TAG also measures “chronology” (i.e., what date the card was graded, how many were graded before/after) and rank by using its 1,000 point scale. Here’s an example of their report: TAG Portal
Below are images from that report, but I would recommend looking at the full webpage.
If I had to guess, I would assume that this company’s main goal is to sell out to one of the big three grading groups. They are aggressively patenting (4 utility patents, 134 claims), which would be necessary for a serious buyout. Their board is full of wealthy individuals who have experience in building and (most importantly) selling businesses.
I could care less about their unique grading criteria or use of technology. Their reports are very detailed and perhaps overwhelming for the average consumer. UV- and scratch-resistant acrylic cases are an interesting choice, though I don’t know how effective they would be as the % UV protection is not clearly listed.
Thoughts? Do you think they offer something unique? Could/Should their technologies/approach be used by one of the larger companies?
Disclaimer: It goes without saying, but I have no financial or personal relationships with this company or their board.
I’ve seen a couple marvel cards graded with them but nothing yet in hand. Thoughts are label and case seems fine and the tech is obviously interesting even though I don’t think it will ever work for true vintage. They aren’t cheap, or fast, and they hardly grade anything. When they come out of alpha/beta it will be a different story but for now it’s just a story
Reproducibility with grading is something that is VERY hard to do, but this seems to be the best approach I’ve seen. If this is fully automated then if changes are ever made to the algorithm they could send every scan back through the new algorithm and you would never face the issue of “XXX era certs were graded harsher” etc. I’m very curious to see where this goes.
I just went to the Burbank card show this past Friday and they had a huge booth. The slab has no label/paper inside, and the details look to be etched onto the slab itself, but contained within the material of the slab. Not sure how to word that, but hopefully my comment makes sense lol… After seeing it, I was thinking how it might be hard to try and fake one of these slabs, but obviously I’m no expert.
I like the details they give on the condition of the cards. But, I feel like in the grading world, bulk graders only care about getting the easier 10’s and maximizing sell value. I just don’t see these big bulk graders wanting to use this grading company. Also, reputation in the grading scene looks to be extremely hard to earn, so it’ll be interesting to see how they try and approach the market
Honestly I tried to navigate that page and I couldn’t understand anything lmao.
Super confusing and overwhelming af, considering that the average consumer probably doesn’t even care about subgrades.
So I agree with the moneygrabbing/sell out hypothesis.
If the label is really transparent or etched on the plastic then It would be nice to see one in person. Very mild interest though.
At the risk of irritating people with self promotion, this is quite a nice thread to jump in and direct eyes to a project/company I, along with a small group of others (+ an incredibly intelligent dev team) have launched. We enlisted the minds of many domain experts in deep/machine learning and computer vision.
We have focused our efforts on Pokemon from the outset. It’s simply where my brother and I’s passion has been since kids.
We are quite literally on the precipice of launching and our site is fully functioning with the exception of a payment bug which should be fixed this week.
I can’t thank @quuador enough for allowing me to bug him relentlessly over the years for very obscure card release information.
Hoping we’re of value to some here. Our company is Mantis Grading.
I missed seeing this topic 6 months ago but Id guess some kind of strong promotional campaign. Ive seen more posts the past 30days that dont exactly come off as authentic on reddit. Nothing direct but suspicious the way the posts are phrased and presented. Havent actually gotten my hands on one though to see if the slab physically appeals to me, I do like how they do the labels and a thorough grading report.
I got one card cause it was cheap. The case is pretty nice and the grading I found to be accurate. Couldn’t read anything on the label though since it’s white on transparent. Ended up sending it for cross grading
TAG’s slabs look nice but what I’m more interested in is seeing some innovation and competition in the industry. IF TAG were to blow up, that would show PSA that people want more than just a label with a number.
