Just some grading tidbits for your consideration. As an SGC collector for vintage, I have been closely following their recent downward trend, hoping for signs of life. Alas, it’s not good news. Prices are up. Wait time is up. Grading volume is down.
And in an unrelated thread, there was some good discussion on social media this week about the rationale behind PSA upcharges and tiered pricing for its grading services. What is the PSA grade guarantee? Does it cost more to grade premium cards at PSA? Here’s a little bit about each topic:
SGC cost and wait time are up, and volume is down
SGC recently raised its prices–especially for expedited 2-3 day grading of cards $1,500 or less. It’s now just not cost effective to use expedited for anything less than $3,500 or so. Bummer–I used it a lot for $1,000 cards. It also seems like a higher-margin service–so it’s strange to essentially cancel it.
But what about wait time? SGC has been slowing for months, and there is no sign of speeding up. Most orders through Boca Card Subs are over 60 calendar days–and sending direct to SGC adds roughly 2 weeks (minimum) because they are very slow at even opening your order. SGC currently advertises 40-50 business days, and in fairness, 50 business days is about 10 weeks. But arguably that’s too slow to keep market share. Speed was a competitive edge for SGC and is now a liability.
Second, volume continues to decline. Here’s the February Gemrate report:
Let’s put this in perspective. SGC at its height was grading 100,000 more cards than this per month. Let’s look at Feb. 2025 for stark contrast:
We know they have cards to grade–as evidenced by the backlog and wait time. This low output suggests that they have very few full-time equivalent graders on staff, and / or are decimated in other areas (shipping / receiving, research). There is no management-level communication from SGC. No obvious leadership. No sign of a turnaround. It’s depressing so I’ll probably just stop writing about SGC for a while!
Cost to Grade Premium Cards: PSA vs. SGC
First, to be fair, PSA isn’t the only grader that charges more to grade expensive cards. SGC does this as well. In fact, if you do the math, there are cases where it would cost more to grade with SGC than PSA.
Let’s say you have a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle worth perhaps $50,000 graded. What’s the cost to grade with PSA vs. SGC?
Here is PSA’s premium pricing:
And here is SGC’s pricing:
So in this case, yes, PSA is $1,999 and SGC is $1,000.
But what if we up the ante to a $250k Mantle?
PSA cost: $4,999
SGC cost: $9,375!!
Now in practice, is anyone paying that? Probably not. SGC in theory would want premium cards going to auction in its holder. Deals are cut for sure. But the point is that while PSA is both more expensive and more likely to upcharge, it’s possible to get an SGC bill that’s even higher than PSA’s fee.
Why Does PSA Upcharge? What is their grade guarantee?
Many think that “insurance” is the reason for tiered service. That is partly true–but the insurance needed while the card is in PSA’s possession is negligible given their volume. The more costly insurance is involves their grade guarantee. Notably, PSA guarantees its grades. What does this mean? It means that if a card is found to be either overgraded or counterfeit, PSA will buy the card back at market value of the original grade.
But does this actually happen? Yes, often. And a recent very high-profile example is this story of a “gem” Wilt rookie that was downgraded to a 9 by PSA when submitted for a review by a buyer who was not happy with the card when received after a high profile auction purchase for nearly $1 million. The payout from PSA was likely nearly $800,000 in this case.
Also consider that many cards now worth thousands were graded for $10 or less before their value skyrocketed. Jordan rookies for example. The liability for slabbing a counterfeit “gem” used to be hundreds of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. The up-front fee is the only chance to collect on this possible future market value. And given all of the record-breaking sales, it’s complicated calculus.
SGC offers no such explicit guarantee, but at least as a reputation for making things right, like after they slabbed this Lebron with a counterfeit patch. Originally a mint 9, SGC downgraded the card as “Altered” after the fake patch was revealed. SGC only notes that “a satisfactory resolution was reached with the submitter of the card.” Not exactly a guarantee, but at least they stood by their work.
I still think the main factor in pricing is supply and demand: PSA charges more because they can. If the market shifts, their pricing will follow.
