SGC: What's going on? Hobby Quick Hits E205

Probably quick hits, delivering that breaking hobby news directly. He loads. You want to know those hot Josh my card shop shop. We've got your coming here.

Hosts John new name name, Hello, everyone, Welcome to episode two oh five of hobby Wickets. Happy to be back, John Newman. We missed. We did something we rarely do.

We missed a week of hobby Quickets. But I have as good a reason as any. I was definitely under the weather, to the point where I didn't even realize till Sunday that you know it was coming, and uh just really I won't get into the gory details, pretty sick and didn't do it. You said, well, how come there was a sports cardination on Times? As many know, I pre record a lot of my interviews and get them into the shoot and fired up.

Otherwise I'd probably would have missed that show. Unfortunately too. So we're back. I'm feeling a little bit better.

I'm not one hundred percent, but closest i've been in a bit. And so we're back again, and the timing's probably good. Today's episode is going to pertain to SGC, what's going on some recent decisions. I have a very close relationship with them as some know and so can give some insight and thoughts.

I won't go into it too much here, we'll save that for the main topic of the show. But we're going to talk about SGC today. Don't go away, okay, Now, a quick word from our great sponsor, followed by the new product release schedule. Then we'll go around the hobby verse to tell you all the latest hobby happenings and news.

Then we'll tackle today's topic of discussion. Hi, this is Pat. Hughes, Cubs announcer, coming to you from the Sports Card Shop in beautiful New Buffalo, Michigan. The Gocher family has built an incredible place here for collectors to buy, sell, and trade cards and memorabilia.

Be sure to stop buy and let them show you around the Sportscardshop dot com, connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors around the world. Hi, this is Alan Pinkett and I'm here to tell you the Gocher family has done it again. They've just opened up the Sport Card Shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana, and it is awesome. If you're a collector, you need to check this place out.

Tell them Alan sit in you and get a free gift on your first visit. All right, let's go over the new releases for the next couple weeks, folks. Starting with June twenty fifth, we've got twenty twenty five Top Series two Baseball Megas. The following day, on the twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, Slash twenty five Tops YUIFA Club competition's Finest Soccer.

Moving to the twenty seventh, twenty twenty five Panini Score Football as that licenseee winds down same day, twenty twenty four, twenty five Panini Select Basketball h two, twenty twenty four Slash twenty five Panini Select Basketball, Hobby Blasters, Pokemon Charizard Ex Special Collection, Pokemon Team Rockets, me Too Ex. Also on the twenty seven, twenty twenty four Top Dynasty Baseball high End, but almost every product's high end now, I don't know if he can say something's high end anymore. The twenty seventh, A lot of products here. On the twenty seventh, twenty twenty five Top UFC, Chrome Breakers, Delight, hobby Blasters, and Megas.

Let's go to July July second, twenty twenty five Historic Autographs Big League Photos Autograph Edition Series two Baseball twenty twenty five, Panini Donrs Racing twenty twenty five, Panini Luminance Football twenty twenty five, Polsh Stratos Baseball twenty twenty four. Upper Deck Fleer Scooby Doob Doo YEP Scooby Doo cards on July second, from Upper Deck July second, twenty twenty four, twenty five Upper Deck Premier Hockey again July second, twenty twenty four, Slash twenty five, Upper Deck Opeachee Platinum Hockey, July fourth, jugi oh Do List Advanced Corps, and we'll finish with July seventh, with twenty twenty five Panini prism K League Soccer. There's your releases over the next couple of weeks, a lot coming out, A lot more will be coming out as we move closer to the national And you know what I'm about to say, choose your product, Happy rip it. Let's go round the hobby verse and catch up on this week's hobby news and find out all right, Let's start in Memphis, Tennessee, a FedEx employee has been arrested for taking almost seven thousand dollars worth of baseball cards.

A box was delivered to his destination. Only one problem. The cards were gone. Obviously that receiver of empty box file you know, file the complaint report.

The investigation led to a gentleman who allegedly took out the cards and then listed them on eBay. His name is out there. I'm not going to say it. I don't I don't want to give even bad publicity.

