SGC Grading

[FGLBinger]

Quick question hoping someone can answer for me. I sent a submission to SGC and it was out for delivery today, then it went back to the same post office it came from and said available for pickup. Now it says delivered to PO Box even though I didn’t mail it to a postal box. Is this normal for them? Thank you!

[ShoNuff]

This is where I am at currently. Judging from sheldonbswift's timeline I should receive graded status soon.
Modern Football Special
# of cards: 16
Submitted: 02-15-25
Delivered: 02-19-25 (FEDEX)
Received: 02-28-25
Graded: TBD

[inaka]

Originally Posted by FGLBinger

Quick question hoping someone can answer for me. I sent a submission to SGC and it was out for delivery today, then it went back to the same post office it came from and said available for pickup. Now it says delivered to PO Box even though I didn’t mail it to a postal box. Is this normal for them? Thank you!

Completely normal.

My latest submission, here's what it shows for the tracking delivered to SGC:



SGC gets so much mail and the local Post Office sets packages aside for them, even when you send items to the Yamato Road address.

Hope this helps.

[FGLBinger]

Thank you so much inaka. I was a little nervous there for a second haha

[Enre]

Update.

SGC 20+ card standard order (5-10 day turnaround). Modern Football special.
Submitted: 2/15
Received: 2/16
Graded: 3/11
Post Grading: 3/11-3/12
Return shipping label created: 3/13
19 business day TOT

Grades: 21 cards
10- 0
9.5- 4
9- 4
8.5- 6
8- 6
7- 1

0% Gem rate. Never have I received such bad grades like this. Y2Hood’s theory of new hires being designated for specials might have some validity.

I’ll be cracking all 9 and below and even some of these 9.5s. There should've been a few 10s in there. Won’t be using SGC for a good minute or until their consistency and TOTs is back to normal.

[SteigerWRX]

3 card order just popped. Took almost a month, don't think I'll go SGC again until they get the turn around times back under control. Otherwise, very happy.







Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[Scottish Punk]

What is the current vibe with SGC. I have seen complaints here and Facebook that SGC is grading erratic. I don't trust any comments on Facebook, so wanted to reach out here. I am getting a sub ready and wonder if I should wait even though I would miss out on specials. I am not as concerned with a few weeks longer wait.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

What is the current vibe with SGC. I have seen complaints here and Facebook that SGC is grading erratic. I don't trust any comments on Facebook, so wanted to reach out here. I am getting a sub ready and wonder if I should wait even though I would miss out on specials. I am not as concerned with a few weeks longer wait.

My latest order ("received" 3/4/25) has a test card in it.

I cracked an SGC card that I felt was under graded, and submitted it right back to SGC. If it somehow gets an even lower grade, then I'm waiting to submit future cards to SGC, because something is up.

I'll know by Tuesday (3/18) maybe? As that marks the 10th business day of the order. The current turnaround time is a bummer since they used to be so fast.

I'll keep you posted on this "test card" if this helps in any way.

[FGLBinger]

# of cards: 10 - $15/per card - 5-10 Business Days
Submitted: 03/05/2025
Delivered: 03/12/2025 - USPS took forever - package took a tour of North Carolina
Received: 03/14/2025 - Seems quicker than most lately
Graded:
Returned:

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

What is the current vibe with SGC. I have seen complaints here and Facebook that SGC is grading erratic. I don't trust any comments on Facebook, so wanted to reach out here. I am getting a sub ready and wonder if I should wait even though I would miss out on specials. I am not as concerned with a few weeks longer wait.

My grades just popped. The wait was longer than expected by SGC standards. I'm looking at just under a month door-to-door when I get them in a few days.

That said, the grading was excellent and right on par with my eyes. I submitted a 5 card 70s/80s special order and all grades were either what I was hoping or even a bit higher than expected.

Here are the results for this 5 card order, all for my PC:











I was hoping the 1970 Topps Rollie would get an 8.5, so the 9.5 actually was a really happy surprise.

I think my grader hit the strip mall with Robert Kraft at lunch time or something and was in a good mood.

[Scottish Punk]

Those are some bangers, inaka!!! Time to get an order ready.

[Giroux]

Great cards again!

[ahbaker]

11 card order.

