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JoannJames hit on something upthread that has been percolating around the back of my mind lately too, namely the increasing reputation of SGC as being really tough and getting maybe increasingly tougher.
My uninformed and uneducated opinion is that if they keep driving their standards a little bit tougher and tougher over time, they do so at their own peril.
Sure it's nice to say you're the strictest, the most vigilant, or whatever. But people generally want balance, not either overly strict or too lenient. If they creep toward the edge of what people view as even being in the ballpark, I think people will turn to PSA despite some of their other issues.
I don't really care about grading, but to the extent it affects my collecting I prefer SGC overall. I like the lower prices, no club to join, holders look 1000% better, etc. But I have a few cards that I am thinking of having graded just for the protection, and I will probably send them to PSA. One has a tiny nick of paper loss, and I honestly don't feel like having SGC body slam it just so they can claim to be the baddest graders of all.
Yeah, it's mainly for protection of the card, but since I'm having it graded I would be insane to give up maybe a grade or two in the process. Heck I could get hit by a bus tomorrow - I don't want whoever ends up dealing with my cards to leave money on the table because I liked the look of the black holder better.
There. There's my mini-rant for the day. Thanks for bringing it up James. I know everyone here likes SGC because they are so tough, but it seems to me like maybe it's headed to being tough for the sake of being tough.
(This isn't to try to turn the thread into another PSA/SGC border war. The thread is about comparative grading tendencies, so I thought this was on topic.)
Joann