What’s going on with TAG?

[pumpkinescobar]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

I don't think they work for TAG, but have a financial incentive to advertise for them. How come no one that talks about TAG shows off their cards? Start a TAG showoff thread and I would think differently.

I have no financial incentive to promote TAG. Since they launched their limited-time drops 1.5 years ago, I've graded around 70 cards with them—mostly PC cards that wouldn’t hold much value even in a PSA 10. I simply share their weekly grading numbers so people can track their performance, including the week of 12/9 when they graded only 244 cards. Overall my goal was to provide transparency to actual performance.

What initially drew me to TAG was the promise of repeatable, objective grading—something I felt was lacking in the market. That said, like every other grading company, TAG has its flaws. Many have pointed out that they promised thicker slabs and memorabilia grading, yet there’s been no update or timeline on those developments in a long time. I do wonder if they will even be coming this year.

I genuinely hope TAG succeeds because I like cheering for underdogs and believe their grading reports set them apart. That said, I’ve personally stopped grading my cards for a couple of reasons. First, I realized I’d rather store them in a top-loader binder where I can easily flip through them instead of keeping slabs tucked away in a Pelican case. Second, instead of spending money on grading, I’ve been able to buy more cards—something that has brought me greater enjoyment in the hobby.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

So the "nice guy" was upset and left, but was only here to make money?

I would 100% think differently if you showed cards. I am a collector and care about the cards in the slab and not the slab.

Hoi-ming was who I was referring to. He specifically stated why he left (all the negativity). No idea what your first point means.

I showed cards in the past and still do in the baseball forum. Your attitude was no different when I did.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

Chief TAG Shill/Troll

Honestly though it's just a s##t on TAG fest in here.

Like I get it, they're not perfect. But the one thread on here about TAG seems to bring in people who point out every small misstep.

No one seems to point out any positives. And part of the reason is anyone who wants to talk good things about TAG is labelled a shill, so they don't. Happens on reddit too. They can't possibly genuinely like TAG, must be a shill post. They must be paid by TAG. I try to share the results as a fan and let people see how they're doing.

But it is always met with some vitriol by the same few people who can't see any positives and always move the goal posts.

I wanted to post some info for other TAG fans, but they ain't here. So I'm out, you guys can keep this thread as the TAG bashing thread. I know, what a crybaby.

Have a good day all.

Oh look my TAG paycheck came in. Bye.

Here is why Hoi-ming justifiably decided to leave.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

Hoi-ming was who I was referring to. He specifically stated why he left (all the negativity). No idea what your first point means.

I showed cards in the past and still do in the baseball forum. Your attitude was no different when I did.

I never saw your cards and never posted negatively to them. I even supported someone grading GMA in the vintage forum until he started to say they graded harder than PSA and was complaining about the resale value. I used HGA for one submission, I thought their slabs looked nice for modern cards.

The SGC and CGC threads seem to have the best collectors in them. Less arguments because we know we are not trying to squeeze ever dollar out of our cards.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by pumpkinescobar

I have no financial incentive to promote TAG. Since they launched their limited-time drops 1.5 years ago, I've graded around 70 cards with them—mostly PC cards that wouldn’t hold much value even in a PSA 10. I simply share their weekly grading numbers so people can track their performance, including the week of 12/9 when they graded only 244 cards. Overall my goal was to provide transparency to actual performance.

Impossible. You must be working for them in some capacity. lol

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by elektrokuter

one of the pokemon discords im in, the grading section has been overrun with them, even before the recent incidents. its wild

a bunch of people w new user icons, coming in saying they know nothing about grading, but they somehow know what TAG is, talk about how great the slab and reports are, but should they sub them?

then the bagging on PSA starts

literally today someone was talking about the how TAG is great b/c its objective AI and it makes no mistakes

then someone talks about the recent TAG incidents and some other shill is like "how come its okay for PSA to make mistakes" and its like bruh, one of TAGs talking points against PSA is computers wont f up

It’s wild and pathetic to see TAG engaging in such a deceptive and unethical marketing campaign.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by pumpkinescobar

I have no financial incentive to promote TAG. Since they launched their limited-time drops 1.5 years ago, I've graded around 70 cards with them—mostly PC cards that wouldn’t hold much value even in a PSA 10. I simply share their weekly grading numbers so people can track their performance, including the week of 12/9 when they graded only 244 cards. Overall my goal was to provide transparency to actual performance.

