State of GRADING: Inside Scoop on PSA, SGC, BGS & How to Profit! 

Hey Geoff why don’t you get Jeremy Lee or the Founder of TAG on the show and ask them these questions. Or do a video with them at the Burbank Show.

SGC has always been the most strict on their grading since day one! Corners....centering....edges..etc Psa over the years has been all over the place , for example, back in 1999 I had purchased a psa 10 1976 walter payton rookie which had on both sides a fuzzy rough cut, I was in shock and hated the appearance after a few days of thinking about it and flipped it quick, maybe gets a 9 these day's honestly. Ive even seen 9's by psa with dinged corners smh. Bgs and SGC ALL THE WAY!

For me being back in the hobby just over a year after a 20 year absence the whole hobby at times still boggles me. Nothing more so then grading. I've submitted cards to both SGC and PSA. What's irritating to me is the infatuation with PSA. For being the "best" in the hobby so to speak. A lot of that weight is based on the resale value of a PSA slab vs other companies. I've seen so much inconsistencie with PSA not to mention the return time. It's kind of a joke. I can submit to SGC have my cards back in 2-3 weeks not get upcharged to have autos graded. It blows my mind that PSA has some how become industry standard. For me a graded card from a reputable grading company is no different. Whether it's PSA,SGC,or Beckett. Just my 2 cents. Appreciate all you do for the hobby. ❤❤

The reason BGS isn't handing out 10's like candy is because 10's ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RARE! PSA has watered down the market by flooding it with 10's to get more customers and money. We as hobby consumers need to be aware of cause and effect in our hobby. I'm with BGS....a PRISTINE is actually the true name for perfection as opposed to just Gem Mint and Mint.

Good stuff, always good hearing from a veteran of the hobby.

Sgc won’t be a great until they have their registry back and better than before. Bgs has the best holder. I guess the question is what caused people to give psa cards a premium. My guess was the fact they would slab 60/40 centered cards a 10 which bgs and sgc would not do. Somehow off centered 10 was more valuable then a centered 9 from other companies. Glad psa has changed that practice. Either way, i am small cookies to the market and will go with affordable grading vs overpriced long wait submissions. If sgc can do 18 a card i would definitely go that way. I miss their 5 to 10 dollar submissions from back in the day.

The “BGS is inferior to PSA” argument is pure propaganda. It was started and spread mostly by RU-vid influencers. PSA is giving kickback to these folks either in the form of monetary compensation or favorable treatment when they use their grading services. Any time you see an influencer that is preaching PSA over and over in their videos, call them out. Understand it for what it is and make a fool of them. If you are at shows, make their experience uncomfortable. This hobby needs to weed this garbage out. We need competition amongst graders, card manufacturers, supply companies, etc. RU-vid influencer groups that push only one agenda are detrimental to the overall health of the hobby.

PSA has a knack for ruining the value of cards. I got a grader who loved the number 4. Mid-life cards RU-vidr posted a video of cards that mostly graded 3s and 4s. PSA, never again.

Seeing the huge $6m display of 30 PSA 10 Jordan Fleer 57s framed together at the national, it was sort of shocking how much better some 10s are than others. Some were just clearly off centered for instance. It really lowered my opinion of PSA 10s.

Recently got a storage unit full of cards ranging from Michael Jordan rookies, to Kobe Bryant rookies and many other football and baseball legends, is there a way to bring in a collection to get graded? Or do I have to fill out the forms on PSA and send in each individual card?

Reducing the price of grading is useless if cards are under-graded (i. e. PSA 3 instead of PSA 5).

I'm new to all this, and this is exactly one of the videos I was looking for to get a snapshot of the industry right now (or a month ago rather), but overall still a great snapshot overview. Thank you for this!!

Joe, if I send you 20 cards and after pre-screening only 19 cards are worth sending in, would I still get the grading fee for $20 per card or now since it's less then 20 cards (19 with 1 rejected) would I be upcharged??

Pissing contest between psa and sgc for lowest grading. Tobacco cards graded on a 1-5 scale, realistically. I started collecting in 1981 and don't ever remember there being a problem judging the condition of a card. And I think that is backed by the fact that now people are talking about "eye appeal" as opposed to the actual grade, which at this point is so arbitrary it has little to do with how a card looks to the human eye. When they started slabbing cards I told psa to their face that I felt like they were ruining the hobby, and 30 years later I don't think I was wrong.

