PSA 9 or SGC 98?

ClockworkAngel · February 16, 2014 10:36AM

The majority of my collection is PSA. I have a bunch of PSA9's that should probably be in 10 holders but aren't and if 9.5 existed they would make it in those I believe.

For pure resell purposes do you believe that SGC 98's will bring in more than PSA 9's across the board?only certain cards? According to VCP, most SGC 98's will bring in more than PSA 9's. However, with some of the iconic cards in the hobby there's not a large sample size. Have any of you considered crossing your PSA 9's to SGC98's?

digicat · February 16, 2014 11:46AM

SGC 98 is their "Gem Mint" designation, not their "Mint".

Pristine: SGC 100, BGS 10
Gem Mint: PSA 10, SGC 98, BGS 9.5
Mint: PSA 9, SGC 96, BGS 9.0

otwcards · February 16, 2014 11:57AM

I don't think the question assumes that SGC 98 is equal to PSA 9. I think, as the OP asks, would it be in his best interest to attempt to bump his high end PSA 9's to SGC 98's for an increased price realization. My assumption would be that the answer, in most cases, would be YES.

bobbyw8469 · February 16, 2014 12:03PM

SGC cards do not get the money that PSA does, plain and simple. Good luck if you decide to cross though.

addicted2ebay · February 16, 2014 12:29PM

I believe SGC will not accept a higher grade (for crossover) than what the card is already graded if it is from a competitor.

ClockworkAngel · February 16, 2014 1:35PM

<< I believe SGC will not accept a higher grade (for crossover) than what the card is already graded if it is from a competitor. >>

I believe they will. They want to get as many cards out of PSA holders and into SGC holders as possible. It's good for business. ANd I believe they would give a very sharp 9 a 98. We all know PSA is being stingy with their 10's. Some of these are Gem. SGC would likely see that and grade them accordingly.

So all that aside, back to the original question:

Would you rather have a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan PSA 9 or SGC 98?
Wayne Gretzky 1979 OPC PSA 9 or SGC 98?
1969 Topps Reggie Jackson PSA 9 or SGC 98?
1981 Topps Joe Montana PSA 9 or SGC 98? You get the idea....

60sfan · February 16, 2014 2:16PM

<< 

<< I believe SGC will not accept a higher grade (for crossover) than what the card is already graded if it is from a competitor. >>

I believe they will. They want to get as many cards out of PSA holders and into SGC holders as possible. It's good for business. ANd I believe they would give a very sharp 9 a 98. We all know PSA is being stingy with their 10's. Some of these are Gem. SGC would likely see that and grade them accordingly.

So all that aside, back to the original question:

Would you rather have a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan PSA 9 or SGC 98?
Wayne Gretzky 1979 OPC PSA 9 or SGC 98?
1969 Topps Reggie Jackson PSA 9 or SGC 98?
1981 Topps Joe Montana PSA 9 or SGC 98? You get the idea.... >>

When searching ebay a lot of guys will search for "PSA10"......... Not as many search for "SGC 98"......... And a lot guys just want PSA for uniformity / marketability reasons............I think it's safer to keep the cards in a PSA holder.

I got my butt kicked when I had my PSA 9's put into GAI 9,5 holders.........bad move.

mattyc_collection · February 16, 2014 2:17PM

Good a time as any for my first post:

I'd take the better CARD, regardless of the holder.

If I want a card for my collection, I will seek the best card-- regardless of case and sticker. The real question I would pose to you is this:

Would you rather have a card graded merely MINT, that really looks like and deserves to be GEM MT, or a card graded GEM MT, that is clearly not perfect? The caveat is you could never review, only accept the card with its current sticker. So do you care about what card you and collectors see, or what numerical grade they see

ClockworkAngel · February 16, 2014 2:56PM

<< Good a time as any for my first post:

I'd take the better CARD, regardless of the holder.

If I want a card for my collection, I will seek the best card-- regardless of case and sticker. The real question I would pose to you is this:

Would you rather have a card graded merely MINT, that really looks like and deserves to be GEM MT, or a card graded GEM MT, that is clearly not perfect? The caveat is you could never review, only accept the card with its current sticker. So do you care about what card you and collectors see, or what numerical grade they see

>>

Great question, easy answer. I want the card that looks better period. I buy the card not the holder. I have sold or traded 10's that I did not think were worthy and keep the 9 that I thought was nicer

While I appreciate the question, I'm missing the relevance to this post. I am talking about the same card and which holder you want it in to resell it?

digicat · February 16, 2014 4:19PM

<< I am talking about the same card and which holder you want it in to resell it? >>

My GUESS is that a Gem Mint SGC 98 will get more money than a PSA 9 on any card.

fiveniner · February 16, 2014 6:01PM

SGC 98 gets better dollar than PSA 9 IMO.

Scottiec2288 · February 16, 2014 7:34PM

SGC 98 is better then Psa 9. Good luck crossing over, SGC don't just give out 98s. I have subbed a lot of cards to them and only have a few 98s and no 100s. I think when crossing over to either company they look at slab and critique a little harder and most stay the same or even drop half grade. I think both companies want to show their grading standards are tougher then the other. Good Luck

Dpeck100 · February 16, 2014 10:50PM

Marino SGC 98

Tony Gwynn SGC 98

When you search EBAY for SGC 98 there are quite a few listings that come up but in reality very few sales. I listed two examples that don't specifically answer your question but are reasonably good proxies.

I would say in the vast majority of cases the Gem Mint grade from SGC will garner a higher price then the Mint grade from PSA. There certainly can be some outliers from rare issues or registry driven sets but I think it is safe to say in most cases.