What initially drew me to TAG was the promise of repeatable, objective grading—something I felt was lacking in the market. That said, like every other grading company, TAG has its flaws. Many have pointed out that they promised thicker slabs and memorabilia grading, yet there’s been no update or timeline on those developments in a long time. I do wonder if they will even be coming this year.

I genuinely hope TAG succeeds because I like cheering for underdogs and believe their grading reports set them apart. That said, I’ve personally stopped grading my cards for a couple of reasons. First, I realized I’d rather store them in a top-loader binder where I can easily flip through them instead of keeping slabs tucked away in a Pelican case. Second, instead of spending money on grading, I’ve been able to buy more cards—something that has brought me greater enjoyment in the hobby.

Here’s the thing that’s highly questionable.

Another poster was doing exactly what you are doing now. Coming here, posting the TAG weekly numbers. He decided to stop. Immediately after you came in and started doing the same thing.

One of you came right out and said you were directed by the TAG Discord to come here and post the numbers. My guess is both of you were directed here. Am I correct in that guess?

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

Here’s the thing that’s highly questionable.

Another poster was doing exactly what you are doing now. Coming here, posting the TAG weekly numbers. He decided to stop. Immediately after you came in and started doing the same thing.

One of you came right out and said you were directed by the TAG Discord to come here and post the numbers. My guess is both of you were directed here. Am I correct in that guess?

Pumpkinescobar already responded to this nonsense. And who said they were "directed by the TAG Discord to come here"? Please provide that post. You just make up stuff.

I started posting the weekly TAG numbers once I realized they had graded over 100,000 cards. Hoi_ming started then providing the numbers as a courtesy naively thinking this was a TAG positive forum. He left because of the negativity.

Take off the tinfoil hat, smh.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by hoi_ming

Join the discord, I've been tracking the numbers there for a long while, you can also see my interactions there. Somebody asked me there to post here.

Again, I'm just a fan, but if you think I'm an employee, i don't think I'll change your mind. So I'll stop posting here as I never really intended to in the first place.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rfgilles

Pumpkinescobar already responded to this nonsense. And who said they were "directed by the TAG Discord to come here"? Please provide that post. You just make up stuff.

I started posting the weekly TAG numbers once I realized they had graded over 100,000 cards. Hoi_ming started then providing the numbers as a courtesy naively thinking this was a TAG positive forum. He left because of the negativity.

Take off the tinfoil hat, smh.

I provided the post.

Now you provide the apology.

I asked a question earnestly because of comments made here. It’s not hard to put two and two together. It’s clear TAG has been utilizing social media in both genuine and disingenuous ways.

If you want to talk about “all the negativity” please feel free to include the inability for TAG to be discussed without tying that directly to negavtive posts about PSA.

Also, that apology again. Gonna need that before you can reply.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

I provided the post.

Now you provide the apology.

I asked a question earnestly because of comments made here. It’s not hard to put two and two together. It’s clear TAG has been utilizing social media in both genuine and disingenuous ways.

If you want to talk about “all the negativity” please feel free to include the inability for TAG to be discussed without tying that directly to negavtive posts about PSA.

Also, that apology again. Gonna need that before you can reply.

I apologize. No problem admitting I'm wrong when I am.


Pumpkinescobar responded and already told you and you tell him you don't believe. I myself have continually been accused of being employed by TAG when it simply isn't the case.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

I apologize. No problem admitting I'm wrong when I am.

Pumpkinescobar responded and already told you and you tell him you don't believe. I myself have continuallyl been accused of being employed by TAG when it simply isn't the case.