@21:24 This is absolutely true. I remember how in the early 2000’s, Gretzky rookies in BGS or BVG slabs carried a premium over PSA.

Personally, I don't see the value of using a 3rd party / middle-layer for submissions. However, I deal in bulk of 50-500 cards more so than single cards or small quantities. I heard horror stories of 3rd party submitters disappearing and the cards you give them are under their ownership name, so if you ever try to go through the grading companies, they'll tell you flat out they don't know you and have no record of you and their relationship is with whomever you used and they can't share any information. I've heard suspicions at times of customers sending submission companies cards and the cards come back a lower grade with accusations by submitters of card swaping. True or not, you can avoid that issue completely by sending your own submissions yourself and establishing your relationship with the companies. The value or any upside using a 3rd party submitter is negated by the potential downside in my opinion.

Joe Davis and his staff is such a pleasure to do business with

Wealth of knowledge and experience shared here. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to what comes next.

i wish people would take in Rare edition .. the cases look clean and the security on them is top notch and with the QR CODE you can see why the card got that grade with pictures

I did not see an address to send my submission to for the pre screening. Can anyone help me with this info, I would love to try this service thanks

Do any of these grading companies also do comics or do I go straight to CGC

Quick topic, if grading prices are not coming down, what will be the long term affect on graded set building? I assume 1975 and earlier, but no modern sets unless already high end.

PSA has changed too much. Perfect cards getting head scratching grades

Geoff you mentioned you shipped directly to PSA, why did you choose in that case not to use bulk submission service of Joe's? Thanks.

Soooooo, was this just a commercial for Joe's shop?

CSG can't break into the sports card market because they grade modern cards too harshly. You can't evaluate a paper card from 1990 the same as a chrome card from 2023. CSG doesn't understand that.

😂 it’s not like Beckett was on top for a little bit. They were the top grader for like 10+ years. Clearly taking a backseat now, but a lot of high end cards still go there, because it’s a fraction of the grading cost vs PSA.

Nice discussion. PSA is in a good situation right now with roughly 1 million graded cards per month with the current price structure. I agree that prices are not coming down, at least for the immediate future. The question is who is #2? Beckett and SGC are solid and have a good history. Boy, Pokemon is for real.

Completed last 3 submissions with Joe. 2 PSA and 1 SGC. They do an amazing job and PSA return time was under 2 months thru them. Prefer Joe over going direct. Free shipping and insurance is $1 per $100 if you want to add.

Beckett did make it clear on the 9.5 gem mint thing quite fast. it was all mentioned on Instagram after the surveys went out a few days later. Why you didnt catch it Geoff i dont know.

I think part of the bigger issue is the difference in price from a 9 to a 10 may need 2 be examined !!! PSA can't give every card a 10 and seem 2 be protective of some cards pop! ...I have 9s that are clearly flawless and have 10s that are not! ...It is a fine line !! Not faulting because I wonder if I could handle the pressure of having so many peoples extra money of even livelihoods in the palm of my hand!??? People need 2 understand the risk of sending a card off and educate themselves on if it is worth it !!! It is a gamble !! I just think we need 2 get some of the pricing down if possible !!??? In my opinion it would pay off for PSA and we in the community would see a vast many cards getting graded and protected !! I really think 10 a card isn't 2 much 2 ask 4! It would only expand PSA!

I believe that online auctions need to stop and a company like beckett price guides should be the true value for the cards or like tuff stuff use to be. With tuff stuff and beckett u also got starting lineup and mcfarlane prices and that should stabilize the market.

Bring back Joe Orlando and the 15 free grades and cheaper grading fees

I always buy SGC or BGS for PC cards cause they are usually cheaper althought not by much when im buying. However i do notice over time that PSA always holds the value of the card while the other brands dont ... so the gap of what they are worth widens .Very weird to me considering its common knowledge they grade their cards at least as tough. Crossovers would do quite well to PSA.

Hello Geoff, my question is , my father in-law past away two years ago and had many baseball cards in boxes and folders. im not a collector but i would like to get the best prices for theses cards. i looked uop some of them and found out that he hade a lot of cards worth a lot of money. can you maybe direct me to the best way to get rid of the cards or should i hold on to them?

Geoff - Vintage Card SGC 5.5 or a PSA 6?

Two topics I would have liked to see you cover-1. Fanatics buying a grading company. 2. Inconsistencies of grading at PSA and other companies including if standards are getting tougher. This was too much of An advertisement for me.

