SGC and Postwar Cards

[glchen]

One reason is the PSA Set Registry, for which PSA has a stranglehold over. SGC does not match up as well. And it's a vicious cycle. Set collectors often like the same holders, so they want all of a particular set to be from the same TPG. Since there are a lot more cards avail in PSA holders, they prefer to buy PSA cards, which gives PSA cards a premium pricing over SGC, so more people want to encapsulate in PSA holders and so continues the cycle. Other things that PSA does better, the half point system is better, the 1-10 is less confusing than the 10-100 (even though SGC does have mappings). Finally, modern collectors tend to be stricter towards centering. Since modern cards are generally in much better condition on the high scale than pre-war cards, centering rises in importance, and can be one of the most important criteria for collectors. PSA is stricter on the high end for centering than SGC is, so an SGC "8" does not map to a PSA 8 if the centering isn't there.

SGC does have a number of advantages, otherwise, they'd be like the outcast GAI right now. They've built a very nice niche in pre-war cards, so in many sets, there are many more cards encapsulated in SGC than PSA. They've been the first TPG to encapsulate many of the prewar sets, especially postcards. And as before, once they've built these advantages in prewar, they've held onto them pretty well, so that collectors with prewar cards tend to go with SGC more often. In addition, cards tend to look better in the SGC holder with the black background, SGC does not require a yearly membership fee, the turnaround time is generally much faster, and the fees tend to be slightly cheaper. Finally, a lot of collectors simply do not like PSA for various reasons, and with SGC's superior customer service, that draws in a lot of long time collectors and their cards.