Grading Companies Questions

[philliesfan]

Hello. I am sure this has been covered before but I could not find other threads. I know PSA is the number 1 company for getting the most dollars in return followed by Sportcard Guaranty Corp. and then Beckett.
Where does this new company CSG fit in the equation? Is CSG part of SGC? Is CSG a contender in the game or are they like PRO grading?

I have a lot of cards to get graded for resale and want to know if I should wait for PSA to start grading again or send to one of the other companies.

Thanks,
Bob

[vthobby]

CSG is backed by the same ownership and senior management team behind NGC, PMG and CGC, the coin, paper money, and coin graders. Backed by plenty of coin!

I prefer SGC for their accuracy, professionalism, re-sale value, turnaround time, and $30 fee. No competitive comparison from ANY grading companies extant.

Mike

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by philliesfan

Hello. I am sure this has been covered before but I could not find other threads. I know PSA is the number 1 company for getting the most dollars in return followed by Sportcard Guaranty Corp. and then Beckett.
Where does this new company CSG fit in the equation? Is CSG part of SGC? Is CSG a contender in the game or are they like PRO grading?

I have a lot of cards to get graded for resale and want to know if I should wait for PSA to start grading again or send to one of the other companies.

Thanks,
Bob

I think this is a great question, Bob. Considering the amount the buzz there seemed to be when CSG started card grading, I hear surprisingly little about them. I have not used them, but I'd be curious to hear from those who have.

[swarmee]

CSG is making a foothold with younger collectors since PSA doesn't have any level below $150/card right now. CSG is owned by the Certified Collectibles Group that owns CGC (Comic Books, Pokemon/MTG cards) and NGS (coins); I think they owned SGC at one point, which is why SGC used to have the scales logo.

SGC around $30/card.

HGA is also making inroads in the flipper community.

But if your goal is to flip the cards to vintage collectors, I'd personally go with SGC at this time or sell raw. Many people are just stockpiling hundreds or thousands of cards each for when PSA reopens cheaper service levels.

[rjackson44]

Csg holders look horrible ill pass

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by rjackson44

Csg holders look horrible ill pass

Octavio,

Don’t look at them. Just keep them in a vault. Problem solved.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by rjackson44

Csg holders look horrible ill pass

In the short term I would pass on them.
No complaints or issues with them however, between not liking the holders and between them being to new they have not yet established themselves and I am unsure of the resale value of them compared to others

[philliesfan]

I think they owned SGC at one point, which is why SGC used to have the scales logo.

Yes This is what had me a little confused.

Csg holders look horrible ill pass

Yes these are bad. The label should be cut in half.


I think I will send some into SGC and see what happens.
thanks,
Bob

[D. Bergin]

Don't quite understand the complaints about the CSG flips. Easy to read, and the slabs are nearly the exact same size as PSA. They even fit in the same sized protective sleeves, unlike Becketts slabs.

The PSA slabs just have more plastic dead space and very generic and cluttered text on the slabs. Leaves room for sub-grades on the CSG flip (if you are so inclined), while they fit the bar code, id number and QR code, (you can use your cell phone camera to easily look up the card on their website) on the back of the flip.

Don't know if they will actually catch on, but I've grown to like them. Maybe not for everybody, but they aren't exactly an embarrassment, compared to the other TPG's.

Very tough to snag 10's from them though, if that's what you're looking for.

[Oscar_Stanage]

CSG seems to be taking some share, because I see a fair number of slabs given how new they are. however, I have seen many cards that are way off grade which is pretty bad considering they do not have the "old slab" excuse like PSA and SGC. I have had crosses get downgraded 2 full points. they are not consistent and there really is no excuse. however I do not have a problem buying a CSG card, and I actually think the slabs are ok... they are thin which I like.

[Schlesinj]

One thing to consider, but CSG was recently purchased by Blackstone (which includes Fanatics). With the recent announcement of the Fanatics plan to be a one stop shop, I assume we will see CSG with a larger market share in the future.

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Octavio,

Don’t look at them. Just keep them in a vault. Problem solved.

Lol

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Schlesinj

One thing to consider, but CSG was recently purchased by Blackstone (which includes Fanatics). With the recent announcement of the Fanatics plan to be a one stop shop, I assume we will see CSG with a larger market share in the future.

I agree that the money behind CSG plus the prices and back log will all factor in helping gain CSG market share.
The driving factor will how Fanatics Managements utilizes all its divisions into that one stop shop.

[vthobby]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

I agree that the money behind CSG plus the prices and back log will all factor in helping gain CSG market share.
The driving factor will how Fanatics Managements utilizes all its divisions into that one stop shop.

Not sure they will gain much.......I am reminded of this line:

“You can dress a pig up in satin and lace and it's still a pig."

Mike

[DHogan]

Do any of these grading companies beside PSA offer pack grading ?

[vthobby]

Originally Posted by DHogan

Do any of these grading companies beside PSA offer pack grading ?

Sadly No.

GAI a long time ago.

