SGC grading company report.

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Posted By: dan mckee

I just received my 600+ submission back from SGC. 95% of the cards graded are consistant and well done. 5% seem off but half in my favor and half not. I had a friend drop off and pick up the submission in person both times.


I am VERY HAPPY with the entire experience. Grades, timing, ease of submission, holder appearance, and most of all, treatment of my friend.



I have 1 blatant mistake on a slab label that I will get fixed at the Fort. But this wasn't all SGC's fault since my buddy mislabelled it on the form. Though I do feel the person grading should be able to identify the issue. We won't go there. I will post a picture of the mistake to relieve some of the PSA bashing bias I do.



Overall I rate the SGC experience an EXCELLENT one! I highly recommend the folks at SGC for vintage grading. Thanks SGC!

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Posted By: Trae R.

On the other end of ths spectrum, I just received back my very 1st SGC submission. I too am happy so far!
(Not to mention how cool the $7 vintage special is right now!)

I think that the admin approval time on the set registry could be a little quicker though.

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Posted By: Robert A

I actually just recieved cards back from sgc last night.
It was the first time I had ever had any thing sent in for grading.

I also am happy with the customer service and grading process at sgc.

The hardest part BY FAR was dealing with the post office who actually laughed at me when I said I needed the paper tape to send a package registered mail. They told me they didn't have it there and that I had to go to the drug store to buy it. Of course, the drug store didn't have it. When I returned to a different post office and requested the tape, the first agent again didn't know what I was talking about. I finally requested to speak with the manager who assisted me. UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE.
Maybe next time, I should go with Fed Ex.

Do you guys send your cards in Fed EX? or USps?
Robert

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Posted By: warshawlaw

fed ex has a box at my building. Post ofice is a pain in the butt.

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Posted By: Trae R.

I did USPS to my PO Box. Worked liked a champ.

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Posted By: FatBoy

When I send in a box of cards for grading, I usually use USPS registered.

I found for big dollar boxes....$3000-5000 for instance, the insurance is so much cheaper as compared to priority with insurance and tracking number. I'm guessing because of the kid gloves that are used for registered. The girl at the post office told me all registered mail is put in a special bag and handled separately from regular mail be it priority or otherwise. It just feels "safer" to me with registered. You also get automatic priority and tracking.

As a side....The first time I sent registered (I used the plastic stuff), she applied paper tape to all box seams and a rubber stamp was used to span the seam of the tape and the box with a date and initial mailing location. She then asked me if I was going to be mailing anything else registered in the future.....and when I told her I would be, she gave me a roll of the paper tape, a stack of registered mail forms and tells me every time I come in "I see you're making good use of that tape I gave ya" .

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

I haven't dealt with them in a few years. However, from what I can remember, every card I sent them graded exactly what I thought the grade was - except for two - they were actually Overgraded in my humble opinion!

Maybe I need to go back to SGC!?!? I just sent another box full of cards to GAI. The last ones I sent were ALL graded exactly what I thought they would grade. The ones I sent them in November however, was a different story. I sent them 48 cards in Nov. - and 8 were undergraded between .5 and 2.5 grades in my opinion. That time I used the economy service. The time everything graded perfect, I used the standard service.

I wonder if grading companies are harsher on cards sometimes when a "reduced price" service is used????? I know PSA wasn't when I dealt with them! I paid over $100 to get a nice VG Lenox T206 Cobb Bat Off graded and it came back a PSA 1! That was when I quit dealing with that bunch of rejects!

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Posted By: Chris

I was also told that holds roll when registered mail is lost. Carriers are actually financially responsible for them.

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Posted By: Scottopotamus

I use SGC for my extremely low grade T206 collection and rarely have I disagreed with their grading by more than a "half grade" either way.

I'm very pleased with SGC. (Although with such a low grade collection, I'm sure they wouldn't want me to be endorsing them!)

Scottoptamus
My T206 Web Site

http://www.freewebs.com/scottopotamus

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Posted By: dan mckee

Maybe when registered is lost but I had a registered package ripped open and the contents removed. No investigation at all, they just paid the insurance which wasn't high enough unfortunately. That is a myth that registered is treated that way.

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Posted By: FatBoy

unless a package is marked

"YOU RISK FATAL INJURY BY OPENING THIS PACKAGE WITHOUT ADEQUATE PROTECTION"

you risk the package being opened no matter who the carrier is. the KEY is insurance, and the insurance is cheap on registered mail. i can mail a box valued at $4000 for $20.

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Posted By: leon

but me and some of my buddies ain't too confident with GAI. I would more likely buy a PSA card than a GAI one. I won't bid on GAI cards at all...too many issues.....just from personally seeing the holders and experiences from board members.....and ya'll know what I am talking about....regards

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

with the cards that use to slide around. The last four submissions I have sent them have come back with the cards solidly in the holder. On a couple of the lower grade lower priced cards, I even tried "banging" them around to see if they would slide - they did not. I hope that is a problem of the past with GAI!

