Crossover Issue

[D. Bergin]

All you guys should just send your cards into PRO grading and get guaranteed 9's and 10's back.

[where the gold at?]

Why be mad at SGC when it is PSA who drastically overgrades in my opinion. I collect SGC cards ONLY....i have bought several PSA cards with hopes of crossing over to SGC only to be let down.......but the difference is that SGC grades accurately in my opinion and PSA over grades. So im not let down i just know this going forward and don't buy PSA unless im paying a real low number. Im sorry to here that you have been effected as you have by this company.
Hopefully this is a learning lesson for everybody.

[rman444]

Dan - first would like to say sorry about what happened. This situation would upset me as well.

However, I don't want to speak for SGC, but I just had a similar discussion with Michael at a show this weekend when we were discussing crossing over my PSA registered set. The impression that I got was that they could take a quick look at the set and give a rough estimate if the majority would cross in the same grade before they started cracking out cards and charging for the grading.

I would think that something like this could have been arranged for your set before any of your cards were cracked out and you were charged any fees. If their initial assessment was that roughly half of your cards were clearly not close enough to make the grade, you could have kept them all in the PSA holders without any damage to your wallet. And, as previously mentioned, SGC doesn't really have any motive to not get cards out of PSA holders. They want as many cards in their holders as possible, but if they don't make the grade, it is probably because they truly don't believe that the condition warrants it.

[barrysloate]

It's unfortunate that the grading standards differ from one company to the next. It would be good for the marketplace if all the major grading companies used the same criteria, but they compete fiercely for market share and I doubt they would ever have a summit to work this out.

I also find it interesting that the majority of posters believe PSA cards sell for more than SGC cards, while just as many believe that SGC cards are more strictly graded. That would suggest given a PSA 5 or an SGC 60, the SGC card should sell for more. But the fact is it probably sells for less.

[botn]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

It's unfortunate that the grading standards differ from one company to the next. It would be good for the marketplace if all the major grading companies used the same criteria, but they compete fiercely for market share and I doubt they would ever have a summit to work this out.

No two graders at a given grading company grade the same all the time. That is an inherent flaw in grading.

I also find it interesting that the majority of posters believe PSA cards sell for more than SGC cards, while just as many believe that SGC cards are more strictly graded. That would suggest given a PSA 5 or an SGC 60, the SGC card should sell for more. But the fact is it probably sells for less.

You are failing to factor in the PSA advantage--their set registry.

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

That would suggest given a PSA 5 or an SGC 60, the SGC card should sell for more. But the fact is it probably sells for less.

I would think that a good amount of truth in that comes down to registry purposes. When I see a dinged up PSA 5 outsell a good looking SGC 60 that is usually the first thing that comes to mind.

[GrayGhost]

Well, unless you have an inherent need to have such an amazing set, does it really make ALL that much difference when you have the means to own quality cards like these? Now, if I had a Wagner or a big dollar card, I could see the real concern.

That said, as it apparently does matter a lot to Mr Collins, Im sorry he lost the money in "book value" too, and any additional grading fees. Still, he probably will still have a bunch of really nice cards too, which some of us wish we had too.

Its a shame so much of this is "financially motivated", and you guys just sometimes can't enjoy owning quality cards, and are more worried about grading greed w the companies, etc. , the value based on a small grading difference, etc.

[glchen]

I think I agree w/ most posters on this board in that Dan made a huge mistake in not putting min grade for crossover. It will be good luck for going back to PSA because I've read threads on the Collectors saying that PSA gives different grades depending on which day of the week they process the cards. The only mistake I could see from SGC, and this is could be debateable, is that Dan did meet with Brian at SGC. Brian could have looked at the submission sheet, and warned him the he should put minimum grades for crossovers.

Minimum grades for crossovers is absolutely required. I did not have a minimum grade for a crossover once, and that was only because the card (cheap Pedro Martinez RC) was in a GEM holder. (Yes, and graded GEM10, which I am not really expecting it to come back as.) Otherwise, you have to give minimum grade. There is simply too much danger the card will come back as altered, lowered, etc. This past weekend, I dropped off a submission to SGC at the SF Card Show. I had 3 cards for crossovers, 2 GAI and 1 BVG. I put minimum grades for each of these. For one of them, Erving RC, I was fairly skeptical it would crossover, and I had Michael from SGC look at the card, he told me it was possible, so I submitted it anyway. However, Michael gave me plenty of warning that he wasn't a grader, so I made sure that I had put a minimum crossover grade anyway. I think that the rule of thumb pretty much is if you want all of your cards in one holder, it's almost better to sell your cards in the different holder, and buy the cards in the holder you want. That's what I'm planning on doing if my GAI cards don't cross.

About Brian should have warned Dan as a courtesy, I'm just saying that because Michael had checked that for me when he reviewed my submission. Michael also told me my declared values were probably too low, so it would be bad if my package got lost or damaged in the mail coming back. Saying this, I'm obviously biased towards SGC. I really think their customer service is great, and I've spoken with Brian on the phone too, who is really nice. I think Dan made a mistake here which is very unfortunate. I understand why he's pissed. He'll have to spend untold hours of time getting this fixed and obviously significant amounts of money.