Submitted: 3/3
Delivered: 3/6
Received: 3/11



Should have checked out the forum; I was unaware of the delays when I submitted my order.

[clayman32]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

What is the current vibe with SGC. I have seen complaints here and Facebook that SGC is grading erratic. I don't trust any comments on Facebook, so wanted to reach out here. I am getting a sub ready and wonder if I should wait even though I would miss out on specials. I am not as concerned with a few weeks longer wait.

I just got back orders for both specials and most of my cards received the grades I thought they would. A couple were lower but a couple were higher. I take most complaints on social media about the grading of these companies with a grain of salt,most people don't know what they're doing when looking at cards to grade or scrutinize them hard enough.

[discodanman45]

My order is 10 days in after an additional 1 week wait to be marked as being received. They really need to modify their turnaround times on their site.

[The_Reverend]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

What is the current vibe with SGC. I have seen complaints here and Facebook that SGC is grading erratic. I don't trust any comments on Facebook, so wanted to reach out here. I am getting a sub ready and wonder if I should wait even though I would miss out on specials. I am not as concerned with a few weeks longer wait.

At least on IG, without all the influencers pumping the company, SGC has returned to wheee they were prior to the PSA and COVID. PSA has not grown the SGC brand. It is looking more and more like a Fanatics block which was a good thing.

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by The_Reverend

At least on IG, without all the influencers pumping the company, SGC has returned to wheee they were prior to the PSA and COVID. PSA has not grown the SGC brand. It is looking more and more like a Fanatics block which was a good thing.

Yeah, I don't put much stock in any social media stuff. I am not in IG or facebook much at all. I don't look at Fanatics block (I still don't think that was the primary reason anyways) is a good thing. I was hoping Collectors would put some tech upgrades to SGC. SGC has been steadily increasing subs, but nothing really substantial on the customer side as far as tech/site/slab upgrades. There was a rumor of a new slab coming, but who knows?

The slab market really could use a strong number two. Beckett is languishing at the bottom. CGC is just a Pokemon grader fighting through their own scandals. SGC is dead to the TCG world and just kind of status quo for sports, happy it seems to be making money.

I was really hoping one of CGC or SGC would have an indication of taking off at this point. Neither is made any headway in their secondary market focus. PSA still keeps being the 800 pound gorilla and getting bigger and more integrated into all the ecosystems.

[Snowcat]

Originally Posted by The_Reverend

At least on IG, without all the influencers pumping the company, SGC has returned to wheee they were prior to the PSA and COVID. PSA has not grown the SGC brand. It is looking more and more like a Fanatics block which was a good thing.

If Fanatics was gonna go the grading route, they could either poach existing graders from other TPGs and launch their own brand, or they could buy TAG and go the AI route in an attempt to avoid the subjectivity of human graders/conflicts of interest. Everything they would be holdering would be '89-up and autos/mem would come direct from the manufacturer. That checks all the TAG boxes.

To me, it makes more sense if Fanatics just utilizes the grading landscape as it exists, currently. They can get in the front of the submission lines, and they shift any blame and resulting mishaps back to PSA, SGC, CGC, Beckett, etc

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

Yeah, I don't put much stock in any social media stuff. I am not in IG or facebook much at all. I don't look at Fanatics block (I still don't think that was the primary reason anyways) is a good thing. I was hoping Collectors would put some tech upgrades to SGC. SGC has been steadily increasing subs, but nothing really substantial on the customer side as far as tech/site/slab upgrades. There was a rumor of a new slab coming, but who knows?

The slab market really could use a strong number two. Beckett is languishing at the bottom. CGC is just a Pokemon grader fighting through their own scandals. SGC is dead to the TCG world and just kind of status quo for sports, happy it seems to be making money.

I was really hoping one of CGC or SGC would have an indication of taking off at this point. Neither is made any headway in their secondary market focus. PSA still keeps being the 800 pound gorilla and getting bigger and more integrated into all the ecosystems.

Hey, thanks all for the comments about my latest SGC cards!

I echo your thoughts here.

My dream for SGC after being acquired by Collectors was to have some sort of expansion/partnership with PSA to launch SGC in-person auto grading a la PSA/DNA. If SGC offered this, I would never need/want PSA slabs for my PC going forward.

