Future of grading...

[pbspelly]

Originally Posted by basesareempty

For years people said Pre war to SGC and Topps/Bowman era to PSA but I have been seeing a trend of more Pre War era cards in PSA slabs with the set registry/ higher prices fueling this trend.

Purely as an observer, I've noticed this as well. PSA seems to have reached a tipping point, and I would be surprised if SGC is still around and under its same ownership 5 years from now. It's unfortunate, in my opinion, since I kind of prefer the way SGC looks, but I see SGC as kind of like Betamax to PSA's VHS. Beta was actually much better quality than VHS, but we all know who won that battle (at least at the consumer level, news stations and professional videographers used Beta right up until digital video cameras came along a few years ago)

[CrackaJackKid]

Couldn't agree more!

[ALR-bishop]

I have a fairly large collection but do not collect graded cards. I do not think grading is all about competition. I know collectors who are either in the hobby for solely investment purposes, or for hobby and investment purposes. They see grading as a neccessary component of today's hobby from an investment standpoint. Some even view it as a neccessary evil in today's hobby.

I get that Registry competition drives some collectors, but do not think grading is solely a function of competition. Likewise, I know a lot of collectors who collect for enjoyment and not competition. I think you can enjoy and be proud of your own collection without comparing it to or competing with other collectors....and admire the collections put together by others.

[1880nonsports]

couldn't agree more! Sad that my grader of choice (SGC) has continually dropped the ball......

[PowderedH2O]

If and when I buy graded cards (95% of my collection is raw) it is usually cards from the 1933-1952 era where I have a harder time finding raw examples. I have sets on the registry from those time periods. They are not in competition at all. They simply serve as checklists. Why should I be in competition? I am a school teacher. I have maybe $3-5k a year that I can sink into cards, and sometimes less than that. There are guys making $250k a year that can wake up tomorrow and decide they want to start a card collection and have a better collection than me in less than 48 hours. When I see the Donald Spences of the world, I am happy for them, but they and I are not in competition. My Roberto Clemente rookie would look silly in Spence's 1955 set. Same with my Aaron rookie and my Rose rookie. I am only in competition with myself to see what I can do with my own collection. You realize that with the right amount of money, a wealthy person could go onto ebay and nearly complete full runs of Topps and Bowman in high grade in less than a month, right? So, why sweat it? Just enjoy what you can afford and don't worry about what others get.
That being said, I prefer SGC in every way except for their registry. As I like to use it for a checklist, it is brutal to work with. If they fixed that, I'd lean towards sticking with them entirely.