-
Are grading companies ruining the hobby?
There have been a lot of changes in the grading industry in 2025. As the year is winding down, I have been thinking about the changes we have seen such as grading scale changes, using AI, slower turn times and the buying back of their own slabs. What does everyone else think? Are these changes hurting the hobby we love overall? What does the future hold for grading and these companies?
-
5 Replies
-
I mean, I don’t do much grading myself. That said, some of what I’ve seen lately has me pretty unlikely to grade with certain brands.
It seems like there should be room for a long-term minded new grading company to come in and steadily earn market share.
-
This topic got a lot more interesting with Collectors acquiring Beckett. So Collectors now own PSA, SGC and Beckett. Thoughts on that?
-
As someone who only buys and submits with PSA, I don’t hate that they will be cross training Beckett and SGC graders. That will hopefully lead to quicker turn around times, and I have already seen improvements there. I understand how the grading industry being monopolized could turn out bad, and the idea sounds scary, but at the end of the day PSA was always going to be King. We as collectors need to take some responsibility, if people bought and submitted more with Beckett and SGC they would’ve never sold.
-
I’m the same with PSA. Do we know if they will be cross training them? I have been hearing that they will all still be treated as individual companies.
-
-
-
I think there was talks of cross training other graders as backups. I think they are trying to proceed as each company individually, but if they see too much traffic at PSA, and not enough at Beckett and SGC, they will bring those graders in for backup. I don’t think anything is official yet though. Besides that, I submitted a value bulk order with PSA in mid October, and already received my cards back. So from my experience I am seeing quicker turn around times already.
Log in to reply.