Third party

stuckinMA

This is coming from someone in the graded card hobby for about two years, strictly as a hobbyist, not reseller or a registry competitor.

The personal preference for third-party grading companies is intriguing to me, basically because irregardless of the preference of the major three (PSA, SGC, BGS) the arguments pro/con are identical. When someone notices a poorly graded card they use that as an example for the entire company, yet again, there are plenty of poorly graded cards by all grading companies thanks simply to human error. If a truly scientific research study was completed I would not be surprised to see the comparison be statistically insignificant.

The most recent logical rationale for preference of one company over another seems to be price realization and this I believe is entirely based on the Set Registry, which is obviously dominated by PSA. The other two top tier companies registries don't even compete. As far as I can tell, there answer to this was creating the "Pristine" grade, which in turn seems to have equalized the price realization to a certain point

Besides all the banter, the second most fascinating aspect of all of this to me is the fact that a currently low-pop common in that cards current highest grade will sell for crazy money for no other reason than the registry. The sweet, sweet, law of supply and demand.

How long has the PSA registry been around? Are there any other innovations within the hobby that could stimulate interest to realized prices?

PSARich

A good commentary and I believe pretty accurate in describing the current graded card marketplace. I agree that each grading company has its share of mis-graded cards and even though I am a PSA advocate, I admit I have both undergraded and overgraded PSA cards in my collection (at least by my human flawed grading eye). The Set Registry was a genious idea that not only has served as a great inventory vehicle for our collections but has no doubt set a fire under our competitive natures. The size of PSA allows it to maintain this sytem and I feel that the other two companies don't have the resources or desire to match the PSA model. They appear content with their business model and market share as is. The Registry has certainly impacted the value of cards in that many low pop commons command more than high grade HOFer's cards. Scarcity equals value when the demand is there. I have been amazed at the final price of many PSA 8's that are fairly low-pop commons in eBay auctions in which I was the seller. Personally, I will sell low pop commons any time to afford high grade stars because I believe as time goes by and more and more cards are graded and at some point a low pop common may not hold that title anymore. There are certainly exceptions and if the PSA pop report has done nothing else, it has brought attention to common cards that appear to be difficult to get in high grade.

And that leads us to value. I love the 1950 Bowman baseball set. I can buy mint cards graded "9" by SGC or Beckett for $150-$200 but I don't because my collection is in PSA holders. It is high risk to cross over these cards to PSA so I don't risk it. I have tried with crossovers and crack and resubmits with minimal success on these old cards. I wait until I can find the same card in a PSA holder and am willing to Pay an extra $100 or more to get it. Am I stupid? Perhaps....especially to those who say buy the card not the holder. However, if I want to sell that card later, the PSA brand is going to provide me the most return most of the time. The fact is I do plan on selling my collection at some point so resale value is important to me.

When you get into the really old vintage era of card collecting, say the late 1800's to the 1920's-30's, My limited experience is that SGC cards align quite well to PSA cards in sales value, while Beckett is really not considered a player in the grading of cards for those years. On the other hand, Beckett graded cards produced in last few decades can hold their own in sales values.

It really is a person's preference to some degree. I actually like the BGS and SGC holders better that PSA's. But in my mind the PSA brand is the leader in the market with the others not even close. The data and educational information I can get from PSA is unmatched by the others. The steadiness of their leadership and ability to move forward with new innovations will probably keep them there. And still, I like the idea that for the type of cards I collect, PSA cards have and maintain better value.

gemint

I agree with the comments so far. To answer the original question, the registry has been around for about 15 years now. I registered the first of my 1969 Topps baseball set around 1999 or 2000. At that time there were few partial sets registered after 1959 and no complete sets if I recall correctly.

The registry certainly helps drive prices higher but it's not the only reason. There are a lot of complete sets out there that are not on the registry yet those collectors still bid strong prices to get the low pop cards. For high grade set collectors like myself, the motivation isn't in building the #1 ranked set but completing the set with all the cards having the visual appeal we desire. Before PSA and eBay came along, it was quite difficult putting together a well centered, strictly NM-MT or better set. I worked on my 1969 set from around 1985 to 1999 (when I got my first cards graded by PSA) and I was only able to get about 80% of the set completed to my satisfaction. It wasn't until professional grading and eBay came along that I was able to locate tough cards like Lou Brock that were well centered and NM-MT. Prior to that, I scoured many shows from small local ones to Nationals and could only find the typical off centered examples. As long as there are set collectors out there, there will be a market for the tough commons, graded or not. Just look at the prices Greg Morris gets for his raw cards. Many of his customers have no intention of grading those cards yet they still pay steep prices for some of the commons.

