They have lazy graders that don’t like dealing with the extra work with the gold stamp labels. I sent them 750 cards, first batch of 250 went through with 90% pack fresh stuff and a good bit of that I paid extra for the subgrades and the graders would play ring-around-the-rosey making sure to doc the subgrades just enough so nothing would earn a 10 on a bunch of pack fresh cards of the same types. Literally like 20 of each kinda card brand new. So I learned my lesson. Have 550 more cards coming in but I let my $300 annual membership run out and I’ll never grade with those dumbasses again. I think a lot of people graded with them because they were $7.5 per card for a little while and conned people into getting $300 memberships for some vouchers back when PSA was closed, then they doubled their prices and went full blown meat-ball on their grading standards. You’re right though; I don’t think it’s been good for their business long-term. They now have a pretty bad wrap for anyone wanting to grade-to-keep. It’s ok as a service if you just want to flip shit and earn some %'s on your bottom line, but overall PSA is better for actually adding value to your cards/collection. The only cards worth grading with CGC are cards you would never expect to get a PSA10. I’m talking clean cards with dents that CGC might give you a 6.5 on but PSA would AUTO-2. Or rough cards PSA might give you a 5 on that CGC happens to give you a 7 on. But once you get to actual mint cards? Don’t bother sending to CGC. They’ll devalue just about everything and with an outlier being that they MIGHT throw you a bone once in awhile so someone can point to it and say “aha!”
10 cards I don’t plan on keeping that would otherwise grade a PSA 5 but are worth significantly more with a CGC 8 on it.
I think a 750 card sample size of newer-stock, pack fresh cards is a good indicator that the cards I’m sending in are “better condition” as they can get and people calling me a liar or salty can go sit on a blender. Perhaps CGC has a quality control issue with how they grade that a large swath of collectors have correctly identified and we don’t need other members gaslighting us for our opinions when another grader/collector asks for them.
@chrisbalestra,thank you for speaking the truth about CGC when nobody wants to
Some of us aren’t simply trying to protect our flipping investments and would rather other people don’t come to the same expensive conclusion on their own. Gary is better off grading his high-end cards with PSA. Yes, PSA has gotten tougher on grading, but they aren’t stupid about it like CGC. I had thought about sending thousands of cards to CGC, but I wanted to test run it with newer stock, easier-to-get-a 10 modern before bothering with vintage. Glad I did that at least.
@chrisbalestra , I agree that CGC grades unusually harshly at times, especially on the surface sub grade. But just because you sent 750 cards doesn’t automatically mean that you *should* get 10s on any of them just because they are modern “easy to grade” cards. I got 5/15 of the cards I sent in my last sub back as 10s so I just guess the grader that time didn’t go out of their way to not give me 10s?
If you don’t like CGCs grading parameters and how they grade cards that’s completely fine, don’t use them and advise others to do the same. Just try not to go popping off about conspiracy theories about why they won’t give you 10s on your cards when they are clearly willing to do it. (CGC has plenty of other REAL stuff to complain about).
If we ignore potential shipping risks (since I prefer to not send in any cards for grading if I would be unable to replace them if something goes wrong), I would send in some cool misprinted/error cards, since CGC is the best grading company for those imho.
I also want a CGC Perfect-10 WotC #21 promo Moltres, but considering the raw/sealed copies I own won’t get a perfect 10 for sure and I already have a CGC-10 (with one 9.5), I’m fine with it for now.
Greetz,
Quuador
Just because you sent 15 cards in and 5 of the 15 came back as 10s doesn’t mean you aren’t an outlier or that they don’t have some lazy graders trying to steambarrel through large submissions so they could get caught up (lets not forget how absysmal their turnaround got after their announcement of a deadline before raising their prices). To be very clear, I would put the dozens of 9.5’s they sent me back up to the five 10’s you got back in a blind test to any grader - PSA or CGC, and bet the farm that they would not be able to tell the difference on which deserved the 10 and which were belonging to these 9.5 piles. There are plenty of e4 members that have had the same experience as I did that have been grading for years and know what a mint card is and what usually constitutes a 10. Many of them stopped grading with CGC specifically because of similar issues.
