CSG/CGC is awesome

[GasHouseGang]

I've only got a couple of cards in their earliest type of holder. They look nice, but I didn't expect them to make me a lot of money. How can anyone hope to break the monopoly PSA has on grading cards? I think if some entity showed up with a good looking holder, established a registry, and used non-biased "machine grading" instead of human opinion, they might have a chance to become the new standard. Otherwise, I think people will continue to pay to have PSA grading and SGC will continue to be in second place.

[Zach Wheat]

It's also the crossover issue. Most non-PSA graded cards don't cross over to a comparable grade, imho. I recently attempted to cross over some graded cards from other companies and 2 were equivalent, with the rest an avg of 1.5-2 grades less.

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

It's also the crossover issue. Most non-PSA graded cards don't cross over to a comparable grade, imho. I recently attempted to cross over some graded cards from other companies and 2 were equivalent, with the rest an avg of 1.5-2 grades less.

In my experience they don't cross most of the time because they are held to a different standard. Which ultimately is why PSA and SGC cards sell for more(sometimes remarkably so) at an equivalent numeric grade. Differences between SGC and PSA are more complicated.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by hcv123

In my experience they don't cross most of the time because they are held to a different standard. Which ultimately is why PSA and SGC cards sell for more(sometimes remarkably so) at an equivalent numeric grade. Differences between SGC and PSA are more complicated.

Howard - are you talking about crossing in the slab?

What about cracking and submitting outside of the slab?

[bk400]

I personally find pretty good value as a collector in buying cards slabbed by CGC. They have a proper heritage as a grading company; they seem to know what they doing from a technical standpoint when it comes to grading sports cards; and the cards that I've purchased pass the eye test (under magnification).

If I can pick up cards that are graded highly by CGC that, as far as I can tell under magnification, look just as good as a similarly graded card from PSA, but at a deep discount, I'm happy. Granted, I'm not looking to sell those PC cards any time soon, if at all.

Also may help CGC that they have very deep pocketed, institutional owners/ partners:

https://www.blackstone.com/news/pres...bles-industry/

It would be very interesting for someone to run an experiment where they take 5 CGC 8s and 5 PSA 8s of the same card (like a popular recent vintage or early modern one like the 1979 Topps Ozzie Smith or the 1992 Mariano Rivera Bowman), crack them open, and ask 10 experienced collectors (armed with loupes) to RANK them from the finest to the weakest. Do the same experiment with 10 professional graders from PSA. My strong instinct is that the rankings would be essentially random.