• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

CSG 10 vs. PSA 10
0

11 posts in this topic

I don't know what y'all are sending in, obviously, but I am getting 10s left and right compared to others on this site. It makes me feel like the ppl sending in stuff either aren't checking your cards well before sending in or they just don't know what to look for. 

My first big bulk order had 18 CSG 10s out of 114 cards. Some were repeats of the same card, however, but I still got 10s on 12 different cards, incl big name guys (LuBob, Acuna, Yordan, etc etc)

In the 2nd order I sent them, again, I nailed the 10s with a total of 9 CSG 10s out of a 80-card order, incl three CSG 10s of Ronald Acuna's 2017 Bowman Draft, Ozzie Albies' 2018 RC, etc 

You really, really need to check your cards before sending them in. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had 1000's of sports cards for many years. Mostly just sitting in a closet. I always avoided the grading game until recently. Clearly when you look around on EBAY and such, buyers are more willing to pay more for PSA graded cards. WHY? I dont know. To me a card should grade the same across all graders. Either a card is mint or its not, no matter who the grader is. From what i can tell PSA charges $100 per card. 2 things i take away from that is - 1. How could you send a card to them if you thought there was a chance it might not be worth $100. Then 2. It would seem to me people would send their cards where they could get them graded for less and force PSA to lower prices. As a newbie to the grading game this is just some stuff im trying to figure out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ne1....thanks for the info and the education. So right now then my gut feeling is these graders know in order to retain customers they must return values at probably twice what it cost to send in a submission. In other words, they cant keep making money if their clients arent. For example if it cost me $600 on a bulk submission, CSG and others know if they want my business in the future i have to have at least a $1000 to $1200 return on investment. Am i wrong or what do you think about that??? I realize that a card is only what its worth. But if i cant send in good cards that score high i know to just keep them in my boxes. And i have another question for you after you respond to this one.

Edited by Cardsharp1
additional comment
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/7/2022 at 12:26 PM, Cardsharp1 said:

Ne1....thanks for the info and the education. So right now then my gut feeling is these graders know in order to retain customers they must return values at probably twice what it cost to send in a submission. In other words, they cant keep making money if their clients arent. For example if it cost me $600 on a bulk submission, CSG and others know if they want my business in the future i have to have at least a $1000 to $1200 return on investment. Am i wrong or what do you think about that??? I realize that a card is only what its worth. But if i cant send in good cards that score high i know to just keep them in my boxes. And i have another question for you after you respond to this one.

I would actually disagree with your logic here. 

Let me put it this way - there are *so many* people in this hobby that are not only trying to grade cards for a profit, but they are grading them for their personal collections, as well, so a grading company has zero expectation of getting a 2x return for whatever you send in. It's the market that determines the value of a card so if you send in a card that cost a dollar to buy and $15 to grade but the value of that card is only $10 in a PSA 9 then that's not on PSA. PSA and the other grading companies are under zero obligation, nor do they set out to say "okay let's get this person a 2x return for their card."

So to answer your question I'd say i just matters what you are sending a card in for and why. For instance, I have some vintage soccer cards for my personal collection (that I'll never sell) that just look better in a slab from SGC, so even though the value of the card I'm getting slabbed might not be $30, it's going to cost me $30 to get the card slabbed with SGC. Another, different example - I have 143 Michael Jordan cards that I want to sell (I'm not personally a huge Jordan fan but I have a ton of them from my childhood etc) and I know to maximize the profit for those cards I need to grade them with PSA, so because the value of most of these cards won't be above $100 I'm simply waiting for PSA to open their bulk service back up. That way, hopefully if they get the price back down to $10-15/card then it'll be almost guaranteed profit considering it's Jordan.

So, as you can see, it just depends on what you're wanting to do with your cards. If you want to keep them for your PC then things like what slab each card will look best in, etc come into play, and the cost of grading is something that isn't as high up on the priority list. If you are simply trying to flip certain cards for profit then you def need to think about the price to grade them more.

And again, I can not stress this enough - because you won't get as much money for cards that don't grade as high as others, I don't think it would really be fair to whatever grading company you chose to say, "I'm not going with them anymore bc they didn't get me as much return on investment as I thought" bc it could have been your fault for not understanding what grade the card would get, for example. 

I just think this idea you have in your head - that your cards have to have a certain return on investment for what you paid to have them grade - is just not the way to go. If you are getting cards graded and protected for your personal collection then just go with CSG bc they charge so little to grade each card and they have by far the best slab (the label is debatable). If you are getting them graded for profit then you need to weigh how much time you want to wait to get them back vs cost of grading and other things that would help you make the best decision. 


Hmu with any other questions you have, and if anyone else reading this has anything else to correct me on or add, please do!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/7/2022 at 3:26 PM, Cardsharp1 said:

Ne1....thanks for the info and the education. So right now then my gut feeling is these graders know in order to retain customers they must return values at probably twice what it cost to send in a submission. In other words, they cant keep making money if their clients arent. For example if it cost me $600 on a bulk submission, CSG and others know if they want my business in the future i have to have at least a $1000 to $1200 return on investment. Am i wrong or what do you think about that??? I realize that a card is only what its worth. But if i cant send in good cards that score high i know to just keep them in my boxes. And i have another question for you after you respond to this one.

everyone grades for different reasons, I personally grade to protect the card for my PC but If see a card forsale i really want Ill have cards ready and slabbed that I can sell to get a better card, I sell raw cards too but for me with more expensive cards its easier to be transparent when selling graded cards, that way the buyer knows exactly what he or she is getting and cant complain. I grade high value cards but I also grade some cheaper cards if I think it will rise in value kinda fast for example a Bowman chrome auto you can find a prospect for $40 and could go up to a grand easy if your lucky, so i like to slab em fast keep em sharp and looking good and ready to sell if i choose.. everyone collects for different reasons or grades for different reasons, some just like the way a card looks slabbed, some collect, some flip and most do both., Whatever you do, do you the most successful collectors I met do there own thing and dont follow hype, they find a niche and it works for them.. learn how to screen your cards youtube reveals are great guys like subhub grading, deviation cards, bnp grading a bunch of channels go over what to look for how to give yourself a best chance for high grades.. goodluck 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree 100% with micky8. If you’re looking to build and protect your collection, then a relatively inexpensive bulk grading service is the way to go. If down the road you have a particular card graded with CSG that you would like to sell you could have PSA regrade it. But between that time you have protected your card and have learned it’s general rating to make a more informed decision. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/1/2021 at 8:41 AM, chays said:

How many PSA 10`s do you think would regrade 9 or below ?

Probably about 6% under the new CSG standards. Then again, seems pre-CoVID (2018-2019) PSA 10s are getting regraded by PSA as 6s on occasion, so maybe new PSA standards are tighter than new CSG standards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
0