Crossovers
 

With the backlog at PSA; I am thinking of trying the other companies, and than crossover the high grades.
What kind of results have you had crossing sgc to psa? What kind of results have you had crossing bvg to psa?

Assuming cards are left in competitor holders and not cracked out.

why would you pay twice? It's not going to be any faster.

Sgc seems to be having pretty good turnaround times. I would only pay twice on the real high grade 8-10. I would be using sgc or bvg as kinda of a pre screener to determine unaltered, authentic, etc.

I personally have had better luck cracking cards out for crossover than sending the card in the holder. About 50-50 when I send the card in the holder that the grades will match. Thats just PSA/BVG to SGC as I have never submitted to the other two. Burnt a few times cracking cards out as a few have come back altered from PSA/BVG.

Over the years I have sent numerous PSA to SGC Cross attempts and several BGS to SGC attempts as my preferred slab of choice has been SGC for a long time. Nearly all attempts were done trying to cross PSA/BGS 7s to SGC 84s

In my experience -

BGS to SGC is horrendous - maybe 25% success rate

PSA to SGC is somewhat better and probably hits around 50% success with one caveat - the new "lighthouse" hologram slabs seem to crossover at a rate of 90+ percent success. I have had 1 instance where a PSA 8 came back as an SGC 92 but all other successes were 7s to 84s.

One can only assume that PSA has tightened up their standards lately?

Ha! I tried cracking out one PSA card in a newer holder, a 1987 Larry Bird. Thank goodness it was a low $ card as I had a heck of a time with new "press inside each other" slab - ruined the card. It is way more difficult to get cards out of the newer PSA cases. I will not try anymore, nope, not a chance. Back in the day, PSA slabs were easy to safely crack. Also, SGC pretty easy to crack out. BGS slabs are like Fort Knox, good luck with those.

Maybe I should post a youtube video of how to safely kill any slab.

Scott, in all sincerity, a YouTube video like that would be very helpful and greatly appreciated

+1

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BGS slabs are easy to crack. David, who is also a member on here, posted this some time ago.
I had around 5-6 to crack and his method worked great. I was done all 5-6 in a matter of minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzrEsDe7TqQ

Since you seem to prefer PSA, I would just submit to PSA Iand have some patience. What you propose seems irrational.

I have an auction this weekend but maybe when I'm caught up I'll do so. A number of members have seen my method, it takes about 20 seconds. It's not subtle, but unless you're a complete klutz, it's very safe for the card. I've cracked dozens, and oddly the worse the grading company the tougher their slabs (Think PRO, Gem Mint, FGS and all those goofy companies) Beckett is the hardest of the big three but the same method can be used on all holders. If I tried to describe it I think it would sound much harder or more dangerous than it is.

I typically just clip the corners off diagonally (wire cutter pliers - my dad use to call them dikes) and then slide a knife blade in the slit and work it from there on both top corners.

Haven't tried the new PSA Flip but all others seem to work fine... takes just a minute or two

similar to my method but I mistrust clippers because sometimes they cause the slab to shatter unpredictably.

+1 - My method as well.

SGC to PSA success?
 

Great thread -- I was just gonna ask a similar question to the board. I prefer to have PSA for my postwar slabs, and have a couple that I'd like to cross from SGC to PSA specifically. Would only try with cards that seem worthy.

My question is, can anyone estimate their success rate in crossover from SGC to PSA with reasonably worthy cards? 50% was said above, for example.

I don't have the guts to crack out cards with value above a few hundred dollars for fear they'll never get back into comparable holders. Below are two examples I'm entertaining for crossover.

The more real-world experience and comments from the board, the better. Thanks much in advance.


Attachment 309027 Attachment 309028

Maybe it's your scans, but I think the Jackie has a great shot of getting a 6 from PSA, while the Mantle might get EX due to the lower left corner wear (or shadow in picture?) along with the misregistration. It could very well get a 6 though. I would say both are worth trying on a straight crossover. But I'd probably do it at the National and if they don't cross on equal review, talk to the team and see what grade they would have crossed at.

