I am european, and have been seeing cards graded by European companies pop up a lot. I have been wondering about trying them. Has anyone done so? If so, opinions? If not, opinions anyways?
Thanks a lot 
It depends on your goal. If you just want a slab and a label, it doesnāt really matter where you go. If you care about the value on the secondary market, itās probably a terrible idea to grade with niche companies
4 Likes
Iām too lazy and computer inept to put it together but I can see a meme here.
A: Buy the card not the grade.
B: *Buys cards from little known grading companies*
A: No, not like that! / You werenāt supposed to do that. (something of the sort, there must be a proper format for it)
In all seriousness PFM is right to caution anyone bringing this up without knowing further information. If you are paying a large premium for lesser known and not market accept grading companies then that is very risky. If I had the ability to tell from photos or scans that the cards were actually mint I would have no problem paying RAW mint prices on encapsulated cards regardless of the 3 or 4 letter acronym on the case, but to do so blindly is just going to be a bad time. Paying PSA 10 prices on anything except PSA 10ās is ill advised especially since we donāt know if or when reasonable grading options will open up again depending on the tier of item you are looking at. Getting a card in hand for a good price relative to itās condition you always have the option to crossgrade to whomever you wish down the line and as long as the case is a reasonable one then your card condition wonāt change over time.
TLDR: Buy the (raw) card not the grade is especially important with little known grading companies
5 Likes
Another thing to consider is when youāre sending your cards to someone youāre putting a tremendous amount of trust in them, something we barely even consider any more sending to PSA/BGS/middlemen services etc. With brand new companies the chances that people could decide to swap your cards or worse just keep them is obviously higher than an already established company that has built up a good reputation. With the amount of copycat grading companies Iām seeing pop up I am just waiting for the day that we hear of such a horror story, so another thing to bear in mind and be cautious of. Beware of posts on Facebook groups that seem full of glowing reviews and happy customers for these new companies, in all likelihood theyāre just cronies of the company owners. Personally I would not bother, donāt see any value in it at all just heaps of risk.
1 Like
I tried European Grading (European Grading | EG) in January. Iāll leave you a link for you to see their cases (itās not my video and I donāt have anything to do with that Youtube channel): La Mejor ColecciĆ³n de cartas PokĆ©mon en EspaƱa +100Kā¬!!!!!!! Parte1 - YouTube
Pros:
-Theyāre based in Spain (where I am).
-They grade all languages (I sent a Korean CP6 Charizard that I wanted to authenticate).
-Their cases look very good in person, I was surprised by that (I saw them ugly in pictures and even videos).
-Subgrades.
-NFC security system in their slabs.
-Authenticity certificate.
Cons:
-Price is quite high taking into account that theyāre a niche company.
-Theyāre not as established as CGC, PSA, Beckett.
-Risks: will they close their company at some point and I wonāt be able to have the slabs in the same format? Will anyone recognise them as a legitimate company if I ever want to sell?
Iām not sure what to do, honestly. I really liked their cases and the service. Itās easy for me to send cards (I donāt need to send them overseas or even outside my own country). BUT itās quite expensive for a company that is not so well-established and Iām worried itās āwastingā money. Maybe Iād be better off sending my cards to CGC or PSAā¦ But I actually like EGās cases betterā¦ Soā¦ I donāt know what to do and Iāll be reading all the responses to this thread haha
1 Like
As mentioned above, in terms of value PSA, BGS, and CGC are the main three grading companies for PokƩmon right now (primarily PSA and higher graded BGS actually). Does that mean cards graded by other grading companies are worthless? Definitely not. The SGC-10 1st edition Charizard that sold for a record 369k USD should be enough prove for that.
But as you can see in the last few comments of this thread of known grading companies I created, a lot of new grading companies have popped up these last few years. Although it might be fun trying them out, in terms of value and risk I would stick with those that are established and/or exist for at least three years (preferably 10+ years).
On a personal note, Iāve recently tried out PCA with a French Moltres. Itās currently on its way back from grading (took ~4 months, so not too bad imo) - I got a 9.5 btw. I actually already own three PCA-graded Pikachu which were a special French release authenticated by PCA, and which would be worthless outside of the slabs. After seeing their slabs in person, I kinda liked them, so I asked a French friend of mine to send a NM French Moltres to see how it goes. Iām not sure yet whether Iāll do the same with an Italian Moltres to GRAAD, a Spanish Moltres to EG, and a German/Portuguese Moltres to an established German/Portuguese grading company (if there even is a Portuguese grading companyā¦ 
), etc. For now, probably not.
As for PCA, @mareee posted some pros and cons and his experience grading with them here: www.elitefourum.com/t/pca-grade-graded-pokemon-cards/24169/1
Greetz,
Quuador
2 Likes
Seems like everyone and their aunt are grading cards these days, you can buy the empty slabs most of them are using on ebay for as little as Ā£6.50 each. Iām guessing during the same time as the card saver fiasco when tons of new companyās started manufacturing own brand card savers, some also started manufacturing the slabs too and started grading from their basement.
Still i donāt think that they would pull a card switch or something shady like that since they are already invested in the idea however if they are not competent enough (i.e build up a history of encapsulating fakes/being bad at grading) then a card being inside a case with there logo on will essentially be worthless.
As for the other already well established companyās (pre-pokemon boom) i do not see a problem with grading with them if that is something you want to do with your cards.
Currently itās probably best to wait a few years and see which company is still relevant then. My guess is that some American company like cgc will eventually branch out to the European market.
Didnt PSA announce they were going to set up an international branch or was that an April fools thing?
@lyleberr, yes, they did! I read it when they announced the pause on their services, but almost no one commented on it. I really hope they are considering Europeā¦ It would be super cool seeing CGC and PSA operate here
2 Likes
Also I heard from CGC themselves that they are gonna open in London and Munich later this year 
1 Like
Now this is why I LOVE this forum. Thank you so much for the great news! ^^
Just in case thereās a risk of false hopes getting raised on this; unless things have changed, CGCās plan was to open up their London & Munich offices to accept submissions, which would then be shipped off to their tcg division in Florida. There didnāt seem to be any plans to start grading cards within Europe itself. 
Considering PSAās previous stance on opening up grading sites in other markets, Iāll believe it when I see it.
Would be a dream to actually have one of the big guns open up over here in Europe fully one day thoughā¦
5 Likes
Thank you for the further information!
I really hope they grade cards in Europe at some point. But oh well, if we can at least send to Munich thatās good enough, I guess.
At least we wonāt have to worry about customs. Thatās something 
1 Like
Still better than having to ship to the US, mainly due to costums and etc
1 Like
No problem! 
I agree, at least having an office accepting the cards will avoid headaches with finding middlemen or worrying about shipping/customs.
Yeah, totally agree! Luckily thereās at least GradedGem for PSA or Edās Gaming Emporium for CGC in the UK that lets us avoid logistics and customs.
Itās crazy that someone here in the UK just used that middleman to get an Illustrator graded with CGC (first for the company)ā¦can you imagine what the fees wouldāve been on that?! 