Accepted.

I’m a healthy skeptic and will admit I’ve throw shill around quite a bit here, likely incorrectly.

But it’s very odd to see the same repetitive behavior in promoting TAG across multiple social media platforms.

I’m curious why someone from a discord is directing people to post submission numbers on a random forum.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

I’m curious why someone from a discord is directing people to post submission numbers on a random forum.

I spent some time on their discord when I was doing NFT's and it was a weird place. Half of them were true collectors, half of them were Gary V pumpers, and a few prevalent racist POS people. The mods really didn't do anything to stop some nonsense at the time, as long as you were a TAG supporter. The collectors seemed genuine and just wanted transparency in grading, which was nice to see. Then you had the diamond hands crowd, which were saying you needed to post all TAG cards well above PSA comps and don't settle for anything below because your TAG slabs were going to be worth way more than PSA. There was a small group that used homophobic slurs and the mods didn't ban anyone.

This is very similar to the NFT crowd, which felt the need to make their "investments" worth more, so they try to get the word out through social media and forums. I liked to visit to get a pulse on what they were doing. We have an issue in the hobby with grading with lack of transparency and some people actually care. I personally think what TAG is doing is overkill, I just need a note with the biggest flaw of a card. I don't need a report like you get when you buy a $10,000 diamond, which is silly in itself.

[The_Reverend]

TAG as a slab is fine. TAG as a value added slab is not. They have so few slabs in circulation that the ones that come up sell for more than they should but to each his own. Reminds me of when HGA was the rage. Some of their slabs sold high due to population. The company grade 25K cards a month. They are niche at best. The hobby overall could care less about a DIR report.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

I spent some time on their discord when I was doing NFT's and it was a weird place. Half of them were true collectors, half of them were Gary V pumpers, and a few prevalent racist POS people. The mods really didn't do anything to stop some nonsense at the time, as long as you were a TAG supporter. The collectors seemed genuine and just wanted transparency in grading, which was nice to see. Then you had the diamond hands crowd, which were saying you needed to post all TAG cards well above PSA comps and don't settle for anything below because your TAG slabs were going to be worth way more than PSA. There was a small group that used homophobic slurs and the mods didn't ban anyone.

This is very similar to the NFT crowd, which felt the need to make their "investments" worth more, so they try to get the word out through social media and forums. I liked to visit to get a pulse on what they were doing. We have an issue in the hobby with grading with lack of transparency and some people actually care. I personally think what TAG is doing is overkill, I just need a note with the biggest flaw of a card. I don't need a report like you get when you buy a $10,000 diamond, which is silly in itself.

I’ve been on the Discord a couple times and confirmed what you have said. There are genuine people and there is a large, vocal crowd of pumpers. There is quite a bit of market manipulation going on with TAG auctions right now. There is a clear desire to try and tear PSA to build up TAG. What makes me laugh is TAG and PSA are not comparable at this point.

From the beginning I’ve been very interested in TAGs process and growth. At this point, I’m rooting for the company to tank because it’s become such a mess. I would like to see more transparency as a standard for grading and PSA should take this blip on the grading radar to better their product.

[anusinha]

A little interesting, their ultra modern pokemon sales are pretty strong on GEM 10s, pretty much in line with PSA.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by anusinha

A little interesting, their ultra modern pokemon sales are pretty strong on GEM 10s, pretty much in line with PSA.

Umbreon SAR from TF had a PSA 10 pop of 10,000 and a value ~$600
Umbreon SAR from TF has a Gem 10 pop of 100 and a value of ~$600

This is why I said earlier it’s not a comparison between the two companies. 100x the pop at the same value is quite a demand difference.

And pointing out the market manipulation generated from TAGs Discord site.