My last crossover rate from SGC to PSA wasn't good, like 1 out of 5. Trust me, I only sent in cards I honestly thought pretty much locks. With all my years of collecting, studying, scrutinizing, I thought they would all make the cross. Heck if I know. G'luck, try not to blow too much money.

Yup, communication industry lingo. It's short for diagonal pliers.

Thanks for the input
 

Thanks John & 100backstroke above for input on SGC to PSA crossing.

Agree 100% that the Jackie looks the part of a "6" in-hand as well, and it's well-centered for the issue. The Mantle -- although I wouldn't be surprised if I saw it in a PSA 6 holder -- may just not have enough going for it to get into a PSA 6 holder as a crossover.

Where I have had my best success with PSA is with exceptionally well-centered cards. Not a crossover story, but I bought a very well-centered PSA 7 Jordan RC off Ebay, and I genuinely thought it was nicer than that. Eventually got around to sending it for review with a bunch of other stuff I was submitting, hoping for a bump to 7.5. Wasn't optimistic as PSA seemed to be in the midst of toughening up on their grading at the time. The right lower corner was going to sink the review, I thought. I still can't believe it, but they bumped it to an 8. It made me suspect that with a very well-centered card, they may be very forgiving of other modest flaws that would otherwise be fatal for a lesser centered card.

Just my 2 cents, and could very well be wrong, but that same scenario has played out with a couple of other raw submissions since. Maybe food for thought, and I will only be sending them well-centered cards for possible crossover as a result.

Attachment 309054Attachment 309055

My method too but I usually clip only one corner and then pry a flathead screwdriver between the seams. It's easy. BVG holders are very difficult but can be done as it takes more time but is basically the same process, from what I remember. There was quite a bit more tugging and force needed to be used but even BVG holders can be cracked. I haven't cracked any of the newer PSA or SGC holders.

As for crossing cards over I am not sure I have never played that game, at least not to get a higher grade. I have asked SGC for reviews several times and prefer them for my graded cards. I have some PSA slabbed cards and maybe a few BVG's too. And don't forget raw cards. They are great too!!

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Crossovers
 

I feel I generally have cards cross that I think should cross. I have very high success rates. You need to make sure they fit psa criteria and not just think it's going to cross because sgc said it was an 88 or 92. They all do have slightly different standards and some are tougher on some things than others. Personally sounds like a waste of time though as it will just be even longer until you get your better cards back.

Cracking out
 

As for cracking out I use clippers on old psa or sgc cards. On the new psa I use needle nose pliers to separate the top piece from the bottom and pull them apart.

When I first got back into collecting about 13 years ago, I was a big Roger Maris fan so everything that I bought had to be him.
I bought his rookie card which was graded by PSA. Not knowing anything about graded cards back then, I decided that I wanted to remove the plastic slab. I tried prying it open on the sides and it was very easy to get my screwdriver in there. In fact, it was so easy that it slid across the whole card and ended up cutting it across the width of the card.

Don't Crack the Jack. Top border looks too mis cut or trimmed in the photo

In a pinch at the Philly show a couple weeks ago, Scott successfully cracked a BVG holder of mine in about a minute with just a pocket knife. It was quite impressive.

That's how I always do it. I couldn't remember whose card it was that I cracked lol.

Pretty new to the whole grading world. Had a few questions. What is the advantage of getting a card graded by 2 services? Is it just considered more iron clad if 2 places both agree on a grade? Also what does a crossover graded card look like? Does PSA add a label onto a SGC slab?


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No, you've got it wrong. People who collect the PSA set registry want their cards graded by PSA and are usually willing to have a slightly lower grade in a PSA slab. So by crossing over the card, if it meets the min grade requested, PSA will take it out of the BGS or SGC slab and put it in their own with the new PSA grade. Makes their collection more uniform if they are working on building a set with one company. Sometimes you can make a profit crossing, some time you'll take a loss.
Getting a card graded over a 5 from any grading service should ensure the card is crease-free, so knowing that will help you get a similar grade from PSA. Each third party grading company has slightly different things that will set them off: PSA rarely grades cards nowadays that is factory cut short. BGS will usually grade sheet cut cards (modern laser cuts of old complete sheets). SGC will hammer cards with writing on them, while PSA will give them a MK qualifier.