How about checking out HGA. They seem to be known for grading "doubtful" cards. I have one that many have told me was a fake. Any thoughts?

Hey Jeff you should do a video on pricing like you pay to send a card un but you have to pay more if it's a psa 10 like how much you would have to pay and things like that it would help beginner that why they know and I think sgc would be good for beginner to send cards in

The fact that a PSA 10 and a bgs 9.5 are that far apart, but like this guy said “the grading is very similar”…. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU PEOPLE?!??! IT IS STUPIDITY TO BUY PSA! why would you pay double for the same card, just because of its slab? The clock is ticket on that stupidity. Markets always work that out, ALWAYS. I personally don’t give a shit about either company, I care about making good purchases. I see no difference in bgs 9.5 and PSA 10 as a whole, individually, yes, I see discrepancies periodically. I do think Beckett is way harder on centering and surface and PSA is harder on corners and edges. Also, people always seem to mislead about sgc vs Beckett, b see Beckett sales higher than sgc. Lastly, I believe there is a bubble in 10s. A 9 should not be 6 to 7 times less than a 10. The population difference, often doesn’t warrant that at all. Basically, I think it’s foolish to buy a PSA 10. Best Buy is a sgc 9.5 Second Best Buy is a bgs 9.5 Third Best Buy is a sgc 9 Fourth Best Buy is a bgs 9

Grading is good....the problem is it's too expensive similar to hobby and blaster boxes. We continue to pay as we do for everything we want i.e gas,groceries etc.. needs to go back to sub 10 dollars.

Great info guys. Thank you!

My issue is that when PSA has a $15 special why use a bulk submitter who will charge $20? If they can narrow that margin it might be worth it

Great valuable info.

Even high end Vintage tends to be much closer than most think comparing sgc to psa. In fact sgc has held the record not only now but several times in the past

TAG or Bust. Get the Human Factor of Favors for Favorites out of the equation. Most grading is bogus. You Mr Geoff Wilson are a proponent of proving grading is BS when you crack slabs and resubmit until you get a "numbah" you want. What Crap!

Too many inconsistent grades, people crack, break, send to other service, get back, different grade, crack again, and send back to original grader....by then, who has any clue what so ever what happens.... just viewed a video, gentleman swears he got the wrong card back... people getting back cards damaged.... I'm just a collector... I contemplate sometimes sending one, one of my 93 finest Griffey refractors for grading. The get ahold of you Joe.... I would be able to improve my pc....

I only grade with tag 👍🏻

I used to use PSA exclusively. Now I almost exclusively use SGC bc I like the turnaround time, and I trust their consistency and accuracy

How does Got Baseball Cards get better pricing, better turn around time and better grades than everyone else?

nice interview and great info

PSA turn around did improve but recently they have been taking longer again.

SGC may be the price of what PSA will be a few months after a new release, but early PSA is worth way more than PSA will be a few months after a new release. PSA is super rare in those first months, and the ones that exist cost a fortune to grade with a short turnaround time.

He's wrong about PSA prices not coming down. There's a really high flux of TCG cards that are fueling them right now that shouldn't be sustainable. Low-end and mid markets in basketball/football have collapsed. There's no more sending in Bol Bol prizms, unless you want your ass handed to you, and that's only a select few people, who will eventually figure it out after they've lost enough money. People are becoming more and more selective of what they send, fewer and fewer vintage and 90s cards are being graded after the pandemic rush, and TCG won't continue printing money...... all downward forces on the maximum PSA grading capacity.

Hello Gents, I love this episode/interview with very good points ...Loving it... Thank you.. As a sidebar: can I request a soccer/futbol episode to discuss the new crazy Saudi moves going on with those petro $$$$.. I would love to discuss further more.. Thanks again Geoff for all the great content!!! Cheers from California.

SGC in my opinion, provide better service and cards really pop with their slabs.

I think BGS should drop the 9.5 and make them all 10’s no matter the sub grades. You’d have a gem mint, pristine, and black label. It’s streamlined and would make most the hobby happy.

