It’d have been a lot nicer if they used a different color or layout for their label. They should have known better than to use a bright blue label on cards whose primary colors could directly clash with it. That’s why psa and Beckett went more neutral. That being said…I just sent off a sub to them haha
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Honestly, I like the blue label.
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I haven’t purchased anything yet but I am looking forward to my small submission coming back so I can see for myself. I use to hate the labels when I first saw them but I am warming up to them now and I actually like them.
The only thing I can say I actively dislike about CGC is the difference between a pristine 10 and perfect 10, I really wished that a perfect 10 stood out just slightly more. Maybe make the 10 a different color, I don’t want an entire label recolor like BGS. But something a more noticeable.
You can expect to hear a more solid opinion about them when my sub returns. But as of right now I am over all impressed with them as a company .
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Lots of salt… i will give you some pepper. I love the hate. I am buying discounted pricing and see zero downside at this point assuming market stability. I don’t see the current gap getting worse and the perceived level in higher grading could lead to some nice cross overs if cracking. I haven’t bought vintage since 2016 and this market discrepancy has me bellied up to the bar.
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Have graded with, bought and sold, and displayed all 3 grading companies.
AS THE MARKET CURRENTLY STANDS:
- If you are looking to sell: use PSA for the near future to obtain top dollar for your grades you receive.
- If you are looking to keep: CGC is IN MY OPINION the superior option. More accurate grading, quicker grading, better cases, subgrades, and they look much better on display under lighting with the clear blue case design.
- If you are looking sell but think your card is DEAD MINT PERFECT: BGS Black Label is the champion of grades and will always be the champion of grades (even if they do seemingly randomly give it out).
Little extra details on selling CGC slabs for anyone interested:
- I have sold 3-5 slabs with another 4 pending that were CGC 9’s for the equivalent of what I would have sold PSA 9’s for. When you should people that the card is just as mint its a no brainer as long as they dont “have to have PSA for their set”. Will be a bit still before people accept the fact that these grades are a bit harsher than others. People will still buy a really shitty PSA 9 over a CGC 9 that is genuinely mint because “tHe LaBeL dOeSnT lOoK GuD”.
LABEL AND CASE LOOKS GREAT 
keep collecting what you love people and leave all the good deals on CGC cards for me 
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Agree with whoever said buy the card, not the case. From a coin dealing perspective the exact same thing holds up… will be really interesting to see if there’s ever enough transactions happening in person to the point where people who can buy undergraded and upgrade start emerging. Happened a lot in the early days of coin grading and now a lot of the material is relatively recycled, but there’s also not 10x price differences in a 9.5 versus 9.7 (I know 9.7 doesn’t exist, but the coins scale is much more specific).
My graded collection is almost entirely PSA, but recently I started looking at CGC cards on eBay and found a couple great deals. I bought some cards with the intention of cracking and sending to PSA because the price was right, but once I got the CGC slabs I was actually really impressed and no longer plan on sending them to PSA. The only real turn off I have for CGC are cards without the subgrades. Not sure why, but the labels just don’t look right to me without the subgrades, so I’m pretty much avoiding anything without subs.
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100% agreed! If you’re subbing with CGC, pay for the subgrades
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Selling is done here not on the forum.
Your edit was completely pointless and anecdotal. Several members here have started to grade with CGC and have given numerous reasons as to why. I am not going to get into the specifics as they have been discussed clearly and at length on the forum and you are clearly must be trolling. How many people have movie posters waiting to be graded? lol.
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Sure buddy I’m just a troll…I was a vintage US one-sheet movie poster collector, but you know more about that then me huh?
With SGC/BGS/PSA we really needed CGC “lol”
What they should have capitalized on was a need in the market to grade vtg posters and rare books, since its all linked to ephemera. I’m familiar with cgc as a former comic collector and frequent customer of there’s–don’t need your negativity or approval pal, now jog on…
Maybe CGC will add movie posters in the future but for now I think most would agree they made the right decision entering the trading card hobby at the time they did.
The hobby is exploding exponentially and CGC has gained a tremendous amount of traction. They have received great reviews from sellers and collectors that have actually submitted cards and the slabs are selling on ebay, Facebook groups, and Instagram. I can appreciate that you have a history with vintage movie posters and you’d like to see them graded but to discount what CGC has done in such a short time and suggest that they have somehow missed the mark by not grading movie posters as opposed to Pokemon must be low quality bait or trolling.