I don't want to give any attention to the perpetrator. Investigators also found that he allegedly also stole four gold bars and a diamond ring. So mister unnamed facing charges and in trouble here. In about three weeks, PSA will be launching their comic in magazine grading entities, so you can get your comics and magazines graded through PSA.

Speaking of PSA, you know we know their relationship with game Stop and being able to submit your cards through game stop A. Game Stop just recorded their first profitable quarter since twenty nineteen, and it was up twenty nine percent or twenty nine percent. It was up fifty percent, but twenty nine percent was from their trading card part of their business. They also are going to do a convertible senior note fundraising to raise about two billion because they are going to expand their card range, so they're going to add more wax and boxes, and they're really going to go headlong into the sports and nonsports trading card space.

And they have five billion in reserve they're trying not to touch that. Are going to raise this convertible senior notes two billion to do that, but they also have that five billion in reserve. Might day by PSA or become a public entity with PSA, I don't know, remains to be seen. Nat Turner was elected to Game Stops Board of Directors in November of twenty twenty four.

As well. Fanatics Fest is ongoing as we speak. I am not there even knowing from New York City. It's just you know, it's expensive, and you know it looks fun.

It looks but right before the National, I'm getting repped revved up for the National. So no soup for me Fanatics Fest maybe someday. I don't really even have any fomo, you know, I just the older I get man. I enjoyed my weekends and grilling and having a few jerrinks and chilling out and spending time with family.

But that's just me. I know a lot of people are there and enjoying it. Nothing wrong with that. Let's talk about the Connecticut ONUS Wagner T two six, which just ended at the time of this recording of the news.

It just ended, and it did not end good. The final bid, which actually came in on June eighteenth. There was no bids past June eighteenth, so that would have been Thursday night, I believe, or Wednesday or Thursday night was the last bid. And it was at three point seven million dollars, well under the seven million dollar prediction that some had and and that reserve was not met, so that that car will not be sold.

There was not met. So might we see it run again? You know? And I thought about it. Man, you know, no bids since June eighteenth, so Wednesday night, And how is that or why is that is the you know, DIF fanatics fest have anything to do with it? I don't think so. Did you know the time reving up to the national or people saving their money? I don't know.

That's obviously a card that a millionaire or even richer than that is going to buy, right and so a trip or a sh upcoming show probably isn't going to be deterred. Maybe the market in itself is kind of correcting on itself. So what happens now with that card? I don't know that means to be seen. I'm kind of interested to see.

Will they run it again with no reserve? Did the reserve there's another thought, did the reserve scare people away? Potentially? Did people not know maybe how high that reserve is and didn't want to get into a bidding war and still fall short of the reserve or spend more than they wanted to. So no sale on this card at this point. And all right, guys, before we get into the meat and potatoes of my thoughts on SGC, I wanted, for the sake of full transparency, talk about what my relationship actually is with them. It's about I was an SGC user before my relationship increased with them.

In other words, I believed in them and liked them before you know, we had any sort of relationship. They became a sponsor of this of sports cardination about three plus years ago, and about two plus years ago I got to be a bulk subber form and that part was really almost by accident. My show promoter asked me if they would come to the show and take subs, knowing you know, he knew they were a sponsor of Sports Cardination, and I said to him, you know, they're not going to come to this size show. They don't do a lot of shows.

They do, and when they do, they're the big ones. And so I explained to him that that's not really a possibility. He then followed up the next day and asked me, he think they'll let you take cards on their behalf of a bulk suburb. Prior to that interaction, I had never thought about it.

And then I thought about him, and so I said to him, you know, number one, I don't know if I want to do that, But if I decided it's something I could do or want to do, then I have to get your permission. How do I go about it and that sort of thing. So I said, give me a week. I thought about it for a day or two, and I'm like, yeah, I can add that to my repertoire.

I'm already setting up at the show. There would be another table, and so I contacted SGC. You know, I know a lot of people there, and you know, asked them if this was a possibility and how did it work, and they said, give us a day and we'll get back to you. It shouldn't be a problem.

We like you, John, we know you just more of it. We just got to make sure everything's good. So the next day I got a phone called. They're like, let's do this.

Here's what you do, here's what you need to know. You know. The big rule was, Hey, any show you're at taking cards for SGC, make sure it's advertised as we're not on site. You know, Sports Cardnation is taking bolk subs on behalf of SGC, not that SGC is there.

