Quote:
Originally Posted by Carter08
Bob, the masses have made up their minds. Certain houses like pwcc are evil. Certain others like REA are pristine despite lawsuits against them and closing mishaps.
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James,
I am very much aware of that, and exactly why I have once again tried to use intelligent logic and reason to explain a point on this forum. I am no particular fan of PWCC, and have never been to any of their sites. I am a collector myself, and don't really trust or have great faith in any of the TPGs. At least with CSG, here was a new TPG coming from an already well-respected grading company in other genres, apparently with a lot of money and backing behind them. With all the bitching and crap you hear on here all the time about all the TPGs out there for cards, you would think that maybe, just maybe, people would give this new grading company a chance to see if they can be better than what we've had before.
I'm at least willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to see how they actually do and perform, before passing judgement. Unfortunately, in today's world a vast majority of people don't seem to be able to do that.
I'm just looking at CSG from the business side of things, and seeing how they are trying to make fairly quick and decisive moves to get their name and slabbed cards out into the hobby market as much and as quickly as possible right now. They obviously realize that with the pandemic and issues all the TPGs have faced recently, there is some discontent and vulnerability in the TPG ranks, directly related to huge backlogs and price increases, among other things. Moves like partnering with Ebay, and now PWCC, are looking to take advantage of this current vulnerability and gather more interest and acceptance in the hobby for CSG, by getting their slabbed cards out there. Ultimately, their goal is likely to grab as big a chunk of the TPG market share as they can, before all the other TPGs can finally get past their issues and back to closer to more normal, pre-pandemic operating conditions and pricing. My guess is PWCC is not the first choice CSG would pick to do something like this with, but given the time frame and what I'm guessing they're ultimately trying to do, they'll take the opportunity for now.
And I don't know if CSG is the one actively out there approaching these other businesses for such partnerships. Initially, the fact that CSG has now landed a second unique TPG partnering deal, it would make one think that they must be the ones initiating such conversations. But on second thought, given PWCC's also rather unique current position, I can also see them approaching CSG with this new concept as a way for PWCC to gain back some acceptance and market share themselves. Especially with some of the more recent things Ebay has been doing, as well as the new 1099 reporting standards, and so on. How many members have I recently heard on here saying they no longer care for, or want to have anything to do, with Ebay? Well now, someone with a lot of ungraded cards they need to quickly sell may just consider PWCC after all because they can get them graded and sold without having to wait for months for grading, and at a flat, per card rate that is about as low as can now be found on an everyday basis.
And I wouldn't be at all surprised or shocked if CSG ends up in some other partnership deal with someone else down the road. Will be interesting to see what they do next to expand their brand.
But as for the masses having made up their minds, a lot of people are only continuing to fool themselves if they think the people on Net54 make up the "masses" in the collecting community. Our numbers are probably more comparable to a pimple on an elephant's ass in terms of how much of the overall card hobby community our active members comprise. Put it this way, if the masses really did hate PWCC that much and wanted nothing more to do with them, they wouldn't still be around today. And yet, they are! So much for the masses!