What’s going on with TAG?

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

Sports has fallen off a bit, but at least it's still steady.

I'm just happy TAG is growing and sustainable some demand. I just want them to stay in business regardless of what they are grading, as long as Pokemon is keeping the lights on, i can submit my sports and marvel cards, and even Pokemon.

I think the drop in sports is a lot to do with the focus on marketing the Pokemon side. I think once they get thick and mem slabs, they can put some focus on sports again.

Same here.

[hoi_ming]

Weekly TAG Update

[KhalDrogo]

Safe to say sports grading with TAG is dead.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Safe to say sports grading with TAG is dead.

It can still make a comeback, but like i said, I'm just happy TAG is growing with Pokemon at least and not out of business as some had predicted.

I can still sub my sports cards.

A steady revenue stream will help them with R&D.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

It can still make a comeback, but like i said, I'm just happy TAG is growing with Pokemon at least and not out of business as some had predicted.

I can still sub my sports cards.

A steady revenue stream will help them with R&D.

~71K sportscards, ~100K Pokeman

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Safe to say sports grading with TAG is dead.

Yep, those trendlines are pretty darn flat. Maybe a little bit of life with Baseball. Safe to say TAG is an official Pokemon mystery box company.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

Yep, those trendlines are pretty darn flat. Maybe a little bit of life with Baseball. Safe to say TAG is an official Pokemon mystery box company.

I've seen one company Pokecollect sell mystery boxes, they also sell opened TAG slabs. Have you seen TAG mystery packs elsewhere?

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

I've seen one company Pokecollect sell mystery boxes, they also sell opened TAG slabs. Have you seen TAG mystery packs elsewhere?

No, I am not plugged into any of the repack community. I don't see TAG slabs of any kind anywhere really. They could very well all be PC stuff. Having them come already in a pack to open I would think is a big plus for a mystery box dealer.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

No, I am not plugged into any of the repack community. I don't see TAG slabs of any kind anywhere really. They could very well all be PC stuff. Having them come already in a pack to open I would think is a big plus for a mystery box dealer.

The TAG "pack" is definitely conducive for selling mystery packs if sold individually. But i think with mystery box, any slab works just as well since there is additional packages conceal the cards/slabs/packs. We saw it work at the "PSA" pokemon mystery vending machine.

Not saying Slabs aren't being used for mystery packs but i haven't seen much of it going on so far.

I have seen people in the TAG discord and the people tagging TAG on IG with their slabs.

[hoi_ming]

Here's one sellers slabs opened

https://www.instagram.com/p/C93jBCWx...hud3QxMWhhYw==

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

No, I am not plugged into any of the repack community. I don't see TAG slabs of any kind anywhere really. They could very well all be PC stuff. Having them come already in a pack to open I would think is a big plus for a mystery box dealer.

For a mystery box product like Omega Mystery boxes, they would need 50,000 to 100,000 slabs minimum. This is why I think mystery packs are very likely since we don't see many Pokémon slabs on eBay or selling other places. Yes, some of it may be PC, but not that many. The majority of people that grade with any grading company is to sell. TAG is, again my opinion , grading and holding these cards for a product that will come out late 2024 or early 2025. You can tell by the way people who are associated with Omega Mystery Boxes are continuously talking and posting about TAG. The early pump is very obvious.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

For a mystery box product like Omega Mystery boxes, they would need 50,000 to 100,000 slabs minimum. This is why I think mystery packs are very likely since we don't see many Pokémon slabs on eBay or selling other places. Yes, some of it may be PC, but not that many. The majority of people that grade with any grading company is to sell. TAG is, again my opinion , grading and holding these cards for a product that will come out late 2024 or early 2025. You can tell by the way people who are associated with Omega Mystery Boxes are continuously talking and posting about TAG. The early pump is very obvious.

Do you have any links to what the associates of Omega Mystery Boxes are saying?

I'm not doubting you, I just want to learn more about the situation and what they have to say.

Thank you.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

Here's one sellers slabs opened

https://www.instagram.com/p/C93jBCWx...hud3QxMWhhYw==

The first TAG Mystery Box Pokémon is this seller. They already have one product ready to go and they also have a portion of their website that is dedicated to TAG. Get ready for the influencer pump of TAG!

https://poke-collect.com/products/vip-box-tag-edition

https://poke-collect.com/collections/tag

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

The first TAG Mystery Box Pokémon is this seller. They already have one product ready to go and they also have a portion of their website that is dedicated to TAG. Get ready for the influencer pump of TAG!

https://poke-collect.com/products/vip-box-tag-edition

https://poke-collect.com/collections/tag

Yup this is the one i said has mystery boxes. He also sells opened slabs.

I was wondering if any other sellers have mystery boxes so far. Which is why i was asking.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

Yup this is the one i said has mystery boxes. He also sells opened slabs.

I was wondering if any other sellers have mystery boxes so far. Which is why i was asking.