Have you been paying attention to the Pokemon hobby? Have you listened or read the most common complaints that people have about PSA? Still cant figure out the void CGC are filling? By any chance are you 'Reserved Investments"? Stick to what you know ‘pal’. You’ve been wrong about Pokemon for 20 years lol.
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I see we both have strong personalities and that’s cool, but I simply don’t agree with the others.
Cgc just wanted a piece of the $ action and as a hobbyist think it was unnecessary. Personally, I wouldn’t grade cards with them.
Reserved investments? Pretty sure that guy has never collected movie posters or seen them as good investments–Sorry to disappoint you but it is not i!
The idea “buy the card not the grade” is a principal I agree with. However “buy the card not the case” is such a poorly thought-out argument on its own. When you buy a graded card you’re not just looking at the card. You have to look at the case. It’s there. A central idea of collecting PTCG is that you’re enjoying a subjective aesthetic value, to which the case contributes. Some people quite simply prefer to look at a PSA case than a CGC case. Just like some people prefer to look at a Charizard whereas others prefer to look at a Blastoise. “BUt CGc duz iT beTtEr” - grading is a subjective pursuit and CGC may or may not provide a more “representative” grade in any given circumstance. You could try to assess this by sending a card in to PSA, cracking it, then sending it to CGC. Multiple times. But what a colossal waste of time and money that would be to end up proving nothing. If I’ve bought a card that I want to get graded for my collection, I want it to be housed in something that I personally find to be as least aesthetically-offensive as possible, while distracting attention from the card itself as little as possible.
You can try to argue why people should buy a CGC graded card over a PSA graded card until the cows come home, but it won’t change the minds of most, and it won’t affect behaviours. It’s subjective for collectors, some like BGS while others like CGC. However it’s clear-cut for flippers and “InvEsToRZ” - PSA is easier to sell. PSA is far from perfect and is an incredibly frustrating company currently being managed in a questionable way, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is still the foundational standard and market leader for PTCG graded cards. Who knows, this may change in the distant future if PSA either can’t or refuse to adapt to new demand, and CGC or BGS - or some other acronym - becomes the market lead.
Definitely looking like a good alternative specially for casual collectors like me who just really want to encapsulate and protect certain favorites.
As others have mentioned, the recent upcharge policy in psa is a major deterrant. I dont want to pay an extra 100-200-whatever dollars for something i acquired for cheap way back when. That just doesnt make sense. Thankfully, now we have a cheaper, faster, equally competent (??) encapsulation option.
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Have you held a bgs or cgc card in hand to make this decision or are you basing it on your existing PSA collection in hand vs pictures?
@buckna what do you mean “you haven’t been around long enough?”
@pokecollectoramy I’ve had 3 CGC-graded cards from neo sets in hand and I don’t like the label, I think it detracts too much from the card. Incidentally, I think the PSA case (label) is the best of a bad bunch. If it was up to me I’d cut the width of the label in half and strip back the info, but that’s just my own subjective opinion.
I’m more than happy to buy a card I want in whatever case it’s in.
This is such a subjective thread and it’s just bringing about ridiculous back and forth between members of the community. It’s the same people on either side saying the same thing, over and over…
If you have a strong opinion either way about the label; that’s ok. It’s ok to hate it, it’s ok to love it and anywhere in between those is dandy as well.
CGC being on the scene is a good opportunity to assess how we see collectables and our own standards we have. I think internally we all have our own condition markers, which is why we never universally agree with every grade we have received by any grading company (and this is only more likely to be the case the more cards you send off for an opinion).
So far, there’s been so much discussion on pointless things like a label, and not the real issues we have with third party authentication. Issues like consistency, wait times, handling, damage, recognition of specific sets/errors/variants, standards, community interaction etc.
If CGC/PSA/BGS or whatever company decides that they want to cater to the unique needs of the TCG community, then more power to them.
I think we need to stop pretending that any company is specifically trying to take over the market and treat it for what it is; another option.
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I would buy CGC, but I’m poor
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hard pass, super ugly label
So you collect labels?
edit: I hate the label too, but I am willing to look past the label for all the upside. Also the slab aside from the label looks really good.
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