Posted By:
Scot
I suspect that on a percentage basis GAI sees a lot more altered cards than PSA or SGC for the simple reason that GAI is the grader of last resort (well, okay, there is PRO). I doubt too many people would send an unaltered high value card to GAI before trying both PSA and SGC first since the market pays a considerable premium for PSA and SGC holders. Moreover, by the time GAI even got in the authentication/grading business a respectable percentage of unaltered high value cards were already in PSA or SGC holders.
So there is nothing nefarious going on when a large share of high grade GAI cards are rejected by PSA and SGC on crossover. PSA and SGC have probably already seen and rejected many of these cards before.
I'm sure there are some very nice unaltered high grade GAI cards, but when it comes to GAI the general rule seems to be garbage in, garbage out.
EDITED TO ADD: I am actually sorry to see GAI in financial difficulty. I believe they are well-intentioned, but just got into the game too late.