Options
PSAG New Grading Service
edueku
Posts: 985
in Stamps Forum
Has anyone checked out www.stampauthentication.com? Just saw their two page ad in the newest Linn's today. I haven't got a chance to check out the site yet though.
Any opinions.
I'm going to see Marylin Manson, so I won't be on here til' the morning.
Any opinions.
I'm going to see Marylin Manson, so I won't be on here til' the morning.
0
Comments
My personal thoughts are to wait and see what they offer. APEX works for most of the stuff I normally submit and PSE grading was the first deviation in a while. Randy Shoemaker, who was a name with PSE, is the owner and operator of the new service. I see no reason to jump ship from APEX and PSE at this time.
What is going to set PSAG apart from the others? They certainly can't make any claims that they will produce more opinions as authentic or that they will provide higher grades, so what do they really have.
Can they undercut the others on price? This is a for profit business and I don't see that there is much room for lowering the price.
Do they have experts that the others do not have? From what I understand they will be using the same experts as the others. For them to succeed I believe they would need to have exclusive access to the most respected experts and that is not going to happen.
Do they have newer, state-of-the-art equipment that is not available to the others? It is my understanding that they have nothing better than PSE and I am not sure about APEX and PF.
I just don't see anything that sets them apart. There is one possibility I was thinking about that might have some validity. Ken Lawrence does a very good job of keeping people appraised about the financial status of Collector's Universe, maybe, and this is just a remote possibility, Randy Shoemaker knows something about the future viability of PSE that no one else knows and he is putting himself in a position to fill a void that would be created if something were to happen to PSE. I personally don't believe that PSE is weak and I would think that rumors would have been going around by now.
From what I can see, PSAG has got a long hard road ahead of them and I am not certain they will last. Time will tell!!!!!!!!
Just a little more info. I had the pleasure to meet and talk with Bill Litle and I really like him and does a friend of mine. Really like equates to trust. I don't know anyone in the PSAG list and ---- you guessed it ---- not sure of the trust factor.
You wanted opinions and this is mine.
I think if they lower the fee they can compete.
One thing I don't like about other grading services besides the trust factor is: I can't add my stamps that aren't PSE graded to the PSE registry.
I haven't dropped by the Frajola board for a while, I keep meaning to, as I imagined they were talking about PSAG. I don't post much there because it's rare that anyone responds to anything I write or ask. Occasionally Ken or Richard will reply but that's about it.
Anyway it will be interesting to see if anything becomes of the new service but I have my doubts.
I'm actually more interested in what PSE's new grading criteria for blocks will be. I actually have some nice blocks worth grading.