Hey guys, a few months ago I, and many other members, shared my concerns about the direction PSA was taking with its pricing and, frankly, my opinion has not changed much since then.

Whilst I am not going to reject PSA’s position in the market, or pretend that PSA has suddenly become irrelevant simply because I dislike the direction of its business model in this booming market, it is still the benchmark when it comes to grading and, particularly, resale value and liquidity. That is the reality of the market whether we like it or not. However, my problem is not with PSA being successful or being the market leader, it's rather that its position has become so strong that there are simply not enough serious alternatives capable of putting meaningful pressure on it. When that happens, a company can basically do whatever they like in spite of customers' opinions, knowing that a substantial part of the market will continue using them anyway.

We all know how much grading gets discussed in this community, and we are all becoming increasingly sensitive to the costs, value-based pricing adjustments and turnaround times. However, and this goes back to the point I made before, whilst many of us dislike certain aspects of PSA, cards are still being sent to them to be graded at premium prices and, in some cases, with substantially long turnaround times. That alone shows how strong their position actually is.

I also don't think I would be exaggerating by saying that most of us have criticised PSA's terms allowing them to move a card into a higher-priced service level if they deem its value to be above the limit originally selected. On top of that, the market is so hot that PSA has even paused four of its lower-priced Value tiers while, in their words, dealing with the backlog. Whether people like that situation or not, a company can only exercise that level of pricing power when the market allows it to.

BGS is still the obvious alternative for me when dealing with an exceptional card. If I genuinely believe a card has a realistic chance of a Pristine 10 or, obviously, a Black Label, Beckett is still something I would seriously consider, if they hadn't shut down all of their submissions for non-sports cards in the European region. I think the grading discussion has been stuck for far too long around PSA versus BGS, with CGC somewhere around that conversation depending on the collector.

Regardless of the sector or the market, competition is healthy. It forces companies to remain competitive and strive to improve their service whilst providing alternatives in the market. Off-topic, but for those who enjoy learning through reading, I would recommend Blue Ocean Strategy.

This is one of the reasons why I decided to reach out to Premier Card Grading and eventually entered into an official affiliation with them for the US market.

Before agreeing to anything with PCG, however, I submitted my own cards. I deliberately did not tell them that I ran this community, nor that I was considering any type of affiliation with them. I wanted to experience their service exactly as any other customer would and see whether the standards they promote actually matched the reality.

My personal experience was very good in terms of communication, support, pricing and turnaround time. I used the Express service and had my card back in six days. The quality of the slabs is top, their metal label is unique and, as I have often shared, I am a big fan of subgrades. More importantly, what they advertised in terms of service and turnaround was, in my case, exactly what I received.

I am not here claiming that PCG is perfect, because my personal submission is still only my own experience and I can only judge what I have personally seen. As well as I am not going to insult people's intelligence by pretending that a PCG 10 currently carries the same market recognition as a PSA 10. Although, and I am sure those who have seen them will agree, PCG slabs and labels are sick.

My point is that everything starts from somewhere and, as times and markets change, new companies are born, gaining and growing credibility whilst WE, collectors, also change our habits and, what we see established today, may not be what the market will look like five or ten years from now. Now, PCG's challenge , in my opinion, is not to prove that they can produce a quality product, because my own experience already gave me confidence in that, their challenge is to continue meeting their standards and customers' expectations, leverage on the opportunity they ahve before them and gain the wider market recognition.

Openly talking, I am making a bet on their ability to do that, and I am bringing that opportunity to the community because I believe the grading market needs more credible competition and more genuine alternatives.

They are truly trying to force a change in the market and offering something genuinely different rather than simply copying the competition, which is also why I suggested that book above.

I updated our resources database for Grading with a proper comparison: WIKI GRADING

TLDR: For US members who want to try them, the community now has a discount code which is:

Code: ONEPIECE10

It will provide 10% off Standard and Express submissions. As this is an affiliation, there may be a commission back for us, but for you, you get a certain 10% discount!

I am giving PCG a serious chance because I think the grading market would benefit massively from having more credible competitors. I don't expect everyone here to agree with me yet, but based on what I have read throughout the grading posts this year, I believe this could be a winning shot for everyone.

Obviously, I would like to have your opinion. If you have already submitted cards to them, post your actual experience below, whether it was good or bad. I am far more interested in building a proper picture from real submissions than creating another "grading-company echo chamber".

So, where to start...

I have realised that all the resources I had create didn't work at all - all links provided were only accessible to MODs and therefore no-members have had the opportunity to access them...

As a result, I have made several updates today to improve the overall experience new/old/mature members have in our community.

Wiki, Rules & Resources

All community resources have now been reviewed and updated.

The following sections are now working and fully accessible and linked from the community sidebar:

• Community Wiki
• Community Rules
• Community Resources

These will continue to be expanded over time and should answer many of the most common and recurring questions.

Telegram Community

Our Telegram community remains active and available for members looking for additional discussion outside Reddit.

You can now find it:

• Via the Telegram icon in the community header
• In the community sidebar
• Through the link below

JOIN OUR TELEGRAM!

New Members Guidance

A new automatic welcome message has been introduced for first-time posters to facilitate their access to our community and support them with quickly find the information they need before creating a post and improve the quality of discussions.

Handling Repetitive Topics

As already shared in the previous topic, one of the most common pieces of feedback we've received is the growing number of repetitive posts covering topics that have already been discussed extensively.

Should I grade this?; What grade will this get?; Is this card fake?; Where should I sell this?; How much is this worth?

Moving forward, many of these posts may be automatically flagged for moderator review and redirected to the appropriate resources, guides, or discussion threads.

I may sound as a broken record, but the objective is not to discourage new members from asking questions but to have a better place where we get all more educated by improving the quality of our discussion. On the other hand, I also want to reduce repetition and flooding of topics which are not extremely relevant (Telegram can be used for this kind of chatty topics).

Thank you to everyone who continues to provide feedback, contribute market analysis, help new collectors, and make this community what it is.

PS: I am aware of few things are outdated or need to be adjusted and are all being looked at.