SGC Grading Turnarounds

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by babraham

My last $100 "regular" submission from PSA earlier this month had this timeline:

Fri 8/12: dropped off at USPS
Mon 8/15: arrived at PSA
Tues 8/16: entered at PSA
Tues 8/23: shipped from PSA
Thurs 8/25: delivered to my house

I was thrilled with the turnaround time (much quicker than I expected), and the card got the grade that I was anticipating.

But you had to pay $100 per card. Meanwhile, $10 per card orders sit languishing for a year and a half.

[babraham]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

But you had to pay $100 per card. Meanwhile, $10 per card orders sit languishing for a year and a half.

It was only one card.
It seems like all of their levels are getting quicker leadtimes...hopefully they can get thru their backlog of older/cheaper submissions and start offering lowered pricing tiers again.

[raulus]

PSA is quoting these turnaround times:

SERVICE LEVEL ESTIMATED TURNAROUND TIME*
(in calendar days)

Premium + 3 Days
Walk-Through 3 Days
Super Express 7 Days
Express 14 Days
Regular 15-30 Days
Economy 45-90 Days
Value** 90-120 Days
Reholder 90 Days

My experience is that these are a little bit aspirational. At the same time, there's an element of randomness. I have an economy submission for 5 items that they entered on 5/4 that is very close to being done (2nd QC check), so it's at about 120 days, which isn't toooooo far over their estimate. And I have a value submission for 47 items entered on 6/28 that is also at 2nd QC check, which is just over 60 days, which is obviously well under their estimate. At the same time, the economy submission is for a vintage regional issue with very low pop counts, and the value submission is for mainline cards from the junk wax era. So perhaps that's part of the magic.

In some ways, it seems like they must have a great big pile that any given grader is working off of, and when they finish working on one submission, then they close their eyes and randomly grab one off of the pile. Maybe the piles are sorted based on submission level so that the higher submission levels have a higher probability of getting picked. If your submission gets picked up today by a grader when they're working through the pile, then you get lucky. And if it doesn't get picked up, then it might languish for weeks or months until they get to it.

Update:

Since writing this post this morning, my economy submission for 5 items that was entered into the system on 5/4 has been completed. So almost exactly 120 days by my count. And I'm even reasonably happy with my grades!

[jchcollins]

I am encouraged by the apparent consistency in SGC's recent turn times, and for the first time in 18 months, dropped off a small submission of 2 cards at the post office yesterday evening.

I walked away from them with my hands thrown up last March, not over turn times or grading harshness, but due to faulty inserts that had tiny plastic shards sticking out at random places right up against the edge of my cards. I had always said I would give SGC a second chance, but given how upset I was at the time it was going to have to be awhile. I did notice in recent months that at least one thing I had complained about - the corner cutouts on the black inserts - have been modified slightly to blunt the edge that formerly was right down against the card. No clue if my angry feedback in early 2021 played a role in that, but it seemed to me as if they were at least willing to listen to suggestions.

I am hopeful that the "harsh grading" trend doesn't hit me too hard, but felt I owed it to them to try again. I had been a big SGC fan in the past who got soured over the initial mismanagement of their backlog in the early pandemic, and then over my own situation. So we will see. Only one card is raw grading anyway, and it's fairly well centered (an aspect of grading that the ostensibly new graders during the pandemic seemed to have a hard time with...) The other is a reholder.

[jchcollins]

Quick update on my submission. Very pleased. Below is the timeline:

*Thursday, 9/1 - Submission entered / cards mailed priority.
*Tuesday, 9/6 - Cards officially received and logged by SGC. They had actually arrived Saturday, but then Monday was a holiday.
*Wednesday, 9/7 - Cards graded and status updated on the website.
*Thursday, 9/8 - Cards shipped, grades and images pop on the website.
*Saturday, 9/10 - Cards delivered to me via priority mail.

9 days total door to door, on an estimate of 20-25 business days. Not too shabby.

Again this was a very small order, only 2 cards - and one was a reholder - so that left me with only one card on which to judge current grading toughness. I had submitted this '59 Mantle, and was expecting it to get a 5 or a 5.5. It got a 5.5:



Can't complain. My budget is such that I'm just never going to spend a ton on grading, and I will always have more raw cards that would make good grading candidates - but in the end I'm not going to do it for all of them. I will slowly submit to SGC again, as long as their service remains this constant - for a few more of my cards I'd like to get in their holders.

[jimmer77]

Talk about fast...I submitted a 4 card submission last week. Mailed from Wisconsin on Monday 9/12, received at SGC on 9/15, post grading process on 9/16 and received notification that order had shipped today 9/19...unbelievable.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by jimmer77

Talk about fast...I submitted a 4 card submission last week. Mailed from Wisconsin on Monday 9/12, received at SGC on 9/15, post grading process on 9/16 and received notification that order had shipped today 9/19...unbelievable.

I got a comp, and so sent them an additional one card order after my post above. 7 days turn, door-to-door.