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Posted By: Eric Brehm

I was curious to know how frequently SGC has been assigning their 1/2 grades, so I looked it up. For the issues I sampled, the rate of 1/2 grade assignments (as a fraction of the total cards graded with or without the 1/2 grade bump at each whole grade level) varies between about 15% and 30% for grades 7/7.5 and 8/8.5. Here is the data for all of the half grades:

For T206:

* of 99 total cards graded 8 (SGC 88) or 8.5 (SGC 92), 20 were given 8.5 (20.2%)
* of 713 total cards graded 7 (SGC 84) or 7.5 (SGC 86), 139 were given 7.5 (19.5%)
* of 6709 total cards graded 5 (SGC 60) or 5.5 (SGC 70), 1520 were given 5.5 (22.7%)
* of 6163 total cards graded 1 (SGC 10) or 1.5 (SGC 20), 3405 were given 1.5 (55.2%)

For 1933 Goudey:

* of 217 total cards graded 8 (SGC 88) or 8.5 (SGC 92), 31 were given 8.5 (14.3%)
* of 695 total cards graded 7 (SGC 84) or 7.5 (SGC 86), 185 were given 7.5 (26.7%)
* of 2569 total cards graded 5 (SGC 60) or 5.5 (SGC 70), 620 were given 5.5 (24.1%)
* of 904 total cards graded 1 (SGC 10) or 1.5 (SGC 20), 527 were given 1.5 (58.3%)

For 1952 Topps:

* of 510 total cards graded 8 (SGC 88) or 8.5 (SGC 92), 92 were given 8.5 (18.0%)
* of 1470 total cards graded 7 (SGC 84) or 7.5 (SGC 86), 444 were given 7.5 (30.2%)
* of 2197 total cards graded 5 (SGC 60) or 5.5 (SGC 70), 825 were given 5.5 (37.6%)
* of 141 total cards graded 1 (SGC 10) or 1.5 (SGC 20), 92 were given 1.5 (65.2%)

As would be expected, there is a higher percentage of EX+, NM+ and NM/MT+ graded cards associated with the more recently produced issues, with the exception of the 8/8.5 grades for T206, which could be an anomaly of some sort, or just small sample variation.

Perhaps similar half-grade upgrade rates can be expected from PSA when they begin using their new grading system.

By the way, SGC's 10-100 grading scale does not include grades that are equivalent to 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 6.5, or 9.5 on the traditional 1 to 10 scale; they currently use only 1.5 (Fair), 5.5 (EX+), 7.5 (NM+), and 8.5 (NM/MT+).

Here is the SGC grade distribution for the three issues: