SGC will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer but cake and ice cream aren’t the only thing the grading and authenticating firm will be passing out.
Some big changes are happening as part of an overall rebranding of one of the hobby’s most familiar names. Earlier this month, the Florida-based company announced the upcoming launch of a uniform authentication division. That was the first of many developments customers can expect in the coming weeks.
The biggest move centers around the core of its business. SGC says it plans to do away with the 100-point grading scale it implemented upon the company’s 1998 launch, moving instead to a 1-10 system. While SGC’s holders currently include a 1-10 grade on the label, it has always been in smaller font and below the assigned grade from the 100-point scale. With PSA having adopted half-point grades several years ago, SGC’s labels will match those of its competitor—with one difference: SGC is adding a new 9.5 grade, something Beckett Grading also offers. The SGC label itself is also being redesigned. The changes are expected to take place before the National Sports Collectors Convention in early August.
“The 1-10 scale has become more universally recognized in the industry, so we decided to fully adopt it in order to better unify collectors and simplify the process,” stated SGC Director of Business Development Tyler Grady.
It isn’t the only change, though. SGC says it’s making improvements to the entire submission process including the ability to know where a particular order is within SGC’s system at all times.
“The new ‘Submission Tracking’ feature will allow SGC customers to easily and precisely track where their order is within the process: from receiving, data entry, and grading, to encapsulation and shipping,” Grady told Sports Collectors Daily. “This feature will also allow our customers to see a current estimated date of the completion for their submissions.”
The online submission form, too, will be simplified and Grady says every card SGC grades will be scanned in its holder prior to shipping.
“Customers will be able to see the images of these cards via our new ‘certification number look-up’ feature. This will allow customers to further verify authenticity by comparing the card they are planning to purchase with its image on the SGC site and be confident that it is actually the same card that SGC graded. SGC will also make sure that all certification numbers are randomized in order to protect customer privacy.”
Population Reports on the website will include images and users will be able to automatically upload scanned images of their cards to the Set Registry.
Later this summer, SGC will also begin offering a ‘Grader Notes Option’ which will allow customers to review the notes made by its graders as they examined a card, which will help better explain the reasons why it received a certain grade.
For the first time, Grady says SGC will also offer a buying and selling platform for users, which will be ready by late this year.
“We are building a marketplace that will connect collectors across the world and facilitate transactions. Collectors will be able to make offers through the Pop Reports, the Registry, and our new platform. We anticipate that this marketplace will serve as a valuable asset to collectors and will also provide us with helpful real-time pricing data.”
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