Quote:
Originally Posted by G1911
Has SGC gotten better with gasket sizing? I had an oversized T206 that came in an SGC slab, and the gasket was the same size as the normal T206 one. The edges were a little smushed in, possible they were before and it was just a really tight but not harmful fit in the slab, but it seemed likeliest the card was damaged by the gasket because it wasn't really the correct size.
Beckett slabs, in my completely arbitrary opinion, are the least good looking. They are so thick and the card seems to be buried in the slab, losing something in the presentation. I think PSA and SGC at least look nicely presented. Beckett is annoying to crack open too.
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I don't know that SGC has gotten better with the gaskets as much as they have just gotten different. My oldest slab that I still have from a submission I did myself was my childhood '56 Ted Williams that I sent to them back in 2006. The gasket in that one appears to be more almost like black cardboard than the shiny, plastic-like ones of today. (If you don't know, you probably haven't busted as many of their slabs as I have...) But the corner cutouts and overall angles on that one seem more blunted, less angular. I like it better.
As for fit, I've always thought it was tight. I don't do too much prewar, but even for like oversized pre-'57 vintage - in many cases you can't see much of a gap at all between the gasket and the card, and I wondered for some how they get them in there consistently. For all that I have busted however, even if tight - the cards have come out no worse for the wear.
Beckett is blah / yuck. Some laud their slab as the "most secure" but in reality that thicker plastic is brittle, and will crack / shard up easily if you set to work cracking one. I will agree they are the most difficult to bust, but not because of the strength of the plastic - it's because of the "shoebox lid" design (one half of the slab basically fits into the other like a shoebox) and figuring that out that most people have a hard time with it. The Beckett sleeve in the slab, assuming you get that far - is the worst. It's reminiscent of a mid-80's album page in thickness. I've never understood why they don't just use a regular, thin UP penny sleeve in those slabs, it would do the same job and look a hell of a lot better.