New to grading: PSA vs. SGC vs. CGC vs BGS

[kosmo886]

I’ve never graded before. Looking to get some 2024 NFL Prizms graded. Likely for re-sale down the line. I don’t love the price or turnaround time for PSA but know they are most respected. Is there any data on difference in resale across grading services and/or which might be best to go with. Thanks

[Dereth]

Grading isn't complicated at all. If you want to grade for resale, then grade with PSA. That's it, that's all that you need to know.

[KGD54]

Originally Posted by Dereth

Grading isn't complicated at all. If you want to grade for resale, then grade with PSA. That's it, that's all that you need to know.

Agreed. All the data especially on ultra modern says PSA is really your own option. Really just PSA 10 is your only option as 9s are selling for less than raw in some cases and CGC and SGC 10's are not getting the premium psa 10's receive.

[Turnitin2004]

Originally Posted by Dereth

Grading isn't complicated at all. If you want to grade for resale, then grade with PSA. That's it, that's all that you need to know.

What about for cards from the 90s that are gonna get 7’s-9’s?

[Gary]

Originally Posted by Turnitin2004

What about for cards from the 90s that are gonna get 7’s-9’s?

Same answer.until you hit vintage where SGC comes in as an option.sadly its PSA and i say this as not a fan of PSA just a reality.now as SGC and PSA are both owned by CU not even sure it matters anymore.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Gary

Same answer.until you hit vintage where SGC comes in as an option.sadly its PSA and i say this as not a fan of PSA just a reality.now as SGC and PSA are both owned by CU not even sure it matters anymore.

Higher grade vintage should still go to PSA, but SGC is an option in mid to low grade.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Turnitin2004

What about for cards from the 90s that are gonna get 7’s-9’s?

Still PSA. Like I said, it's not at all complicated.

[Turnitin2004]

Originally Posted by Dereth

Still PSA. Like I said, it's not at all complicated.

That seems crazy to me consiserjng the turn around time especially if you can spend 15$ to grade vs 200.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Turnitin2004

That seems crazy to me consiserjng the turn around time especially if you can spend 15$ to grade vs 200.

Turnaround time has absolutely nothing to do with how much that the market is willing to pay for a card.

[Turnitin2004]

Originally Posted by Dereth

Turnaround time has absolutely nothing to do with how much that the market is willing to pay for a card.

For ultra modern stuff that just came out it does. But even ignoring that. Assuming we trust each company does a good job the price difference itself is just crazy.

[YeahBuddy]

I send to CGC and PSA only.

One has the best slab, better turn around time, and if the right cards, sells fine.
The other sells higher consistently, takes longer, and has a cool grade reveal feature.

Pick your Poison.

[discodanman45]

Unless you get a lenient grader at PSA and they give a high percentage of 10's, the best option is to sell the cards raw. It is playing the grader lotto and if you get the Grader Of Death you just paid PSA $25 per card to try again. PSA also damaged three of my cards the last submission, bending corners. Never will trust them again.

[DKsportscardsWI]

PSA for modern will have the highest premium if comparing 10s to 10s. But an SGC 10 will sell for more than a psa 9, an SGC 10 is easier to receive than a PSA 10, SGC costs $15 vs $18-$250+ at PSA to grade, and SGC is about two weeks to grade vs 2-3 months for psa for the lower service levels. SOOOO there definitely is a use case for submitting to SGC for ultra modern cards. Ex: card has minor imperfections, and the season is coming to a close, so you need cards back quickly. Spending the $15 to get it back in two weeks to sell at 80% of a psa 10 price, vs waiting months and the season is over and the market drops 30% and it costs $25...just one example and my two cents. If you can wait, go psa. if you cant wait, SGC is a good flipping option if getting 10s. Vintage can go to psa or sgc. Some SGC is equal value to psa.

Beckett, I like their cases and have many BGS cards, are really failing in the market. I do not submit with them anymore because people do not want them. on the whole.

CGC is great for pokemon. on the whole, people do not send many sports cards to them outside of avid supporters of CGC.

