New graders, HGA vs. CSG any opinions yet?
 

Service, quality, turnaround etc?

Sales vs. PSA,SGC and BVG slabs, prices close or way off?

Ugly holders
 

I hate the holders not enough of a sample
Size on the grading yet to have an opinion on its accuracy or legitimacy at catching stuff. Hope they do well but I am not expecting much from either of them.

HGA is a joke. Enough said

I did the economy from SCG and it will be a few weeks before I get em back, but figured I would try them to see.

oops I meant CSG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D6l9K-IrNk

This says it all.

Lol poor Curly.

I just bought a CSG card, should have it in hand in a couple days.

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Interesting. How so?

I've seen a few of their graded cards (all cards from 2020-21) that looked to be graded fairly strictly. A handful of 9s that seemed consistent with PSA 9s for modern cards (that is, eyeballing them without any magnification or moving them around to study the surface, they struck me as essentially perfect). Also checked out two 9.5s more closely, and I couldn't find anything at all that made me think they wouldn't deserve a 10...though I understand that is a crapshoot.

That said, I collect pretty much exclusively vintage cards, so am not an expert by any stretch. There may well be nuances to new cards that escape my attention.

I only ask about HGA because I've been opening some current boxes with my son, which he really enjoys, and pulled a few nice cards I'd like to get graded. I like the BGS style for these slick cards more than the PSA or SGC slabs and also appreciate the subgrades. But BGS seems almost as backed up as PSA so I was thinking of giving HGA a try....

I actually did this exact thing. I didn't want to wait 10 months for a handful of shiny, new stuff, so I sent them off to HGA 10-day. I am expecting them back this week... I'll let you know.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing how it goes.

HGA has been around for a while. Always a basement dweller grading their own cards till Covid hit and newbies started using it thinking its a legit option for shiny stuff. The fact that they slab COU cards as real means they cant tell whats real or fake. Grammar and spelling like a 3rd grader. The slabs are flimsy, easily destroyed, and you can tamper with the cases pretty easily.
There is also Zero consistency. They supposedly have AI software to but there is no proof of that either. I would pay the few extra buck for BGS. In the end though its all up to you who you give your money to.

If you do a search for HGA in the search functions you will see other threads about them and issues.

Search must not be working for me. I keep getting "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms."
So it's not even seeing this thread.

What's COU?

Thanks for the info. The cards we pulled aren't going to break any auction records, mostly just up to a couple of hundred bucks and maybe one or two closer to a thousand. So if I go BGS, I'm planning to submit standard or economy. At that level, the money isn't so much of an issue as the better part of a year turnaround time.

I sent a big order to CSG earlier this month, so will see how those come back. Not sure I like the slabs for these various refractors/etc we are looking at now. Maybe we'll just hold them raw and see if next year the increased grading prices have bitten into the backlogs....

COU = Counterfeit

Search only works on 4 letter words and larger I think

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I was under the impression Hybrid Grading (HGA) is new to the market - https://hybridgrading.com/

While HGA Card (also HGA) has been around for awhile - https://hgacard.weebly.com/services.html

Is that not accurate? All the reviews I've seen on Hybrid seem to be written since January.

From what I've seen so far, GMA beats them both.

I pulled the trigger and am sending 7 cards off to CSG, including one pretty valuable one. Been waiting since November on a sub to PSA and a group sub to PSA through PC Sportscards and am just completely over PSA at this point, so we'll see...

At what exactly do they beat other companies at? Price? Speed? Consistency of plastic resin?

If you want to resell a card or view it primarily as an "investment piece" that is undergraded or ungraded = bite the bullet and use PSA and see your card sometime next year. Good luck with the sale.

If you aren't so concerned with maximizing "investment value," don't want to put your "asset" in a "vault" any time soon, and just want a cool looking holder = use SGC

If you just want to protect a card from your six year old bending the corners and throwing up on it = buy a box of top loaders off eBay and encase your own cards in hard plastic for shits and giggles

If you want to touch a card and smell it and rub in around your face for a real tactile rush = don't encase it at all

If you want to waste a few dollars = use a third tier grading company

the addition of these 2 companies was not necessary. they have solved no problems in the marketplace and add nothing. my guess is they both fail.
there is a boneyard of useless, valueless TPG relics of the 90s... and this is a repetition of history.

totally agree! i can't imagine why anyone would send to any of these 3rd tier graders...use SGC!!!!

I'm the furthest thing from an expert (and know this is the WWII and older forum), but two quick points:

1. PSA and SGC have a lot of drawbacks in the ultramodern/contemporary card area. These often sleek and flashy cards don't look great in the staid holders (which I happen to like for my vintage collection). And the lack of subgrades is a turnoff to a newer generation of collectors.

2. Also, a lot of these collectors trade or flip these cards pretty regularly, and the card prices are pretty volatile, so that I imagine waiting the better part of a year to get cards graded is a non-starter.

BGS offers sleeker holders and subgrades but suffers the same backlog as PSA.

For vintage cards, though, I couldn't agree more. In fact, I was in contact with SGC today about submitting a large order of vintage Japanese cards.

We obviously need more capacity in the industry, and HGA is using AI in their grading process, which could be the next big thing.

I am hoping HGA and others can be successful, I am willing to keep an open mind.

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Same here.... the next decade should be interesting, if nothing else!