If Genamint can ID & grade a card, then we can just keep our cards un-encapsulated. When you’re going to sell or trade your card online, ID it with AI, have it assess the grade and then when the seller gets it in the mail, they make sure the ID, grade & sub-grades match up. If you want it encapsulated just put it in a top loader or mag/screw case. I’d much rather have a collection without seeing a graded label ever again. If you want to see the grades, just open the app on your phone and use augmented reality to have the grade show up on top of your preferred method of storage (top loader, mag case, binder sleeve, etc).
We’re going to be laughing at how we used to keep our cards trapped in sonic welded plastic slabs.
The slabs are nice for protection and displaying though. Have fun buying a PSA 10 equivalent card only for it to get shipped with tape everywhere and still have it shoot out of the toploader and get damaged lol
Disappointed in the CGC increase, especially regarding bulk. They went from like $13 with the membership discount to over $20 with subgrades. That is probably the nail in the coffin for me grading anything worth less than $100, which is sad. I was already done with PSA for them being terrible in nearly every regard, so don’t really care that now AI is going to determine your grades. BGS is going to be my go to option for most of my grading now. They used to not be as attractive due to the higher cost and long T/O times, but PSA and CGC have pretty much matched or exceeded them in both of those areas. Also, BGS cases just feel and look better AND the grading is more accurate than either of their competitors IMO.
So genamint uses a cameraphone for imaging, not expensive hardware that can image the surface, edges, and corners from multiple angles? Huh, cool lemme just download the app then; assuming they just want to do something bogus like that and completely waste what they have.
Of course economy and bulk grading costs will come back online eventually. And they wont be anywhere near $50 minimum. Right now eliminating lower tiers or making them more expensive is a short term solution to prevent the walls from closing in on them. It’s not a long term solution. Grading costs on low value cards have to be low or the company is giving up market share on those items; when they could just grade them and make free cash money. And it will continue to be worth it for them to grade low end because cost to grade per card is not anywhere near what they are charging; its mostly profit. If PSA could magically meet demand and instantly hire 500 fully trained experienced card graders they would do so, and within a couple months bulk/economy submissions would be back down to normal pricing; because the lower the price the more low end cards people will send in. If PSA was interested in being stupid they would keep grading costs high and not expand. And sure they would make a lot of money; but not nearly as much if they expand and meet demand. PSA isn’t stupid, they want to grade bulk/economy and keep bulk affordable because otherwise they aren’t capturing that low end market at all. No one is sending in cheap $30 in a PSA 9 type value cards in if the cost to grade is $30, and of course they know that and “there’s just too much value there for companies themselves to not absorb it” as @andrewvt36 so eloquently put it, but in the opposite way somehow.
The rest are probably received. Most likely the reason you didn’t receive any notifications because there’s no notification to give. I do my own submissions and there’s literally no movement for 7 months then I get one notification then after that it seems like the submissions are finishing within two weeks.
Everyone is assuming the AI is strictly for grading.
What if they only used it for research and ID for the foreseeable future? That alone would save them a bunch of time. Cards could be unboxed, scanned and then go to the grader in a shorter time span.
Maybe I am missing something, but this seems much more like an acquisition of skillsets (brain trust) and emerging technology, to build on in the years to come, yet is being interpreted as PSA buying a full-fledged company with a product already in-use. The software is nowhere close to widespread commercial adoption if there is only a “demo” based on a web mock-up to view.
I never used CGC before so have a basic question here. The Premium membership costs $149 and gives $150 grading credits. Doesn’t that pay for itself? Isn’t it too good to be true?
@wocasia12, it pays for itself in the same way stores would be thrilled if everyone decided to buy $150 gift cards. You’re locking-in your money to the company. Plus I assume a fair amount of people don’t end up using the full $150 in credits or forget about them.
It did pay for itself. Like a lot of other startup products/services, CGC did this to get customers to switch over. Like their grading prices, I expect the membership fee to increase as well by the end of the year. They have more market share at this point than what a lot of users thought they would, myself included. Some of that is their service being good. I’d say it has more to do with the fact that PSA has been a dumpster fire. Either way, more competition is better for the consumers.
When was your order delivered? I’m in the same boat as you, and mine has only been about 3 weeks. I’m not worried about it, but I have some friends that submitted with me and they’re like OMFG WHERE ARE MY CARDS haha
Anybody know how long the “assembly” stage usually takes for psa? All my other ludkins orders on the old tracker always skipped multiple steps so I have nothing to base it off of lol
Total crapshoot on timing. I have had an order in QA Check 2 for two weeks now. Figured it would be finalized and over to shipping in a day like most of my other orders…not the case this time around
I’d be happy if PSA could get $50/card services down to something we could see back in 2-3 months time. Since I mainly grade for myself it’s hard to justify going with PSA over CGC since I’d actually like to see my cards back some time before I die.
If I had to bet, I’d say they will begin their tiered re-opening in July by adding $50/card option. Then they can test the waters on the demand for that service level and hold there until demand normalizes.