Looks like they’re about to enter the TCG grading world
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CGC and a coin company are trying to get into the trading card market. I don’t blame them, coins are boring.
Probably going to get more cross collectors from their coin/comic customer base.
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My thoughts exactly, there are probably a ton of comic collectors that have binder collectors still, they’ll probably want their cards to match the grading company/case of their comics.
It’ll be interesting to see these pop up on eBay eventually and see how they compare to PSA & BGS and the strictness of the grades ect.
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Hey man if they authenticate / grade cards that PSA wont, theyll get my business there
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I’m excited to try them out. They seem like a well respected company.
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As primarily a comic collector this is great news! PSA needs some real competition and I love the look of my graded books and currency…much sexier than psa cases lol
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Coins were the first thing I collected back in the day when my grandpa handed down some coins to me. Walking halves, mercury dimes, wheat pennies were some of my firsts, but there are so many beautiful designs and so much history in some of these old coins IMO. I’ve always intended to, and will someday, get back into them more. Rare errors to chase, low mintage key dates, searching your pocket change for old rare coins still in circulation.
One thing I envy for Pokemon collecting that is present in coin collecting is full knowledge of mintages. Knowing the production numbers and relative rarity of each release is awesome. Obviously you don’t know the exact survivorship numbers for each and those vary, but still it’s nice.
One of these days I’ll finish putting together a full US mint type set with some excess Pokemon profits.
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Looks like they might take BGS’s share of the market, their comic grading system is very similar to BGS so they will have very little chance of competing with PSA and how current collectors collect in 10 grades.
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That is actually quite interesting and exciting!
However, I do not see too much changing in terms of PSA. At this point, PSA is just too established in the Pokémon communities as the go-to for grading cards.
I think there will naturally be a lot more Demand for PSA graded cards over other graded cards, as people want cards fitting into their collections/sets in terms of consistency. This means that PSA graded cards of similar quality will fetch a premium, which makes it the most attractive option for people grading for most purposes. There are exceptions to this of course.
People can also be quite stubborn and stick to what they know. The look of a PSA case and a PSA label is so established as well.
I’m not even sure if anything will change in terms of BGS. BGS definitely plays a part in Pokémon to a smaller extend. The 9.5 is the true “in between” of PSA 9 and PSA 10, which tends to sell for a premium over PSA 9, and closer to the price of a PSA 10. BGS 10 being the “harder to get grade” and Black Label being, well… Black Label.
However, I’ll be keeping an eye on this!
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I think CGC is a fantastic company. In my view they’ve found a way to apply far more consistent grading to comics than PSA and Beckett have applied to trading cards. They’re so late to the party though. I personally don’t like having a mix of graded cards in my collection and at this point PSA had graded so many of the vintage cards. It doesn’t hurt if it raises the bar, but I’m scratching my head a bit because I don’t see myself using them in this context given how late they are
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This reminds me of Blackberry trying to join the touchscreen smartphone game in like 2013.
…It’s just too late. At least for Pokemon cards.
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Yeah, I really need to encapsulate my collector Charizard.
As far I know lost people don’t like mixed graded cards. The only exception being BGS 10 pristine. The sub grades and BGS 10 pristine are the things that separate them from PSA. What novelty will CGC offer to distinguish themselves from the other companies.
I am excited for the service and will give them a try. PSA’s poor service, fake turn around times and inconsistent grades are opening the doors. You should hear the way sports collectors are talking about SGC these days. Collectors are considering alternatives and I think it is a great time for a new grading service to emerge especially one that will focus on trading cards. Certainly doesn’t hurt the collector to have more options.
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You can see even in the preview video that they will offer (at least), gold label for signatures just like they do for comics (blue/universal labels for standard unaltered/unrestored, as well as custom label designs. Should be cool, but seems like the heavy hitters so far who have posted here are un-enthused lol
I used to collect coins back in the early 2000s and it was general consensus in the community back then that only Americans wanted their coins graded - graded coins which entered the UK market often sold for lower than similarly-conditioned coins which hadn’t been graded at all. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but grading coins was a big no-no back then for numismatists outside of the US.
That’s the reason it took me so long before I finally picked up my first graded Pokémon card - for a long time I held them in lower regard than cards I could just slide into a binder.
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Their signature authentication pales compared to PSA. From my limited knowledge they will give certain items a different color slab indicating they witnessed it in person. PSA gives an Item authentication and signature grade regardless. The different labels command different prices.
PSA has been dropping the ball a bit with Pokémon. That combined with their massive backlog of cards makes me think some people will want to just grade with another company so they can avoid the lengthy turn around times.
Even though I personally don’t believe in PSA being stricter with their grades in 4xxxx certs, some people still fully support this theory. I see it as being possible that some people will move away from PSA in search of more consistent grading.
Interesting to see what this new competition will bring.
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Incoming ebay listings: “CGC Pikachu 8.5, PSA 9?”
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