Need help with vintage grading

[scla6986]

Ok, I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm just wondering who is a good company to buy from and why? I am looking to buy stuff from roughly the 30's-70's. I'd consider (without doing my homework) companies like psa, sgc, bvg (if it's not a high grade i.e. sheet cut) and ksa. Please help or send me a link if this topic has been done. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[MikeFitzpatrick]

For vintage most people go with PSA, 30 years and older. For cards of the last 30 years people mostly go with BGS. PSA is the standard in vintage grading while BGS seems to be standard in new cards.

[scla6986]

Ok thanks, but here's a more specific question for everyone. I know bvg grades sheet cut cards so they loose pretty much all credibility with me unless it's a lower grade card so I'm wondering which companies don't grade altered cards? Any info along the lines of this would be quite helpful, thanks.

[Fred Bear]

It's a tough question to answer. From what I've heard (read), all the major companies have let some slip... BVG will grade them as though they were pack-pulled, but both PSA and SGC 'try' not to and they will often come back as 'altered'. I know nothing first hand about KSA.

PSA is the default for vintage grading (post-war - 1990ish). Typical resale values are higher than BVG, SGC & KSA. The PSA registry creates demand and keeps the populations growing.

SGC arguably offers better grading for pre-war cards. From what I have seen their pre-war pricing is on par with PSA, but I've talked to several aficionados who do prefer SGC. I think the SGC holder looks nicer on some of the odd sized cards.

BVG has the problem you've already identified. They grade cut cards and seem to struggle to get 'collectors' to take them seriously. BGS has become the default from 1990 - current with the realized pricing consistently higher than similar graded PSAs.

KSA has not been taken very seriously up to this point. Crossover grades to PSA from KSA can come back up to 2 points lower or even 'un-gradable' or 'altered'.

I've talked to a lot of collectors, though, who are not afraid of buying any graded and crossing it over to their favorite. It depends a lot on whether you are buying on the internet or in person, I think. Seems sometimes that it depends on the card, collector or both.

Hope that helps!

[scla6986]

Thanks a bunch for the help, I think that answers my questions for the most part.