I am of the opinion that many of these companies are not trying to be reputable. They are only in it for the cash and fully expect to close shop once the demand dies down. In the mean time they can turn a few thousand into tens to hundreds of thousands.
2000 cards at 10$ per grade is 20,000$ from a 1700 to 3700$ investment. A few grand less when you factor in shipping+packaging, creating labels, and the power bill to run all of this. Iām not sure how many cards these companies are getting though. Are they getting 100s, 1000s, or 10,000s of submissions?
Would you guys say that the big boys of grading are also superior when it comes to actually protecting the cards from further damage / preserving them too? Iād love to send a couple of my cards for grading but mainly just to ensure I donāt drop them on the floor with my shaky hands! (have a tremor)
It sucks a bit, being from the UK, that the most reputable companies are all US based and I really do wish the new companies starting up over here (like Get Graded I suppose) the best of luck - mainly because I just want to see the UK compete and have cheaper grading costs as a result! I donāt think theyāll ever be at the level of PSA/CGC/BGS of course but if they can authenticate and protect my cardsā¦ Iām happy!
What all these new companies fail to realize (or donāt care about) is that for every new one of them popping up, more consumer confidence is shoved in the direction of PSA. The whole thing appears more forfeit, more hopeless. No company is worth anything, and if they are, PSA is going to absorb them.
The only thing that could ever threaten PSA is a company doing a better job at EVERYTHING for a cheaper price and doing it for years, all the while standing up to the buyout. The chances of that happening isā¦Iām not even sure what to compare it to, winning the power ball? A 50 ton meteorite striking my house?
Could be some great opportunities to buy the card, not the slab, with all of these new companies popping up. You can bet that even if an DGC 10 card comes up that Iām looking for, Iāll check it out. Granted, Iāll likely want to buy it at raw pricing, assuming itās authentic, but wonāt immediately discredit the card.
Also, obligatory comment that CGC should not be thrown in with all of the others. I still prefer NGC graded coins for my collection, I trust they know what theyāre doing over there.
Threw in CGC because as far as I can tell their cards still demand a premium when compared to newer companies. I see thereās strong feelings on the subject and feel free to educate, Iām a grading newbie.
I was curious if any company would be considered best on the market for protecting the cards from deteriorating.
AFAIK none of the grading companies out there advertise their slabs as protective housings. Theyāre more display pieces that have the added benefit of making it significantly harder to scratch or damage the cards rather than be designed specifically around preventing damage.
Thats really interesting - thanks for the information, Iām a little suprised honestly! Maybe a company that made that their focus would have a good (excuse the pun) niche
DSG advertise a slab of polycarbonite with internal sheets of polycarbonate. This should, in theory, result in somewhat better filtering of UV-C light and much better protection from direct impact than acrylic slabs.
I think that thereās definitely a niche unfilled there, but I also think that itās a very very very small niche if it even really exists at all. The reason I say that, is that people tend to be more careful with collectibles, plus they donāt move a whole lot. Things like heavy duty phone cases work because we use our phones everywhere all day every day, itās good to have it protected. But with a graded card, itās pretty much just going to sit at home unless itās being sold, at which point it should be going in some bubble wrapā¦ not exactly the most stressful conditions Plus to be able to effectively market your heavy duty slab, youād have to do actual R&D to develop a new product instead of just ordering āplastic slab flavor 4ā and those research costs donāt come from nowhere in a new company
I actually didnāt know that theyāre adding polycarbonate sheets to the slabs. Pretty much every DSG slab I see on ebay has a very slight haze to it and the light doesnāt quite feel as deep as a raw card, similar to how BGS has their inner sleeve, Iām assuming itās those sheets that cause that?
I didnāt mean to direct that to you or any one comment, apologies if it came across as singling you out.
While many of the new grading companies outside of Beckett and PSA are popping up out of nowhere without much history, CGC is a branch of an established collectibles grading company which grades comic books, coins, etc. They have shown that they can consistently execute to a grading standard for other collectibles, so it isnāt a stretch to assume they could for Pokemon Cards as well. For me, that puts them above so many of these new operations.
Iām a pretty big newbie as well when it comes to grading as well, so someone more knowledgeable may be able to chime in further
Iām actually interested in Ace Grading. Itās so difficult to send anything graded from Europe at the moment. Ace Grading will open an option for EU people at some point so it would become easier for us to submit. I also like their idea of giving the option to make the label match the card. I think itās awesome.
Of course, I would prefer PSA overall but itās just way too complicated and slow at the moment. Iām not sure if I will ever grade cards again personally as it has become so frustrating but I could give Ace Grading a go when it comes available. We will see.
IMO, new grading companies focus on all the wrong things to start with. The point in a grading company is to authenticate a card and utilise their recognised experience to give the card a grade that should be universally accepted by buyers/collectors. Thatās the bread and butter (people will argue things like the financial guarantee should be paired up here).
Ace Grading for example havenāt done that. Theyāve went and focused pretty much on a unique label to try and stand out. Instead of trying to hire people with actual experience working for the big three, theyāve got people to come in the door that have worked in QC in totally different fields - all well and good for general workers and talent to train up but not for trying to establish a reputation.
The big thing that will continue to fail āstart upsā in grading is that they donāt have people with recognised experience and pedigree. Without getting into boring theory about attaining/sustaining competitive advantage, the difference between PSA/BGS/CGC is that they know what it takes to sustain a long term competitive advantage.
New companies need to look at what makes these companies inimitable and organised and go from there. Go throw money at some Execs or Senior Members of staff from other recognised names, poach talent (maybe easier said than done), give the consumer base confidence that you have the right people there to at least tick off the bread and butter basics.
Without that, theyāll sit at Competitive Parity and be just another Get Graded/Tree Frog/UK Grading/PCA or whatever else is out there.
When your business model is entirely dependant on the industry standard(s) being temporarily backlogged, you might not be around for that long.
When your business model is focuses on tech buzzwords (NFT, AI, crypto) to attract investors, donāt be surprised when it doesnāt also work to attract customers.
I just comes down to value proposition. If you canāt add meaningful value to the experience for customers, no one will grade with you. I think the closest thing that does this is the Hybrid Grading custom labels. The label is probably the central part to grading a card and for whatever reason, most companies just seem to treat the label design as an afterthought. Iām not sure if thereās an appetite for this kind of thing or if I even like their designs specifically but itās going to be something like this that sets apart the vast majority of failed ācompaniesā and the ones that stay clinging to life or carve out a niche
Plus to be able to effectively market your heavy duty slab, youād have to do actual R&D to develop a new product instead of just ordering āplastic slab flavor 4ā and those research costs donāt come from nowhere in a new company
