I made a video on new grading companies recently, but even over the month since I made it so many more have popped up. I’ll refine my thinking here with reference to Rand’s company.
The premise of these companies is as close to a false advertising scam as you can get. They market to people who don’t understand the graded card market and assume that “grading” is what makes the card increase in value. In fact, the only thing that matters about the card is the reputation of the company–not condition, not grade number, not name of the grade. It’s why PSA 10s (Gem Mint) sell for more than CGC 9.5s (Gem Mint) even if a CGC 9.5 is arguably a “stricter” grade and they have the same name. I could provide more examples but you get the point. Since these companies have no reputation, they provide little to no secondary market value increase. The people who end up holding the bag here are the customers of these companies, because they have basically thrown money away.
So many of these companies aren’t making even the most basic effort to develop their reputation. There was a new grading company this week started by aDrive, another popular content creator. This company advertises that they’ll grade basically any standard-sized card, but said nothing about what expertise they have to do so, including identifying and authenticating these cards. When you see things like “anything goes” authentication/grading, it’s a clear sign the company doesn’t care about their reputation and just wants to fleece people out of as much money as possible before the actually reputable companies catch up.
I like and respect Rand, and I know he won’t be malicious like some of these other companies. But I do feel like the well has been poisoned here. Starting a new grading company is the new get-rich-quick scheme in Pokemon, and while the startups may lose some money, the people who really get screwed are the ones who submit to these companies without understanding how far off their services are from the big boys.