Did anyone else see that clip on instagram from Vancity.cj where they brought in that Benjamin guy and they cracked all their snap cards and graded them with Tag? Personally, if I owned a snap card, I don’t think I would crack it.
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It’s all about money.
Absolutely no reason to do any of that but they’re direct TAG partners/investors, so…it’s just a marketing/publicity stunt. Same reason they cracked all those Gold Stars and submitted to TAG.
There is zero “risk” involved in any of that when the cards have taken a backseat to the almightly dollar for all of the hands involved. Nothing about any of that has an ounce of collecting purity anymore, imo. If there was enough money and they could get their hands on every ‘grail’ card in the hobby you’d probably see them ALL in TAG slabs so that slowly but surely it starts to become synonymous with the most sought after cards in the hobby.
Illustrator? TAG! Gold Stars? TAG! SNAP cards? TAG! 1st Ed Charizards? TAG! Prototype cards? TA- well, if CGC didn’t jump the gun and in a universe where pfm doesn’t do pfm things, they probably end up in TAG slabs too (my opinion), lol.
It’s hard for me to take seriously when someone displays a bunch of grail cards in an Instagram post in the most done up/posed fashion where all the cards are in some type of protector and then protected in yet another exterior acrylic case and then all the companies from the grading company to each case manufacturer are @'d in the post to give credit (and don’t forget, they’re UV protected).
I probably sound like a hater because I don’t know any of those people personally but it all just strikes a wrong chord with me. I have a very hard time extracting the ‘passion for collecting’ from all the dollar signs surrounding anything high-end related to TAG.
It all seems artificial because E4 definitely has people that could be engaged in all of that noise and/or have the monetary means to do largely the same things but choose not to…and that says a lot.
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Ya I can tell they have some sort of stake or affiliation with Tag. At least. its a little funny how the CGC Snap Squirtle got down graded to a 6.5
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I personally think it was smart. Even if it is all internal, them showing a lower grade projets that the grading is very fair, or atleast it comes across that way. It maybe true case but I was not able to understand how they docked so many points (from previous grade) based on the report showing why is it a 6.5. It could also mean that the intial grade was very lenient just because it was a snap?
Cheers!
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I have always felt that Tag is just the Black Label on steroids for people that are hyper focused on perfection.
If you have a 992 of a card but I have the top graded 993 then you are a peasant and I rule the reporting page.
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It’s a brilliant business model
If you think your card could maybe boardline be a 10 but it has a minor flaw, dont pay for 1,000 point scale and let it just say “10”
If you think your card is absolutely perfect, pay the upcharge and go for a 990/1000 (which is like their pristine)
Some modern cards are very easy to grade and if its a popular promo for example there can be thousands of graded 10s
What better way to collect extra premium for your card than to say yours is better. Not just another 10… this one is special…. Rank 5 of 2000! Or top 10% ext
Might not mean anything now because Tag isnt popular but long term this ranking system can be strategically used
I mean ppl try to do this all the time with PSA by saying “strong” or “regrade”? But its not very effective because its more of a trust me bro from the seller who’s interest is in hyping up the card
Now? The number will do the talking for you
Strong score and weak score could possibly affect prices in a weird way. Imagine your trying to sell a TAG 10 and the buyer messages you saying “It’s a weak ten the price isn’t accurate.” If TAG becomes mainstream I could see this being a potential problem.
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I’ll be honest man it sounds like you’re doing lots of mental gymnastics to justify TAG because your vintage cards aren’t getting the grades you think they deserve from PSA.
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It was a business play for sure, but certainly was entertaining to watch.
Win-win for them…they have an interest if it gets a grade knock down as they are pushing TAG as a more “consistent” grading model. If it gets the same grade, they can just make the content with the high value stuff.
But it’s funny how there are a few people who have submitted CGC 7s with dents and gotten TAG 10s…
Grading can never be 100% consistent.
I do like TAG - I won’t grade with them, but I don’t have an issue with the company. What I don’t like is what feels to be an inauthentic marketing approach.
But honestly everything is just noise at this point. It’s about collecting anyway.
You like that? Buy tag. You like BGS? Buy that. Etc
They do have an investment with them (supposedly since nov 2024) which they are now disclosing.
They were quite active on promoting TAG even before that date, though. I believe they sent in the first ever 1st edition base zard to TAG.
Competition is good, I just don’t see TAG lasting tbh. CGC / BGS are good case studies how subgrades and extra granularity isn’t what the majority of people want.
They also seems to be quite lenient on higher end stuff which should be the opposite, unless their using more lenient models for wotc.
This video is interesting too, with first time users getting angry at their tag experience https://youtu.be/gzyWhE-LR2E?si=RMXE09l0vTb_-mC5
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Its literally their system it’s not a stretch at all. Its a numbered rank. Its the entire point of the system
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All good man. I just think this sort of grading is major overkill. I don’t need a 1000 point system to give me a card grade. I like PSA’s whole number, eye appeal grading. I think companies like this get lost in the weeds. I don’t care if there is a literal microscopic spec on my card I can’t see with the naked eye. But if you like TAG that’s just fine. A lot of us are just scratching are heads on why some of y’all get so defensive over this. But hey whatever. Cheers man 
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I get that too and i felt the same way initially but you have to understand that the overwhelming majority of these slabs will be a generic 1-10 score
You need to pay $75 for a (100-1000) score
Someone looking for a less complex system is free to pay significantly less money and get the standard 1-10 which im guessing will he over 90% of slabs
But what i cant agree to is how giving more tools to work with, at your discretion, as being a bad thing
I don’t think anyone currently values the 1,000 point system. Its feels like a means to an end. Especially when the Tag 10 illustrator received a PSA 9 grade.
To give Tag credit, even if its marketing fluff, they have been persistent, and its paid off. They also have an opportunity to eat CGC’s lunch and be the low tier grading option for streamers, openings, mystery packs, etc. Similar to 2020, there is opportunity for grading companies, and just existing and being persistent will end up capturing some of the market.
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Im not sure they have their sights on cgc
At least not with their pricing structure
If i have cheap cards that are worth under $100 graded, i wont think tag is a great deal at $25 per card
Maybe a bulk submission but at that point your super committed to tag doing full large submissions and that is NOT the way to snipe new customers. They would want to try the company out with smaller samples and their pricing structure is more akin to a premium service
So i think their aimed squarely at psa
The bgs customer that likes details and subgrades is a good core to target but BGS doesnt have too much market share left to give anyways. I think they have their sights set high
Uh oh, looks like you are going to have some beef with @PkmnTrnAnt
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Sir, you’re talking about my profession here! 
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that would make sense if tag 10 is actually hard to achieve however most of them are psa 7-9 crosses 
it seems like they are going after pokemon mainly similar to cgc and all of their “investors” at least the public ones are pokepeople. psa is a sports grader mainly and u dont hear of anyone grading sports with tag same with cgc actually
I think the average age for sports collectors is higher than for pokemon
PSA has been grading cards (sports) since the early 90s, they have a deep history with sports and to top it off you have SGC to contend with as well
Much easier to build your business off of pokemon and then go from there
But i doubt thats the end for them
build off pokemon with marketing/media blitz. Grow market share
target sports once steady revenue is achieved from tcg
Gotcha. It’s definitely safe to assume that their model is robust to image transformations since that’s fundamental to CV.
It’s true that we don’t know what their training set is like and what types of defects, if any, their object detection models fails to recognize.
That being said, their reports are extremely thorough and transparent. In other words, even if their model failed you can use your own eyes to judge before buying. That’s really what appeals to me about TAG, rather than the grade number.
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