Sports Card Grading In 2021
March 10, 2021To pull back the curtain a bit, I was never one to be into grading until I started taking selling seriously these last few years. I’ve learned it is important as a buyer and seller to know what you are getting or giving with the higher end cards to eliminate any doubt in an online transaction when you can’t see the card in person. As a collector, I’ve found there are certain cards that I want slabbed either as show pieces, or just to protect some of my favorites. I won’t try to tell you there is a right way or wrong way to approach your collection or how you flip cards, but there are facts to back up why certain grading strategies have led to millions of cards sitting in line waiting to get graded.
As a collector in the 90’s/early 2000s, grading cards was a bit like a unicorn or sasquatch. I had heard rumors about grading cards, but never took the plunge because I was afraid to send my card off to some random address. The first graded card I owned was an early 2000s Grant Hill card. I went to my LCS after working a shift delivering pizza in high school and paid the crazy $50 price (seems like a steal in 2021) for 1 pack which included a single graded card. I can’t remember the name of the set, but remember I got a BGS 8.5 Grant Hill. Needless to say I wasn’t hooked on getting my collection graded after that pull…
Grading has obviously taken off the early 2000s and I have not only purchased cards from all 3 of the top grading companies, but also submitted cards to all 3 of the top grading companies. But how have we gotten to a point where there are MILLIONS of cards sitting waiting to be graded all over the country?
Hello COVID-19
Even before the COVID boom of sports cards, we saw a massive influx of graded cards into the re-sale market and the demand to have cards slabbed increase dramatically these last few years. A few factors for this increase in demand could be due the increased value of a graded card that came back a 9 or 10, the desire to have your valuable or favorite cards encapsulated or the streamlined method of getting a card graded by group subs and/or easy to use websites. Companies have been built on group submissions that specialize in reviewing, cleaning and submitting cards for their customers. There is actually a face to the name of who you are sending your most prized cardboard to!
The COVID curve ball certainly flipped everything on its head. Grading companies were not able to work as efficiently as they had in the past due to a limited workforce, delays in materials from their supply chain and then being overwhelmed by the amount of cards being sent in to be graded. The last factor is key here. I believe, and this has been indirectly confirmed by recent price increases from the Top 3 grading companies, that the amount of low value cards being sent in to be graded are causing massive delays and ultimately increasing prices from the grading companies. Yes, you are able to send in WHATEVER you want to get graded, but the recent price increases are not a product of greed from the grading companies. The increases are to limit the backlog of cards being sent in to be graded on a daily basis to bring lead times back down to a reasonable time frame.
Grading used to be meant for the higher end cards. Somewhere along the line, the hobby felt the need to grade every base card around and not just the rare and high valued cards, in order to maximize their profit margins. This has led to an overwhelming amount of cards being sent in and the 12+ month lead times. By pricing out some of these lower valued cards that would never sell for less than the grading cost (I know from buying a lot of those under $10 at auction) it SHOULD detract people from ripping a blaster box and sending in a 2020 Prestige Devante Parker base card to try and flip. Now if you want that Devante Parker card for your PC, I’m not talking to you because you are probably only sending in one or two cards. No, I’m talking to the guy waiting at Wal-Mart for three hours just to take home three blasters and grading everything they pull out of those blasters. The money losing strategy is why we are in the position we are now when it comes to getting your cards graded. Simply put, there is no affordable way to get at $1 card graded and you are losing money if you are spending $100 to that $1 card graded.
So where do we stand today on sports card grading?
First, the good and the bad of the top grading companies:
- Current lead times at PSA are over a year, but they are the most popular slab by far. They have always offered a premium product and the re-sale prices reflect that.
- BGS is similar in turnaround time to PSA at an estimated 8 months for economy. I’m not a huge fan of their slab. It’s very bulky and has sharp corners and edges, though it’s reassuring to know that it can probably survive a plane crash. Beckett is legendary in the industry, so you know they have the experience behind the name.
