Collectors (PSA) Acquired SGC

[chalupacollects]

Having been bought and merged before more than likely back office procedures will be combined with some superficial public changes. May help avoid any antitrust issues.

A likely synergy would be to put the tux and flip into a PSA slab gaining some cost savings on slab purchases…


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[Republicaninmass]

Yes, they can opt for psa to slab....the slab!




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[Svabinsky78]

Personally speaking, even if PSA offered a cross and guaranteed the grade, I would not waste my money to cross over. SGC has been and still is a reputable company. I guess some folks may see SGC slabbed cards as less desirable, but that does not bother me.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

Personally speaking, even if PSA offered a cross and guaranteed the grade, I would not waste my money to cross over. SGC has been and still is a reputable company. I guess some folks may see SGC slabbed cards as less desirable, but that does not bother me.

I would cross whatever I could if the grades were guaranteed, just to have uniformity. OCD impulses uber alles.

[steve B]

I don't really see anything good coming from this.

The only way I see it working long term is a situation similar to packs, where PSA sends all the vintage and things they don't grade to SGC for the number. And SGC sends modern to PSA for a number. Then back for slabbing.
That seems like too much handling, but it seems to work for packs.

I've seen an acquisition go bad from the customer side. Used to use CVS, but they were not great and very arrogant. Went to Target which was much better.
They got turned into CVS, and went from nice and helpful to *you arrogant in under a month. No change in the staff either.

The claim that PSA will bring "technical expertise" to make SGC better is a joke.

[Zan]

Originally Posted by steve B

I don't really see anything good coming from this.

The only way I see it working long term is a situation similar to packs, where PSA sends all the vintage and things they don't grade to SGC for the number. And SGC sends modern to PSA for a number. Then back for slabbing.
That seems like too much handling, but it seems to work for packs.

I've seen an acquisition go bad from the customer side. Used to use CVS, but they were not great and very arrogant. Went to Target which was much better.
They got turned into CVS, and went from nice and helpful to *you arrogant in under a month. No change in the staff either.

The claim that PSA will bring "technical expertise" to make SGC better is a joke.

Why? Turner is a tech guy, and SGC has historically always been behind in tech. Seems like an easy application.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Zan

Why? Turner is a tech guy, and SGC has historically always been behind in tech. Seems like an easy application.

PSA has bailed on grading so much stuff because they just can't tell what's good or not. And they don't have a good track record of finding alterations.

Tech can be good, but if it's info is bad as I expect it is, it's results will be bad.

[steve B]

An unlikely but potential angle I haven't seen mentioned is a sort of fix and flip.

SGC has a lot of things going for it. And a lot of things that don't. The things they don't do well, PSA does. (mostly)
Even if SGCs market share doubled, PSA probably wouldn't see them as a threat.
So
Buy them, leave the people in place. Fix whatever problems they had using databases for a decent pop report and registry. Maybe add the scanning and QR code, no that I think as much of that as some others do.

How much value does that add?
Flip SGC for a substantial profit.

[wolverinejayhawks]

This acquisiton is going to be very bad for the pricing of grading. Before the acquistion, it was pretty much a 4-firm Oligopoly with pricing remaining pretty high coming out of the pandemic and not returning to pre-pandemic levels. SGC became aggressive with fast $15 grading which hurt PSA, and PSA had to respond recently with better specials and reducing their backlog. The only thing propping up PSA's volume was a surge in TCG cards (which you can see on GEMRATE - Google it if you don't know GEMRATE), which is going to level off once the first wave of TCG collectors discovering grading ends.

Now, we are stuck with PSA/SGC, a seemingly disinterested BGS and a weakened CGS/CGC, which is a 3-firm Oligopoly where two of the firms are weak. I don't count other grading services (GMA, etc.) because they don't have the name, reputation and volume for auction buyers to pay attention on eBay and other outlets. I give SGC's $15 price with $9 for TCG about 2 months before "inflation" causes a price increase.

The FTC should leave Kroger alone and block PSA/SGC merger!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Yep, the smooth talking BS when prices go up will be amusing.

[Johnny630]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yep, the smooth talking BS when prices go up will be amusing.

So true they’re bitching now but will all be Kumbaya when they have to grade cards, and we all know most people are addicted to grading cards.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

So true they’re bitching now but will all be Kumbaya when they have to grade cards, and we all know most people are addicted to grading cards.

Is that why it’s called crack?? (and resubmit)

[jjbond]

Best case scenario?
- PSA focuses on modern cards
- SGC focuses on vintage cards

I think that would solve one of the seeming issues in grading, where it feels like graders trained on modern cards are then asked to grade vintage cards. If they split up the expertise into two separate groups perhaps they'd turn out a better product?

(But do I think this will happen? No.)

