Is there a cheaper way to get cards graded?

I have waited too long to get my cards graded it seems and the cost is now a bit daunting.
From how I'm reading this SGC form I need to get 37 cards graded in the 1900-47 category at $10 each, one economy oversized at $20, two Express at $15 each, three Grand Slam at $25 each, two Next Day at $40 each, and 12 post-1948 at $7 each for a staggering total of $749.
I really, really want to send my cards off to be graded as I am only capable of grading a card as 'that looks like my grandma' and 'ow. that's bad, but at least I can afford it' and feel I would benefit from an honest assessment of what I've accumulated over the past decade. ...but $749 could buy a really sweet card!

Why don't you give them a call and see if you can negotiate a little better deal.
I've heard they do offer quanity deals but not sure what theior criteria is

TheBig6 wrote:Why don't you give them a call and see if you can negotiate a little better deal.
I've heard they do offer quanity deals but not sure what theior criteria is

My current plan is to make a pilgrimage home and attend the White Plains, NY show where they'll be accepting submissions and hope they'll work something out. At one show the SGC Rep was a little 'overeager' with my mother who inquired about getting my cards graded, following her around the sales floor at one point and making the offer to pre-grade. They almost had me, but damned if my dealer didn't step up and offer me a 1941 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio for the exact same price of what it'd cost to get my collection graded!!!
Edit: Which, ironically, is now one of the cards I'd most like graded!

A couple thoughts...

First, if SGC is your choice, you should take advantage of their monthly specials. In 2009 for a couple of months, they offered a special where that $10 fee for 1900-1947 was reduced to $6. That is a big savings...especially when you have almost 40 cards to grade. Each month they have different specials, so you might be able to hit the right ones at the right time.

Second, if you are not stuck on SGC, I have heard that GAI started offering a cheaper grading alternative where the card is sealed into a semi-rigid "Cardsaver" type holder and assigned a grade. My understanding is that this service is considerably cheaper...but I have no first-hand experience with this at all and I'm not sure how it works.

Stick with SGC and follow the advice above and just wait for the right special and send them in.

Here are the Jan specials-
Next-Day Special: $25/card ($2500 maximum value, no minimum)

Express Special: $10/card ($500 maximum value, no minimum, 10-day turnaround)

T-Card Special: $7/card ($250 maximum value, no minimum, 15-day turnaround)

Football Special: Any card, any year, $5/card ($250 maximum value, no minimum, 20-day turnaround)

Wow, smtjoy!
Those specials alone knocked $101 off my order!

smtjoy wrote:Next-Day Special: $25/card ($2500 maximum value, no minimum)

Express Special: $10/card ($500 maximum value, no minimum, 10-day turnaround)

T-Card Special: $7/card ($250 maximum value, no minimum, 15-day turnaround)

Football Special: Any card, any year, $5/card ($250 maximum value, no minimum, 20-day turnaround)

Just out of curiousity, how accurate must one be with the value declarations? And how should these determinations be made? What would happen if someone submitted a $700 card for the $7 T-Card Special, for example?

fisherboy7 wrote:Just out of curiousity, how accurate must one be with the value declarations? And how should these determinations be made? What would happen if someone submitted a $700 card for the $7 T-Card Special, for example?

My biggest dilemma is along these same lines, because I won't know their value until I've gotten them graded. I could think a card is $2,000 and have the grade devalue it to $200 ... or hopefully, vice versa.

I'm pretty sure they look at their prices realized data. I submitted a t205 Matty that I thought would only pull a 20 at best and submitted it as $250 card. Well it graded 30 and got charged for the higher tier.

Jay

declaring value...you gotta be in the ballpark. a $700 card won't fly under the $250 special...i think $300-$350 you're safe $400 is pushing it. sgc reps know the cards' value

It is a fair question though. Depending on how a card grades (especially a higher end one), the value of the card can vary trememdously.

cccc wrote:declaring value...you gotta be in the ballpark. a $700 card won't fly under the $250 special...i think $300-$350 you're safe $400 is pushing it. sgc reps know the cards' value

This is my experience. I examine the cards I'm sending in closely - as though I was buying them raw. Then I grade them kind of tough, but fair. I use that to assess the price tier. So far, SGC has always agreed...or at least not been far enough off to make any price tier change.

