PSA v. SGC

[Archive]

Posted By: Josh K.

Without seeing the card, I think a 3 on a T206 cy young is a pretty nice grade and wouldnt feel too bad about that (depending on how much you paid). I collect a lot of T206s and most are the equivilent of 3's or 4's. Cards in this grade range are nice b/c they are still very visually appealing (and usually are crease free) and are more reasonable cost-wise than higher graded cards.

For me (and I know many advanced collectors may not agree with this) buying graded cards is the way to go for several reasons:

1. While you always have to buy the card and not the grade (meaning, for example, that every psa 4 is not equal), you have some certainty as to the card's condition and you dont have to worry about the grade.

2. I like the slabs for protection and really like how cards display in sgc slabs.

3. The legit grading companies take 90% of the guesswork out of trying to figure out if a card listed online is authentic or not.

There are no guarantees though - I just bought a psa 4 T206 and when it arrived, it had a nice obvious wrinkle that was not real apparent on the ebay listing. Ebay missed that one and I know when I send it to sgc to be crossed over into one of their slabs, it will be dropped to a 40 (their equivilent to a 3).