I feel people are going to complain that Ace grading are not at good grading without sub grades. Well I suppose that happens to PSA too sometimes.
The UK desperately needs an easy way to grade cards / packs but i donāt think all these pop up grading companies are the answer.
Until CGC / PSA start accepting cards in the UK i might give ACE grading a try for fun though.
I like their label design but canāt get over the little hole punch circles in the case. Not sure if this is the final design though since they seem to hide it in their CGI show-casings.
Reminds me of when that guy came on efour boasting about his fake illustrators years a go 
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mads
64
If PSA opened an EU office then that would also be an EU alternative 
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How so? The only difference would be staff and that is the least important bit, which is kind of sad but true. They would have to work exceedingly hard to gain a worse reputation for being sloppy, incompetent and terrible than the Cali office already has.
My feeling is ACE quality wonāt hold up once the honeymoon period wears off. Itās easy to come out the gate all guns blazing with well produced videos and slick marketing, but that aspect probably accounts for 1% of grading collectibles. The other 99% is more than just putting a card in a nicely designed case. I simply do not believe they can maintain any standard or reputation in the long term, especially once the harsher realities of the business start to bite. For example, whatās their reaction when they inevitably have problems with their online service and turnaround times? How about when the cost of materials inevitably rises or they underestimate how much money and time their stuff costs to produce? How are their rookie graders and staff trained for dealing with fake cards, of which hundreds are likely going to be attempted to pass through their system? Too many unknowns.
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mads
67
It would be an alternative to sending it to the American PSA division or any other established grading company solely based in America.
Basically repeat my point - itās a false perception.
a) nobody in the EU has to use a middleman. Itās optional. You can submit to any of the big grading companies as an individual from outside the US.
b) insurance wise not difficult (for all its worth if you even get a payout) and the customs process is very easy - if you use a third party courier service (like a price comparison for FedEx, DHL etc), the customs process takes all of 30 secs - you just put on that its a repair/return, put how many trading cards are going and put a statement in saying āthese cards are being condition assessed, encapsulated to protect them and then returned to me within X daysā (probably not even necessary but I do it anyway). Iāve yet to have customs problems (either way) when using this method.
Itās really very simple
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Itās really very simple from the UK. I done a video on it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ypeF0gA3U&pp=sAQA) to show how easy the customs process and shipping is.
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tbh when I think back, the only people who really argue psa are sloppy, incompetent and terrible are
- flippers who donāt understand grading and are mad their card graded too low
- astroturfers on e4
lol.
I am genuinely concerned that the way information is spreading in the hobby right now is always projected through this skewed lens of greed and lack of objectivity. Both grading companies as well as speculative investment TCGs have been shilled hard in the last year, right in front of our eyes, from various well known figures. Unfortunately they do not realize the power of their words (or sometimes do) and are convincing others opinions that are originated in greed.
To me Scottās video and this thread is not only about grading, but the general state of ātainted opinionsā and how that is often sending people down the wrong path. Iāve been really disappointed in a lot of names that are pushing these new TCGs or grading companies or even their own card savers for their own financial gain, not disclaiming anything with regards to their positions, and watching how others will latch onto that opinion without fully understanding the original motivation.
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Just a thought I havenāt seen addressed previously - could there be a potential issue with the splitting of pop reports? Right now, the PSA pop is the go-to reference for graded card scarcity. The idea of having to check multiple pop reports isnāt appealing
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Iāve posted in a few threads making no secret of the fact Iām not against the idea of new companies, per se.
I 100% agree that the vast majority are chancers trying to make a quick buck, and it does nothing but muddy the water and possibly end up as a fleece for amateurs/newcomers in the hobby.
But on the other hand, I donāt quite understand those opinions that PSA are gods, so thereās no point in anyone else trying. They do have the headstart with reputation, but there is absolutely no question that the product and service that they offer can be topped; it just requires customer bases to get out of a myopic mindset if the choice does arise.
