Do you care about the authenticity guaranty provided by grading companies?

[jchcollins]

Yes, ironically SGC is the only one with "Guarantee" actually in their name. I think they had something on paper back in the 90's and early 2000's, but Peter is right - it's long gone now.

I voted that it's not important to me either. Slabs are for the most part nice holders that come with an opinion. They sell for more because of the opinion, but people need to realize how much it's really just an opinion, and not the end-all, be-all pronouncement of your card's worth forevermore.

[Johnny630]

Grading love it or hate it has all made us more wealthy over the years...in my opinion it's what brought the big time investor's and spenders into this Hobby.

Guaranty or Not is theoretically meaningless once it's in a holder.

Pop and Registry are universally known by all the buyers/investors.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Yes, ironically SGC is the only one with "Guarantee" actually in their name. I think they had something on paper back in the 90's and early 2000's, but Peter is right - it's long gone now.

I voted that it's not important to me either. Slabs are for the most part nice holders that come with an opinion. They sell for more because of the opinion, but people need to realize how much it's really just an opinion, and not the end-all, be-all pronouncement of your card's worth forevermore.

It was on the website until the early days of the "Scandal" when they took it down and it never reappeared. Although I'm still waiting, I asked Peter Steinberg about it when it was taken down (2020 probably) and he said they had only taken it down to tweak the language and it would be back up within days.

[G1911]

Hopefully the Sportscard Guaranty Corporation is better at certifying real cards than they were at autographs since they have no guaranty whatsoever (if you call a place a democratic peoples republic, then it is one right?).

My selective experience cracking cards out of slabs is that none of the firms are good at detecting alterations or trimming in the area I collect, rarely certifying an outright fake though (the Dover CJ Mack being the funniest example to me). SGC's grading seems the most random to me - I once discovered a Red Sun I freed from a 3.5 SGC slab had no less than 14 distinct creases in the stock. BCCG was the scammiest of the 'respected' firms grading.

I understand slabbing a card one is about to sell because $$$, but I will never get it for any other purpose.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I think it's just called SGC now, they no longer use the full name which would be inaccurate.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I think it's just called SGC now, they no longer use the full name which would be inaccurate.

I know they abandoned the full name in their marketing and customer facing materials, but we all know exactly what it stands for and the business was registered as and acknowledged for many years.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It was on the website until the early days of the "Scandal" when they took it down and it never reappeared. Although I'm still waiting, I asked Peter Steinberg about it when it was taken down (2020 probably) and he said they had only taken it down to tweak the language and it would be back up within days.

Interesting. It was up for longer than I thought, then. One would think that now that SGC is under the parent of Collectors, they might extend the same guarantee as PSA has. But that might be wishful thinking.

Back to the overall of this entire subject - I'd be interested to know how many hardcore vintage collectors now are subbing for review their slabs from the 90's and early 2000's, with a lot of cards that would be 3's today in 5 holders. And if so, is PSA downgrading them appropriately and paying them out? We don't seem to hear a ton of stories like that. I know people love to reholder and make old certs that start with 0's look fresh again in the Lighthouse holders - but when people do this are they taking advantage of the guarantee?

[parkplace33]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Interesting. It was up for longer than I thought, then. One would think that now that SGC is under the parent of Collectors, they might extend the same guarantee as PSA has. But that might be wishful thinking.

Back to the overall of this entire subject - I'd be interested to know how many hardcore vintage collectors now are subbing for review their slabs from the 90's and early 2000's, with a lot of cards that would be 3's today in 5 holders. And if so, is PSA downgrading them appropriately and paying them out? We don't seem to hear a ton of stories like that. I know people love to reholder and make old certs that start with 0's look fresh again in the Lighthouse holders - but when people do this are they taking advantage of the guarantee?

I know of at least two recent examples where the cards were downgraded. Not in review but just to reholder. And there was no damage to the slabs.

I would be wary when thinking about reholdering (especially older slabs or overgraded cards). 99 percent of the time its fine, but why chance it?

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by parkplace33

I know of at least two recent examples where the cards were downgraded. Not in review but just to reholder. And there was no damage to the slabs.

I would be wary when thinking about reholdering (especially older slabs or overgraded cards). 99 percent of the time its fine, but why chance it?

I've heard the same stories about our friends at PSA. If they bump your grade on a straight reholder, they need to be paying out under the guarantee. That's BS.

A few years ago I sent an ancient slab back to SGC for a reholder; a '61 Mantle #300 in a 5.5. I looked up the cert on their website and it had been graded more than 20 years ago. All things considered I still agreed with the grade, but you never know, right?

They reholdered it a 5.5 with no questions asked and had it back to me in about 2 weeks. I wonder if PSA would have done the same.

Interestingly enough, from back when Beckett briefly did subgrades for vintage - I have a really nice '69 Reggie RC in a 4.5. When I went to lookup the cert recently, it was nowhere to be found - did not exist in their database. More out of pure curiosity than anything else, I called up Beckett. Their line was that the slab was "so old" (it was from probably 2002 to '05...) that the standards were different, and they could not stand behind the slab. I said ok, well - that makes sense. So if I send this back to you, you'll regrade it and get it back to me for free, right? Nope. They wanted me to do the entire thing on my dime. Uh, no thanks. If I wanted it in a different holder, I'd pay $15 to SGC and have it back in a matter of days. As is I like the BVG subgrades, and the holder it's in - despite the apparent age - is in really good shape, so I'm just going to leave it like that, LOL. In it's "invalid" holder...

[Johnny630]

If you have a big card that looks less than what say a 8 would grade now vs then I wouldn’t roll the dice let it be….if your not happy with your card move it through and auction house and be done. If you’re happy leave it as is and rest easy.