PSA is an embarrassment to pre-war grading!

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Posted By: James Verrill

I realize my opinions are subjective - and I encourage folks to accept them as such. But, my thoughts are...

I deal extensively with both PSA and SGC, both in a business capacity (www.baseballvintage.com), and in a personal one (two of my sub-collections are graded cards).

I find one very big difference between PSA and SGC: SGC seems to want to work hard to correct mistakes and improve the quality of their service and product, and PSA seems to want to deny they make mistakes and simply expect people to live by their "absolute" standard of misinformation.

I am sorry, but I am just tired of getting back T206 Mordecai Brown portrait cards from PSA that are inaccurately labelled "Cubs on shirt". I have complained to PSA about this two dozen times. Why don't they already know that Brown's uniform says "CUBS" on it in the portrait card, but that it is a different variation from the "Cubs on chest" variation? And, why can't they be educated about this? (they continue making the same error) Doesn't this indicate that they are not familiar or comfortable with the product they are analyzing? Still, every time I get a group of cards back with this variation, the card is usually mislabeled. I have literally submitted over 50 of these M. Brown portrait cards, and I am willing to bet half of them have come back labelled wrong. That is not just an error - human or not, it is a recurring problem - which nobody at PSA seems willing or able to correct. The problem has certainly been identified - this board is always full of complaints about mislabeled cards - and many of these concerns have been addressed directly to PSA. Still, the problems recur, and we (the consumer) are supposed to either accept this, or not.

SGC is by no means perfect. But, the difference I find is this - SGC is willing to accept responsibility for their errors. They seem genuinely interested in having their level of service appear marginally better each new time you deal with them. I have never had SGC refuse to work with me on any issue - and I have presented them with many complicated ones. All I have to do is call, and I can work with graders, managers, marketing directors - whomever. And, maybe this is merely a perception - but, isn't that what effective customer service is about? A positive perception?

When it comes right down to it, the entire process is subjective, and the people involved are human, thus flawed. That is true right across the board - PSA, SGC - BVG, whomever. But, the important distinction - shouldn't a company be poised to accept feedback from their customer and integrate that feedback in to improving the level of service provided? How else could a company consider itself prepared to handle growth?

James Verrill