And this is where, once again I’m gonna have to call bullshit and say to stop gaslighting. There will always be outliers or people who can point to an “aha!” moment or experience. My advice to Gary and my statement regarding their grading standards/issues does not change. If you want to call me “salty” or a “conspiracy theorist”, that’s on you. I’m standing by what I said. But as an olive branch, I’ll agree that there IS plenty of other “real” stuff to complain about". Their grading issues is a “real” thing as well.
10 indented gengar masakis would be the optimal send. Unless the indents are so faint that PSA might still give you the 10.
Would probably just send in any random modern hits. For anything decently valuable i’m fine with just waiting for PSA
@chrisbalestra, Those two cards you showed on the other page are clearly off-center and knowing CGC grades harshly, I personally wouldn’t have sent those in expecting a 10. Hell, I’d be cautious sending those to PSA with that centering, but for what its worth I tend to over-scrutinize my cards and under-grade them. I understand 2/750 isn’t very indicative of the rest of your sub though. From what I’ve seen, 9.5 surface is almost a guarantee on pack fresh cards, but I also see so many cards with 8 and 8.5 surface that look absolutely horrible. There are definitely inconsistencies in any subgrade below a 9, and corner/edge grades could very likely be determined based on imperfections invisible to the human eye, we just don’t know. That said I think CGC is more inconsistent than PSA and while I don’t grade much, when I do I’m sending to PSA.
Although to echo others in the thread here, I’d submit cards with small indents that are otherwise NM-M to CGC, because PSA would auto-6 those without a second though no matter how clean the card actually is. Disregarding my binder gang joke from before, I’d probably submit cards that fit that description, if I had some free grades.
When I realized all of my CGC subs came back with the exact same grade and at least 10% of my cards every time had defects with the case where I would have to send it back I realized how much of a scam I got myself into.
People have mentioned indented or error cards. Maybe also cards that psa doesn’t grade such as UPC metal cards or art academy cards
CGC has a specialty in errors. Take a look at this guide of errors that they recognize and see if you have any:
This image was taken last year and the two cards in the image aren’t even strong 9.5 samples nor are they indictive of what I was stating (CGC will play ring-around-the-rosey on subgrades giving a 10 in one subgrade, but docking to a 9.5 on another subgrade 20+ x to keep the card from crossing over to 10 territory in their bulk/bigger submissions.
My man Gary asked. I answered. I gave CGC a shot without bias back when plenty of other members here said CGC was trash. I had to see for myself and now I agree. If you send high-end items to CGC, you will likely lose value on those cards than if you sent the same batch of cards to PSA. It’s just a numbers game/formula at this point. Furthermore, CGC doesn’t even command the same sort of premium for a 10 than Beckett does over a PSA 10.
looks like errors and indents are what everyone agrees on. their indent grading doesnt makes sense to me. they are really harsh and give 8.5 on mint cards but also give 8.5 on cards with indents
The reality is that CGC’s grading is just weird below 9. I’ve seen 8s (and even a few 8.5s) with serious issues that would be auto-6 at PSA. I’ve also seen 8.5s that would likely cross to PSA 9. In effect, CGC 8.5 encompasses the entire PSA 6-9 range.
That said, their grading is pretty tight for grades 9 and above. CGC 9s are always going to be in the PSA 8-10 range (usually 9-10). CGC 9.5s are always going to be in the 9-10 range.
This is a discord meme! And very true. CGC’s biggest competitor is their grading scale.
I agree here, cgc was great for the first 6 months or so, but now they are more or less a good catch all for damaged cards or things psa wont grade.
There has been a near endless list of problems with their grading practices lately and I have cut way back on using them until either changes are made to make them useful again, or until one of the other companies opens up at a reasonable price.
People are “lining up” to send “cheap” cards to psa at 50 dollars each, I can’t even imagine how much of the market they will recapture when bulk reopens.
For me it would be error cards / cool variants other grading companies do not recognize such as my lovely black flame ninetales 
Not just because other companies don’t do it though, CGC have impressed me with their thorough articles on multiple errors/variants in the past, I wouldn’t want to send them anywhere else!