- SGC may seem like a new company, but they have been one of the most reputable graders in vintage sports cards for over 20 years. They took advantage of being a small company that can make changes on the fly and stayed open during the COVID crisis, advertising that they could turn cards around in 20 business days. What they didn’t expect was the massive amount of cards to be sent down to Boca Raton. 20 business days quickly became close to 4-6 month turnaround times as they were overwhelmed with submissions. Personally, I like their clean black tuxedo look to the slabs.
- HGA is the new kid on the block. Their slabs will match the color scheme of your cards and they claim an AI software will offer non subjective grading. They have limited the amount of cards they take in weekly, which has frustrated some collectors and there are questions about the accuracy of the software, but it’s an interesting approach to grading and the slabs are pretty cool looking, though I would prefer for my PC more than trying to sell.
OK but who does Card Czar prefer and why?
First off, I won’t tell you that you are wrong if you prefer one company over another. Everybody has their rationale for choosing a grading company, and that is fine. I just hope you are able to look at the facts and make a decision based on those facts. To me, the company I want to get behind is SGC and here is why.
- I’ve already mentioned that I like the look of their slabs. The black “tuxedo” help makes the cards pop in my opinion.
- I won’t argue that SGC re-sale prices are higher than PSA or BGS. The numbers support PSA and BGS, but there is no reason why SGC’s numbers can’t get there as long as they continue to distribute a similar quality product and service, which I am confident they will.
- Yes, SGC oversold and failed to deliver on their promise back in early 2020 of a 20 business day turnaround on all submissions. There were also some quality issues with the slabs that have been rectified. What they did after these issues I felt was one of the boldest moves I have ever seen from a small company. They stopped accepting bulk submittals in order to eliminate their backlog and brought in brand new slabs to eliminate the quality issues. Imagine whoever you work for saying that they are going to stop taking money from their customers in order to improve the long term health of their company, while also spending capital bringing on more employees and expanding their physical location to increase throughput. Tough to fathom, but SGC did this and now their turnaround time is close to a month at a $25 price point.
- I have not heard a good excuse about SGC vs PSA other than the ago old “Well, PSA sells for more than SGC.” OK, but what about everything else that goes into getting a card slabbed? Even if grading costs were the same, do you really think it is worth the PSA premium to have cards tied up for 8 months when you could flip an SGC graded card in a month? I bet people who sent in their 2018 Prizm Lamar Jackson cards into PSA wished they sent those to SGC. In 12 months, a lot of Jackson’s cards dropped about 50% in value as he started the 2020 season off slow. Now that SGC is a fraction of the PSA cost, it makes even more sense to me to go with SGC. Again, we are not talking about a start up company here. SGC has a long standing tradition of authenticating and grading vintage sports cards, now they have made a concerted effort to grade modern cards due to the overwhelming need for another company in this market.
- The improvements SGC has made will now allow the opportunity for new product to be slabbed in a timely manner. Take 2020 Donruss Optic Football for example. Specifically, a player like Jalen Hurts. He has an opportunity to break out as the next guy collectors are spending on. Collectors will want his base or color rookies slabbed, but if you went through PSA at a $100 or $150 price point, where is your profit margin? Is there a profit margin? Will you get the card back in time for the 2021 season when his value will start to go up, or will you miss the boat altogether? To me, it makes all the sense in the world to spend $25, get the card slabbed and returned in a month, and by Week 1, you have his cards ready to sell. Will you get the same mark up as a PSA card? Maybe, maybe not. Hell, there may not even be any affordable Jalen Hurts slabbed cards Week 1 of the 2021 season from 2020 Donruss Optic because they all are sitting at PSA.
- Don’t even get me started on the 2021 NFL Draft class with Trevor Lawerence and Justin Fields…
Again, I am just stating facts on price and turnaround time and hoping I can help change the narrative about grading companies. I have no stake in SGC , nor do I work for them. I just like their product and respect the moves they’ve made. As a small business owner (outside of cards) that went through a similar (though not as extreme) growth period as SGC, I can appreciate the challenges they faced and the tough decisions they had to make to improve their business in the long term. They will be better for it, as will the hobby. We live in a time where there needs to be at least three reputable grading companies you can trust and SGC is one of those companies.