SGC vs. PSA vs. BVG for card grading
 

I know this has been beat to death in numerous threads in the past, but it seems like it has always been over a matter of grading cost or resale value, etc. For simplicity sake lets use a few assumptions about my Private Collection -
1. These cards will never be sold out of this PC, upon my death, they will be buried with me, so my kids don't have to worry about inheriting them!
2. The cost of grading per card is not an issue - I have a money tree in my back yard so the cost of grading should not even be considered.

My question is simply this - I have a collection of cards that I would like to have accurately and consistently graded for protection of the card and display purposes, which company is going to give me the most industry standard accurate grade and most consistently graded collection of cards over my entire collection ranging from T206 cards to Present Day cards?

I own cards that have been graded by all three grading companies and have seen cards graded by all three of them that I disagree with the grading on both higher and lower (and yes I realize card grading is very subjective). Maybe I'm asking for too much in being able to use 1 company to grade both vintage and modern cards consistently & accurately.

I do hope this thread does not digress into PSA cards worth more than SGC & BVG cards in holders (that is not the answer that I am seeking). I just want to know when you sit down and randomly grab a card out of your own collection, which holder you want your own card in, to know with a higher degree of accuracy that it is an accurately graded card.


Thanks in advance for your input!

Grading
 

Great question. All things being equal....just go with the holder you like the best. I tend to like all of my pre-war in SGC holders and my newer stuff in PSA. I really like the black background of SGC on T206s/Goudeys as opposed to the frosted or clear plastic on PSA. The colors look really sharp.

It is all personal preference and if you like to display them. I only grade with PSA/SGC.


Gary.

Personally I have noticed that PSA sells for about 25% more than SGC when it comes to buying graded cards so for investment purposes you may wanna go with PSA, however I have to agree with Gary that the SGC cases are just beautiful!!

Beckett slabs are bullet proof. Best protection offered for your cards. I have the 5th and 7th cards Beckett ever graded and to this day they look like they just came back from getting graded.

SGC has in my opinion by far the nicest looking cases and if I get anything graded for my personal keep for life collection it is SGC without question. I also think they do the best job at grading a card.

PSA has an amazing registry.

My $.02

On aesthetics alone its SGC hands down. You could put a 2015 scrub player in an SGC holder and it looks impressive. Has a little weight to it; framed lovely, and seems as secure as secure can be. Facts are facts. I recently published a very high end (to me) card, and it came in a PSA holder. Might be better for investment purposes but I think the holder looks cheap and denigrates the presentation of the card.

Beckett gives the most accurate grading . Obviously they tell you the condition break down . The case is solid and stackable . Over the years they have gotten much better with vintage . Most people don't like them because they are unforgiving . Everyone wants there card to get a better grade . So my vote is for BGS .

While PSA has the least attractive case, they have the strictest grading standards. This is not to say they don't make mistakes. But I find them to be the toughest graders and also the most consistent, as much as a grading company can be considered consistent.

I guess people have forgotten the SGC damaged cards problems last year where their pretty black gaskets were coming apart and cards were getting stuck between them, damaging the surface?

And BVG stopped providing the subgrades, but are more forgiving on OC and MC and MK and OF than getting the PSA code added.

I like PSA, but I'm not sure they're the right answer for most often grading the card at the most accurate levels.

I guess if money was no object, I would damage brand new (MT) cards in the same ways and submit them to each service to run a test on their services. If every one denotes the card with a pinhole as a 1, and a light scratch as a 7, and a heavy crease as a 2, and a surface wrinkle as a 5, and a light corner ding as an 8/8.5, then it wouldn't really matter.

I guess if I didn't care whether or not the cards graded a certain way or wanted them to appraise higher, why get them graded at all?

I've only sent in 15 or 20 cards for grading, all to PSA, because I got a Christmas present of a membership 10 years ago, and used my free subs.

If I ever decide to sell my collection, I'd send the post war Hall of Famers to PSA that are higher grade, just because of the registry so they get a higher price.

I don't know what company I'd use for the pre war cards.

My guess is that they all do about the same job, accurate 98% of the time, with slightly varying standards regarding centering, paper loss, etc...

In my opinion, there is literally no right or wrong answer to the question. All three companies are highly regarded, and all three have made huge mistakes in the past. If it really boils down to accurate grading and long term protection follow the guidance given above and pick the most aesthetically pleasing holder of the three. It's not the prettiest answer, but fairly accurate.

In My limited experience

PSA-If you want the highest value
SGC-If you want the highest grade
BVG- If you want the highest weight, to clunk someone over the head

I rate the companies
 

#1 PSA



#2 SGC














#3 by a large margin BGS/BVG

SGC holders, in my experience, almost always arrive badly scratched. PSA, rarely, and very easy to polish out with Novus 2. I have almost never reholdered a PSA card but have reholdered a high percentage of SGC cards purchased on the market cause I hate the scratches, little chips under the surface that reflect, etc.

ok here's the deal, with the typical talk of accuracy and value aside since that's been talked to death...sgc and psa have their own sets of grading standard that differs from each other (i'm not going to count beckett because in my mind they are still not very competent with pre/postwar).

if your corners are one way you should be going with one company to max the grade. if you have paper loss or slight wrinkle or centering or tack hole etc etc all these variables play differently for sgc and psa. there's no such thing as "the most accurate" grading, only the most favorable. so it all comes down to which grading company your standard lines up with and whcih company you feel comfortable having your cards holdered in. there are more than one grading companies for a reason, don't close yourself off to just one people.

Thank you!
 

Thank you to all for your input through your replies in answering this question! In some cases the answers one seeks to a question only create more questions, this very well may be one of those situations! Though I love the sugestion of selectively damaging Mint cards exactly the same and sending to each grading company, I think a better test for my PC may be to grade a small sample of cards using the scale that I grade my cards with and send a small sample accross the grading spectrum to TPG's and I will go with the TPG that most closely correlates to my own grading standards.

Thanks again for all of the input, and THANK YOU for keeping the replies civil and not letting this thread turn into a PSA v. SGC v. BECKETT argument!