I will be ready for a next bulk submission in a couple weeks and ive been torn between PSA and CGC. I do like CGC turn around times, but the difficult grading is a bit intimidating. PSA has an incredible registry and i like how they gamified it and they do it incredibly well.
Edit: a lot of great comments to read!
Is this true about cgc now giving out more 10s? I did notice a few cgc return videos recently where people were getting lots of 10s and i was thinking wow i mustve just sent trash cards or theyre grading more lenient now. I remember every youtuber was frustrated when getting their cgc returns
Like the price, like the turnaround time, like the slab, hate the label. It looks like a built-in template theme from a mid-00s version of PowerPoint. I wish very much for them to update that label to something less pedestrian.
My grievance aside, CGC is an affordable and accessible grading company Iād recommend to anybody not chasing the high cost, value-locking prestige of PSA.
Are you grading for resale purposes? If so, PSA is probably the correct answer. If youāre grading for personal collection purposes, then the answer is going to vary depending on your preferences.
I will say this re: the registry ā CGC has a fantastic registry system, too.
Apparently (citation needed) theyre the only ones as of current catching the ācard cleaningā services and rejecting them. Their obvious change in their grading metrics as of recent is a pretty bad look though with far more cards getting higher grades (9.5s and 10s) as of recent than cards months prior since they started grading cards. Obviously they are cheaper and faster than PSA right now which is another pro. Purely for encapsulation/protection Id go with CGC but PSA is still the far safer bet as of current.
Although this is all coming from someone who buys 0 graded cards lol.
Also as a side not, yall are way to lenient on PSAs labels. If PSA was a new grading company right now, itād get shit on for its label. No grading company has come out with an amazing label design yet imo.
Buying:
CGC pre-pop report are great buys.
CGC post-pop report is a toss up.
Grading:
CGC is only worth my money for grading errors. They do actual science and I respect them for that.
Selling:
Broke many slabs and regraded with PSA. Wish I didnāt sell the ones I did as they could have easily pulled higher grades with PSA. Live and learn
One of their paid consultants approached them about changing the label, and their response was, āwe are the leading sellers of comics, our label is fineā.
I donāt personally like CGC, but I understand why some people used them. Their turnaround times and prices attracted a lot of people for a while while PSA was getting caught up.
Now that PSA has nearly matched them in pricing ($15 special, whereas CGC is $15 per card unless you have the $300 membership), itās basically just turnaround time. As PSA continues to lower turnaround times, I feel like that will really solidify that point. If PSA does ever reach $10 grading, I donāt see how CGC could maintain their $15 price.
Anyway there are always going to be people who just actually prefer one company over the other, but I think there are a large number of people who just did what made sense to them at the time for turnaround time or resale value. Thatās changing pretty quickly. Thereās a reason CGCās turnaround time for bulk is one week, and itās not because theyāre magically efficient.
Psa turnaround time will vary with demand it says it. Id prefer 1 week than who knows when lol. At the moment cgc is settled and psa is trying to be settled. Its great having 2 choices because if one pushes too hard people can go the other way.
I like their label for some things but not as much as PSA. I do collect CGC 9.5 cards for modern stuff in my collection older than ~ 2018. But most set cards for this and if its a higher end card or a japanese promo of 200+ value I always will go PSA. For instance the Vaporeon V alt from eevee heros Iād prolly get in CGC 9.5. any water card or semi blue card looks really good with CGC.
I like the clarity and feel of the CGC slab. The label as others mention is a love/hate thing. I think it looks really good with some cards, but potentially really bad with others. I have found the grading to be pretty solid at the upper grades, all though some people have been concerned about the recent change in standards regarding 10s.
I think that overall theyāre built a better reputation among Pokemon collectors than BGS ever has. The other advantage is CGC & BGS both offer a couple of unique things for most modern collectors, which is Pristine/Perfect/Black Label grades. These to me are great for modern collecting because they can stand out compared to PSA 10 Gem, and Iāve seen them often sell for more than PSA 10s.
With this said, I think PSA is still going to remain the dominant grader especially for re-sale among most grades. Majority of Pokemon collectors still prefer PSA and because of this youāll always have more potential buyers for PSA it seems due to reptutation and amount of slabs graded by PSA.
So overall, I think it just depends what youāre after as a collector. Personally, I have found solid value in CGC 9.5s and up for getting a nice clean card in my collection in some cases much cheaper than a PSA 10 of the same card. For example, I bought a CGC 9.5 Gem Base 2 Charizard for around 1/15 the price of the PSA 10 Gem which still had minor print lines and I didnāt feel the need to spend so much more on it. This is just one example though, the majority of the time I will go for the PSA 10 in any given card, but still have found good value in the 9.5+ range as well for certain cards.
I agree that the clarity of the CGC slab is superior to the foggy PSA slab. The CGC label also has more space to cut down on abbreviations, as compared to limitations to the PSA label.
And anyone thinking the blue CGC looks hideous, the PSA has barely changed since it was created dozens of years ago, and itās beyond dated.
Yet they quickly jumped ship from the original labels with CSG and the new ones look outstanding IMO.
Makes no sense that they donāt change CGCās. Maybe they want to have all of their collectibles to have the same label and sports to have a different one?
The thing is CGC never really experienced competition and many hardcore CGC graders had literally never graded anything before CGC offered a card grading service. CGC was their first grading experience so to them CGC is as old and reputable as PSA. This is fine to believe if you want, but the people you want/expect to shell out their hard earned cash on slabs simply do not feel this way and never will. The good olā ākids might grow into cgc collecting, just like kids will grow into modernā is flawed because kids generally dont want slabs. Or at least they are not the target demographic. As common as a slabbed pokemon card has become (Massively thanks to CGC) we need to recognize that a slabbed card still represents maybe 5% of the pokemon buyer pool. To limit this already limited buyer pool into a smaller limited pool is a dangerous game if you have not done a LOT of research and are ready and willing to take the risk.
No company can compete if PSA is now offering the same service for the same price. I see a lot of scrambling from people overflowing with big blues. Its almost as if they had no idea what would happen when the industry leader decides it wants its market back.
Do we know what certs are the pre-pop report ones? Iāve got quite a few starting with ā38ā and Iām fairly certain many of those are pre-pop report.
For what I think about CGC slabs, I see a lot of popular cards still sell at similar prices to PSA slabs. Post-pop report, Iāve seen some questionable CGC 10s and even a questionable CGC perfect. Also, CGC perfects are selling no where near a BGS black label. Maybe the Perfect label is too similar to the normal label and buyers are missing them, but Iāve been seeing CGC perfects sell for about 2-4x a PSA 10, so not very much more.
I personally like the slabs. They look very clean, they feel sturdy, and it is easy to inspect the cards inside. For my PC, I like to buy slabs, and I am willing to pay similar price to PSA graded slabs.
PSA still commands a higher price in general, but I think CGC is here to stay long term and itāll always stay in the ātop 3ā. Value-wise, Iāll probably still consider any slabs from the top 3 similarly.
Weāve all seen our fair share of questionable graded cards from the top 3 grading companies. The industry is still pretty old school and is highly based on history and reputation, but CGC has been in the grading scene for a long time already. They seem very serious about capturing the tcg and sports card grading industries.
