Something Smells Fishy Over At TAG Grading 

I've met the owners and spoken with them multiple times. Compared to other grading companies, they give a full breakdown on the cards. CGC, PSA, Beckett for years have just given grades and not told people WHY they get certain grades. Resellers/collectors for the most part ONLY care about getting the highest grade possible, which does the whole collectors world a disservice because it lacks transparency across the board. And this space is extremely solidified and dominated by CGC, Beckett, CGC. They rule the space, and for any underdog to try to come in is usually instant death. They have been working on their product since 2015. Its an extremely tough space - all your questions are valid concerns, people should always voice concerns. But from what I've experienced, they are top-tier, trying to bring in technology that shows transparency instead of just hiding what they do.

Ouch. I've never sacrificed integrity or ethics since joining the hobby. Seeing this narrative is disheartening. I refuse to post anything I don't organcially decide to. I think TAG pushes the hobby forward through transparency. One conversation with the founders, and you'll see they're true collectors. They want the best for the hobby and make decisions from the collectors' eyes. Of course, I'd want to help people with this mindset. Yes, I planned on selling extra sets to invest in TAG. Ideally, this would have happened quickly, and I would have been very public about it. Unfortunately, a serious buyer backed out after diligence. The window to invest may now be closed. I've offered to help TAG as I believe they further the hobby. I've received no financial incentive, nor do I expect anything from them. They are good people doing the right thing. I've helped hundreds of people in this hobby for free. If you're a good person, advice is free. Throw me under the bus for whatever you want, but don't question my integrity. Improving the hobby is my only goal. We're already lucky that Pokemon cards went up in value. I decided I loved this hobby back when everything could have gone to zero. I'm appreciative of how many lives it's changed and how many great people are in the hobby. I don't post much, but I'm active in the hobby every day. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more in the near future. I will post my first TAG returns later today. It's the first video I've made that feels like the hobby in 2015. I stand by TAG's mission, and look forward to how they'll improve the hobby. The day I benefit from TAG, it'll be shared - I'm sure TAG will want it to be shared. Regardless, I'll continue to grade with them and probably complete a few registries. I wish communication didn't need to be like this, however I feel my integrity is being called into question.

Cool business idea. A grading machine falls under, "I'll believe it when i see it" I have no doubt AI will be the gold standard for card grading, but AI is limited by the quality of images they process. So it will be incredibly expensive to do it right. P.s. Josh deserves a lot of credit for making a video and being transparent with the history of the Zapdos, everything he did here was not to his benefit, he could've kept the card in a 10 slab and been happy with it, but he wanted to share his results with the world. Also props to TAG for owning up to this and attempting to make things right with Josh while taking accountability. At the end of the day TAG is new disruptor in this space and is constantly refining their technology to bring accuracy consistency and transparency to our hobby. This was a valuable data point for them and I'm sure it will help them perfect the technology moving forward

TAG shill here. Just some points to bring up. While it is your opinion, the evidence regarding Bassik's involvement is hearsay at best. He might be involved or he might not be. And if he is involved we don't in what capacity or degree. More evidence will be helpful in forming an informed opinion. With regards to Jesse's comments, he has stated that he's not invested in TAG as an owner. He also mentioned that he has made offers to be interviewed. I think that would be a good opportunity to find out more. I noted that on his Instagram page he has CGC slabs, would that be indicative of "pumping" CGC as well. With regards to the Illustrator card, you point out that it's not a perfect card. But there are tolerances for defects within a Gem Mint, and the fact that it's a 955 which is the low end of a Gem Mint grade, that's consistent with a defect found. You mention that the images show defects. TAG has stated in their Discord server tags while they try to produce the best images to show the cards defects, it's not perfect, certain lighting may create effects that look like damage when in fact it was just effects from the lighting. I can't conclusively say either way on this card since I've never seen it in person. For the Zapdos, you mentioned that PSA will decertify for fraud or altered cards they did not originally catch, but not for bad grades. But in an interview with Geoff Wilson, Ryan Hoge does mention they have compensated slab owners for incorrect grades and deceitful those slabs. While mistakes are unfortunate, I do appreciate the fact that their is a grading report that you can use to determine how they got the grade, if they missed something you know what they missed. Though I suspect this does not happen often. No system is perfect, but at least they have reports to be more transparent. For the Scyther card, because the report is the TAG X (1-10 scale report) , it'll show the specific "dings", but in the corner and edge section it omits the "wear" scores (CSW = corner surface wear and ESW = Edge Surface wear). These defects are more impactful to the corner and edge scores compared to fill and fray, and are presented in the TAG S (1000 point scale) reports. I agree this is confusing, but the DINGS section does a good job of highlighting the defects that lead to the decrease in grade. You can speculate if I am being paid by TAG, I tell you I'm not, but you can speculate.

isn't the automated score just a remix of Cardscore from a few years back?

Rattle, if you had to rank the 5 best grading companies, what would your list look like? Genuinely curious.