[Rpal1977]

I have sent cards to be graded into all of them. (PSA about 1k, SGC about 100, CSG 80, TAG 70) I feel CGC and SGC normally come back with grades I was expecting. When I get cards back from TAG I can say that at least I am able to view the report and see why it got the grade it did. With PSA I am left guessing 50% of the time why it got an 8 or 9, that is very frustrating to say the least.

How ever with TAG it is even more frustrating being limited in what you are able to submit to them. They should also just scrap the 1000 pt DIG report (which I don't buy) and just stick to the basic DING report that gives enough info.

I'm not pumping any company. They all have their own faults.
PSA-- more consistency and transparency
CGC-- stop changing things every other year
Beckett--who knows?? .. get someone in there that knows how to run a company
SGC-- probably the most consistent but only works for vintage
TAG-- either grow or disappear

[pumpkinescobar]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

Here’s the thing that’s highly questionable.

Another poster was doing exactly what you are doing now. Coming here, posting the TAG weekly numbers. He decided to stop. Immediately after you came in and started doing the same thing.

One of you came right out and said you were directed by the TAG Discord to come here and post the numbers. My guess is both of you were directed here. Am I correct in that guess?

There's no grand conspiracy-- I was the one that originally asked Hoi to post them here because this thread had a lot of comments about TAG not performing well, but no data about their actual volume. I am a regular BO user and I picked up posting the weekly POP numbers after Hoi left. I get these numbers and charts directly from the Discord and can assure you that I'm not getting paid or any other benefit (i.e. free grading) for doing so. You'll notice that I typically don't post commentary with the numbers because I really am just posting them for transparency.

I was originally drawn to TAG because of the promise to deliver consistent and repeatable grades with a clear grading report backing it up. I think they still mostly do that, but obviously not without mistakes and bumps in the road along the way.

To reiterate what I posted earlier, I haven't submitted anything to TAG or any other grader since June of 2024. I have found more enjoyment in the hobby without the need to grade my cards. I am collecting modern AEW Red Precious Metal Gems and Papa Shango cards that are probably worth the same in even a PSA 10 as they are raw so I'm not going to see any sort of financial windfall from pumping TAG up as the equivalent to PSA.

As a company TAG has really embraced their TCG submitters and have essentially gone away from sports in the sense that they haven't introduced the ability to grade thicker cards or memorabilia yet after a year plus of announcing they were coming soon. Candidly, I don't blame them for embracing TCG because that is where most of their submissions are coming from these days. However, I don't know anything about Pokemon or that side of the hobby so I couldn't tell you anything about their collaborations or promotional methods.

TLDR: I have no financial ties to TAG. They’re not paying me, and I’m definitely not getting rich off my small collection of Papa Shango TAG slabs.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by pumpkinescobar

There's no grand conspiracy-- I was the one that originally asked Hoi to post them here because this thread had a lot of comments about TAG not performing well, but no data about their actual volume. I am a regular BO user and I picked up posting the weekly POP numbers after Hoi left. I get these numbers and charts directly from the Discord and can assure you that I'm not getting paid or any other benefit (i.e. free grading) for doing so. You'll notice that I typically don't post commentary with the numbers because I really am just posting them for transparency.

I was originally drawn to TAG because of the promise to deliver consistent and repeatable grades with a clear grading report backing it up. I think they still mostly do that, but obviously not without mistakes and bumps in the road along the way.

To reiterate what I posted earlier, I haven't submitted anything to TAG or any other grader since June of 2024. I have found more enjoyment in the hobby without the need to grade my cards. I am collecting modern AEW Red Precious Metal Gems and Papa Shango cards that are probably worth the same in even a PSA 10 as they are raw so I'm not going to see any sort of financial windfall from pumping TAG up as the equivalent to PSA.

As a company TAG has really embraced their TCG submitters and have essentially gone away from sports in the sense that they haven't introduced the ability to grade thicker cards or memorabilia yet after a year plus of announcing they were coming soon. Candidly, I don't blame them for embracing TCG because that is where most of their submissions are coming from these days. However, I don't know anything about Pokemon or that side of the hobby so I couldn't tell you anything about their collaborations or promotional methods.