KbKards

PSA's set registry began in early 2001 and was up to 365 sets registered in December 2001. By October 2002 they were up to 2,982 registered sets and in November 2002 SGC's launched their own set registry due to the interest they saw in PSA's registry. In May 2011 the numbers were up to 64,249 for PSA and 4,433 for PSA. Today it's up to 74,000 for PSA and 4,616 for SGC, up about 10,000 and 200 sets respectfully. SGC card owners can't understand why there's such a lack of demand for their cards and are quick to blame it on the popularity of the PSA set registry. Well there's only a year and a half difference between the two and SGC is coming up on their 10 year anniversary. Registries are proof of how and what people are collecting out there and SGC's problem has always been very little end user collector interest. As mentioned above, PSA collectors will take chances on buying SGC for PSA crossover, but that's not increasing demand for SGC cards or adding sets to the SGC registry.

MeteoriteGuy

There are pros and cons of all three major companies, and not really much pros outside of the three.

Beckett has been sold a couple times in the last few years, and their current grading standards is not all on par with their grading standards of 5 years ago. I'm still working on a couple sets in BGS, but wont touch the newer labels for it. I do however not have a problem buying newer 9.5's autos and gu for resale. They have done their best to kill any interest in 80s Topps cards, look up BGS 10 1984 Topps Football on ebay and you can clearly see why. A Topps card in a BGS slab is pretty worthless to most.

I've always thought the because of the registry answer a little overdone. Very few are trying to say, complete the best possible 1965 Topps set, but rather, most try to complete the set in PSA 7-8, this being just an example of course. Also as noted, SGC has had a registry almost the whole time, and so has Beckett.

stuckinMA

<< <i> I've always thought the because of the registry answer a little overdone. Very few are trying to say, complete the best possible 1965 Topps set, but rather, most try to complete the set in PSA 7-8, this being just an example of course. Also as noted, SGC has had a registry almost the whole time, and so has Beckett. >>



That may indeed be the case, but if the registry argument is overdone, how would you explain the seemingly inflated realized prices of commons as well as the drastic declining prices of "low pop" cards once they are not low pop any more. Two quick examples I have witnessed in my collecting are Jan Stenerud and Dwight Stephenson rookie cards.

The SGC and BGS registries seem to be poorly run and are not user friendly in either functionality or presentation.

I would love to get $5000 or so to do an anonymous randomized trial of the three any maybe even Global Authority, just to how different/consistent they actually are.

gemint

<< <i>PSA's set registry began in early 2001 and was up to 365 sets registered in December 2001. By October 2002 they were up to 2,982 registered sets and in November 2002 SGC's launched their own set registry due to the interest they saw in PSA's registry. In May 2011 the numbers were up to 64,249 for PSA and 4,433 for PSA. Today it's up to 74,000 for PSA and 4,616 for SGC, up about 10,000 and 200 sets respectfully. SGC card owners can't understand why there's such a lack of demand for their cards and are quick to blame it on the popularity of the PSA set registry. Well there's only a year and a half difference between the two and SGC is coming up on their 10 year anniversary. Registries are proof of how and what people are collecting out there and SGC's problem has always been very little end user collector interest. As mentioned above, PSA collectors will take chances on buying SGC for PSA crossover, but that's not increasing demand for SGC cards or adding sets to the SGC registry. >>



Was it that recent? I know I registered my set before moving in July, 2001. At that time there were a few dozen sets registered. They were all 1950s sets with most focused on 1952 Topps.

MeteoriteGuy

<< <i>

<< <i> I've always thought the because of the registry answer a little overdone. Very few are trying to say, complete the best possible 1965 Topps set, but rather, most try to complete the set in PSA 7-8, this being just an example of course. Also as noted, SGC has had a registry almost the whole time, and so has Beckett. >>



That may indeed be the case, but if the registry argument is overdone, how would you explain the seemingly inflated realized prices of commons as well as the drastic declining prices of "low pop" cards once they are not low pop any more. Two quick examples I have witnessed in my collecting are Jan Stenerud and Dwight Stephenson rookie cards.

The SGC and BGS registries seem to be poorly run and are not user friendly in either functionality or presentation.

I would love to get $5000 or so to do an anonymous randomized trial of the three any maybe even Global Authority, just to how different/consistent they actually are. >>




The HOF sets are the most collected sets in PSA registries, and can not be used as your basic example, as these count for less then 0.01% of the cards. However, the population increasing on an item and it's price dropping, has less to do with the registry and more to do the limited market of most cards (at inflated prices). You see this in non-graded card on ebay also. The new product hits, all the autos go for crazy prices. As more come out, prices get lower.

The HOF sets each also had one or two guys running prices up. You mentioned a couple football rc's so you might remember when the #1 set was built, the buyer basically paid any price, and these guys almost all replaced their rc's with a grade or two down, but still high grade cards. It created a situation where many of the nicer football rc's where selling for 20-25% more. Most have settled back down.

Also, the price drop on the examples you provided was not limited to cards in PSA cases, but have been across the board. Especially the 1984 Topps HOF RCs, where BGS Graded 9.5s and (sheet cut) 10s go for a fraction they did a couple years ago.

bouwob

here's how I see it.

SGC: pre war
PSA: Post war to 2000 Most true collectors collect these types of cards especially if they are slinging a lot of money into their collections. PSA wins this with the registry.
BGS: 2000 to current Newer rookie cards will sell at a premium over similar PSA grade. They also likely have the nicest cases out of any of the grading companies.