A grading company Project

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Posted By: Brian H (misunderestimated)

Without eliciting the usual -- often justified -- deluge of derisive comments about grading companies I would like some information about them. Specifically, I am interested in organizing the certification numbers chronologically for both PSA and SGC.

Both companies web-sites provide invoice results going back at least a few years so anyone who has submitted cards can check on the results. What I would like is the date of the grading and the certification numbers for the cards graded. If anyone would like to email me this information (or post it, I guess) I will eventually try to compile it so that it will hopefully be possible to figure out more or less when a given card was graded.

If someone knows where this information already exists I would be happy if they would share it and save me the trouble of this effort.

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Posted By: gdporter

I have raised this issue with PSA once before. On that occasion - years ago when grading submissions were through dealers - I was attempting to verify my suspicion that the dealer had swapped my card and returned a lower grade card to me (as evidenced by the curious disappearance of a gum stain, etc.). My thought was that PSA would be able to confirm, based on certification number, whether the card that I received had, indeed, just been graded in the last few days. In response to my questions, PSA informed me that they did not hand out such information, and that they purposely "randomized" the certification numbers so that people could not tell which were "old grades" and which were "new grades." Their concern (probably a well-founded concern) was that collectors would start paying different amounts depending on how recent the grade was, ostensibly on the basis that more recent grades were using a tougher standard.

That said, I understand that there is a way of telling the "vintage" of a PSA grade by reference to the design - and presence or absence of holographic seal - on the back of the card. But I do not know the details of this system.

I have not asked the same question of SGC, but I believe that they also randomize the numbers for the same reason. On the other hand, they are very good at compensating you if an older card will not cross under their current standards.

Hope this helps.

[Archive]

Posted By: qualitycards

"That said, I understand that there is a way of telling the "vintage" of a PSA grade by reference to the design - and presence or absence of holographic seal - on the back of the card."

Keep in mind you can have an old slab reholdered, that will maintain the old cert # but will have a brand new current slab. So with that in mind, it will be hard to detect when the card was graded based on your assertions.

[Archive]

Posted By: Ryan Christoff

SGC does not randomize their cert numbers. The number is based on your invoice number. For example, if your invoice # is 8153531, your cert numbers for the cards on that invoice will be:

8153531-001
8153531-002
8153531-003

and so on. If it begins with an 8 as the example I just gave, it usually means the invoice was filled out online. If you actually filled out a hard copy, the numbers will usually begin with a 1.

Because their cert numbers are based on invoice numbers and not chronologically for when the cards were graded, you will be unable to accurately determine when a card was graded based on the cert number.

You'll probably be able to make decent estimations, but I can tell you that I've filled out blank invoices that were over 2 years old. I keep a few blank invoices on hand and usually throw away the new ones they send out with each order unless I run out.

Hope this helps,

-Ryan