PSA parent company purchased for $700M

Here's hoping the new owners can streamline their processes. BGS is losing ground by the minute and if PSA can catch up and improve turnaround times, they'll own the market.
 
Triple B - Steve Cohen has been super engaged with Mets fans on Twitter - if you're so inclined, you could definitely give it a go to see if he'd answer any questions you'd have on plan for PSA.
 
BrookIsland said:
Triple B - Steve Cohen has been super engaged with Mets fans on Twitter - if you're so inclined, you could definitely give it a go to see if he'd answer any questions you'd have on plan for PSA.
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2 things:
1) Cool.
2) Welcome!
 
BrookIsland said:
Triple B - Steve Cohen has been super engaged with Mets fans on Twitter - if you're so inclined, you could definitely give it a go to see if he'd answer any questions you'd have on plan for PSA.
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I've been following him. Mets fans have to be over the moon for this guy. His idea for "Bobby Bonilla Day" has to be one of the more geniusly obvious things I've ever heard anyone come up with.
 
This can only be a positive development. With all due respect to Sloan and Orlando, who were amazing promoters and grew PSA into a 700MM company, they clearly lacked the ability to deliver a reasonable operating environment. It is completely inane to send cards away for 4-8 months to have a 1 hour service rendered. The new owners need to bring the company into the 21st century including digital tools like AI / machine learning. PSA doesn't even measure cards today ffs, so I'm looking forward to having confidence again in PSA and their ability to spot alterations (abysmal today).
 
I am hearing rumors and only rumors that pricing is going to increase. They are looking at the lower end cards that people are grading that sell for around the 40 to 50 dollar range and want to cut them out as to improve service for higher end cards.
Apparently if one sends enough in the cost of grading is $8.00 USD per card. So why not send in low end baseball, basketball and have them come back 9 or 10 and sell them for 25, 30, 40. Pretty good profit which is okay. Just PSA is spending time on those when they could grade a Gretzky for example and make a heck of a lot more.
 
I wonder if anyone will ever come up with a digital software for grading and take the human error out of the equation. If PSA or any other grading company does, it would change the market for the better. No more cracking a card out of a BGS 9, sending it back to BGS and getting a 9.5. Here's hoping!
 
frankiefives said:
I wonder if anyone will ever come up with a digital software for grading and take the human error out of the equation. If PSA or any other grading company does, it would change the market for the better. No more cracking a card out of a BGS 9, sending it back to BGS and getting a 9.5. Here's hoping!
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I really love this idea - particularly for the cold hard consistency that it would introduce into grading - thereby removing the subjectivity of what distinguishes the grading companies and their same grades (e.g., a BGS 9 vs PSA 9 vs SGC 9 etc. would all become fungible). Would be a boon for collectors too.

I would be really surprised if Steve Cohen didn't buy PSA and figure out how to make it better both for consumers and for his bottom line. Same strategy I think he's going to use with the Mets.
 
If machine grading becomes a thing I believe it would have to come from a brand new startup who grades with those sort of pinpoint standards right from the beginning. I don't know if I trust PSA and BGS to integrate a truly objective machine based system that could make their 20 years of human grading look obsolete over night.

It's possible the machine could start taking cards that the human eye might say were 10's and spit them out as 7's or 8's. Then suddenly they'd look like morons and the millions of existing slabs out there would be questioned. What would end up happening is they'd just calibrate the machine to match what they've done all along and we'd end up with the same old grades just quicker, and probably more expensive too. No way in hell they let a robot make them look stupid.

That's where a new grader could come in and bring the new technology as their big selling point. Objective, pinpoint accurate grading right from the very first card they receive. Then if the market sees high standards and 99% consistent results you could REALLY put the pressure on the old guard.
 
FrozenInferno said:
If machine grading becomes a thing I believe it would have to come from a brand new startup who grades with those sort of pinpoint standards right from the beginning. I don't know if I trust PSA and BGS to integrate a truly objective machine based system that could make their 20 years of human grading look obsolete over night.

It's possible the machine could start taking cards that the human eye might say were 10's and spit them out as 7's or 8's. Then suddenly they'd look like morons and the millions of existing slabs out there would be questioned. What would end up happening is they'd just calibrate the machine to match what they've done all along and we'd end up with the same old grades just quicker, and probably more expensive too. No way in hell they let a robot make them look stupid.

That's where a new grader could come in and bring the new technology as their big selling point. Objective, pinpoint accurate grading right from the very first card they receive. Then if the market sees high standards and 99% consistent results you could REALLY put the pressure on the old guard.
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Let's get a group of HI members together and start this venture! ;)
 
FrozenInferno said:
I don't know if I trust PSA and BGS to integrate a truly objective machine based system that could make their 20 years of human grading look obsolete over night.

No way in hell they let a robot make them look stupid.

That's where a new grader could come in and bring the new technology as their big selling point. Objective, pinpoint accurate grading right from the very first card they receive. Then if the market sees high standards and 99% consistent results you could REALLY put the pressure on the old guard.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was think thinking, too.

I think machine grading would have to come from someone else, otherwise the grading company would look bad and render their previous work underpar, for the most part. Especially on big cards.
 
Not sure if the grass is always greener. If you were a collector with large collection of of highly graded PSA and BGS cards and then a new company comes along with this sort of technology rendering those other grades suspect or just not worth as much, you might not be happy if the values of your cards were slashed by a good chunk. It would be great to have consistency, but I am sure a lot of collectors would be grumbling as they watched their "investments" start sinking.
And I agree that no way PSA or BGS undertake this unless they are made to by some outside forces.
 

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