, and if it were me, there are only two reasons I would even consider sending that card in to PSA. One, if I were crossing all my non-PSA cards over because I wanted uniformity of appearance in my collection, or two, if I were starting a registry set. While anything is possible, I don't think there's much chance that card would get a bump to its grade, so the money I'd be spending on shipping and insurance both ways, and the PSA fees, would be wasted. Moreover, I'm not putting that card in harm's way. The '14 CJ cards are printed on very thin stock, and I just wouldn't trust anybody else to handle it.

You are free to do whatever you want, of course, as it is your card. I hope you carefully weigh all the pros and cons.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide, and what happens from that point going forward.

I agree that it's a "3."

AJ. Here are a couple of my 1914's. The crummier one I bought already graded. The nicer one I sent in raw as it was never graded before. This is what I got...note that the crummy one is majorly stained, round corners, had a crease or two, and is missing a chunk from the side!!! The nicer one has nice corners, no creases, no paper loss. My point is that don't expect much from Psa if you are a small fish. I have Psa 5's 1914's that do not look as good as this Callahan does.

For the record, I don't have the lesser card anymore. And also, I immediately cracked the nice one out. I don't care about my registry set. I'd rather look at that card raw.

I take the opposite approach.

When I have a card with centering issues and but good corners I send to SGC.

When I have a card with good centering but worn corners I send to PSA.

Granted I prefer a well centered PSA 7, with a little corner wear, than a PSA 9 OC, with sharp corners.

Since this thread seems to be continuing, I'll post the card I mentioned earlier--it's graded SGC 3.5 but has great corners (two of them are at least 5 quality or even 6), no stains at all, no creasing (under magnification). Centering is not bad. Image and color are near-perfect. The only "flaw" is that it is 1/16" short in the width--but that's within acceptable limits, I am told. So my question was: even if acceptable, do they still dock for being a little off in size even if no proven trimming? That's what keeps me from going for re-graded...http://www.net54baseball.com/attachm...1&d=1403637899