[spacktrack]

In light of the some comments made on a recent thread on this board, and the history of similar comments written and spoken throughout the hobby, we wanted to make a post outlining our feelings on crossovers. It may be a bit long, but the issue of crossovers has taken on such a life of its own that we felt it was best to spell out our feelings in detail.

First and foremost, when a customer submits crossovers to us, we enjoy the opportunity to evaluate their cards, which have already been graded by another company. Crossovers are generally one of the first chances we have at earning someone’s business. The customer is making an effort to switch their cards into our holders, and with that, it can be assumed that they will continue to purchase SGC graded cards—which supports our dealers and the secondary market. Most importantly these new customers will submit more cards for grading and hopefully participate in our Registry. Anyone in business knows how difficult it is to secure new customers so when the opportunity presents itself we do anything we can to create repeat business.

It is often said that grading companies have a bias against cards that come in already graded by another company. The people who share this belief most likely had a negative crossover experience; in other words their cards graded lower than expected or failed to cross. Admittedly we do not always get every crossover grade right, but to suggest that it is done on purpose or because of a bias goes against every principle of business. There was a time, many years ago that we could not fathom anyone sending us a PSA graded card for crossover due to their dominance in the market. Eleven years later we have customers who send in crossovers willing take lower grades if the card deserves a lower grade. Today PSA still enjoys a significantly larger percentage of the market share compared to SGC; it would not be in our best interest to push away a potential customer for a petty bias. There is also a notion that the grading companies compete to see who is tougher on grades. The argument over which company is tougher or tighter is sometimes purely speculative and more often open to interpretation. We are pretty certain that the people at PSA don’t lay awake a night thinking about our grading standards, however we can assure you that we don’t think about theirs

Our graders are grading each card on its merits. Our motives can’t be stated any clearer; we want to get as many cards into our holder as we possibly can. Prior to a crossover submission, customers often ask what the percentage of cards that successfully cross is and they are all told the same thing—we do not keep crossover statistics because we know they are meaningless. The percentage will be between 0% and 100%; there are example of each extreme and everything in between. The cards are what the cards are and the grades are what the grades are. In fact we have crossed over cards (and rejected) from companies you have never heard of as well as cards from our chief competitors. If a card meets the standards that we have outlined for a given grade, we will cross it. We will upgrade where warranted, and we will downgrade if we feel the card was originally overgraded and the customer has given us that permission. As much as we try as a grading company to avoid putting overgraded cards out into the marketplace, we also try to avoid undergraded cards leaving our office. All cards have to stand up on their own merits and we do the absolute best that we can to ensure that cards are graded accurately and consistently in accordance with our standards.

With respect to the issue of minimum grades, we ask that each customer outline his or her requirements on any crossover. As a practice, it is assumed, unless otherwise noted, that crossovers are submitted for same grade or higher. We will never assume that a customer will accept a lower grade. Any cards that are lowered as part of the crossover service are done so because the customer has consented to it. It may seem bizarre to some that a customer would accept a lower grade, but they do. Often times it is simply for continuity of their collection. There are also instances where customers are familiar with our standards and know that the card has a specific flaw that will cause it to not grade out at an equal level.

Every time we evaluate a card submitted for crossover we take a number of risks. We risk that a card is damaged or a flaw is discovered that could not be seen through plastic. We risk that our findings will cause a customer not to use our services again because he or she feels we were too harsh on a card by rejecting it for minimum grade or for evidence of alteration. Some customers choose to “shoot the messenger” when we point out flaws or alterations that were missed or ignored by the original grading company. It’s a tough position to be in when delivering bad news/grades to a customer knowing that they may never use your services again. At the end of the day, we have to grade all the cards in accordance with our standards and hope that the customer sees our reasons for assigning the grades that we do and has overall confidence in our product.

Basic business principles dictate that the happiness of the customer is paramount in any business. We would not run the risk of angering customers or turning them off to our services and product by refusing to cross cards that are worthy of the grade. Can anyone on this board provide a plausible explanation why SGC or any other company in the service industry that relies on discretionary spending would risk alienating future spending and compromising goodwill by purposely doing their job poorly? The thread from yesterday and some of the posts contained within suggest just that.

We are always available to explain our grades to help customers better understand why a card graded the way it did or why it failed to cross at a certain grade. Our offers to review cards are made with the hope that they bring clarification to the process along with the potential for changes in grade if warranted. We do not keep records of why every card grades the way it did, so the only way for us to initiate a conversation about grades is to have the cards back for another look. Sometimes there are changes made to the original grade. Graders are human, and we employ multiple graders. At least two will look at every card, but when a card is sent back, generally they will all conference to see what they feel about the card as a team. More often than not, though, the review process allows us to point out flaws that are not immediately evident. Erased writing that only shows up at the right angle, a wrinkle hidden in the back of the card stock, glue residue from scrapbook removal, or corner wear that is too much to warrant a higher grade. There is always a reason why a card grades the way it does. If it’s not apparent and it’s cause for concern, all you have to do is ask.

Hopefully this helps alleviate some of the concerns and apprehensions about the crossover process. As always, please feel free to contact us at SGC to clarify anything we can about any of our services.

Sean Skeffington (x101) and Brian Dwyer (x114)
SGC - 1-800-742-9212