New to grading, question...

[Jesse W]

Hello, I've recently rediscovered the joy of baseball cards. What a learning curve since I last collected in the mid 80's. I was heartbroken when I went into the Navy in 1986 and my dad gave all my cards to his new wife's kids. I had a complete set of every Topps set from 1976 through 1985. Some cases, multiple sets and tons of extras. They were in great condition. Straight into what we called "cheese boxes" then. Anyway...

I just started again in 2019. I've had one experience with grading and it was a negative one, with Beckett. Is there really a big difference between the companies, or is it just preference? I've noticed in my research that the sell difference between graded and non-graded was vast. I've got a lot of great cards I want to get graded and slabbed, but trying to figure the pricing of these companies is frustrating. Is there a respected graded service that will give a discount for more cards? I want to get them done but don't want to take out a second mortgage. Any strategies or suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[swarmee]

Do a google search for "site:net54baseball.com PSA BGS SGC" and click on some of the links there. The search function on this site is terrible.

Based on COVID and the new money coming into the hobby the last few years, all grading companies are slammed. SGC seems to be currently handling it the best, by increasing and decreasing their prices based on demand. The most corrupt while simultaneously being the must trusted grading company, PSA, currently is so backlogged (to the tune of like 5 million cards in their warehouse waiting to be graded) that it currently costs $200/card to submit to them.

And before you sink a ton of money into grading cards, especially if you're going to be collecting them rather than flipping them, read as many of these links as you can:
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1298835
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1297767

[53toppscollector]

Here is the very short summary:

PSA = cards generally carry the highest resale value. Slab looks okay, wait times are horrendous and the cost is extremely prohibitive. They've been caught up in the trimming debacle in the last few years

SGC = some people love the slab, others hate it. For cards with a white border it looks great. The flip is meh. They currently have by far the best turnaround times and cost and are well respected for vintage, especially pre-war

BGS = massive delays, and their grading for vintage stuff is poor, IMO. They are still the gold standard for autos and RPAs, if you are into that kind of stuff

CSG = new to sports card grading, but a good rep for grading other collectibles. I personally hate the way their slabs look, and their resale value lags well behind PSA

HGA = their flips are all over the map, and there have been major questions raised about their QC processes and grading overall. I'd steer clear.

[Snowman]

SGC is by far your best option right now unless you're looking to grade modern cards that are worth ~$3000 or more, in which case you're probably better off going with PSA. You can grade with SGC for about $30 per card and with PSA for about $200. If you feel like you're on the fence over which one of these two to use, you might want to look up ebay sales of your card in both slabs to see what they sell for in similar grades.

As far as what grades to expect, PSA and SGC will generally give you very similar grades. The primary difference is with 9s and above. SGC has a 9 Mint, a 9.5 Mint+, a 10 Gem Mint, and a 10 Gold Label Pristine whereas PSA only has a 9 Mint and a 10 Gem Mint. So as you'd expect, some PSA 9s might get SGC 9.5s which often outsell a PSA 9. But these are subtle nuances that you probably shouldn't worry too much about until after you figure out how grading works and what grades to expect. It takes time and extreme attention to detail (and the right tools) to be able to identify what sort of flaws they're looking for. People who are new to grading are often very frustrated because they send in cards expecting 9s and 10s and they come back as 7s or 8s. Many flaws that cause a card to get a 9 instead of a 10 often can't be seen without 10x magnification.

Once you get all that stuff figured out, then it's also worth learning about the differences of how each company grades cards. PSA is much more strict on corners than BGS, and BGS is much more strict on centering than PSA. SGC is more closely aligned with PSA's grading standards (although just sliiiiightly more laxed on 10s in my experience) while CSG is more closely aligned with BGS standards.

Whatever you do though, I definitely would not send anything to HGA. They're a joke.

[Jesse W]

Hey goys, thanks for all the great info! The changes to this hobby in 30 years is insane! I feel better equipped going forward.