The competition amongst third-party grading companies in the sports collectibles hobby is fierce.
New businesses are entering that space on a regular basis, and the companies on top are trying to fend off rigorous challenges.
Everyone wants a piece of the huge pie.
Over the last few years, the growth of the hobby and demand for getting items graded has put a strain on the grading companies. An avalanche of submissions caused some of the industry giants to do the unthinkable and not accept submissions for a period of time to erase backlogs. Those actions caused a ripple effect.
Harsh reality created plenty of lessons to be learned. Now that the dust has finally settled and grading companies are back to their regular daily workload, it’s business as usual.
At this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention, Sports Collectors Digest spoke with the top leaders of the four leading grading companies in the hobby — Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC), Beckett Grading Services (BGS) and Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) — as they battle to offer the industry’s best service.
According to , which tracks grading trends and how many items each of the top four companies grade per day, there was a combined total of 1.53 million cards graded in August. That’s a new record, surpassing March 2023, noted PSA graded 1.23 million cards in August, which is up
