Canadian SGC Submissions

Can one of my fellow Canadian board members (Elliot? Brad? Blair?) offer some info on submitting cards to the SGC Canadian Submission center in Oshawa, Ontario?

How is the service in general?

Are the cards actually graded and slabbed in Canada or do they cross the border?

Are there any customs taxes?

This is an excellent summary.

One other issue I encountered. In October, SGC was having a T-card grading special for a minimum 10 card submission. I thought this would be a great way to get some of my T-206 commons graded. Then I thought I could economize further by putting some more expensive E-cards in the same package.

The problem was that neither Canada Post nor FedEx would accept the package I wanted to send with full insurance. They both refused to insure $3,000 worth of baseball cards. FedEx suggested I would have to approach an insurance company and buy a separate policy! I believe both Canada Post and FedEx told me they would not insure the package for any more than $1,000. (I know that is not their overall insurance limit, as I've insured guitars through FedEx for $3,000 before...so they must somehow have a cap on baseball cards??? )

Anyhow, I never did send the submission...I might do it another time.

Cheers,
Blair

Hi Ben,

We do have the Canadian Submission Center in Oshawa and receive a large number of Canadian orders through that venue. The one "downside" which was touched upon earlier is that the turnaround time can be longer than normal as our Canadian representative forwards orders to us based on demand. If you're in no rush, then most Canadian orders are completed and back in your hands 6-8 weeks after mailing.

One way to expedite the process is to send directly to us and then have the package returned via the Canadian Submission Center. This can sometimes save two weeks of transit time.

A complete breakdown of costs associated with Canadian submissions can be found at the link below. All customs, duties, and taxes are included in the process.

Canadian Submissions

I'd invite any Canadian customers to send your orders to my attention, and I will expedite them on our end in the states as best as I can to account for the delays associated with the Canadian Submission Center.

Thanks,

Brian

spacktrack wrote:Hi Ben,

We do have the Canadian Submission Center in Oshawa and receive a large number of Canadian orders through that venue. The one "downside" which was touched upon earlier is that the turnaround time can be longer than normal as our Canadian representative forwards orders to us based on demand. If you're in no rush, then most Canadian orders are completed and back in your hands 6-8 weeks after mailing.

One way to expedite the process is to send directly to us and then have the package returned via the Canadian Submission Center. This can sometimes save two weeks of transit time.

A complete breakdown of costs associated with Canadian submissions can be found at the link below. All customs, duties, and taxes are included in the process.

Canadian Submissions

I'd invite any Canadian customers to send your orders to my attention, and I will expedite them on our end in the states as best as I can to account for the delays associated with the Canadian Submission Center.

Thanks,

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks for taking the time to address this question.

Does SGC attend card shows in Canada and accept submissions there? (I seem to recall something about SGC attending a big show in Toronto).

And if so, does SGC do same-show turnaround (by which I mean that I heard at some US shows, the card can be submitted early in the show, and come back slabbed and graded at a later time during the same show)?

Thanks!

Blair

Hi Blair,

As of right now, the Toronto Expo is the only Canadian show which we attend. We will be at the next one May 1-3. We will also be in San Francisco the same weekend if anyone western Canadians can make it down.

We only accept submissions to take to New Jersey for grading at the Toronto Expo. Grading onsite is something we do not offer at this time except for at a few national level shows in the states.

Brian

spacktrack wrote:Hi Blair,

As of right now, the Toronto Expo is the only Canadian show which we attend. We will be at the next one May 1-3. We will also be in San Francisco the same weekend if anyone western Canadians can make it down.

We only accept submissions to take to New Jersey for grading at the Toronto Expo. Grading onsite is something we do not offer at this time except for at a few national level shows in the states.

Brian

Cool - thanks for the quick response!

Cheers,
Blair

Thanks to everyone who replied, very helpful info. And thanks to Brian (spacktrack) for the official word from SGC.

I'm looking forward to submitting a few cards, one of which will be my T206 proof. Will I need to ask the graders to label it as a proof on the flip, or will they know to do that themselves?

fisherboy7 wrote:Thanks to everyone who replied, very helpful info. And thanks to Brian (spacktrack) for the official word from SGC.

I'm looking forward to submitting a few cards, one of which will be my T206 proof. Will I need to ask the graders to label it as a proof on the flip, or will they know to do that themselves?

On your submission form, note that it is a proof in the "Variations/Comments" column and the card will be shown to the graders for verification that we will label it as a proof.

Brian

Thought I would post an update on this thread.

I have just received my cards back from my first SGC submission through the CDN SGC Center. Everything went very well! The only caveat at all is that the turnaround time is quite a bit slower than our friends in the USA enjoy. However, it sure is nice that the cards are mailed to and from Canada (SGC's man in Canada takes care of the border issues).

As usual, I found the grades to be very accurate. As a Red Sox collector, I was really pleased to pull an EX 5 grade on my T-206 Cicotte (I was surprised to learn from the SGC pop report that only 3 have been graded higher). And I was also happy to see my Yaz rookie card pull an 8.

And one more thing - when I went to Canada Post to send the cards to Ontario, they advised me that the insurance limit was quite a bit higher than I was earlier told by them. This allowed me to send a group of 20 cards in one package fully insured to SGC in Ontario.

Summary - good job, SGC!

Cheers,
Blair

Good to hear. That is surprising on the Cicotte as I am sure that there is a fairly large sample size to work with.

Jay

Thanks for the update Blair. So what was the total turnaround time?

sabrjay wrote:Good to hear. That is surprising on the Cicotte as I am sure that there is a fairly large sample size to work with.

Jay

Hi Jay,

It said 153 total graded.

The only three T-206 Cicotte cards graded above a 5 were: one 5.5, one 6 and one 7.5.

Cheers,
Blair

fisherboy7 wrote:Thanks for the update Blair. So what was the total turnaround time?

Hi Ben,

You know, I didn't figure that out and I can't recall exactly when I put my parcel in the mail. But I'm pretty sure it was at least 8 weeks...maybe a bit longer. I'll try to pin that down later by looking for my mailing receipt.

For me, I didn't mind at all. Most of the submissions were part of my long-term collection. A couple I was thinking of trading/flipping, but I wasn't in a hurry.

I should also note that my submissions all fell under one of the monthly specials. Every month SGC knocks a few bucks off of grading fees on submissions that fit a certain category (ie. T-cards only, or 1948-1960). Sometimes a minimum of 10 cards in that category must be submitted. The main point for this purpose is that those monthly specials are usually stated to have longer turnaround times as a condition of the special price.

Cheers,
Blair

By way of further update, I got my second group of cards back yesterday via the Canadian Submission Centre. Again, everything went very smoothly. Approximate turnaround from the time I first mailed the cards was 6-7 weeks.

Package arrived very secure and I found the grades to be quite fair again.

These cards were pre-War Red Sox from various sets that I had for quite a while. Normally SGC charges $10 as a minimum to grade a pre-War card (even lower value), but in October, they had a "wild card" grading special where pre-War cards valued under $250 could be graded for $6. So I sent a bunch of "type" cards.

Also used the opportunity to get my E90-1 Cy Young (Boston) graded (this was a different October special - $17 fee - for higher-value cards). In terms of modern grading standards, I viewed the card as a strong 2 (Good). I was pleased that SGC graded the card the same way I saw it, grading it a 2.

Also I had 3 cards from M101-5 (blank back) that I bought raw from Mark Macrae recently - each of those graded a 5, which was what I was thinking on those too!

(If anyone is interested, I have added scans of this group to my Photobucket page - link below...just click on "Newest Uploads" on the left side of the page...)