This is a grading company you don't see much of ...

Virtualizard

I wonder why?

I was just searching for some '75s to add to my set and came across this garbage - check out the centering of this "Gem Mint 10": 1975 Topps #207 Killebrew/ McCovey GEM 10

Seriously, does anyone here know if a grading company other than PSA, SGC, GAI, Beckett (maybe?) really believes that they are offering a good service when they consistently grade cards using the standards of your average Ebay raw card seller? Does a company such as GEM think that they can possibly continue to operate and grow in the industry with this kind of crap?

I'm at least glad to see that the auction ended with a fair high bid for the actual card, not the holder. I would not have bid much more if it had been a PSA 8.

JEB.

Golfcollector

I did purchase a tiger woods tour thread card that was graded GEM MINT 10 by GEM grading on EBAY last year and sent it to PSA and got the same. I then re-sold the card and made about a $300 profit on the deal. I would not advise buying their graded material per se, but in the one instance that I bought a card from this company, it ended up being pretty good.

interchanges

When I see vintage cards graded by a company OTHER than PSA, SGC, or recently, Global, I am very skeptical. I bought a few of those "shady" looking NMM T205's graded by CSA about 8 years ago. Pulling teeth was easier than attempting to return these to the auction house. (now defunct) (shocker). Although very nice looking, they were restored. Almost too well.

At shows I've seen cards graded by USA that had wavy top borders. Or how about the mother of all shady graders... Alan Hagar? I think he only graded cards that he owned so he could bump it up a full (at least) grade, for his own personal profit. I've seen cards in those holders that actually made me laugh out loud!

What's unfortunate, is that a new collector will buy it, learned he got burned, and forever vow never again to buy vintage cards, which would be too bad. But we all learned the hard way didn't we?

Virtualizard

Golfcollector,

Congratulations on that one. But this has got to be the rare exception. I'd be willing to guess that any vintage cards graded Gem Mint 10 by this company would not get better than a PSA 8.

Let me say something about the seller now. I did a little more searching, and found another auction for the same card that ends 2 days later. I put the auctions up side by side on my monitor, and I'm pretty sure it's the same scan. See for yourself:

Auction That Ended Today

Auction That Ends On 12/23

By looking at the ebay item #s for each auction, it is evident that the seller posted both of these auctions at the same time. The card in the first auction might cross over to a PSA 8 (hard to tell for sure from the scan and I didn't measure the centering), but what if the other card is worse than this one? I'd be really upset if I purchased the 2nd card and found out it wasn't the one shown in the auction.

My opinions are:

1. The blatant overgrading of any card is a bad business practice for any company trying to get into the market for grading cards.
2. This is a bad business practice for the seller to use the same scan for two different auctions.
3. Uninformed buyers will continue to get ripped off as long as this continues.

Again, does anyone have any more knowledge of these companies than can be found just by searching on the internet. Are these companies just taking advantage of uniformed collectors to make money short term and then get out of the business? It's obvious that no serious collector would submit cards to them, so it has to be dealers that know their cards won't make the grade with legitimate grading services that are submitting. Very disgusting if you ask me.


JEB.

mrichards

I agree Jeb. These companies should be put out of business (but then again, they will just reopen under another name). Here is a great link to all of the grading companies which currently exist. 21 total. Besides PSA, SGC, GAI and maybe BGS (on the newer stuff). You can throw them all in a blender and still come up with the same SH*T. Anyway, here is the link.

Grading Services Directory

Virtualizard

Thanks for the link. I looked through the list of grading companies, but could not find Gem Grading, Inc., the company in question here. There is a Gem Sports on the list, but they do not appear to be the same company based on the scans of their holders on the site. Maybe I missed it.

I did like this quote on Gem Grading, Inc.'s site: Soon we will be recognized as an elite grading company, second to none. That's pretty funny.

JEB.

crazysc

I saw someone had a list of grading companies a number of months ago (earlier this year) - something like 50+ companies...

MickeyC

Has anyone dealt with Online Grading Company?. I picked up a 72 Rose from them that was graded Mint. Submitted it to PSA, still waiting on that one.

Mark

Virtualizard

This is an interesting service. The first problem that comes to mind is: nothing can stop a seller from changing the card that they actually sell since there is no "physical" slab with a grade on it. I'm assuming that you received the actual card that was shown in the seller's listing though? I think that this may be a decent service, but it could be too easily abused. Anyone could digitally touch up the card in a number of ways from corners to centering. The fees are also a little high, and scans (even high resolution) just can't compete with grading the card in person.

MickeyC - Good luck with your submission and let us know the results.

JEB.

KING KELLOGG

About half way down the list.....


Snaggletooth Grading Company ????

"here kitty..kitty"



Now there's a hoot!




Larry

KING KELLOGG

Sorry for the second post, but now that I think about it...

I'm going to get a card graded by "Snagletooth"


What better way to have a laugh, than to own an "official" SnagSlab!



(Now, where did I put my kids little league baseball card at???)




Larry

MrKissKissBangBang

KK - I like their cash buy back offer - I am moving all of my business to Snaggletooth!! HAHAHA

KKBB

mrichards

Now you guys are started to scare me.
You are all sick in your heads, which is why I post here.

Happy Holidays,
Mike

LuxuryWines

My favorite is the Pro grading site the banners " GO with Pro We Care" I also love the fact that over half the grading companies have no phone # listed Makes one feel real secure does it not?... By the way PRO offers a crossover service for anyone who is interested...Rumor has it their promotional schedule next is year is going to include a set registry special offer for all trimmed and doctored cards....