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Posted By: Robert A

leon.
I agree that ga has some problems, but nothing compares to psa sticking really nice cards in those holders that don't fit. I mean...CMON!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I just got my very nice E93 Bender (Thanks Quan) in the typical PSA holder with oversized space with card condom and the card had shifted in the mail all the way up to the grading label. The card condoms PSA uses in lieu of a properly fitted holder are &*^#. PSA sucks; can't wait to see that card in an SGC holder.

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Posted By: leon

are my concerns about GAI's abilities....just think....I am one less competitor...

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

You're right, Robert. Nothing compares to psa sticking cards in holders that don't fit.

-Ryan

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Posted By: Robert

Ryan.
I guess something does compare to PSA's mishaps. I've never seen that before.
I'm glad I don't use GAI or PSA.
Sorry about your cards though.

That's what you get for being into really unique and cool cards. It's a shame.

I hope this doesn't happen at sgc too, but you never know...right?

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Robert,

I guess anything is possible, but I've had probably close to 1,000 cards graded by SGC and so far so good.

In fairness to GAI, these cards were all graded over 6 months ago and I believe they have since fixed the holdering problem they had back then. I wasn't the only one whose cards were slipping and even issues like 1976 Topps were having the same problem. It had something to do with the insert and they process of slabbing.

It's been a while since I've seen or heard of other examples like this and I assume it is because they've fixed the problem.

They also did their best to make the situation right with me, so I actually don't have any beef with GAI.

For me, the bottom line is that SGC's holders look the best and offer the best protection, in my experience. Their consistency in grading is just a bonus.

-Ryan

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Posted By: Robert

Interesting.
Thanks for the info. Ryan.

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Posted By: Elliot

Ryan, i concur, i had t206's that were slipping out of the gasket in the GAI holders. This goes back about one year ago, so i have no idea if the problem has been fixed.

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Posted By: tbob

All you guys getting such wonderful grades from SGC makes me wonder what kind of cards you are submitting. It certainly can't be E94s (especially), E97s and E98s, SGC is brutal on mine. There may be something to the "cards submitted on the vintage special deal as opposed to the more expensive submission plan." Hmmm, maybe that's why I keep getting creaseless caramel cards back SGC 30.

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Posted By: Scottopotamus

I use SGC for my T206's and have used both "regular" and "special" submissions. I've never been able to tell any difference between the two.

Scottoptamus
My T206 Web Site

http://www.freewebs.com/scottopotamus

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Posted By: Robert A

tbob,
I'm about to submit about 30 e97s and e98s.
However, my cards probably deserve no higher than 20 so I can't complain.

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Posted By: Scott

I spoke with someone at SGC about grading my La Malorquina and they said to send it in. I sent it in, along with your website as a reference, and they refused to grade it - the slip that came back with the card said "SGC doesn't grade La Malorquinas".

My understanding is that unless the card is in the SCBC, SGC won't grade it. And now we're hearing that they have lost confidence in their own ability to grade Frojoys.

So we can bash GAI for sloppy holders and their "we'll grade anything" policy, and PSA for their plethora of errors, but if we trust SGC to slab our cards and they don't even trust themselves to know the difference between a fake and real Frojoy...that's a cause for concern. Also, I don't buy Leon's "grade the ones in the middle" idea - if they have to see dotted lines or perforations to spot a fake, that's also no good. Fake Frojoys are an easy spot when you have them in your hand, and so far we've had good luck spotting them from ebay scans as well - SGC should be slabbing them.

SGC's still the best IMO. Also, they gave me a credit for the unslabbed La Malorquina, without me even asking - excellent customer service.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I have submitted quite a few cards to SGC usually at the bulk rate and believe me I get no favortism. The grading is strict and sometimes can't figure out the grades they receive but many times I end up finding a surface wrinkle or crease I missed. I personally prefer this because I have alot of confidence that when I am buying a SGC card the grade will be fair. I think the only time I have seen any form of what appears to be favortism towards a submitor was the group of T206 SGC graded cards Will Hays recently had up on ebay. Other tthan this example, I hear alot of grumbling about undergraded cards which I personally like, heck if you want to send a card in for a high grade trim it and send it to PRO.

SGC has great customer service is top notch and the holder looks great. Too many horror stories with the other companies.

Lee

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

I'm talking about Davidvintage on eBay. Great guy to deal with - don't get me wrong - I buy quite a few cards from him. However, I do remember some SGC cards he had a couple months ago on eBay that were all graded at least one grade higher than the card's true grade. Especially that Croft's Matty he had - looked like a PSA 3 or GAI 2.5 - it was in an SGC 60 holder! I have to admit, before seeing those cards, I really thought PSA was the only company to show favoritism!

