Memory Lane

[Bram99]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Great price IMO. SGC is dead. A PSA 8 53T went for twice that.

I agree, and I believe more than any other single reason for the downfall, the registry is to blame. It's not that PSA has any better or more reliable grading system. I don't hear a ground-swell that PSA is so much more stringent than SGC. They probably both dock each other's cross-overs to make it seem that the other is less stringent.

SGC's weakness is also not due to PSA's superior service. The SGC holders are the nicest among all of the TPG's and they should be helped by recent changes to the font on the slab, so a person like me with fading eyesight can now actually read the serial number. I think it is the PSA registry killing SGC. Whoever was in charge of that aspect of the offering for SGC missed the boat, didn't hear the alarm clock ring, and as a result SGC is in a relatively poor position.

I have probably 500+ PSA graded items, and maybe 100 or so SGC. At one point years ago, I preferred SGC. I still prefer them service wise and from the holder aesthestics. But I think the demand side of the equation has snowballed against them. I think the registry difference exacerbated that. I have mixed sets now and while I won't cross cards over due to the hassle and wait times now, I may actually buy a PSA card to fill out the set and then sell my equivalent SGC. I can't be alone in that behavior.

When the collector or dealer cannot get the same price in the market for a card in an SGC holder as a PSA holder, who other than someone who intends to never sell the card would choose SGC.

SGC's limited options to save the situation could include joining forces with whatever upstart company comes out with grading by machine optics rather than by humans. That, or if someone would need to come up with some kind of registry that links both of them together, perhaps adding in any other reputable TPG's if there are any (Beckett?). That seems unlikely because each company holds their own database of grading history and why would PSA share that and remove their significant advantage> For now it seems that the registry has SGC in a really bad situation.