Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Klein
I believe in this situation. since CSG is already considered a top 4 grading company, getting this Mantle into their holder is going to give them the positive publicity and more of the higher dollar cards. Thus, I do agree with Leon in his supposition
But, on an historical level, I start thinking of the SCD red holders when they graded a whole bunch (and very well) of Larry Fritsch's cards including his T206 Wagner. Yet, despite how well they graded cards (and they did so in the red holder days), SCD could never get any foothold into the graded card market. And when they started SCD grading, Krause was still a very important figure in the sports card collecting world.
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Very good points and logic Rich.
CSG has/had a definite advantage over SCD in entering the TPG card industry, just by the simple fact they are a division of a bigger company, Certified Collectibles Group (CCG) that is/was already a recognized world leader in the grading and conservation of other collectibles, such as currency and comic books, through their other divisions including NGC, NCS, PMG, CGC, CCS, ASG, and CAG. That alone gave CSG a certain level of credibility to many hobbyists right out of the gate that SCD card grading never had. And then to top that off by the further reinforcement of their financial backing and wherewithal with the acquisition of a majority interest of the CCG parent company by the Blackstone investment firms Tactical Opportunities business group just a year or so ago. In other words, CSG isn't going anywhere and is in the TPG card business for the long haul.
And unlike SCD, as you pointed out, not really doing anything big or grand to help promote their company and service, CSG somehow was able to negotiate and land the job of being Ebay's third-party authenticator of raw cards for their recently commenced card Authenticity Guarantee (AG) program. And since Ebay is arguably the largest online (or any) market for card sales in the world, CSG's selection to provide that AG program service for them is a huge boost to CSG's position and credibility in the TPG card industry throughout the entire hobby community. Though I have no specific information or evidence to back it up, I've wondered if the not long after addition to that AG program to also start looking at already graded and slabbed cards for possible tampering or other issues, which ended up going to PSA, may not have been heavily pushed (and maybe even the original idea marketed) to Ebay by PSA. Possibly in response to CSG landing the original AG service with Ebay, and PSA not wanting to possibly be viewed as being trumped by CSG somehow.
And then not long after their new Ebay gig, it was also announced that CSG agreed to work in some type of partnership arrangement with PWCC. And though PWCC does not have the best reputation in the hobby and is still supposedly under investigation by the FBI, I immediately recognized that as a somewhat good business decision by CSG in an effort to further promote and expand their TPG card business. Something SCD wasn't able to do as well. And despite PWCC's tainted reputation, they still seem to handle a significant amount of business in the hobby and maintain a large, and seemingly happy, customer base. And in CSG's decision to work with them, what's the old saying, "There is no such thing as bad publicity".
A while back in a different thread started not long after CSG's agreement to work was announced, I tried to get a civilized conversation going about CSG entering the TPG card business and how their history and promotion to that point seemed very positive and smart from a business standpoint. Also how they may be able to better compete against PSA and actually give them competition and a run for their money. As you can probably guess though, almost immediately the usual suspects, trolls, and naysayers jumped in on how terrible CSG was, and how they'd never do business with CSG because of that, and yadda, yadda, yadda. And of course, when I tried to push back and asked things like if that meant they were no longer going to do business with any other TPGs as well (since to my knowledge PWCC has likely done business with all the other TPGs, and may still be doing so as far as I know), or that they'd no longer work with or use any other businesses or people that dared to work with or for PWCC...........well I'll leave it to your imagination how I got attacked and vilified, or ignored simply because they didn't want to answer any questions and possibly show how bad or warped their logic and thinking was.
Maybe after all the time that has now passed, the topic of CSG's place and potential future in the hobby can be discussed sans the trolls and naysayers. For example, from a recent thread showing how many cards the big four card TPGs had graded that particular month, it was clearly obvious that though way behind PSA, CSG was clearly #2 on the list. And then there was further discussion in other threads about how SGC's almost zero turnaround time may be a bad sign for them, and how possibly it could lead to them being bought out. I had mentioned before then how it actually might make perfect sense for CSG's parent company to go after and try to acquire SGC as another division of their overall business. Both companies could likely benefit through a sharing of their knowledge and resources, and it would make their combined hobby footprint and presence even bigger and likely better able to compete against PSA. For example, CSG has a Registry, but they are too new and have not graded enough cards as of yet to give them anywhere the reach and impact PSA's registry has. But bring SGC into the fold and incorporate all of their cards in a combined registry, and now you've dramatically changed the story. And both companies are actually headquartered and operate out of Florida. And Rich, my apologies if you already knew most/all of this. But I assume there will often be others reading these posts that don't have the same background, knowledge and experience that you do. This way they can better follow along, and the more knowledge the better usually.
10-23-2022, 07:29 AM
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