The good news is that after hearing that interview with Nat Turner way back when, he said that their data showed that very few people graded with both PSA and SGC. He also made it sound like a Coke/Pepsi or Playstation/Xbox thing where those that graded with one company really didn't like the other and were staunch supporters of the brand they grade with (i.e. they hate the other company). So the idea that Collectors was going to quickly fold SGC, wouldn't make much business sense since that means that the customers of SGC (like me) would much rather jump ship to CGC or something, rather than choosing PSA. That was my thought as well, even without Nat saying it, so I guess I'm not alone. I'm done with PSA for my PC cards, but I mostly collect vintage (or cards that look vintage) so it works out anyway.

I'm glad that Fanatics hasn't become a direct player in the grading game. As someone who used PWCC, the conversion from PWCC to Fanatics Collect has been really bad overall. The Fanatics Collect CEO Nick Bell was supposed to be a tech guru CEO that was going to innovate the platform and instead, they've made it much worse. They instantly changed the branding, but didn't update the CSS files so fonts don't load correctly and what used to be a black/yello color brand because gray/white. Then they introduced a 3% fee if you want to pay by credit card. If you choose to pay by ACH, it literally takes a week for them to process it, and in the meantime they send you emails saying you didn't pay for your cards. They then just tell you to ignore those emails that say you'll be kicked from the platform if you don't pay. Wow, some tech innovation. So I personally haven't seen Fanatics enter any venture and actually make it better. Their typical business model is to buy up all the competition, have a monopoly, and then downgrade the product to reduce costs and make more money because there aren't other options. Well, in grading there are options, thankfully.

[Scottish Punk]

Agree. There is definitely a divide of PSA and Not PSA. Any sports card grading share SGC steals will be from Beckett or CGC. Not much left in both of those markets. SGC can work on growing the pie, which seems to be their strategy. Nat didn't sound like he cared about meddling in SGC at all. Good or Ill. I think the only thing he will use SGC for is an overflow grader in the vintage space. Probably hard to find good vintage graders, SGC has some of the best.

I would love SGC to get back into the auto authentication business. I have a ton of Swell football HOF certified autos, it is a bummer I can't keep that going forward.

SGC is just overdue for tech upgrades that seem standard now. Barcodes on slab, better app, registry, tie ins to market data. Some of this stuff doesn't require equipment, building footprint investment. Just development/support man hours. Hopefully, SGC is doing more expanding in the background to get more slab capacity while holding turn around times.

[thesportslab]

Originally Posted by inaka

My grades just popped. The wait was longer than expected by SGC standards. I'm looking at just under a month door-to-door when I get them in a few days.

That said, the grading was excellent and right on par with my eyes. I submitted a 5 card 70s/80s special order and all grades were either what I was hoping or even a bit higher than expected.

Here are the results for this 5 card order, all for my PC:

https://i.imgur.com/9Kwe3ME.jpeg

I was hoping the 1970 Topps Rollie would get an 8.5, so the 9.5 actually was a really happy surprise.

I think my grader hit the strip mall with Robert Kraft at lunch time or something and was in a good mood.

Sweet cards but really like the Bird one.

Looks like similar timing on my last one:
Shipped: 2/27
Marked Delivered by USPS: 3/4
Marked Received by SGC: 3/11
Marked Graded:
Returned:

[Spacenoid]

Officially been 10 business days for my first SGC submission since received.

Shipped: 2/27
Delivered by USPS: 3/3
Received by SGC: 3/7

I'm not too-too worried about it, if they transition to graded by next Friday I'll deem that acceptable because I am very aware of the backlog situation that SGC has thrust upon themselves. If GemRate is 100% accurate they actually had a good day on 3/21 with 12k cards graded.

Awaiting my results from my first submit before I send in more...I have about 8-10 modern and 5 70s/80s I *may* submit if that special is still going on. I may just submit the 70s/80s in the next few days.

[PastimeCards]

17 Card order
Submitted 2/20
Delivered 2/24
Received by SGC 3/4
Post Grading 3/14
Shipped 3/17
Delivered by USPS today 3/22

Got three 10's and two 9.5's that shoulda been 10's. A few 9's that shoulda been 9.5's imo.

[Scottish Punk]

Nice stuff pastime. !!

[inaka]

Nice cards, PastimeCards!

I especially like the Randy Johnson cards! Nice.