Iām interested to see what Ace Grading have to offer once they openā¦ itāll be a case of ācautious but optimisticā for a while, but they have the best chance of any European company to succeed. Even if PSA did open a European office, assuming Ace are legit, thereād be room for both to compete - if the US can house PSA/BGS/CGC, then the entire European continent can manage a PSA/Ace rivalry.
Can anyone honestly say PSA arenāt sloppy at times though?
I have PSA slabs with fingerprints inside the cases, some with bits of crap trapped inside and others that have been massively overgraded (9ās when they should realistically be 6/7ās).
There are definitely salty noobs & astroturfers around, but not every criticism of PSAās occasionally shocking service is a conspiracy.
kharey
73
Yeah, Iām not going to blindly critque PSA alone as habitually sloppy. Almost every grading company has had complaints. Half of my PSA slabs have these clearish-white smudges on the inside. They are usually around the corners, edges or middle area of the cards, but have never been on the cards themselves, just the inside of the slab. A few of my cards also have little pieces of debris on them that they for sure would have caught if I sent them in that way. Still though, when it comes down to it, Iām still going to use them. They are the industry standard and have been grading Pokemon for so long. I doubt all these new startups are not going to have the same issues or āsloppinessā.
Are PSA sloppy in authenticating things? I havenāt really seen that personally.
Are PSA sloppy in grading things? Maybe at times. Iāve seen some questionable cards before, no doubt - especially on the forums. Iād argue though that itās easy to have selection bias seeing a few bad apples as compared to the entire ocean of millions of cards that get graded by PSA.
but these companies arenāt solving for āless sloppy-ness than PSAā - thatās a pretty tough selling point tbh and hard to quantify as a consumer. Things like faster grading times, better looking slabs, and sub grades are very quantifiable points that the new companies are solving for.
Even if some company is somehow less sloppy than PSA, would there be tangible benefit if no one uses them? only if it becomes the standard for the industry.
PSA being the standard for the industry of Pokemon cards is a moat that runs deep. Iām not trying to defend that PSA are some god-like company that have everything figured out - Iām trying to say that PSA is the standard now and THAT is enough to make it nearly impossible to dethrone them. The next person up will have to solve something better than PSA do in a MUCH better way, THEN become the standard in order to dethrone PSA.
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jodi
75
Thank you very much - this looks amazingly helpful, I will watch it this evening!
Not looking to single one out in particular, but thereās one in Italy which has been making rounds on facebook groups across the EU and shows how ridiculous itās getting.
This my friends, is the state of the art headquarters of Graad.eu a grading company that charges 10ā¬ a pop and doubles as a hobby shop which actually sells pokemon cards (any conflict of interest is pure coincidence).
The business is optimized to such a point that they get full value from those plastic chairs and tables in the back which can be used by their expert team of graders during the week and for FNM and Pokemon tournaments during the weekend.
Also, as part of their security features they are strategically located in an unsuspecting rundown building surrounded by vacant stores with graffiti on the walls.
Most of you out there would say thatās a safety concern, but youāre wrong. After all, what burglar will think a shop in a heavily vandalized street may hold thousands of dollars worth of submissions?
P.S.: This is not an attack on this particular store, itās just to illustrate that despite little to no effort being put into these pop-up grading companies, people still trust them with their collectibles and the internet still propels their credibility beyond what any small amount of common sense would deem acceptable.
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Hello friends we are starting a new grading company
- YouTube_fCwo
Please give all monies.
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Knew it was going to be bad when I read this
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We must not be on the same forum then, perhaps not even in the same hobby. There arenāt enough astroturfers, delusional pregraders or new grading company schemers on the planet to account for a fraction of the justified shitstorm hitting PSA.
Talking shit about PSA isnāt a ātaintedā opinion, itās an accurate opinion. Now, talking about these startups as if they even exist in the same galaxy as PSA, both in terms of quality of service and maximization of value? That is as tainted as can be, stemming either from ignorance or malicious intent. PSA is king.