[theshowandme]

We are several days since the news broke and people keep saying that PSA bought SGC

Literacy rates must be on the decline

[parkplace33]

I throughly enjoy all the discussion. This meme did make me lol.

[ClementeFanOh]

Parkplace- good meme. Sadly, the wrong TPG is left standing after the
Thanos finger snap

Trent King

[ricktmd]

I have been part of the window covering industry for many years. The largest company in the window covering world is Hunter Douglas. Hunter's sales in 2021 were 4.6 Billion. They have purchased a wide variety of related companies for one of a few reasons.
1- Taking over a customer base an increasing distribution.
2- Proprietary products or technology
3- An off shoot of 1. Buying your competitor means less competition while at the same time bringing in the purchased companies revenue. It is likely PSA can run the company with the same or similar staff on the corporate side increasing profitability.

Hunter has let some companies continue under their own banner. Typically, its business as usual for the 1st year or so. Over time the original company disappears and becomes Hunter sometimes with the original companies name, sometimes not

Because SGC has a large and loyal customer base and is true competition for PSA , it made sense for PSA to take them over. Clearly, they did not buy SGC for #2 (proprietary products or technology) or a handful of graders.

While not a perfect analogy PSA took out their toughest competition and will now be SGC as well for as long as it suits them. I also believe (and hope) that SGC graded cards should hold up at least on vintage as they are well respected

[Mike D.]

The numbers I have seen suggest that PSA already had a 78% market share, so adding SGC bumps them to around 85%. In theory, 78% is already a monopoly.

[CardPadre]

Not that anyone here concerns themselves with KSA Grading in Canada, but they just made an upgrade from their super crappy slabs to what looks like a merging of a PSA and SGC slab.

I don’t give a fudge about any slabs, but these look pretty good…for a slab. SGC could have done something similar a long time ago, maybe PSA will move SGC slabs in this direction.

[parkplace33]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Not that anyone here concerns themselves with KSA Grading in Canada, but they just made an upgrade from their super crappy slabs to what looks like a merging of a PSA and SGC slab.

I don’t give a fudge about any slabs, but these look pretty good…for a slab. SGC could have done something similar a long time ago, maybe PSA will move SGC slabs in this direction.

I like the look of this slab. And I do expect changes soon in the SGC world.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Not that anyone here concerns themselves with KSA Grading in Canada, but they just made an upgrade from their super crappy slabs to what looks like a merging of a PSA and SGC slab.

I don’t give a fudge about any slabs, but these look pretty good…for a slab. SGC could have done something similar a long time ago, maybe PSA will move SGC slabs in this direction.

This is how KSA slabs have always looked though. Or at least for as long as I can remember. They've had the SGC-style apron inside this holder for a long time. I think the only change here is the flip.

PSA has been working on a new slab for several months now. They're coming out with inserts that are custom-cut to the card itself so that it's a perfect fit every time. They scan the card and then print the inner liner.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Collectors upgrading the SGC slabs at some point. I believe the PSA team views the SGC slabs as inferior and less secure. If that belief is shared high enough up the chain, they might want to do something about that.

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by Snowman

This is how KSA slabs have always looked though. Or at least for as long as I can remember. They've had the SGC-style apron inside this holder for a long time. I think the only change here is the flip.

PSA has been working on a new slab for several months now. They're coming out with inserts that are custom-cut to the card itself so that it's a perfect fit every time. They scan the card and then print the inner liner.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Collectors upgrading the SGC slabs at some point. I believe the PSA team views the SGC slabs as inferior and less secure. If that belief is shared high enough up the chain, they might want to do something about that.

No, the apron didn’t previously extend all they way up to and surround the flip. Plus less boxy slab now.

ETA: Previous gen KSA slab image.

[glchen]

Wow, just saw this. I'm sad because SGC grades a lot of cards like real photo postcards that PSA does not. And it's cheaper also. So I'm definitely going to try to get a submission out quickly to SGC before they start standardizing on what PSA grades, just to be safe.

I wonder if any of this has to do with ebay authentication. Right now, ebay authentication for graded cards goes to PSA in California. With SGC on the east coast, ebay can send the graded cards to be authenticated to the closer location rather than sending cards to be delivered on the east coast all the way to California if the seller is also on the east coast.

[parkplace33]

A sign of things to come will be when you reholder a SGC card with SGC, will they issue a new cert number (like they do now) or change practices and keep the current cert number. If they continue the current practice and issue a new number, I think that shows Collectors is not looking to enhance SGC.

[jayshum]

SGC was on site at the Philly Show for submissions. I talked with some of them about what was going on. They were very upbeat about it and felt it would help improve SGC. They didn't seem concerned about being shut down now or in the future.

[Schlesinj]

Anyone heard any updates when service starts for the combined teams?

[brunswickreeves]

Any updates out there from SGC or PSA? Interested to see if PSA will increase turnaround times being centrally located now.