Sgc vs psa for card grading
 

Hi everyone, I am new here and was wondering if you guys could give me some advice as to whether I should use SGC or PSA for my card grading. I do realize that for resale PSA tends to generate a higher return but I am looking for accuracy in the grading. Any advice would be great. Thanks Jim

Try the search function this has been discussed countless times.

If accuracy is your wish, I agree SGC would probably be the most consistent. PSA can be very tough on certain cards, and lax on others.

SGC All the Way

There is absolutely no doubt sgc is a better grading company
The guy that owns sgc was a former card doctor
He knows all the tricks and is completely legitimate now
Psa gives favors to dealers and big collectors
Ive been collecting cards only for 60 yrs
I have hundreds of sgc 84s that are nicer thsn psa 8s
Psa sucks and im not kidding you
They are busy and have 20 yr old kids that look at cards for 30 seconds and grade
Sgc cards will probably be the standard in some yrs.
Psa is too inconsistent
If u are a true collector and want to be proud of your quality sgc is much better
More honest and much more professional
If u dont believe me...pull up cards on vcp and look for yourself


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I think conflating "most accurate" with "sgc will probably be the standard", you're kind of fooling yourself. The PSA Set Registry is the biggest factor among all three grading companies. It's the 30 million card elephant in the space.

I've collected cards for decades
Psa is very very good at grading cards.
But if u send a sgc card....in there holder forget about a cross....its business not honest but I understand....mostly false pride.
A card is what it is. Drop the ego.
Dont penalize the card owner

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I have about 175 cards of a pre war set
130 sgc 45 psa
All 8s and sgc 88s
I'm not prejudice
I ask anyone to contact me and compare the two companies in grading
Sgc is far better
I'll pay for your plane bill...pre war

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I'll make it more interesting for you.
I had a person who is an absolute expert on card grading...been in the business for 4 decades
He said my sgcs were absolutely fantastic
He thought they were 8.5s for the most part not is
I called this man and was lucky to reach him
I don't know him at all except from one phone call...he came to my home and viewed the cards and said I've never seen anything like these cards.
He said...these cards are special.
He took a few of them to the convention in Cleveland and psa would not cross one of them.

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Not for nothing but
You have eleven posts here
Most read like haikus


Edited : Please keep them in format

I'm glad someone said it. What in high F is going on with this guy??

I don't care what forum you are on, you make me laugh!!

Well, besides all of the other stuff going on, I really appreciate this thread.
As a high grade set collector, I am close enough on my 3 sets to fill in the rest with graded cards on ebay. I have been buying psa 7s and 8s and sgc 84 and 86. There are so many psa cards out there that really don't look that good for the grade. I will really look for sgc cards from now on. I still need some big names and I want the best.

I just sent in 20 1933 goudey sport kings to be re-holdered by SGC because the old labels were almost unreadable. Called ahead and spoke with "Izzy"? and was told that even though they listed the price at $10 to re-holder each that they actually only charged $5 and to note that on the submission sheet, which I did. Just got the cards back and they charged $10 a card. I called and got "Izzy" again and was told this time that "no one would have told me that and they can change the price if they want to" not a big difference ($45) , but lost all confidence and will only use PSA in the future.

Surprised they reholdered all of them with the same grade. SGC was so lax before with centering that they have vowed to not honor their own grading guaranty (their dam name!) and will potentially lower card grades when you send in for reholders with their new jazzy holders and grades.... The poster who said SGC is the toughest and best may be sadly mistaken if he goes to reholder in the future...

I will agree that SGC is by far more consistent over the decades they have been in business in grading vintage cards. PSA with an old slab a card that is a 5 might get a 3 or 4 today. That plus as countless others have said - SGC's slabs are higher quality and present better. That may be subjective, but hey, a lot of things about grading are.

I would not do business with PSA before the current scandal just due to their horrible turn times. But, each unto their own.

I have found some great bargains on cards that have been recently graded by SGC in their new flip. It seems they have greatly tightened up their grading and are conservative on the grades that are assigned to cards when compared to PSA. I have not tested my theory but on many cards with the new SGC flip, they appear to be a grade or two lower than PSA cards assigned to the same grade.

I collect for my own satisfaction and try to buy the new flip SGC whenever possible because they are far cheaper in many instances because they assigned grade is lower than PSA but the card appears to be better than the assigned grade.

I hope this makes sense. lol

with all due respect, the search engine is not great. it's really hard to find threads that match what I want. i usually find out after the fact that one existed.

Neither Net54 or Blowout's message boards have good search engines. In order to take advantage of google, use the following:

"site:net54baseball.com Which Grading Company" or
"site:blowoutforums.com SGC PSA BGS"

That will give you a much better result than the search engines on each board.

SGC or PSA for tobacco...
 

I now have about 25 T-206 cards. I would like to have them graded, mainly for peace of mind. I am concerned about altered cards, and I do not want to keep buying at this pace if my cache already has a bunch of trimmed cards. So this will be a scorecard on how well I have done buying raw, and allow me to narrow my sellers...

my question:
I understand that PSA graded cards generally sell at a premium. However, is this true for T-206 as well? I thought SGC might be better for pre-war and specifically tobacco.... I only want to use 1 grading company, and I prefer SGC, but do not want my cards to be worth 50% less just because of the slab.

i am not planning on selling, but I do record my cards at their market value, and so do not want to mark them down by grading with the wrong company.

If you're using grading to determine whether or not you're accidentally buying trimmed cards, good luck to you. PSA would owe half their stock valuation in refunds if all their trimmed cards were sent back to them under the grade guarantee. But at least they still have that guarantee... ;-) SGC got rid of theirs because they do not trust their graders to determine if a card has been altered either.

Because of the set registry, PSA cards currently sell higher than SGC. If the FBI investigation really hampers their trust level in the collecting community, that might change in the future. But as of now, PSA is still king of valuation. Even in pre-war. Sure there are some outliers where a nicely presenting SGC card outsells a PSA, but it is the minority. If you really want to check, buy a subscription to VCP and do your own research. SGC's terrible website and disdain for providing a searchable Pop Report and Set Registry for the past 3-4 years is really hurting them.

thank you for the comment..., then this is a conundrum. It makes buying graded cards pointless, and also getting my cards graded is pointless! The amount of trimmed cards given a numerical grade must be overstated. Most seasoned collectors can spot a trimmed card, I'd imagine TPGs catch a good 80% of them. I would settle for showing my cards to a knowledgable collector, but unfortunately that is not really possible now*

Not overstated. There are a ton of threads on blowout with before and after pictures showing exactly how cards were cut down. Well worth a read if you're thinking about spending any money with grading companies.

Not so. Anymore. Except maybe the worst of them.

Also seems to be at odds with your earlier post that you yourself aren't sure and that at least part of the reason to consider grading was to double check yourself, unless I mistake your meaning.

Not sure how you figure the imagined number, but even if so, you might consider all the more reason that all your raw cards might be even more likely already altered, and possibly the worst of the bunch, if they've remained raw from already being rejected by a TPG, unless you got them straight from the attic of an estate sale or something.

I hear what you guys are saying, and I have seen the stories and pictures that have been posted on this site. Grading is definitely not perfect.

However, there are clearly some things that experienced people can spot, and there are plenty of articles written up about it. One of these below is from Beckett, so clearly they do have some tell-tale signs of alterations. if a TPG is magnifying a card and looking for threads on the edges, that is way more i am doing,... Now, if they hire bad graders, or have a lazy process that is another story. but either way, I imagine they will be better at than I am. If I sent in 25 cards and 5 came back "A", I'd stop buying cards altogether. If 1 or 2 came back "A", I would be pretty comfortable, and probably learn how to spot them.

https://www.beckett.com/news/sports-...-and-avoid-it/

https://allvintagecards.com/how-to-s...mewhat%20slick.

Thanks for the info !

Yes, but I think some critics in the forums would caution that this perspective doesn't validate the existence of "false negatives", to put it in the current medical parlance popularized during covid.

So for instance of the 25 hypothetical items you send in, only one comes back "A" but it doesn't mean they themselves didn't miss the other four that there actually were (if someone had a crystal ball with all the answers), which is the quantity that you estimated could swing your view of things...