SGC vs PSA Modern Grading Standards

TommyB23

Hi guys- I wanted to pose a question to you regarding SGC vs. PSA's grading standards. I had decided to take a look at some popular modern cards to see from a population perspective, whose standards are more stringent. I pulled pop %'s for the 1989 UD Griffey, 1993 SP Jeter, and 1998 SPA Randy Moss. The below were the results:

1998 SP Authentic Randy Moss
Grade 9 10
SGC 40.45% 4.49%
PSA 52.89% 7.35%

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr
Grade 9 10
SGC 19.81% 2.87%
PSA 32.31% 4.62%

1993 Jeter SP Foil
Grade 8 9 10
SGC 14.39% 2.95% 0.05%
PSA 62.07% 4.23% 0.16%

It seems like SGC is much less willing to give out 9s and 10s than PSA for these. What have you all found in terms of SGC vs PSA? Is it different in the vintage marketplace? Could this be a function of people just sending lower quality cards to SGC? Curious to hear your guys thoughts.

-Tommy

WillBBC

The percentages speak loudly but the sheer number of cards PSA sees compares to SGC tells more of a story. SGC has lost a good amount of clout in the modern market. The money isn't there even with 96s and 98s, let alone 100s. Yes, you'll see a premium, but a PSA 9 Jeter will far outpace an SGC 96 SP Jeter. With that being fairly widespread knowledge, SGC simply isn't seeing nearly the volume of high quality cards as PSA. Curious to see what others have to add.

TommyB23

@WillBBC said:
The percentages speak loudly but the sheer number of cards PSA sees compares to SGC tells more of a story. SGC has lost a good amount of clout in the modern market. The money isn't there even with 96s and 98s, let alone 100s. Yes, you'll see a premium, but a PSA 9 Jeter will far outpace an SGC 96 SP Jeter. With that being fairly widespread knowledge, SGC simply isn't seeing nearly the volume of high quality cards as PSA. Curious to see what others have to add.

Thanks for the input! I agree that the premiums are always going to favor PSA. I'm wondering if there are any crossover opportunities. Has anyone had lucking crossing SGC cards to PSA and getting a better or equal grade? From what I've seen, a significant amount of BGS cards won't cross to the same grade at PSA, but I'm wondering if the SGC cards hold up better given what seems to be similarly stringent grading standards.

LarkinCollector

I think the biggest thing to pay attention to on crossovers from SGC to PSA is centering for the grade. SGC seems to be more lenient on centering than PSA. There's some other minor quirks, but I'd say that's the biggest.

Of the three cards mentioned, the condition of the holo on the back of the 89UD Griffey is also heavily scrutinized by PSA. I'm not certain how SGC treats it.

Stone193

This is a tough one for me.

No good with stats.

But, they can be misleading.

Ya know? It very well could be that more people with "quality" material choose PSA over SGC due to the Registry and perhaps sales?

divecchia

Tommy,

I'm like Mike and not great with stats, but I can tell you that without knowing the amount of cards actually submitted to each grading service the above stats don't mean much. Let me try and explain. PSA has probably received 10 times the number of Griffey's (if not more) than SGC, but the Pop Report doesn't show PSA grading 10 times the number of PSA 9's and 10's
than SGC graded.

Donato