TLDR: I have no financial ties to TAG. They’re not paying me, and I’m definitely not getting rich off my small collection of Papa Shango TAG slabs.

I appreciate the openness. I also hope you appreciate the skepticism. Your pop reports are at times, the only “interest” in TAG on the forum for weeks on end. That signifies to me, at least, a lack of genuine interest, at least with the BO demographic.

So I guess what becomes the point of posting the numbers over and over where there is little interest? Is it to try and drive interest?

[finfangfan]

The see through label is kinda cool at least…

[inaka]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

The see through label is kinda cool at least…

I thought so too, until I got one in-hand.
(That was the TAG Rickey Henderson card I cracked out.)

The professional photos of the TAG label cards look great because it's always against a black background. Really makes the text pop and looks wonderful in photos.

But in the real world, in-hand and not against a black background, they look more like this:





I honestly couldn't read the label easily at all, and wish they didn't make it see through and just made it black with white text.

[finfangfan]

Ah… good point!

[pumpkinescobar]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

I appreciate the openness. I also hope you appreciate the skepticism. Your pop reports are at times, the only “interest” in TAG on the forum for weeks on end. That signifies to me, at least, a lack of genuine interest, at least with the BO demographic.

So I guess what becomes the point of posting the numbers over and over where there is little interest? Is it to try and drive interest?

I can absolutely appreciate skepticism, especially in this hobby full of "influencers" and people with their own agendas.

I've been posting the numbers so folks can follow TAG's progress (or lack thereof). Even though I don't grade anymore, I still appreciate seeing how they've been performing as a company. If Gem Rate posted TAG's numbers, I would feel like my posting was redundant, but they don't. Sometimes you'll see the TAG numbers in Neo's YouTube videos along with Arena Club and other smaller graders and I find that helpful.

If people aren't interested, I don't need to post them. I'm not surprised that there's less interest here on the BO Forums just given that TAG has mostly shifted its focus to Pokemon and TCG and away from sports.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by pumpkinescobar

If people aren't interested, I don't need to post them. I'm not surprised that there's less interest here on the BO Forums just given that TAG has mostly shifted its focus to Pokemon and TCG and away from sports.

They also shifted their focus away from collectors and towards mystery pack sellers. Even the majority of the recent football/basketball cards they have been grading are Wild Card and Onyx for Hobby Box and Whatnot streams. They have also been grading a ton of "CanvasMKTG X TAG Grading" Stephen Curry art cards. How many actual cards are they grading for collectors? For major sports, it must be less than 100 cards a month. Are the cards listed below licensed? This art card thing is very, very strange.

https://my.taggrading.com/pop-report/Basketball/2025

This is some weird stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbGb_yHcHk

[pumpkinescobar]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

They also shifted their focus away from collectors and towards mystery pack sellers. Even the majority of the recent football/basketball cards they have been grading are Wild Card and Onyx for Hobby Box and Whatnot streams. They have also been grading a ton of "CanvasMKTG X TAG Grading" Stephen Curry art cards. How many actual cards are they grading for collectors? For major sports, it must be less than 100 cards a month. Are the cards listed below licensed? This art card thing is very, very strange.

https://my.taggrading.com/pop-report/Basketball/2025

This is some weird stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbGb_yHcHk

I think a lot of their decisions have been made to bring revenue in quickly. I understand and agree with some of them like introducing TAG X to cut down on the amount of human QA required, but they've missed on others. I think the AI "art cards" were a huge miss, but they sold out their supply. The low resale price of some of those cards on eBay reflects that not a lot of people valued them outside of the original buyers.

I don't know much about the mystery pack sellers. I hate the idea of those out of principle, but couldn't say how much of TAG's volume comes from those versus collectors. Are you thinking it's the same people submitting for mystery packs or that there's multiple groups? I would think if it was all mystery pack submitters then the volume of cards graded would have seen a big dip after the initial bolus of cards were submitted and graded.