Welcome to my Sports Illustrated/TIME magazine blog – Your collector’s guide to the latest hobby updates and insight into what’s trending now. Probably the biggest factor keeping a lid on our hobby’s growth has been the lack of competition – both on the grading side AND on the buying side. But make no mistake, grading competition is long overdue. Great news. PSA is “all in” on magazine grading. Let’s take a look at how CGC, the only current grading service available, has evolved over the past 8 years. The first seven years of my eight years blogging, terms and conditions at CGC were completely arbitrary. Customer service answers to questions were scripted and uninformative. Customer service was arrogant and detached. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, lead times jumped from 6 weeks to 18 months virtually overnight. The message CGC was sending was that they were the only game in town so don’t rock the boat or you’ll find yourself on the outside looking in. Then about one year ago, something strange happened. Almost overnight, lead times dropped from 18 months to 60 days. Customer service began answering questions and being more responsive to customer needs, like actually answering emails and following up when promised. How many of you think the CGC change was a coincidence? I believe that CGC uncovered that competition was coming and finally started paying attention. If you’ve followed my blogs, and CGC gets a copy, you know how critical I have been of their “failure to communicate”. Four years ago, I was approached by PSA senior management, inquiring if there was interest on my part to assist in their initial efforts to bring a magazine grading service on line. Of course, I provided materials and advice where requested and hope my offerings were helpful. After a long wait, competition appears to be happening. What will a new grading service actually mean to our hobby? I believe two quality, respected grading services, will bring fairness and stability to our market. But there are also serious questions yet to be answered. 1. Until recently, CGC’s magazine grading offered nothing higher than 9.8. How will collectors respond if PSA opens up the grading to 10.0? 2. Will PSA’s presence pressure CGC to open up its top grades. After 10 years, and over 30,000 CGC universal grades with no grade above 9.8, CGC has now graded two mags, 9.9. That suggests a change in attitude, not a change in submission quality. How will the CGC loyal faithful accept this change in grading standards? 3. How will the market gauge a 10.0 from one and a 9.8 from the other? Which is better, a 9.8 Michael Jordan from CGC or a 10.0 Michael Jordan from PSA? 4. How will the market accept the new PSA encapsulation? 5. Will CGC maintain its creditability in the hobby as the gold standard? 6. How will prices, deliveries, and customer service respond to the competition? In collectibles, this stuff is important. Not to say any of this is bad, but there’s a question as to how/where the dust will settle. Sellers and collectors are not going to like it when buyers start to haggle which is more valuable – a PSA or a CGC grade. I predict there will be some unhappy collectors, no matter the result but this stuff sure is interesting and a sure sign that our hobby is healthy and growing. Long term, this is great news. Many thanks for your patronage. Come grow with us. I hope you are enjoying the reads on the history of SI, SPORT, and BASEBALL magazines as well as an insight into relevant magazine collecting. Great collecting to you in our second century of blogs and best fortunes with Sports Illustrated/SPORT/BASEBALL magazines. For a complete review of previous blogs, please visit www.sportsillustrated98.com |
