As a long time sports card seller on eBay (since 2005 to be exact) I have literally bought and sold over 100k cards. This translates into over $1 million spent, and much more than that made.
I have traditionally either used PSA or Beckett to get my cards graded; because who doesn’t? There have been plenty of other graders in the past: WCG, GMA, 1st Graded, etc.
Typically, with cards not graded by the big 2, I never see the same amount of money I would expect in sales price. There’s usually a 20% reduction in how much I can make from a card not graded by the 2 big names.
But there’s a problem (in any market) when there’s only 2 options for reliable card grading. A monopoly.
And that’s the current situation in card grading and authenticating right now. PSA will sometimes take 9 months to send back graded cards if you don’t use their express option ($75 per card). Beckett isn’t that bad, but even their express option still takes over a month right now ($50 per card).
So they get to charge however much they want, take as long as they want, and the process for submitting cards is pretty clunky. They have each tried to implement an online ordering system, but they still require you to fill out paperwork on each card, and you don’t know how much you’ll actually be charged until they’ve graded your cards.
On the other hand, with SNC Grading, the ordering process is extremely straightforward and all online. This is a big plus for me, as I hate printing things out and trying to make sure my handwriting is legible.
Additionally, the turnaround time is unbeatable. I ordered my card grading, and knew right up front how much it would cost. There was a VERY detailed instructional video about packaging and shipping the cards in the next step. From the date I ordered my card grading online to the date I got them back graded and in slabs was less than 2 weeks. You can’t beat that anywhere.
This is a snapshot of how the cards looked when I got them back:
Obviously, there’s a few different sports and Pokemon in that group. SNC Grading can authenticate and grade all of them.
But that’s not even the best part in my opinion.
The worst thing about getting cards graded is the unknowns about HOW PSA AND BECKETT ACTUALLY GRADE YOUR CARDS. They don’t have any transparency in that process.
Not so with SNC Grading.
Phil creates a video while he grades each card, and puts it up on Youtube. Like this one:
The transparency, the price, the process and the finished product all combine to make SNC Grading the top sports card grading service on the market today in my opinion.
The one unknown right now is how much money I’ll make from them. As of today, I haven’t sold any of them on eBay (granted, I listed them all yesterday). I’ll update this post as the sales come in so there will be complete transparency in the process from beginning to end.
April 17, 2021 Update:
I have now sold over 200 cards graded by SNC. This translates into several thousand dollars in sales, and also a few thousand in actual profit. I’m never using any other grading service again.
