GemMint is a real OG. No background music, flashing lights, or flashing dollar values on the screen. We need more content creators like him.
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Counterpoint: they’re valued just right because they give out so many 9s and 9.5s (because they almost never give out 10s) that there’s an oversupply of them?
@kpod, as nice/cool as it is to see content creators get back their high-end WotC holos from PSA/BGS, I feel like we see the same few big chase cards over and over again. Being able to look at 250+ graded non-holos of some of the best sets ever made and appreciate the artwork is awesome.
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if your looking to make money with cgc you’re gonna have a bad time. At least for the next several years till they have some time in the hobby to add to their rep
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I disagree strongly - they are very quick to give you an 8 or 8.5 for the slightest issues.
I also don’t think it’s going to take years to change this, I think just months.
It does not matter what grade they give, people are not buying even the 9.5s at prices close to 10s or 9s generally speaking. People need to have more faith in the brand before they actually buy. Most cgc stuff ends up being raffled on ig or bought at 50% value on ebay from what ive seen
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But…doesn’t that make cgc graded cards a total bargain? Higher quality than psa for the same grade, AND way cheaper?
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Absolutely, I am not saying they are bad at all. I am saying if you are looking to make relatively short term money via cgc you will have a bad time. I still think we are in very early adopter phase for cgc. I have some cgc cards that I got good deals on that make me like the card even more, but Im sure I wouldnt get much trying to flip them now. Luckily I didnt buy them with that purpose
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@wisewailmer, if it was about short term profits, couldn’t you just crack the cgc slabs, regrade the cards at psa and hopefully receive a higher grade than the one cgc gave, then sell?
I did not really follow the conversation but it seems that this idea will not work
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Yes and no. Yes in the sense of getting a high quality raw card in fancy plastic, but only because raw gem mint/ strong mint cards are so hard to come by these days. No in all other aspects.
A CGC 9.5, like a BGS 9.5, is just a would-be PSA 9 that the seller didn’t have the confidence to submit to PSA, and is subsequently attempting to grift out a graded premium like people do with their T17’s, Lugia’s, Emerald EX’s and other almost-but-not-quite-10-candidate repeat offenders.
I know people think that brand X 9.5 is the equivalent to a PSA 10, but that simply isn’t the case. Even if the card quality was equal, which it so often isn’t, it wouldn’t make any difference. The value is more in the label than the actual card, and the CGC 9.5 label is worth fuck all, it might as well be a homemade slab with a crayon number on it.
you could, but short term and grading companies dont really mix well. A lot of my cgc graded cards I buy for my own collection and then swap them to my company of choice. This way I know Ill get the grade I want in the slab I want and time isnt important since its for my collection so I wont be selling the minute it returns
I do feel like this convo should be moved to the grading thread though fellas, my bad if I derailed it. I was mainly just referring to that clickbait youtuber who dumped thousands into cgc expecting 10s to flip
@c0ll3ct0r, wouldn’t that put grading as a whole into question? I’m pretty sure that many psa 9/bgs9.5/cgc9.5 have been regraded to a psa 10, because the grader saw the card as such. If these cards are “a 9 in a 10’s clothing”, wouldn’t that somewhat delegitimize the psa label? Or is it somewhat of a Schroedinger’s grade? That the card is both a 9 and a 10 at the same time and its current state depends on the observer seeing the cgc9 label or psa10 label respectively?
Yes, it would.
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Lol, this is totally ridiculous. I opened several heavy Ruby packs with the explicit intention of sending the cards to CGC. Some of the pulls would’ve had a very solid shot at PSA 10. But I sent them to CGC because I didn’t want to resell them; I just wanted them for my collection. 6 out of 7 pack fresh holos I sent received 9s…only one got a 9.5. And these are cards that are pretty easy to grade in PSA 10; these aren’t exactly T17s. Compare that to the three pack fresh holos I sent into PSA (that are arriving back to me today), all of which received PSA 10s.
I can confidently state: most of my PSA 10s (and I have close to 100) wouldn’t cross to a CGC 9.5.
If you think CGC 9.5s are worse than PSA 10s, present some actual evidence. As it currently stands, your claim is baseless (at best).
If you feel this way, then I urge you to check out my buy thread where I offer significantly above PSA 9 prices for CGC 9.5s. These aren’t hypothetical values – these are literal standing cash offers. And you know how many CGC 9.5s have been sold to me? Zero. Because no one is able to grade exs as CGC 9.5s, because CGC is actually a harsh grader. Comparing them to BGS is ludicrous. BGS 9.5s are a complete and utter joke.
If you think CGC 9.5s are just PSA 9s, then go cross some PSA 9s to CGC 9.5s and sell them to me at a profit. Hell, I’ll even reimburse your grading fees if they cross (hint: they won’t).
As far as card quality is concerned, I see zero evidence to suggest that CGC 9.5s are at all lesser than PSA 10s. They’re worth less than PSA 10s, but that doesn’t mean shit as far as card quality is concerned.
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I don’t think CGC 9,5’s are worse than PSA 10, I think it’s all arbitrary bullshit that can go in favor of either thus my comment about the quality not being equal (as in better or worse). More importantly, my comment was about the perceptionof the resellers (i.e not people like you apparently) and how they view it when they grade their stuff. Only an idiot would go with a CGC 9.5 over a PSA 10 if the sole purpose is to flip for profit. If these resellers were confident about crossing CGC 9.5’s to PSA 10’s, they would do it. They don’t, a suspicious indicator.
Any hypothetical judgment made by me on CGC 9.5’s would not be baseless as I have seen many. Regarding BGS 9.5, they are literally all over the place. Sometimes they deserve a BGS 10 gold label (and then they are somewhat comparable in quality if not consistency), and sometimes they deserve a PSA 7 or below (as you well know given your recent experience).
A final thought about how I feel about PSA 10 vs CGC 9.5. PSA 10 don’t have a self-imposed cap to them, CGC 9.5 does. PSA 10 can be rubbish, or perfection. CGC 9.5 can be almost perfect. This may sound like minutiae, it is anything but. This is one of the concrete psychological advantages baked into the 10 number. It does matter.
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The whole point was not to discuss grading companies but the one creators decision to go with cgc to make money. CGC grades harder, has less of a name brand and commands less at auction so obviously that guy made the wrong choice for profit (and Id say anyone going for cgc for profit is making the wrong choice, but for quality of encapsulation do whatever you want). The card’s conditions may very well be high quality but he is not the person who cares about quality over money
If we take turnaround times out of the equation, then I agree. But if I had a bunch of pack fresh modern ultra rares, I’d much rather grade them with CGC as 9.5s and be able to sell them within a couple months than wait a year for PSA to grade them a 10. The PSA 10 is, of course, worth much more than the 9.5. But the real question is: is the CGC 9.5 worth more currently than you expect the PSA 10 will be worth in a year? If yes, then it can make sense for a flipper to grade a PSA 10 candidate with CGC.
I agree that the 10 has a advantage due to the psychology. It’s why I wish CGC would convert to that system. It’s so difficult for CGC to break into the market because people are naturally (and understandably) going to view a 9.5 as lesser than a 10. It’s very difficult to break people from the misperception that 10 > 9.5. The reality is that 10 is PSA’s gem mint grade and 9.5 is CGC’s gem mint grade. CGC is shooting themselves in the foot by using the 9.5 scale.
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