[Scottish Punk]

That damage is likely caused by a machine. My guess is the requirement of card savers is so they can automate, the scanning, photo process. Maybe those three got banged up against during of those processes. Price of doing business when trying to grade 1.3 million per month. Robots will do more and more of the moving cards from station to station.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Turnitin2004

For ultra modern stuff that just came out it does. But even ignoring that. Assuming we trust each company does a good job the price difference itself is just crazy.

People who push SGC like to talk about this difference that turnaround times make, and I get the reasoning behind it, but I don't think that the situations where it might be valid are consistent or easy to take advantage of. Yes you may get cards back 2-4 weeks faster, but people are not going to pay up for SGC slabs. There will be PSA slabs of the same cards available to comp with from people sending them in via quicker tiers, and they will always expect a significant discount compared to what the PSA cards are selling for.

If you're stubborn and hold the line on the price that you want, you'll quickly find your SGC card picking up less and less interest as PSA orders start landing that have copies of the card in them.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Dereth

People who push SGC like to talk about this difference that turnaround times make, and I get the reasoning behind it, but I don't think that the situations where it might be valid are consistent or easy to take advantage of. Yes you may get cards back 2-4 weeks faster, but people are not going to pay up for SGC slabs. There will be PSA slabs of the same cards available to comp with from people sending them in via quicker tiers, and they will always expect a significant discount compared to what the PSA cards are selling for.

If you're stubborn and hold the line on the price that you want, you'll quickly find your SGC card picking up less and less interest as PSA orders start landing that have copies of the card in them.

I use SGC for vintage, and PSA for cards I want to sell (or cards that have autos and I want PSA/DNA for my collection.)

But in terms of turnaround times, I think you're only presenting half of the glass in your scenario. First, that isn't the case with vintage. Also, it's not just that you get your cards back in two weeks with SGC, the flip side is that it takes three months to get your cards back from PSA before you find out they were graded horribly and inconsistently. So if you crack and resub to PSA, that's another three month wait to see if you get the bad inconsistent grader again that doesn't understand 1980s O-Pee-Chee cards, 1990s USFL cards, or whatever. So you can have an incorrect PSA 6 or a correct SGC 8 of the same card, and it's not a direct apples-to-apples comparison.

At least, that's what I've noticed in my grading history. I can't grade vintage with PSA anymore. To inconsistent and frankly, ridiculous grades. Hard pass.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by inaka

I use SGC for vintage, and PSA for cards I want to sell (or cards that have autos and I want PSA/DNA for my collection.)

But in terms of turnaround times, I think you're only presenting half of the glass in your scenario. First, that isn't the case with vintage. Also, it's not just that you get your cards back in two weeks with SGC, the flip side is that it takes three months to get your cards back from PSA before you find out they were graded horribly and inconsistently. So if you crack and resub to PSA, that's another three month wait to see if you get the bad inconsistent grader again that doesn't understand 1980s O-Pee-Chee cards, 1990s USFL cards, or whatever. So you can have an incorrect PSA 6 or a correct SGC 8 of the same card, and it's not a direct apples-to-apples comparison.

At least, that's what I've noticed in my grading history. I can't grade vintage with PSA anymore. To inconsistent and frankly, ridiculous grades. Hard pass.

You're talking about a completely different scenario than what I replied to. I replied to someone that was:

1. Talking about ultra modern cards.
2. Talking about using the faster turnaround time to try and take advantage of the high initial values when cards are first released.

Neither is relevant to what you posted since you're talking about cards that have been out for decades and that have values that are more stable.

Also, there weren't USFL cards in the 1990s that I'm aware of. The USFL didn't even exist in the 1990s.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Dereth

You're talking about a completely different scenario than what I replied to. I replied to someone that was:

1. Talking about ultra modern cards.
2. Talking about using the faster turnaround time to try and take advantage of the high initial values when cards are first released.

Neither is relevant to what you posted since you're talking about cards that have been out for decades and that have values that are more stable.