I still do not understand why Gem Mint has not disclosed his full involvement with all of this stuff. He never struck me as the guy to do things just to rake a ton of money from the hobby.

You’re out of control

Their response sounds like written by LLM 🤔

Waiting for this

Man, I really like the look of their slabs and have a couple super sentimental and valuable cards I’d put in said slab but I can’t justify using anything that’s got Sean’s hands on it

Can you a video on the NFC white border jungle cards that just were consigned with Probstein? Sketchy stuff abound with those, and the rabbit hole goes deep.

So the 1000 point scale might be to show why the grade was rounded up or lowered to the grade it was given. Is it perfect, no, but it is the beginning of a company trying to compete against the galactic empire. More evidence, no matter what, will always be better than "Just trust me, it is a 10 wait no a 9...wait...oh fuck it. Let me grade the rest of these cards so I can go home already." Side note my star wars card made it into the background of my favorite hobby detective 🤘🏻

Wait, so if someone submits 100s if not 1000s of cards to a grading company… regardless of what they are using the slabs for (may it be shitty mystery boxes) as a CUSTOMER that then means that they are working with said company?

Agree

I've never benefited from TAG grading.. well my boss works for them but they don't pay me directly... lololol What a goofy ass thing to say.

19:38 if everyone waits, they wont have a body of evidence of their efforts.

As a huge TAG supporter, you should look into and find anything sketchy and call them out. I am a huge fan of your content, and I'm all for it. A friendly reminder that the companies many of you all (in the comment section) would enjoy supporting like PSA, BGS or CGC have had many instances of employees doing legit unethical things in the hobby. The trend in just flipping PSA 10s is actually easy. That is because people can't get off the teet that feeds them. I trust a computer scanning various images and proof of imaging than some minimum waged rando that could have a bad day or easily be manipulated into giving a preferred grade. That being said, computer results can be altered, too. I have yet to see one psa card show any kind of evidence as to why it got the grade. You can find so many questionable PSA 10s on eBay, too. I will say I primarily send my PC cards to TAG and I have crossed over some PSA to TAG. I like no distracting labels, and the professional photos are nice. Keep up the work! Waiting on goat yoga video.

i watched the entire video in the background and knew beforehand about a lot of what you're mentioning, a lot of it was valid skepticism and or criticism, but most of it was ranting in bad faith and openly being ignorant while ignoring common reasoning/testemonies/facts people give or that are common knowledge...or flat out ignoring that the big 3 have had very similar scandals/slip ups but they get a free pass for it because people have their collections invested in those slabs, or that people don't openly shill for PSA and overpay on slabs when they're the most inconsistent of the big 3, are incentivized to give out higher grades, are the most expensive for the economy service (without a membership), have damaged people's cards and graded fakes before, how old certifications don't hold up to modern standards, how they intentionally control their population report, I could talk for ages about how bad of a company/service PSA but people already know it...if anything they're one of the least transparent graders out there. I just wish people would hold the big 3 as accountable as they hold all these smaller companies, and if you really want TAG to talk to you though you gotta participate in better faith man, if they haven't responded to you it's because they don't think it's gonna be a productive conversation, they're not scared or too proud to do an interview with you. I've also never graded with TAG or AGS, so it's not like I have anything to gain from talking about them, I just see them as another option, people seem to like what they're doing, but a lot of your questions you asked answered themselves too like "why not re-grade your entire collection" followed by "grading costs a lot of money", or people would just say they gave their own cards a good grade intentionally, if you don't like them just don't use their service or don't any of their slabs on the second hand market, it's really not that deep of a conversation.

the in card store grading machine sounds awesome issue with even what you showed that a dent could be seen easy is not a good sign of a good grading company so how they going to push a in store grading machine when it can not even find a well seen dent lol another fail run with poor people pushing it to be done so they can profit the case to start look like it was see through grade sticker which also looked cool but will not get any submits by me when seeing this well noted dent in card as a graded card suppose to pump up price and secure that people knows it is a true gem mint card with no possible damage done for future so i see a good reason for grading but with all i have seen i yet to find a good company that is pure on grading and works well i even sen psa 9's be sent in multiple times by others until they got a 10 which shows it is not a pure thing even with a big company

Hi Rattle Josh deserves a lot of credit for making a video and being transparent with the history of the Zapdos, everything he did here was not to his benefit, he could've kept the card in a 10 slab and been happy with it, but he wanted to share his results with the world. Also props to TAG for owning up to this and attempting to make things right with Josh while taking accountability. At the end of the day TAG is new disruptor in this space and is constantly refining their technology to bring accuracy consistency and transparency to our hobby. This was a valuable data point for them and I'm sure it will help them perfect the technology moving forward

The real question is why is Rattle pumping PSA so much? 🤔

leonhart in circles with gemmint and bassik? what a surprise! 🤣🤣

So like the N64 had "A.I." to a certain degree. Technically the treshold for "A.I." isnt exactly a difficult qualifier. Even MSN messenger had SmarterChild back in the early 2000's. TAG saying they have machines learning to be able to self identify cards via A.i. learning isnt a wrong statement. Nor is it a outlandish far out there achievement. I dont know what people consider "A.I." but its not difficult to reach that standard definition... so when you say its not AI what do you mean? If a machine can scan a surface and assign a grade and identify the card on its own, thats AI. Keep in mind AGI is an entirely different thing.