I believe both companies will cross cards over in a higher grade. I know of one example I saw first hand at the National and another from a collector who crossed over a PSA 9 Baron Von Raschke into a BGS 9.5 and both were in the holders.

If profit is your primary motive which it seems to be it might be worth the investment to find out. I would think a Joe Montana SGC 98 would sell for $2,500 or so and a rock solid PSA 9 might bring $650. A nice spread to work with. Good luck.

Dpeck100 · February 16, 2014 10:58PM

Here is a good example that I think you can use.

1981 Topps Nolan Ryan PSA 9

1981 Topps Nolan Ryan SGC 98

1981 Topps Nolan Ryan PSA 10

The SGC 98 is only a Pop 2 and still sells for less then 20% of the PSA 10. I boggles my mind when examples like this can so easily be found and anyone questions PSA's dominance in third party grading. The marketplace votes with price and it has spoken here.

gemint · February 16, 2014 11:21PM

Cross it to a SGC98 and then see if PSA will cross the 98 over to a 10. Two step process to get a PSA 10!

JHS5120 · February 16, 2014 11:24PM

You are making a HUGE assumption in assuming SGC will bump PSA 9's. I have been unlucky in the past.

MiniDuff · February 17, 2014 2:57AM

SGC will absolutely bump a strong PSA 9 into a 98 holder, if they think it is worthy and a 98 will on the whole sell for more than a PSA 9. Taking that a step further, if you do land in a 98, you can always try to recross at a PSA 10. Not like it hasn't been done before.

Mickey71 · February 17, 2014 3:09AM

Someone mentioned that SGC wants cards like these in their holders...almost like there's some incentive for SGC. SGC is a business- as soon as you send in the cards on CROSSOVER service...the money is in SGC's bank. If anything...from what I've seen in the past; grading companies like to impose their will and not cross the cards over to make a statement against the other company. I'm not saying the cards won't cross....I just think it's unlikely given you are asking for a higher minimum grade. Good luck if you do decide to send them in.

thunderdan · February 17, 2014 6:05AM

<< I believe SGC will not accept a higher grade (for crossover) than what the card is already graded if it is from a competitor. >>

They will definitely bump to a higher grade on crossover. I bumped the following 8.5 to an SGC 96 at the last National--for reasons similar to those you are considering. The value differential was too great.
From this:

To this:

Granted this was only a half point bump, and the question was about a full point bump from PSA 9 to SGC 98. More to Todd's original question: overall, I think in most cases an SGC 98 will be more valuable than a PSA 9 (but you really need to look at past sales on a card by card basis--which isn't always easy because there either isn't population or history of SGC 98s sometimes). However, I doubt many PSA 9s will bump to SGC 98s. Always depends on the specific card, of course.

Another thing to consider is what is the likelihood of SGC remaining solvent for the long term? If it doesn't, do SGC-graded card values drop like they seem to have done with GAI? Then you have all your blazers in SGC holders and may not be able to get them back into PSA holders. Maybe not a likely scenario, and many don't care anyway because they don't collect cards as investments, but knowing your strategy a little bit, perhaps something to consider.

ClockworkAngel · February 17, 2014 9:13AM

<< Someone mentioned that SGC wants cards like these in their holders...almost like there's some incentive for SGC. SGC is a business- as soon as you send in the cards on CROSSOVER service...the money is in SGC's bank. If anything...from what I've seen in the past; grading companies like to impose their will and not cross the cards over to make a statement against the other company. I'm not saying the cards won't cross....I just think it's unlikely given you are asking for a higher minimum grade. Good luck if you do decide to send them in. >>

I am something like 0 for 20 on crossing over anything to PSA . I 100% agree that PSA likes being the undisputed leader and will crossover very few cards. Absolutely no incentive to do it.

But I disagree about PSA crossing to SGC. SGC is a very distant 2nd right now. They need more regular customers. If I send them a few 9's that cross to SGC 98's, I'm much more likely to use them again and perhaps only them. That's good business

Regarding my reason for asking....I do not have any interest in selling the cards. I have played around with switching to SGC for a lot of reasons. One reason is that I like the holders a million times more. Having a Jordan RC in that case in a SGC 98 holder will just look sweet. But I just want to protect my investment. I want to make sure I'm not sabotaging the net worth by doing something like that...it feels risky

mattyc_collection · February 17, 2014 10:57AM

If you don't plan on selling in the short or medium term, I say go with what you like-- because no one can project with certainty what will be the leading TPG in the long term; we all know accuracy goes way down the longer term the projection. In ten years Company X can get go up or down or bust. If you are talking about a personal collection with no immediate plans to sell, do what you like.

Also, as an example if you were to sell: I will pay top dollar for a great CARD as long as it is accurately graded, no matter which of those two slabs. If you do want to sell and know what you have is a standout, elite piece, you can put it up with great scans and CARD collectors will eventually flock to it. And if a given card is truly worthy of a certain grade, then any company down the line will grade it accordingly, so it's all moot if the card merits the grade. A mint card should be a mint card to any grader, at least eventually. In other words, the best protection for your investment is to buy accurately or undergraded cards-- such specimens will always find their way no matter the TPG.

Of course if we are talking about an overgraded card, getting it into that same grade in any current or future TPG slab is of course difficult.

dtkk49a · February 17, 2014 11:06AM

If you can turn PSA 9's into SGC 98's, couldn't you then try to cross the SGC 98 to a PSA 10 ?

PSA 9 or SGC 98?

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