Grading Companies (Overview & Opinions)

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Posted By: Peter

1.) I've only just started buying graded cards, and mostly for Tobacco-sized cards, but I find I've been buying SGC primarily. It just seems that with some of the more oddball stuff (European tobacco, soccer/track cards, etc.) is SGC graded, and it seems to go a little cheaper than similar grades for PSA. But that just may be my limited anecdotal experience or due to the lack of PSA cards driving PSA prices up.

2.) PSA seems to have better resale, but I've never sold any myself.

3.) Like any other trend or fad, it has its positives and negatives. Positives are that it gives hobbyists some agreed upon, presumably objective and competent arbiters of authenticity. Is every card they grade legit? No, but as with the current card companies' certified autograph programs, it's as close to knowing the card is authentic as you are going to get.

4.) I'm not an advanced or rich enough collector to go after the really high-end stuff. High-end is what it is, the high-end. Would love to own some high-end stuff but will settle for a few nice mid-range cards in its place.

5.) Not about the resale for me. But after getting back into the vintage market I noticed that a) in looking at my old vintage stuff, there were a lot of subtle hairline creases, dents, nicks, and spots that I never really looked for, b) haven't been collecting vintage long enough to be able to spot the good fakes or trim jobs (the obvious ones I'm OK with spotting), and c) being burned a couple times on eBay where seemingly Near Mint cards (from the scan and a seller's description) showed up at my house with subtle hairline creases. Whether it was dishonesty or oversight by the sellers, or damage during shipping, I'd rather go graded.

That said, I'm not one of those folks that use the grade as a crutch. I've seen 70s from SGC that are 95-5 left-right and I've seen PSA 4s that look as good as PSA 6s. I always look at the scans or the cards carefully now, make sure there's no creases (my main sticking point) or holes or markings that are being glossed over. I'll take a PSA 3 with great eye appeal and no creases over a SGC 70 that's got 99-1 centering.

6.) PRO! Everything's a 10 with them. At least they're consistent.


7.) Dunno.

8.) Here to stay. It's its own little niche now. I'm guessing modern grading may decrease since it's being overused and in doing so, prices are falling (I remember when the 1993 SP Jeter was something like $10,000 in PSA 10, it's maybe 1/5 of that now), reducing the allure. It won't explode again unless there's some new innovation, and I really can't imagine what that possibly could be.