No scamming today? Whats Up with the korean umbreon? Already send to psa?

All grading companies are inconsistent that's a fact of life. As far as the market goes there are only 3 viable options. PSA BGS and CGC. In that order and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Guess AGS and TAG probably using ML for their tech

buying graded cards will always be for suckers imo idc what company its from

I pulled the signature luffy from op-05 I really don’t grade do you think I should

I had a fishy feeling about TAG. Thanks for the info

This is why I just like raw cards man… 🤷 every company has its scandals and stuff. And frankly they are ALL grading “altered” cards. There’s Channels on RU-vid now promoting card services where they will crack your slab, clean it with the gooooo, and resubmit and they brag about the bumps they get to the cards grade!! Plus raw is just always better 👍😜

Dude, you spent most of the time on this rambling and slinging unsubstantiated accusations. I stopped watching like 15 minutes in because you haven't said anything. If you don't like TAG, then just come out and say it. I personally grade with SGC.

Shame, I had Gem Mint up there with TCA. Not anymore.

I see my name popping up in the video. I currently do not own any TAG shares, I do support TAG because I love the concept and support the vision. Also the Latias Latios alt art you are talking about in the video was cracked from a new cert PSA 10 slab, I can show you receipts of everything I am saying if you don’t believe me. I have absolutely nothing to hide. I have never pumped and dumped anything in my life and have never been accused of such.

Josh deserves a lot of credit for making a video and being transparent with the history of the Zapdos, everything he did here was not to his benefit, he could’ve kept the card in a 10 slab and been happy with it, but he wanted to share his results with the world. Also props to TAG for owning up to this and attempting to make things right with Josh while taking accountability. At the end of the day TAG is new disruptor in this space and is constantly refining their technology to bring accuracy consistency and transparency to our hobby. This was a valuable data point for them and I’m sure it will help them perfect the technology moving forward.

1000/1000 bahaha

I joined a TikTok live where ppl was ripping through the tag packs selling em to ppl I said tag is garbage in their chat and they kicked me immediately I doubt it was anyone that was big in the company or anything and unfortunately I can’t remember who it was but they were doing the omega ones also

A TAG 10 version of a card will never be worth as much as a PSA 10 so why not send it to PSA unless you're being paid boatloads of money to grade with TAG. If I were TAG, I'd pay someone to buy this for $6 million just so they can out do PSA and have the highest value card

slab sharks are some clowns. they charged me 13$ shipping which i agreed to buy because it was expedited shipping. well after i won the auction on ebay they didnt ship my card for 3 weeks and that was after i messaged them asking where it was. i have them blocked on Ebay

lol I can’t believe Sean B is still trying to work in the card community. His name is MUD!!!

Actually not surprised about Zack, not saying I saw it coming or anything, but definitely not surprised.

Its sad to see Zack turn into another slimmy, money hungry person in the hobby. Man, I had sooooo much respect for him.

Rattle, love ya but 51 minutes? Too much.

A thousand scale is so stupid and i don't understand the benefit? I could maybe understand a 100 scale but even then you can just format it to be out of 10 like everyone else. What a silly thing to do.

why do ppl continue to use these rando companies 🤣🤣unless ur card is graded by one of these 3 companies it is only worth the raw price: PSA,BGS,CGC

Nothing is breaking PSA or BGS… 🤷🏻‍♂️

This might be the single dumbest video/rant I’ve ever heard regarding grading in my life… “There’s no financial benefit to grading cards” You’re right….turning a $10 card into $100+ isn’t beneficial. 🤦🏻‍♂️ 90% of this rant was just nonsense from someone who doesn’t know anything about grading or the grading process. You grade cards to increase monetary value of a card…. The very existence of card grading is to benefit financially. This was like saying you don’t go fishing to catch fish. That’s how insane this whole ideology is.

1st time watcher here. IMO... Man this vid was hard to follow. A lot of rambling and one sidedness. Ive never graded with TAG. Def not impressed with what I watched/listened to today though 👎

So, TAG is bad because of one of their affiliates (slab sharks) has bad press? I guarantee the other grading companies have a much longer history with bad affiliates…*cough* Marx Cards. Sean Bassik…you’re speculating that he’s working for TAG? Where is your proof? Where’s your proof that Gem Mint is getting a penny from TAG? You are 100% speculating. You claim he is investing in TAG. As someone who has TRIED to invest in TAG, that door is not open. As for the dent. Have you followed up with him to see if he was made whole. Again, you’re speculating. Anyway, I guess none of the other grading companies have NEVER missed a defect. With the Illustrator 10(955), that isn’t edge chipping, look at the high res pic of the card. The supposed damage is just glare from the imager. I can’t believe I wasted my time watching this.

Sad, I really love TAG slabs