Also, there weren't USFL cards in the 1990s that I'm aware of. The USFL didn't even exist in the 1990s.

Yes, I was talking about vintage.

I'm just commenting on this because your first reply to the OP said "Grading isn't complicated at all. If you want to grade for resale, then grade with PSA. That's it, that's all that you need to know."

And then you followed up with saying that your rule still applies even when people grade 90s cards that are gonna get PSA 7’s-9’s. No, it doesn't. If those PSA 7s, are actually really supposed to be 9s and 10s from other grading companies, then your rule doesn't apply at all. That's silly.

If you were only talking exclusively about ultra modern, then my apologies, but it's weird you said this applied to 90s cards that are getting absolutely hammered by PSA now, ridiculously so. That's a bad take if you think PSA is the way to go on 80s and 90s cards right now. They're getting hammered, and taking three months to find out you got blasted on an order.

[Gary]

Originally Posted by Dereth

Higher grade vintage should still go to PSA, but SGC is an option in mid to low grade.

Disagree...sold many 8-9s same price as PSA...may take longer but they sell...and with all the trimmed/alt PSA high grade out there....

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by inaka

Yes, I was talking about vintage.

I'm just commenting on this because your first reply to the OP said "Grading isn't complicated at all. If you want to grade for resale, then grade with PSA. That's it, that's all that you need to know."

And then you followed up with saying that your rule still applies even when people grade 90s cards that are gonna get PSA 7’s-9’s. No, it doesn't. If those PSA 7s, are actually really supposed to be 9s and 10s from other grading companies, then your rule doesn't apply at all. That's silly.

If you were only talking exclusively about ultra modern, then my apologies, but it's weird you said this applied to 90s cards that are getting absolutely hammered by PSA now, ridiculously so. That's a bad take if you think PSA is the way to go on 80s and 90s cards right now. They're getting hammered, and taking three months to find out you got blasted on an order.

I don’t really believe that there are a lot of PSA7 slabs out there that would regrade to 9’s and 10’s with other companies. Can it happen? Sure. Does it happen with regularity? I’m not buying that.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Gary

Disagree...sold many 8-9s same price as PSA...may take longer but they sell...and with all the trimmed/alt PSA high grade out there....

I see SGC shills make this claim but I have never once seen any of them offer any proof. Assuming that it is true, I would suspect that since they’re 8-9 grades, they’re being purchased to try and crack and resub to PSA to try and get a grade bump.

[Woodsy074]

Originally Posted by kosmo886

I’ve never graded before. Looking to get some 2024 NFL Prizms graded. Likely for re-sale down the line. I don’t love the price or turnaround time for PSA but know they are most respected. Is there any data on difference in resale across grading services and/or which might be best to go with. Thanks

Don't bother grading 2024 Prizm and sell them raw. Panini really didn't care and the QC was garbage. Most cards have surface issues and dinged corners straight from the pack.

[Gary]

Originally Posted by Dereth

I see SGC shills make this claim but I have never once seen any of them offer any proof. Assuming that it is true, I would suspect that since they’re 8-9 grades, they’re being purchased to try and crack and resub to PSA to try and get a grade bump.

No idea why they sell,i just know what my selling experience is,im no shill for any company,Ive used PSA.SGC.Beckett.What i do see is PSA only guys get real nervous when anyone even hints that any other grader can be an option.

You a vintage collector?I ask as my post was about vintage.

[tconte]

SGC just as good as PSA with many issues. They are really the only two options
for sports card grading, especially vintage.

[Dereth]

Originally Posted by Gary

No idea why they sell,i just know what my selling experience is,im no shill for any company,Ive used PSA.SGC.Beckett.What i do see is PSA only guys get real nervous when anyone even hints that any other grader can be an option.

You a vintage collector?I ask as my post was about vintage.

My replies in this thread have been about modern cards, not vintage. Vintage is a different story because there's more nuance and eye appeal plays a much bigger part in sales and values. I don't consider 80's and 90's to be vintage either.