BBCE will wrap your boxes and will wrap Rack Packs but will not grade them.

I sent some wax packs to PSA on 2/25/21 and they have 8 stages for you to monitor kind of like Dominoes Pizza lol. My packs are on the 3rd stage still. I'll be lucky to get them before 2023. lol

Mike

[53toppscollector]

An underrated value play right now might be to buy SGC and CSG 9.5s with the intention of cracking them and sending to PSA when prices drop. If you can get an SGC 9.5 for less than what a PSA 9 sells for, you have a decent shot of actually getting a PSA 10. At worst, if you end up with a PSA 9 you break even. Doing this to scale could be quite profitable, assuming PSA eventually opens up a lower service level where it makes sense.

CSG and SGC both have tough grading standards, from what I've seen, so you are basically getting a pre-screening opinion of the card before you send to PSA. Given SGC's troubles with re-sale on ebay, there are lots of bargains out there to grab.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by 53toppscollector

An underrated value play right now might be to buy SGC and CSG 9.5s with the intention of cracking them and sending to PSA when prices drop. If you can get an SGC 9.5 for less than what a PSA 9 sells for, you have a decent shot of actually getting a PSA 10. At worst, if you end up with a PSA 9 you break even. Doing this to scale could be quite profitable, assuming PSA eventually opens up a lower service level where it makes sense.

CSG and SGC both have tough grading standards, from what I've seen, so you are basically getting a pre-screening opinion of the card before you send to PSA. Given SGC's troubles with re-sale on ebay, there are lots of bargains out there to grab.

very interesting idea.
Has anyone tried this?

[drcy]

As a longterm investment, it would seem smart to buy the market undervalued (SGC) over the market overvalued (PSA) cards. You should buy the card, only in part because you don't know the vale of PSA or today's PSA label in upcoming years.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

very interesting idea.
Has anyone tried this?

smart people have long been buying lower priced, nicer SGC graded cards over overpriced...overgraded PSA cards...buy the card not some minimum wage employees opinion.

sure money can be made crossing nice sgc's to psa...but obviously there's risk...and potentially significant expense.

[JMANOS]

IMO CSG is and will be the leader in due time as they are in the other collectible worlds...Comics, Coins, etc... they r way more professional and reliable...I am convinced they will be the best in due time in vintage cards no question. They have a better standard of grading as well. my 2 cents.

[hcv123]

I was really pulling for CSG when I heard the initial announcement - I have been extremely underwhelmed with the quality of their grading so far. As a dealer, I never hear customers ask for CSG, nor am I a buyer of cards in their holders. I had an at length conversation with one of their representatives at the national in Chicago. While he was understanding and in agreement with much I had to offer, he said it was difficult to get the message across to those above his pay grade. I think there is great potential, but they have a lot of work to do to get there.

[glchen]

This is my personal opinion on the summary of the legit TPGs:

PSA: highest resale value, best registry, best large holders (size 5x7 and bigger)
SGC: most consistent quality grading, best looking holders for cards smaller than 5x7, best customer service (at least in the past), holders a larger variety of items (such as RPPC) than PSA
Beckett: best protective and tamper-proof holder for cards, willing to holder more fragile cards that SGC and PSA won't encapsulate, also holders a larger variety of items than PSA and even SGC (such as magazines)

I've never used CSG yet, and frankly the best thing that they have right now is that PSA and Beckett are flooded, so the only option many collectors have right now for lower priced cards are CSG and SGC. However, I think their holders are ugly, by far the worse of the 4. If PSA, SGC, or Beckett are available and similar in price, I don't know one reason why I would go with CSG. They only grade standard-sized cards right now. What do they have that is better than anyone else?

Regarding crossing over from SGC to PSA and trying to profit off that, I don't think this is something that you can do easily. I've cracked out a lot of cards out of SGC holders and try to get the same grade in PSA, and I've gotten a worse grade at PSA a lot. I don't know why I even do this anymore as I'm just burning money. Note that I only do this for prewar cards in lower grades from grades 1 to 5 or so, so I have no idea how it is at the higher levels like grades 8-10. And I am not saying that SGC is less strict on grading than PSA. The reason that they are not crossing over at the same grade is that SGC and PSA IMHO have different grading standards. If you tried to cross over from PSA to SGC, you'd probably get worse grades also. Basically, from my experience SGC weighs eye appeal more while PSA weighs technical criteria more. For example, if there is a pinhole in a card, you'll always get a grade of 1 from PSA. At SGC, if the card still presents well, you can get a grade of 1.5 or even 2. If you have multiple creases in a card, you'll be stuck at a 2 or less at PSA. However, for SGC, if the creases are on the corners and not obtrusive or they are not strong creases, but more like surface wrinkles or bends in the card, then you can get a 3. Same thing the other way where if technically the card can be a 3, but the eye appeal is terrible since the crease detracts from the card badly, then it won't cross from PSA to SGC. Again, I don't disagree with the grading standards for either company if they do it consistently. I can definitely see where they are coming from and why they chose these criteria. However, they can make crossovers more difficult.