PSA 9 vs. SGC 96 Huge Price Disparity

[pkaufman]

I love SGC, but their Set Registry needs to be more user friendly to spur competition.

[familytoad]

Originally Posted by pkaufman

I love SGC, but their Set Registry needs to be more user friendly to spur competition.

Agreed, although I don't care about the competition as much as the difficult user interface for searching (amplified by using iPad) the SGC registry.

Despite the obvious inherent flaws in population reports, they are important to registry users and for the hobby overall.
That portion of SGC's service could use another big overhaul. If done better, that tool might be a differentiator for the company.

I see the SGC registry more as a tool for checklisting , since there appears to be less entire prewar sets collected than the Topps Bowman era.

Anyone who completes a prewar set at all has accomplished a big thing.
Completing a Topps set is exponentially easier , so the competition isn't about finishing the set, it's about getting high grade sets.

So, as many have said, there are 3 big TPG players, each of whom the collectors have settled them into their niche. ( I don't think the companies did that, their customers did...they wouldn't purposefully pigeon-hole themselves)

I am not surprised when a card that fits better with one of these companies' niche sells better when it stays *within the niche* and sells for less when it drifts from that perceived niche. That Topps SGC 96 and PSA 9 disparity doesn't surprise me. The cards aren't sealed permantly, so collectors can always use a different TPG if they want.