Quote:
Originally Posted by swarmee
The synopsis of the threads I have read are: sometimes the black gaskets wrap around and damage the cards in SGC holders, making "protected" cards worth less than they should be, since they're now damaged or ripped and no longer worthy of their grades.
They have also been known to grade trimmed or altered cards and grade them with a number. That's what was confirmed in the JustCollect thread I referred to.
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Well, ok here's a bit from a pro SGC guy that's not all rah rah.
As far as the gaskets go - Wrap around isn't really correct, They're sometimes a bit too thin, and thinner cards can slide under them. Hasn't happened to me, but I've seen the pics and yeah, those really should be done better. Thicker for sure, and I'd love to see them in colors besides black. T51s are really thin, so I think you were better off with PSA. On the other hand, they make the slab very adjustable. So odd sets don't have to get a weird looking plastic bag, and oversize cards can be holdered easily. that's more of an issue for prewar than postwar.
Resale - PSA does have an advantage in a number of areas, not all, but a lot especially postwar. And that's entirely because of the registry. Love it or hate it it's probably there to stay.
Registry - SGC was a bit too late to the game, to get much traction there, and I will say their new setup for pop reports and registry needs work. The old one wasn't great, but worked. The new one is really hard to navigate at times. When I started grading a few cards PSA didn't make the pop reports public? They do now and that's a huge improvement.
The holder overall - SGCs could use some major updating physically. But as we saw when they tried going to a really different flip, there was a LOAD of resistance. PSA did some upgrades, but apparently still sneaks a few of the old slabs in here and there. I haven't really looked at the new one, but everyone says it's harder to compromise and that's a good thing.
Retooling the slabs might be considered as too expensive, but really needs to be done by SGC. (Why neither company laser etches the SN onto the slab itself is a puzzle.)
Grading fakes /altered cards - If it's fair to take SGC to task over stuff supposedly done 15+ years ago, then it should be fair to say the same about PSA.
Consistency - I will say that the last year or so I've seen some pretty weak mid grade T206s from SGC. 50's that look to me more like 40's, that sort of thing. Overall I think they're more consistent, maybe having fewer cards to do helps. PSA certainly has a much larger volume, so even if they have the same rate of mistakes we'll see more from them. Probably also because the customer base is more into grading for immediate sale rather than grading and holding the card for a few years. (Just my impression, could be wrong)
Overall business approach - I don't like the "Pay us for the privilege of paying us " approach of PSA. Just as I'd be pretty put off by a bar charging $100 as a cover but saying it included my first 8 beers. I dropped off my first few cards with SGC at a show, and they were pretty nice about answering some questions I had about the slab itself - was it totally sealed? No (That's good, at least if there's acidic outgassing from the cardstock it won't be totally sealed inside to make things worse) How do I figure the value of the cards I'm sending in? Based on what I think the grade might be, or on what it's worth ungraded? - Quick look, "Mid grade T206s put 100 each" They were also very nice and quick about showing me the stuff I'd missed on a couple where I really questioned the grade. Also at a show, and for free. I haven't talked to anyone from PSA since they were new, so nothing really to compare. When they were new my questions were about grading cards that might be factory miscut oversized, and the answer was sort of a dismissive "meh, if it won't fit the holder there's not much we can do" But that was during their first year, so not a good comparison.
Overall, I think either one is fine *, and I'll include Beckett in that as well although I only have maybe one or two cards they've done and don't look at many.
*I do however think that the tiering and turnaround for both (Maybe Bekett too? ) Is totally backwards. My other current active hobby has certification, and the leaders take their time doing it, and more time on the expensive stuff. They're also more willing to not offer an opinion if something is really unusual to the point where it cant reliably be deemed authentic.
Steve Birmingham