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I never said it wasnāt to eliminate the competition. All I said was that I dont think it matters much in pokemon because nobody uses them in pokemon. You are right that SGCās numbers fell off hard, I should reword my ā2x claimā to ā2x of the current stateā. I thought that was obvious since it has the date plastered on the top
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Or even just the beginning of the year. On the sports side SGC has been significantly throttled. For a while they focused on vintage cards, then when PSA was backlogged during COVID they started competing across all eras. Now though the goal is for them to go back to being a boutique grader specializing in vintage sports cards instead of competing in other segments. They had a bunch of their graders shifted to PSA (which is now why PSA has grading operations in Florida) and their grading volume has plummeted.
The playbook for Beckett is probably going to also be throttling them down. I could see them maybe trying to have Beckett being more specialized for autograph and memorabilia sports cards (where they were better at) and higher end Black Label chases for TCG.
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This is the Wild West where everyone tries to make a quick buck on cards, think crypto before it was regulated.
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SGC fell off quite substantially because nobody views them to grade TCG. Even when looking at the monthly numbers for PSA, sports grading has barely been around 40% of monthly volume, with TCG taking over with the recent boom.
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Youāre first mistake is to assume that when the market grows that there will be a uniform increase across all grading companies..
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I guess this means PSA wonāt be adding a āPristineā grade.
If you collect BGS graded cards you should see this as great news. One would think this will result in a bump in volume for Beckett with more people chasing the black label. I know that it has been a questionable proposition recently for some as to whether or not sending cards to Beckett is a good idea - between the low volume, fraudster former owner and the data breach. In theory this should mean Beckett will have the resources needed to modernize their processes (both UX and security) and boost consumer confidence that they wonāt disappear tomorrow. And they get to write off the data breach as the old management/dev team.
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SGC got acquired by Collectors in February 2024? lol
So many tinfoil hats today on e4
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Some people in this forum think about me more frequently than they do of their lady friends.
Anyway, I have mixed feelings on this.
Negatives
1 - less competition is never beneficial for the consumer - but BGS management wasnāt exactly doing anything to benefit the consumerā¦so, idk
2 - SGC got acquired and then got basically ran into the shitter, but it was a less respected brand than BGS (remember, at one point people were cracking PSA 10s and wanting BGS 9.5s).
3 - I would imagine this means there wonāt be any grading scale change as that would increase BGS submission volume (changing 9.5s to 10s). Sounds like they will just keep it Black Label focused. Meh.
Positives
1 - maybe now we can get basic level things like scans and a customer service department?
That about all I see positive. I had hoped that Fanatics would have bid honestly.
Also, 50% of my collection is in a PSA slab. Iām not married to one company who gives a number to my cardboard.
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Idk, its not really the point I was trying to make. Actually I didnt have much of a point at all, but usually people put those gemrate screenshots into threads like this so people can visualize large numbers easier, so I thought Iād do that. Iām happy to comment on grading monopolies, but thatās not what I was trying to do today lol
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Gotcha, I do like looking at gemrate graphs to see how busy or not companies are doing throughout the year.
I honestly think there will be little impact to either company anyway. I myself will continue grading with CGC, BGS, and PSA, they all serve a purpose.
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PSA are gonna buy all my 9.5s and regrade them as black labels, right?
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Thereās no monopoly regulation in the US. Itās a joke man.
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I wonder if this move is partially to use BGSā existing grading infrastructure in Germany to help with the European expansion.
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This completely outweighs the negatives imo.
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Wait till you get your first black label upcharge
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15 Months from meme to reality
On one hand, I hate the fact that one entity keeps solely benefitting from the growing interest in third-party grading. On the other hand, Iām interested to see (if the deal goes through) if a potential cash injection could help Beckett in the ways that matter; Customer Service, UI Updates, and Order Tracking.
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Yeah totally outweighs upcharges, inconsistent grading, buying your cards back as 9s @ 90% of market (competing with 3rd party reseller market) and then just changing labels to 10s.
Totally 
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One more poll - how will this news influence how you grade cards in the future?
- No change
- Sending more to PSA
- Sending more to Beckett
- Sending more to CGC
- Grading less overall
0
voters
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