HERE ARE SOME FACTS - I got my 228 card submission two days ago. They were all lower end cards that I only subbed because they should all get 10’s. Two of us inspected them with magnifying glasses and we were extremely picky. So 228 out of 1000 minty cards went in. SIX came back fives with really bad bent bottom left corners. Obviously PSA did that while in their possession, this is FACT. I also got 68 THAT graded seven or eight. Some look flawless in the slab. Some you could see some corner issues, which did not exist when I sent them in. 40 of them were Michael Jordan cards and it sure as heck seems like they don’t want to give those tens very often. I believe they hired people to unpackaged the cards to handle the volume and they are not careful at all. I also believe the graders jam through the cards as fast as they can, and if it is not a chromium ultramodern, they’re typically going to throw an eight or nine on the card if it looks really good. All in all, PSA needs to get their act together. Hire people who are OCD who will handle the cards the way we collectors do, even if that means longer turnaround times.

@The Geoff Wilson Show - If I send in a card to PSA under their 40 tier & it grades a 10 & is now worth over 2 million, are they going to charge me thousands to get it back?

If I buy an SGC 10, will I regret it? It is less than half price of a PSA 10

How do u feel about computers, grading cards

The value I get from TAG's service is light years from what I get from PSA or SGA.

I would also like to know why I received a certain grade on a card unless it's a 10. Some of these standards really do need to change industry wide.

I was hoping to hear about the value of BGS 10's vs PSA 10's

Agreed

PSA this year has been terrible for turn around. I have one submission that has been there since February.

Can anyone tell me about GMA please

Great content as always

If you submit through a bulk submitter if the card isn’t serial numbered how do you know if your getting your exact card back. So many shady people out there I’d rather pay whatever to submit myself.

the obvious next step to this discussion is whether those wealthy enough to purchase all the lower priced BGS/SGC/CGC slabs are laughing their asses off at how easy it is to print money by cracking slabs, submitting to PSA and then reselling?? I wasn't near my phone yesterday's but a CGC Conor Bedard in "PRISTINE 10" went for a steal at $92 ...same kind in PSA10 is currently at $305 with 14hrs to go 🤷 smh!! I may get into this practice tbh but the risk of losing $500+ by the errent cracking of a slab puts me off 😱

Beckett would not be asleep at the wheel if Jim still owned it. The good will associated with the Beckett brand has slowly dried up since jim sold. In fact your an interesting part of the story. You have passed Beckett in price discovery the same aspect which they built there empire upon.

I'm absolutely going to use these guys for my next submission. Great vid

There needs to be a standard for ALL grading companies to go by. The only thing they are going to be fighting over is pricing. This way everyone that sends in cards for grading know that cards are all being graded the same way by ALL companies.

TAG should be the standard for grading. They have the technology. It's the future.

Pop control is out of control now ,PSA will not give a 10 on 89 Griffey Jr now

Thanks

Card trimmer Jason Koontz friend of the channel.

I see all the future grading companies will be like tag grading

I'd like to know why grading cost so damn much.

I couldn’t part ways from my cards for two months. Will stick to raw.

Psa rules because of the set registry... why didn't they talk about that

And why don't you think PSA should or will just aquire the smaller grading companies

PSA needs to lower their prices to

All you PSA fan boy's. The most iconic card '52 Mantle the best know copy is in a SGC slab. The 3 PSA 10's that exist look like ass compared to it.

First

One day… one grading company and no more slab opening for profits. Slabs should have a security tampering seal. The public would feel more confident.

timestamps would make this video amazing

Still have my original case sgc cards and Beckett cards only sent 10 into psa one was my 86 bonds Tiffany with a 1/2 inch crease on the back it got a 9 I guess a surface wrinkle so I thought psa didn’t grade backs of cards I stoped buying psa in the 90’s

They up charges are way too high. Some cards have dropped are they lowering there up charges.

Second

Geoff! 💩 Ask Nat Turner - Get me those Nat Turner Friends & Family PSA 10-Grade Discounts! Give em’ out to someone else besides himself!!! Spread that PSA Population Control love….. 💩 💯

SGC all the way! PSA slabs look bleh! SGC slabs make any cards look awesome! The black background doesn't clash with any color. They look like museum pieces. My whole PC is SGC

Geoff did your facebook get hacked.

The market is psa

I think I would actually pay a little more for an actual written report.

I love sgc fast equals $

100% disagree that cards look better in a PSA slab than a one touch, or any other clear permanent protector.

Why is a 5000$ card much more expensive to grade then a 50 dollar card? Its the same process. I call Bull Sheet.

In the mid 90's nobody gave af about graded cards. It made your card look ugly. Nobody wanted it. Raw was > Graded... Having said that, I should have scooped up all the Jordan rookies for $600 / piece (not a typo)

TAG Grading. That’s the future.