Evidence of Trimming

[npa589]

Addressing Aquarius and BobC --- this is an internal discussion I have been having ad nauseum. To me - this is what the decision has boiled down to, and honestly - after much deliberation - I still don't know the best answer. Classic Pros/Cons list:

PSA Pros: 1. Irrefutably sell for more in nearly every category of sports or collector cards. At times SGC can match them in vintage, but overall - its irrefutable.
2. I believe currently they are more accurately grading cards from every era.

PSA Cons: 1. Their fees are exorbitant, and price out a lot of cards with regard to ROI in the slabbing. Their fees start at $50/card and it will be 3 months or so before you get those back. The next tier is $100/card for 1 month, and $150/card for 2 weeks.

SGC Pros: 1. Fees are more reasonable and they have been great about turnaround time. 2. Seems that if you have a card valued less than $1000, their $30/card version is probably the way to go, unless waiting for 3 months is okay.

SGC Cons: 1. I feel that their grading is been pretty horrible recently. This isn't just about sour grapes over undergraded cards, as I have tried to be unbiased when making observations. They have become unbelievably tough on vintage cards and seem to be grading them on the same curve as a 2020 Bowman Chrome Auto. Perhaps that's a different conversion - but vintage cards should not be graded on the same curve. I am not talking drastic differences here, but it's more than likely that vintage cards never had corners as sharp as a 2020 Bowman Chrome example.

What I think happened is this (no proof, this is just a hypothesis): to grow, SGC began hiring and training graders - most probably pretty young. I think they have a checklist for each era, and they follow it by the book.

I say all that to say that I've been hesitant on sending to SGC, because of how tough they've become - which does not immediately mean they're better. It's a clear deviation from their historical grading standards. Just do a search of "SGC t206 (60, 5)" on eBay. The goal, however, is to maximize value of your cards. If they already sell for less, and the assigned grades are consistently lower than PSA - well, that's not going to work.

Originally Posted by BobC

Yes, but isn't it at a much greater cost than the other TPGs to get a graded card back fairly quickly from PSA? That is what I meant by the comment. I'm assuming it will likely take a lot longer for PSA to look at and return the card, compared to how long the turnaround would be from CSG or BVG, at a somewhat comparable price. Assuming you can even get PSA to look at it for a price similar to what CSG or BVG would charge.

I don't send cards in to get graded by TPGs myself. I'm just going off what I've heard and seen on this forum from others. If it has recently changed and PSA is now getting cards back comparable to other TPG's turnaround times, at a comparable cost, that is great news for those looking to use PSA services.