Its also used more from an insurance standpoint so you dont want to under value anything too much. That said because you never know what a card will grade I have listed cards at $500 value that could be worth $600-800 or more depending on grade and never had a problem.

Well ... it's finally done! While on vacation I received an invitation via the SGC forum to drop off my cards in person so they'd help me with all the paperwork and make sure my first submission went smoothly. I made the trip to Parsippany today and had a very long sitdown with Mike Goldberg who could not have been better. Being my first submission, I had 63 cards to submit ... some that I had received as gifts when still in knee britches ... and I was very nervous. But they made it very easy, did all of my paperwork, gave me a very fair rate, and are getting my cards back to me much quicker than anticipated. It could not have gone better over there and from now on they will be receiving all of my business. I'll post some scans when they return to the nest!

BigGuy219 wrote:Well ... it's finally done! While on vacation I received an invitation via the SGC forum to drop off my cards in person so they'd help me with all the paperwork and make sure my first submission went smoothly. I made the trip to Parsippany today and had a very long sitdown with Mike Goldberg who could not have been better. Being my first submission, I had 63 cards to submit ... some that I had received as gifts when still in knee britches ... and I was very nervous. But they made it very easy, did all of my paperwork, gave me a very fair rate, and are getting my cards back to me much quicker than anticipated. It could not have gone better over there and from now on they will be receiving all of my business. I'll post some scans when they return to the nest!

Nice! I have spoken to Mike a couple times on the phone (and also Brian) and those guys are really excellent with customer service. Glad it went well for you!

I feel the grades are tough, but fair - and that is what I want in a grading company.

I just checked my submission status and all of the grades went from "N/A" to blank. Hopefully this means something is happening. I'm so excited. Waiting for grades to come in is what I imagine it's like to wait for a child to be born!

.imo there is no bigger thrill/relief than refreshing the submission page for 5 days and then that next refresh when the grades show up (be sure to check it on ur phone line by line grade-by-grade to heighten the effect)....a winning snipe, a cheap bin, winning a lot at 4am, they all pale in comparison.

Nothing more than a cruel tease. 30+ hours after the N/A was dropped from my invoice the grades have still yet to materialize.
One interesting note, the pop reports seem to have been updated so I *think* I was able to ascertain the grade for one of my cards ... the E121 Sisler. Strangely ... it is the only one in the pop report. How can that be? Surely my E121 Sisler batting pose was not the first graded by SGC!

There's a way to find out your grades once they go blank and before they appear. Once your sub has been logged in click on the link for each card and take the pop report and paste it in to excel or word. When your sub goes from "card has not been graded" or whatever it says to blank go back into the pop reports, even though your grade is not appearing it is added to the pop report. You can then compare what you copied originally to what is in there now and see what grade has gone up by one card......there's your grade for that card.

I've done it on my last 2 subs and it works fine.

That works if your cards are from a set that is rare enough, but I doubt that it would be very effective on say, '33 Goudeys or T206s

Well it went 'blank' Wednesday night and clearly the pop reports were updated as Brian let me know my E121 Sisler was the first graded with the 'batting' pose variation listed, but still no grades posted for me to see. Of course it hasn't been 10 business days yet, so I guess I can't complain. But it's awful knowing they're graded, but not knowing what they received. Tomorrow is the 9th business day so I'm going to go to bed, think positive thoughts, and then start refreshing madly all day tomorrow!

terjung wrote:That works if your cards are from a set that is rare enough, but I doubt that it would be very effective on say, '33 Goudeys or T206s

My subs were both all T206's.

Hooray. I woke up this morning to find that my cards were in the mail and my grades were posted. I took the advice of looking at the grades line-by-line on my iPhone ... very suspenseful! Here's how I made out...