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Posted By: Scott

I've seen Leon get burned as bad as any of us. One of the things I really like about SGC is that when it comes to the grades assigned, we all get the same treatment.

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Posted By: leon

As much as I like those guys I still get completely hammered on the grades sometimes, imo. I can argue till the cows come home and I have had exactly 2 cards go up 1/2 grade each. They looked ex+ and I think I got them upgraded to vg or something.....I assure anyone, and will show anyone prime examples, of why I don't think I, for one, get "easy" grades. Sometimes they've even had the "oh Sh**" experience.....ouch......On the other side of the equation I think I have only been really happy (maybe easy grade?) about twice. I think on a D304 that I thought might be gd and it came back vg and maybe another 1/2 grade at some point....Overall I think they are very consistant and I am almost always within a 1/2 of grade (or right on)when guessing the grade. regards all

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Posted By: warshawlaw

No, they will grade cards not in SCD if they are in the ACC. They did my R94 Ruth last summer.

GAI gaskets: I too had a T206 slider that was damaged as a result. At least I hope it was damaged as a result, because if it wasn't then their grading is even worse than I thought.

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Posted By: Scott

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Posted By: barrysloate

To Scott Elkins- David Bryan of davidbvintage is one of my closest hobby friends and I know that he is not someone who would ever ask SGC for special consideration. He may send a card back to be regraded if he disagrees with the grade, but every one of us has the same ability. David would never ask for special treatment. If a slabbed card seems overgraded then it is the grader's mistake, period. Nothing personal to you, but David is a good a soul.

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Posted By: david bryan

Fellow network 54 members. I have never posted on the board as that is simple not my thing but I do occasionally visit the site. I felt that Scott's comments were harsh on me and especially SGC. I felt I should defend it. I am not taking it personal Scott as you are a great guy and a good customer but I think it is time to express my thoughts. First of all thank you Barry for the kind words as you know me better than anyone in the hobby and know not only how I operate but what I am all about personally. I can assure everyone that SGC does not play any favoritism with me and I feel strongly they do not for anyone. SGC is an exceptional company and would never (in my opinion) deliberately over grade a card for one of their customers. do they make mistakes? certainly they do! have they ever made a mistake on one of my cards? certainly they have! I am like Leon and many other collectors, often puzzled at why the grades were so low on many of my submissions. they hammer me just like everyone else, but yes occasionally they may over grade one. So what is an acceptable percentage for SGC to miss grade a card and give it a grade higher than maybe it should be? is 1% an acceptable percentage? that would be 1 in 100 cards. I personally would say that would be an exceptional average. I wish I could say that I was that good but I would not be close to that. so if 1% is acceptable and a collector sends in 100 cards over the course of the year than he would maybe have 1 card that is over graded but may have many many more that were what he felt harshly graded. would that make you feel that you were receiving favoritism? well I do not send in 100 cards a year but thousands. so lets say I only send in 1000 cards over the year (in reality it is much much more) than using the same percentage I would have 10 cards which were potentially over graded during the year. all my cards go on ebay and everyone can see them. so if over the course of a year you spot 10 cards (minimum) of mine which are over graded does that mean that SGC is giving me favoritism? I think not! The same reasoning could apply to different submission. one submission may be very harshly graded. then another one a little more liberally graded. Even though SGC is extremely consistant, it happens. ever graded a card or cards on one day only to revisit them on another day and think what in the world was I thinking? SGC is a class act and they have not got that way by treating people differently. They are consistent and honorable. yes they can occasionally make mistakes, but when they do I feel confident it is an honest one and not a deliberate one.

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Posted By: dan mckee

Dave, I think you are a super guy! But my 5% wrongly graded was a generous estimate on my part. The good thing is, of the ones I felt were graded wrong, half were in my favor and half under graded. I think your 1% is off but I agree that SGC didn't show me any favortism and I spent close to $4K on one shot! Have a super weekend, Dan.

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Posted By: Robert A

David Bryan.
I don't know you personally, but the dealings that I've had with you over the past few years have been some of the smoothest by far.

I would think that even if people (like yourself and dan) who send a large amount of submissions to sgc did receive favoritism, (and i'm not suggesting that you guys do) it's not necessarily your fault anyways.

robert a

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

David.....top notch. Great selection......
As for SGC, they are generally right on the money as far as my submissions have gone. I'm only a little miffed by the presence of light pencil or writing on the back of EX to NRMT cards causing a SGC20 grade. But short of doing the MK qualifier like PSA, we'll be stuck with the current system with SGC. Still happy and have an order ready to send out!

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Posted By: dan mckee

Tom, did you ever forgive me? Dan.