I think they are keeping it a secret until they accumulate 50,000 plus slabs for a bigger product. Omega Mystery boxes must have graded 1 million slabs with CGC. They were doing close to 100,000 cards a few months with CGC alone. Omega is not interested in doing small releases. When they do it, and I think it is pretty certain, it will be a big release.

[Scottish Punk]

I haven't held a tag slab in hand so take it for what little it is worth. That pic with Tag slabs stacked looks terrible with the labels being see through. I get the etched thing is kind of neat since no paper. I really don't like how you have to put a back stop to read it. Having them back to back makes all the text look jumbled together.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

I haven't held a tag slab in hand so take it for what little it is worth. That pic with Tag slabs stacked looks terrible with the labels being see through. I get the etched thing is kind of neat since no paper. I really don't like how you have to put a back stop to read it. Having them back to back makes all the text look jumbled together.

The slab is essentially identical to CGC.

You can pick the slabs up to read the label.......

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

The slab is essentially identical to CGC.

You can pick the slabs up to read the label.......

so super clear, that is cool. I think if I had these stacked in my two row boxes with other slabs, I would stick a piece of paper behind the label when sleeving it up. I will take a close look at one if I see one in the wild. Maybe in person it is more legible that what you see on camera.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

so super clear, that is cool. I think if I had these stacked in my two row boxes with other slabs, I would stick a piece of paper behind the label when sleeving it up. I will take a close look at one if I see one in the wild. Maybe in person it is more legible that what you see on camera.

The reason a lot of us like the flip is that it doesn't take away from the card and the focus is on the card. The clarity is something you really have to see in hand

Also it reduces fraud because you don't have a paper flip you can reuse. Once you crack the TAG slab it's done, it's also hard to crack without actually cracking it.

[varjakpaul]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

For a mystery box product like Omega Mystery boxes, they would need 50,000 to 100,000 slabs minimum. This is why I think mystery packs are very likely since we don't see many Pokémon slabs on eBay or selling other places. Yes, some of it may be PC, but not that many. The majority of people that grade with any grading company is to sell. TAG is, again my opinion , grading and holding these cards for a product that will come out late 2024 or early 2025. You can tell by the way people who are associated with Omega Mystery Boxes are continuously talking and posting about TAG. The early pump is very obvious.

looking at TAG’s population report for Pokémon there’s a lot of lower end base cards without pictures of the slab - it doesn’t seem customers can opt out of this service but that seems like an easy way to lower costs for a company grading by the thousands on a bulk deal for mystery or retail a la Omega and CGC

[NEOSportscards]

Basically Pokecollect is keeping TAG in business.

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by NEOSportscards

Basically Pokecollect is keeping TAG in business.

Here's another TAG Pokemon seller that's live at the moment.

https://whatnot.com/s/RPw61w3Q

Edit:

Here's another two

https://www.whatnot.com/user/teamroc...annel=copyLink

https://www.youtube.com/live/wsY9miF...TD3RujD3LSr70e

[hoi_ming]

Originally Posted by NEOSportscards

Basically Pokecollect is keeping TAG in business.

Is it Pokecollect or the Omega folks propping up TAG? I forget.

But obviously I have no idea who's subbing all the Pokemon slabs, but it's not a stretch to say it can be a mix of folks, PC folks, streamers, big mystery packers.

Who knows maybe in the end it was Omega the whole time.

[pumpkinescobar]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

It can still make a comeback, but like i said, I'm just happy TAG is growing with Pokemon at least and not out of business as some had predicted.

I can still sub my sports cards.

A steady revenue stream will help them with R&D.

Do you know if the trend of sports cards submissions to TAG has declined from the early days or have sports just not seen the kind of rapid growth as TCG? I've always thought that it would be hard for TAG to take any sort of sports card marketshare without having the ability to grade rookie patch autos.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

I haven't held a tag slab in hand so take it for what little it is worth. That pic with Tag slabs stacked looks terrible with the labels being see through. I get the etched thing is kind of neat since no paper. I really don't like how you have to put a back stop to read it. Having them back to back makes all the text look jumbled together.

That's so funny because I noticed the same thing. I bought my first TAG baseball slab from eBay and it arrived on Saturday. From the photos, I thought the etched "label" area would be great, but that's typically because the photos always have a black background making the text perfectly easy to read. But in-person, it's not as nice in the label area and much more difficult to read white text on a clear background.. The slab plastic itself is ULTRA crystal clear, and looks great.

I checked out the TAG slab for about 5 mins before cracking it open to send to PSA. I've cracked tons of cards in the past, but this was my first time cracking a TAG slab. The plastic of the slab is beautiful and crystal clear, but is also is so brittle it shattered into multiple small pieces unlike PSA, BGS and SGC slabs I've cracked in the past. When separating the layers it literally shattered the top layer, but thankfully the card was fine.

I have to keep this in mind if I ever get another TAG slab to crack and re-sub.