Note: this topic branched off from this discussion: "Papa... What was pokemon collecting like during 2020-2023?"
If you dont know SGC, You are not credible in the world of trading cards.
Sorry, we dont do english commons. or sell english cards on ebay or mystery packs.
PSA and SGC is the way to go right now.
I’ve heard of them 
But seriously they should pay you for all the leg work you put in for their advertising. Though on e4 you’d have better luck pitching a home grading company than sgc,
God speed
people are grading nice vintage with CGC, i would think that is way worse. I used CGC at the very beginning, so actually sub with them. CGC is horrible for the consumer. Too many changes and the current problems this week makes for another change in the near future. SGC is taking pokemon market share from CGC.
I am not connected, stuck, tunnel visions to any one TPG . If PSA went back to 1 year TAT and CGC was 1 month TAT with $7.20 bulk , i would go with CGC. Right now SGC is the best value and PSA is blowing thru TAT .
I do what is good for me, not the Grading company, being blindly loyal is only doing the TPG favors.
It is what it is.
CGC is king. I notice that is what people on this forum want to hear.
CGC best ROI. Best consistent grading. Best of the best.
PSA sucks
SGC sucks.
feel sorry for some of you. really sorry.
I think we go to different E4s
I can’t speak for anyone else but I’ve always had positive experiences with sgc. Even when they still did the green label, they were consistent. No surprise they surpassed bgs last year in cards graded. With that said I don’t see much of a need in pokemon outside of undercutting PSA for cheaper cards.
Omega = CGC
only mint = SGC
same difference.
worry about your own cards.
Ok Buckaroo
No one even mentions SGC because of how irrelevant they are. Would be weird to see them trash talked.
Dont need to worry about SGC, yet.
CGC was a irrelevant company when ii graded with them at the beginning. Now CGC is a known gimmick. Time to move on.
Just be ahead of the curve might be the right way to get a head start on the sheep.
The problem for SGC is that they have been around for a long time without showing signs of interest in scaling. They haven’t applied any resources into PR, Marketing, Research, social/Ip/branding partnerships whatsoever. They’re like the old grandpa that hands you their cell phone and asks how to email/send a text.
It’s hard for anyone to take them seriously or invest in a ton of cards being slabbed with them as a future prospect when they seem content with their aging-out, 1950s-80s baseball card collector target-demographic of patrons.
Trash talk CGC all you want but they entered the market for slabbing cards only a couple of years ago and have taken a sizeable chunk of business away from PSA and BGS. They’ve taken a lot of risks, and while some of them didnt pan out like harsh af initial grading for “gem mint 9.5” instead of 10s, some of it has helped them break into markets where BGS or PSA showed themselves to be tone-deaf or completely inept to the needs and wants of large swaths of collectors such as the Offcenter/Miscut/Error community. They’ve also been willing to authenticate (become a financial guarantor via insured value) cards that PSA have shown themselves to be complete cowards on slabbing - such as Art Academy cards which has frustrated some of the illustrators who were paying their way through school because perhaps 1-2 priviledged artists that never had to sell any of their cards cried big crocodile tears when a couple of factory test prints of their cards entered the market and were immediately purchased by high end collectors.
So, I feel like if you want to bet on anyone, you go with the brand making waves. Yes they’re on a learning curve and getting some bad press along the way, but they’re also getting good press and, as the saying goes “any press is good press”
There are a lot more cards that I would personally send to PSA vs CGC. But there are plenty of cards to send to CGC that makes me happy that they’re around and growing. If nothing else; they’ve applied pressure to BGS and PSA to improve and stay on their toes instead of getting complicit and price gouging.
Did you see the latest stats on CGC. They probably bleeding bad right now. Mostly likely down scaling . Subs are down, especially sports. They already closed csg. Pokemon would be way down if CGC did not sell their soul to the OMEGA rubish.
SGC is just starting the campaign to eat away at CGC pokemon share. I know alot of Pokemon sellers and collectors shifting to SGC and that is just people i know.
CGC is on a downward spirl like BGS. If you though BGS had bad practices, CGC is worse.
I still sub to CGC , but shifted the 95% CGC level cards to SGC . THey get the same ROI , so it just make sense. SGC actually outsells CGC right now.
Any stats on CGC market share are limited to less than a handful of years. It’s not a good datapoint to be knee-jerk reactive to. They entered the market at an extremely intelligent/calculated timeframe when PSA and BGS were sticking it to collectors with unjustifiably, inexcusable return frames. PSA was forced to shut down and do their due diligence in building and staffing up to meet the demand.
The covid lag times, the hype spike on pricing, the “investor” flipper hoard is now all behind us. Of course there is a slippage in annual numbers, but the company is showing resilience and most importantly, they remain in everyone’s radar due to their marketing, collabs, and events. Even now, they are the on-site company offering grading and slabbing services to everyone attending the Arita signing event in Hawaii this weekend. They’re hustlers, and as much shit as I give them and still see largely more value in slabbing with PSA, I can’t deny their impact or a need for them with plenty of cards that PSA and BGS have proven themselves failures at handling.
As for SGC, its as I said, they’ve been around forever but just refuse to get with the times. They’re like America Online as an internet provider tripling down on dialup when everyone is actively switching to broadband and other high speed options. Unless they have a changing of the guard in how they operate and seek out new business, I would not invest in their slabs unless you plan on selling off those slabs quick for a small profit vs holding long-term
there is no talking to this guy. Hes just ahead of the curve. Us sheep could never see the light that dozens of 50$ modern junk sgc 10s will bring. Honestly its a blessing that he even used his highly valuable time to constantly remind us that a grading company that has been doing nothing for over a decade is about to explode
You never know, if they get bought out or hire someone that knows wtf they’re doing, they could find success seemingly overnight like CGC did after adding the card grading arm to their division of services.
But that’s some wallstreetbets smallbrain aping to invest in right now when they’ve been all but dormant and irrelevant for so long. Unless this guy has some insider trading lvl information about this company, I dont see anything changing with them any time soon.
This image was shared in another thread:
Sgc already passed beckett in total items graded. The 29% stat is “getting with the times”. Sgc is also 2nd in grading sports cards, where cgc has no presence in sports. I just wouldn’t be surprised if tcg numbers increase or become comparable to bgs or cgc. Especially since sgc does a lot more than modern junk slabs:
I think CGC not entering the sports market yet shows more room for growth than SGC continuing to lean heavily in sports as always. Just looking at their website and social shows a token 1st ed base zard image with just about everything else being football and baseball imagery.
Still, that’s an impressive metric for the past year… but for as long as they’ve been around, it’s still crazy to me that CGC could be a “leader” over them in like 3 years of operating.
What have they really done to “get with the times” other than showcasing an increase of slabbing? IE has there been any service, marketing, or quality control changes that just hasn’t reached my collector bubble yet?
The problem with mickey mantles and babe ruths are that the collectors age out. Maybe not the biggest names from 60-80 years ago, but certainly the bulk. Younger gens arent going to be buying fistfulls of older players they didnt grow up with. So, either they are simply competing with the newer slab sports market and finding their increased slab numbers there, or they’re doing something with pokemon that the majority of people haven’t been seeing yet.
we were talking tcg presence
