New Grading Companies

[quibble]

@shadowlesstrainer

I’m honestly shocked people are submitting stuff to get graded before we know anything about their consistently, whether the cases will hold up, etc.

This is my conspiracy but my guess is they closed their submissions for publicity more so than they actually received that many customers. I don’t have proof for this claim of course, but I’m going off what I observed on their social media. There was not that much engagement outside of the initial announcement video. Unless there’s a handful of submitters sending in hundreds-to-thousands cards each, Idk I just really doubt it there is so much genuine demand for ace grading

I think it just goes to show how much faith Graded Gem have built with the community over the last few years. If their quality isn’t up to snuff, Ace will crash and burn very quickly with the number of submissions they’ve already had.

Who knows that the numbers are really. They could’ve closed for publicity, but a lot of people are now waiting, and Ace don’t charge until after they’ve completed your order, so they’d be doing themselves out of a lot of potential income already.

Remember that their Instagram alone has 11,000+ followers; if even 10% of them submitted two cards each, there’s capacity reached (if the figures given are accurate).

…Let’s see now how long it takes for them to get the first slabs into collectors’ hands and reopen for more orders.

[traineramy]

@explorer

@shadowlesstrainer

I’m honestly shocked people are submitting stuff to get graded before we know anything about their consistently, whether the cases will hold up, etc.

This is my conspiracy but my guess is they closed their submissions for publicity more so than they actually received that many customers. I don’t have proof for this claim of course, but I’m going off what I observed on their social media. There was not that much engagement outside of the initial announcement video. Unless there’s a handful of submitters sending in hundreds-to-thousands cards each, Idk I just really doubt it there is so much genuine demand for ace grading

I know you’ve caveated this by saying this is a conspiracy theory but I want to counter with just how baseless this theory seems, I think it’s unfair to have this idea gaining any traction.

1. What social media is this that you observed? After reading your post I looked at the Instagram accounts for Ace, CGC, PSA and Beckett and was going to make a point about their proportionate engagement. However, I was shocked to see that Ace actually seem to consistently have more engagement social media engagement then the big 3, both in likes and comments. Clicking through the commenting accounts this appears to be genuine engagement from Pokemon fans, not bots pumping numbers.

2. Based on the fact that Randolph’s announcement video has 100,000 views and their average Instagram likes per post is around 2,500 I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that 1,000 of those people were interested enough to submit and try it out. Especially considering Randolph’s platform and the complete lack of viable UK grading options. I think you’d be surprised by how many people are unwilling to deal with international customs/shipping, even through a middle man. For many, especially small collectors, they may have considered this their first viable option to even grade.

It seems so ordinary given the circumstances that 1,000 people have decided to try it out by submitting 20 cards each on average. 20,000 cards on day 1 seems like a reasonable amount to close service if they really do want to keep up their promise of consistently hitting their turnaround time, at least reasonable enough that we don’t need to be pumping conspiracy theories!

Did they really say they received 20,000 cards on day 1? That’s an outrageously high number. Rand is gonna be rich

[shinycards]

@pfm

It’s even more compounded by fact that the big companies aren’t even a great option for UK citizens even when things are running normally.

The custom labels look great. And let’s be honest, a huge motivation of grading is to frame a card nicely.

I like the labels too, it will be good to see more examples than the few they’ve shown so far.

At the very least a new grading company with a decent reputation and nice label is still a framing company, once the card is in a slab the condition is protected for life and it makes the card a more special item to own imo

[hisoka107]

@traineramy

@explorer

I know you’ve caveated this by saying this is a conspiracy theory but I want to counter with just how baseless this theory seems, I think it’s unfair to have this idea gaining any traction.

1. What social media is this that you observed? After reading your post I looked at the Instagram accounts for Ace, CGC, PSA and Beckett and was going to make a point about their proportionate engagement. However, I was shocked to see that Ace actually seem to consistently have more engagement social media engagement then the big 3, both in likes and comments. Clicking through the commenting accounts this appears to be genuine engagement from Pokemon fans, not bots pumping numbers.

2. Based on the fact that Randolph’s announcement video has 100,000 views and their average Instagram likes per post is around 2,500 I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that 1,000 of those people were interested enough to submit and try it out. Especially considering Randolph’s platform and the complete lack of viable UK grading options. I think you’d be surprised by how many people are unwilling to deal with international customs/shipping, even through a middle man. For many, especially small collectors, they may have considered this their first viable option to even grade.

It seems so ordinary given the circumstances that 1,000 people have decided to try it out by submitting 20 cards each on average. 20,000 cards on day 1 seems like a reasonable amount to close service if they really do want to keep up their promise of consistently hitting their turnaround time, at least reasonable enough that we don’t need to be pumping conspiracy theories!

Did they really say they received 20,000 cards on day 1? That’s an outrageously high number. Rand is gonna be rich

We are obviously not there or any of the new grading companies target audience. Many of these cards will not gain any significant value by being graded by these services. They could, in fact, severe to deter what most would call junk slabs by catering to that target audience.