PSA Vs. SGC

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

In a nutshell, PSA is the largest, generally most respected, and "market leader" of all graders. There are a zillion different opinions on whether or not they really are the best, but PSA graded cards will pretty reliably sell for more $ on the whole every time in comparison to a card in the same grade graded by SGC or Beckett (at least BVG). My advice is that if you are collecting with investment in mind, stick with PSA. If (like me) you collect purely for enjoyment of the hobby and love of the game, I don't think you have to. I have a few graded cards from all of the companies, and in my experience the grading is pretty much on the money with all of them - though they all make mistakes. You will run across some collectors that put their cards only in SGC slabs because they like the black inserts, and others who claim that BVG's grading is horrible and cite examples where a BVG 7 crosses only to a PSA 5. I have not found that to be the case personally, but for some folks that collect only graded cards, the politics of the slabs almost becomes a hobby of it's own. To me, the question of which slab do you "respect" more based on accuracy is up in the air. PSA clearly has the edge as the organized hobby's favorite, I think. But in terms of the grades they actually give out, I've seen all 3 of the big companies make pretty large mistakes before. At the end of the day, a professionally graded card is still only based on someone's (or a few someone's) opinion and is still subjective. I learned how to grade cards in the late 1980's, a decade before the first professionally graded slabs were ever seen. If you learn to do that properly and realize the subjective nuances that can exist between people, you will have a lot more tolerance for variances in professionally graded cards, I think. But again that advice is better spent on someone that collects for fun and not with the hopes of one day cashing in only PSA 8 or above cards to pay for retirement. Just some random thoughts...


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Very well said, er, written.