1909 Piedmont Cigarettes T206 WILLIE KEELER With Bat 20
1909 Piedmont Cigarettes T206 NAP LAJOIE Throwing 30
1909 Sweet Caporal Cigarettes T206 CHRISTY MATHEWSON White Cap 10
1910 American Beauty Cigarettes T206 TRIS SPEAKER 10
1911 Piedmont Cigarettes T206 TY COBB Portrait, Red Background 10
1911 Sweet Caporal Cigarettes T206 NAP LAJOIE With Bat 30
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes ABSTEIN/BUTLER 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes BAKER/DOWNIE 50
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes BROWN/HOFMAN 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes COLLINS/BAKER 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes CRAWFORD/COBB 30
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes DOWNS/ODWELL 10
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes DOYLE/MEYERS 40
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes HARTZELL/BLAIR 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes JOHNSON/STREET 40
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes KILLIAN/FITZPATRICK 10
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes KILLIAN/FITZPATRICK A
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes KLING/COLE 10
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes LAJOIE/FALKENBERG 10
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes LORD/DOUGHERTY 30
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes MATTHEWSON/BRIDWELL 40
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes SPEAKER/GARDNER 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes TITUS/DOOIN 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes TITUS/DOOIN 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes WHEAT/BERGEN 20
1911 T201 Mecca Cigarettes WILTSE/MERKLE A
1912 Recruit Little Cigars T207 JOHN COLLINS A
1914 Cracker Jack 144 JAMES WALSH 20
1914 Fatima Cigarettes T222 GEORGE BURNS A
1920 W516-1 4 RAY SCHALK A
1920 W516-1 8 WALTER JOHNSON A
1920 W516-1 9 GROVER ALEXANDER 60
1920 W519 6 GEORGE SISLER A
1922 American Caramel Co. E121 GEORGE SISLER Batting 50
1922 W573 DAVE BANCROFT 50
1931 W517 24 FREDDY LINDSTROM 20
1933 Goudey 76 MICKEY COCHRANE 60
1933 Goudey 119 ROGERS HORNSBY 40
1933 Goudey 181 BABE RUTH 30
1934-36 Diamond Stars 27 PIE" TRAYNOR 1935 40
1934-36 Diamond Stars 63 STONEWALL" JACKSON 1935 40
1934-36 Diamond Stars 30 HEINIE" MANUSH 1935 30
1935 Goudey 4 In 1 BILL TERRY 40
1939 Playball 56 HANK GREENBERG 40
1941 Playball 6 CARL HUBBELL 60
1941 Playball 8 MEL" OTT 40
1941 Playball 13 JIMMIE" FOXX 50
1941 Playball 14 TED" WILLIAMS 40
1941 Playball 71 JOE" DIMAGGIO 40
1950 Bowman 21 HAROLD REESE 50
1950 Bowman 22 JACKIE ROBINSON 40
1950 Bowman 58 CARL FURILLO 40
1950 Bowman 75 ROY CAMPANELLA A
1950 Bowman 77 DUKE SNIDER 40
1950 Bowman 112 GIL HODGES 60
1953 Bowman Color 46 ROY CAMPANELLA 70
1953 Topps 220 SATCHEL PAIGE 30
1954 Bowman 89 WILLIE MAYS 60
1954 Bowman 161 YOGI BERRA 50
1954 Topps 35 JUNIOR GILLIAM 50
1954 Topps 90 WILLIE MAYS 10
1955 Bowman 158 GIL HODGES 40
1957 Topps 138 JOHN UNITAS ROOKIE 40

Hooray. They're back. I missed them so much. I have to say ... even the beater T206s look marvelous in the SGC slabs. Originally I was just going to get the HOFers and tough cards slabbed, but their customer service and the marvelous way they turned out has me sold. I'm sending everything in. Looks like no new pickups for a while, but at least I'm safeguarding the future of the ones I do have.
Also, if there's anything in particular someone wants to see scanned I'll be happy to oblige. Most are pretty common that have been seen 1,000 times over.

Glad there home safe and sound, I know how nerve racking it is to have your cards in outside hands.
I'd like to see your Lajoies. I never get tired of looking at T206 Lajoie's