Grading of baseball cards

What makes one grading company different than another?

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Every collector wants to protect their baseball cards. The best way to ensure that your card will be safe, is to encapsulate your card. PSA does in my opinion the best job of grading, protecting and authenticating my baseball cards.

PSA or Professional Sports Authenticator has been around since the 1950's as they launched their company in the beginning of 1952. Although they did have a good idea about grading cards, but most importantly they entered the baseball card market at the perfect time. Big hitter, Mickey Mantle, started his first year in the major leagues in 1952.

There are other companies that now grade baseball cards such as SCG and BGS, but each company performs differently. Some succeed in one area while others fall short.

According to a writer from The Cardboard Connection named Brett Lewis informs baseball collectors of a common mistake that people make when picking the company to grade their cards. He believes that each company does a good job of grading cards from a certain time period.

PSA is what he calls as the “most popular” grading company due to the most collected baseball cards in the last decade. PSA specializes in grading cards from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Although PSA can grade any baseball card, the majority of people pick them when dealing with cards from that time period.

SCG is a company that I have never used before but does have a good reputation. SCG or Sports Card Guaranty has been the prefered company with cards that are from the 1950’s and earlier. One reason why someone might choose SCG over another company is because SCG has an unique grading scale that ranges from 1 being poor to 100 being mint.

BGS is also a unique company established to provide graded cards that date from 1980’s and later. BSG or Beckett Grading Services is known for their graded signatures. As baseball cards have evolved, so has the content in every pack of baseball cards. Now it is normal to find a signed baseball card in a pack of baseball cards.

I hope that this has helped people who are thinking about grading any kind of baseball card. My knowledge on the other companies that also grade cards was close to clueless. Now knowing which companies specialize in each area, I can get the best grades for my cards.   

FUTURE RESEARCH: What are the indicators if a card is a fake? What actions can a collector take if they buy a fake card?