Grading Company Submissions
 

I just got back into collecting about a year ago and now have enough raw cards that I would like to submit for grading. I've got about 25-30 raw cards that I could submit to any of the big 3, but I've heard some say that you may receive lower grades if you're not a bulk submitter (it would be my first submission to any grading company). Does anyone have experience with this? Is any company better or worse than the others?

Thank You,
Scott

Grading
 

Hi Scott

Saw your message and thought I would respond. I have only been on the forum a few weeks and living in England have never had any cards graded. I have read that SGC are good for prewar vintage and that PSA are good for modern cards. I guess if you wish to join all the competitors on the PSA site fighting to own the best cards in the world then that's the way to go. Also PSA are allegedly more respected in the market place. The other consideration is the holder. I prefer the SGC holders with the black background which works really well.

Would be interested to know which way you go.

Regards
Ian

Here are my thoughts, and this is coming from a PSA homer:
1) PSA is the industry leader in terms of grading because of their longevity, market acceptance, gained prices, and Set Registry competitions, which increase the demands for high graded common cards. Most people prefer to send them cards from the 1920s to 2000 over the other two grading services, but they are picking up market share in pre-1920s and post-2000s as well.
2) SGC is normally the one to have pre-1920 graded unless you want to market them to the PSA set registry competitors.
3) BGS/BVG is normally for 2000 and newer cards. Cards graded from pre-1990 in BGS/BVG holders will normally be considered sub-par for the grade, or grade cards cut recently from sheets as though they were factory cut. PSA and SGC would only give those cards Authentic grades if detected, while BVG will not consider it. BGS will also regularly grade cards that are undersized for the issue, while PSA and SGC will return them ungraded.

All three have membership groups where you can join for a year, and get access to cheaper grading specials. Just take a look at their websites. If you don't want to join any of them, some forum members (and breakers on www.blowoutcards.com/forums ) will host group bulk submissions to get cheaper prices than you could get on your own. Bobby on this site also has offered to do a bulk PSA submission. In that case, you would pay the submitter and mail them your cards. They would combine them with other people's cards and mail them all in to PSA on a bulk special (like $6-7 per card). Once PSA is done grading them, they send them back to the submitter, who mails them back to you. It takes some trust, but if you only have 25 cards to grade, may be your best solution.

If you have very large card shows in your area, the companies may show up and grade cards on site, or take their submissions back to Dallas, California, or Boca Raton so that you don't have to mail them directly. You will have to pay for return shipping. Grading at a card show is normally more expensive, like $35/card for PSA last year. BGS/BVG does something called "Raw Card Review" at card shows, where they will evaluate the card, seal the toploader/cardsaver with a sticker with the grade, confirming that the card is real. If you want to lock in the grade, you would then submit it to them and they would take it back to Dallas to encapsulate in their slab.

So really, it depends what you want to do with the cards: BGS/BVG has the most secure case, so people who are mainly grading to authenticate the card and keep it safest prefer Beckett. People who want to maximize sale value normally go with PSA. People who like the SGC black background holder stick with SGC.

Good information. Think I'll try to wait around for one of the bulk submissions.

Thanks, Scott