Might have been great for graders at one point but as a buyer it has always looked and felt like the “budget” brand to me
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Cracking and submitting raw card has higher chance of getting a better grade. To cross a CGC slab for better “numerical grade” means PSA has to admit that its standards are more lenient. This will work against you.
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The fact that they seem to grade more lenient does leave a bad taste in my mouth for the cards I send in early. Not really rewarding for people who “took a chance” with them.
Overall I like the plastic, label and service they provide.
Ah makes sense
I went with CGC for most of my collection because I didn’t really care who slabbed my cards, I just wanted them slabbed for better protection over a onetouch case. If you’re really all that worried about future resale, just go with PSA.
I actually plan on submitting Pokemon cards to PSA in the future since it’s close enough to the price of CGC, and I don’t really care about the turnaround times. I’m sticking with CSG for all of my sports cards
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In addition to this, it’s just easier and cheaper to ship 100 cards instead of 100 slabs
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If there is something else to be added to the conversation, I think that CGC has built a soild rep with Pokemon collectors compared to say BGS in a relatively short span of time. I think this alone will allow them to be at least somewhat competitive/sustainable in Pokemon. They’ve also done quite well with MTG cards, all though some people have been critical how they grade centering ‘easier’ on Alpha cards for example or other sets.
I highly doubt CGC (CGS?) will gain much market share in the Sports card world, where PSA is mostly dominating now, with only some exceptions for the really high-grade BGS stuff or in Hockey cards where a lot of people seem to prefer BGS still.
I also like that both BGS & CGC offer the upper tier Pristine/Black Label type grades which I think is a cool option, especially for a lot of modern cards to standout from the PSA 10 Gem grade. I’ve stated before I can see the appeal of wanting something ‘more’ to chase than a PSA 10 when it comes to modern slabs (even if a PSA 10 is considered virtually perfect grade).
So, I think as collectors it’s great we have some options depending on our goals or wants. Even with the negative rep BGS has in Pokemon, I’ve found some solid value in the 9.5+ grade range much like CGC 9.5s compared to PSA 10s. For cards I don’t plan to re-sell or heavily invest in, they’re still really nice condition and I enjoy them just fine, and especially at the much lower prices I’ve gotten them for.
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I use all three of the major grading companies for different things but CGC has earned the vast majority of my Pokémon submissions and I don’t see that changing any time soon. That’s not to say that they’ve been perfect by any means, just above the low bar set by PSA and BGS.
This topic has been discussed a bit recently here.
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Likewise, I intend to continue submitting to CGC for personal collection cards. I think the reopening of a PSA $15 tier primarily hurts CGC’s business among people grading for resale purposes – which, in fairness, is a significant portion of the demand for third-party grading in general.
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As im sure u can see, this is a pretty contentious topic among collectors here lol. In general, its mainly personal preference. Both companies have their pros and cons, but if youre planning to resell, I’d go with PSA. I like that the CGC slabs are thicker, the plastic is clear, the label is different and the plastic has more of a bluey tinge. Other than that, its really more of a matter of what youd prefer to look at lol.
Personally, i bought slabs from CGC, SGC, PSA just to see what they were all like (also held a BGS slab, didnt buy one lol). I ended up liking the PSA slabs overall more. Plus, there were some things I heard about CGC reps coming on efour to bash other grading companies. I cant speak to the validity of those claims, as i had no personal involvement in any such situation, but i have reason to at least consider this happened, as i do trust the source. This has turned me away from them as well, but it wasnt a deciding factor or anything. Just some food for thought
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Eh, the circular logic of PSA grading holding the most value because it’s popular; which in turn is because it holds the most value, is one I still struggle to see as a strong case for them.
I personally prefer to grade my cards elsewhere, even with PSA’s cheaper current pricing, due to the smug complacency PSA seems to have towards collectors. Quality wise, their slabs are middling quality and the grading standards can be famously ropey…other than higher resale values (which has nothing to do with the company directly), what do they actually do better than the competitors?
I don’t see any innovation from them to improve the product/service for customers, from one decade to the next. They just carry on, assuming everyone comes flocking back as they clear the mammoth pandemic backlogs.
I genuinely hope that CGC do keep a foothold and eventually force PSA to up their game and provide a service that’s worthy of the pedestal they get put on.
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I believe it’s about time to publish the latest research numbers on my side, regarding how the market reacts to the CGC prices compared to PSA, for example CGC 9/PSA 9 price difference. This is another point of view, not by the # of sales (volume), since the supply and demand will change, but the actual price difference of the same grade between the two grading companies.
Data goes up to Sep-30-2022. On average, CGC 9 is around -5% less than PSA 9. The value gap in between is narrowing. Very strong trend.
In case someone is also interested in CGC 8 /PSA 8, its -10% less.
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Any higher and cgc will be market leader lol. What id really like to see is a graph of how many cards per week or month cgc and psa grades. That trend will be super interesting to watch alongside this.
You can follow GemRate on twitter, they post daily/weekly/monthly updates. The next few months will be interesting now that PSA is sub $20 again.
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Brilliant thank you.
The real wild cards are CGC 9.5s. The relationship between CGC 9.5 and PSA 9 auction results is all over the place.
For instance, these are all from Heritage’s block that ended this evening:
CGC 9.5 SS Aerodactyl ex - $312 (300% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 SS Gardevoir ex - $444 (300% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 SS Kabutops ex -$228 (200% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 SS Raichu ex - $264 (150% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 DR Kingdra ex - $240 (270% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 DR Latios ex - $384 (160% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 DR Magcargo ex - $180 (200% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 DR Muk ex - $169 (210% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 MA Cradily ex - $228 (185% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 MA Suicune ex - $900 (225% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 LM Armaldo ex - $264 (175% of PSA 9 price)
CGC 9.5 LM Walrein ex - $360 (270% of PSA 9 price)
And no, PSA 10 prices don’t appear to have an appreciable impact on the results. For instance, Muk ex is worth only ~$250 in PSA 10 but sold for $169 in CGC 9.5. But Cradily ex is worth ~$1000 in PSA 10 and sold for $228 in CGC 9.5.
I try to pay at most 150% of PSA 9 price for cards I need, but they often randomly sell for 300% of PSA 9 price for no discernible reason.
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I totally agree with the 150% benchmark, I guess it’s time to show some numbers again.
But I also believe if the CGC 9.5 has subgrades, and very strong ones, the price will be close or even on par with the PSA 10 price. but some CGC9.5 just sale for PSA 9 price, I don’t know why.
Here are the numbers for CGC 9.5/ PSA 9 (+27% ) & CGC 9.5/PSA 10(-45%). And your also right, if we look at individual sales, the numbers are very volatile.
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I think one of the things these charts fail to capture is that [under the old grading scale] a CGC 9 is often comparable to a PSA 10 in quality/condition. I’m betting on this being the case with those cracked slabs I posted. If true, it hurts double as a seller because not only are you not getting PSA 10 prices, you’re getting below PSA 9 prices.
The other thing I’d ask about that chart is how much of it is CGC “catching up” to PSA verses astronomical PSA prices coming back down to reality? I’ve made this argument before that rather than CGC being undervalued, it was actually an optimized market in 2021. The implication being PSA prices were artificially high because it was impossible to grade cards and therefore that segment of the market was not optimized
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CGC 9 selling for -5% PSA 9 is super interesting and cool to see how that has played out. I wonder how the trend will go moving forward
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