So that's how it's always worded. So I started doing it, you know, full again, full transparency. The SGC tables provided free your charge because it's a draw, right, people come to the show to drop off their cards for you know, bolk subbing at the shows. And what started with one show in Syracuse led to a monthly Watertown show that I now do as a bulk suburb.

And it started small, right, I was getting one hundred cards, one hundred and twenty cards, and then it started the momentum started to increase and I was getting a good amount of cards. Let's just say that, you know, how does it work? Obviously, bolk subbers get a cheaper rate, right, They get a discounted rate which allows them to charge pretty close to what as she see charges and make a few bucks and do all the legwork and catalog it. You know, I film everything. I have video every intake, so everything's on the up and up.

I obviously have separate insurance which covers my card life. Right. You know you have homeowners you have car insurance. I have sports card insurance.

I actually have two policies. I have one that covers the stuff in my house and I have one that's called a dealer policy, which covers everything mail to and fro anything at the show. I'm set up, something happens at a show, I have coverage there as well, So I have two policies. Something to think about if you're in that realm and you don't but not to be, you know, make a commercial there.

So I've been doing it two plus years and it's been great. It's been fun. And you know, about a month ago, right, we know about the acquisition which was over two years now, where Collectors purchased SGC. They're under the same umbrella with PSA.

And about a month ago I saw some content I think Baseball Collector Mike was the first to do it. I'm not sure, but one of the first to put out like, hey, the end is near. You know, Collectors is going to phase out SGC. You know, someone else piggybacked off his content and said, you know, that's gonna be much like when Adidas bought Reebok and you hardly hear about Rebok.

Now when I when I heard it, you know, when I heard that, I'm like, man, I can't see that. I think that's crazy. You know, we all try it with our content, right, we all try to come up with a headline or a title that's catchy or Gardner's attention. I'm like, well, maybe it's just a Gardener attention type of title.

But you know, people asked me that had heard that content as well, like that knew my relationship with SGC, and I'm like, hey, man, they just renewed sponsorship with me for the show. The people I've talked to haven't let on that this is a possibility. Now. In content creator's defense, right, no one from inside SGC is going to really spill the beings that hey, they're going to close us, right, So the fact that everyone I speak to at SGC says, hey, business as usual, nothing to see here.

That's that's kind of what you expect them to say, right, So you know, you got to be fair here in the reporting aspect of it. But I didn't see any sort of red flags that indicated that anything like that was going on. And I just think, you know, from a personal feeling, you know, as gces number two on the grading scale of my book. I know CDC when you factor in the TCG stuff is number two, but from a sports cards perspective, which is my main lane, sgc's number two and my one of my favorites.

Right, I submit to two companies, SGC, PSA. I used to submit to Beckett for many years along with those two, and I kind of stopped, I'd say about I think I found an other invoice from five years ago. So the last Beckett's up that I personally did was five years ago. I don't root against them.

I hope they figure things out and turn the corner whatever it takes team to compete in the space, but that you know, currently those are my two brands that I grade with, And obviously my relationship with SGC is different, being a sponsor of sports her Nation and a folk suver form. But on June eleventh, you know, I got a phone call on my rep. I won't mention him my name, the protective you know, his identity, and he's very solemn, and he says, John, I've got bad news. This is not our call.

It's coming from above us. But there's no more bulk grating rates starting on June twentieth, so the end on June twentieth, So any orders get him in. It stinks. We don't want to make this phone call.

It's not fun. I'm just a messenger. And I could tell in his inflection and in his tone he was really sad about it and very sincere. And yeah, it wasn't great news.

You know. Again, I don't make my living off being an SGC folk subber, so it's not the same as like losing your job, but it's still you know, you get accustomed to doing everything for two plus years and you get comfortable, and so it was an uncomfortable moment, you know. And then I had a decision, right, do I still be a bulk suburb? Do you know? Do I just raise the rates? Do I, you know, stop being a bulk suburb. And that's the end of that, and I actually called a few of my big folks that sub a lot of cards with me, and I wanted to get their feedback.

Hey, here's what's going on, just so you know, as someone who serves a lot of cards, you know, what should I do? What do you think? How does this affect you? You know, I'm thinking at this price level, they're like John, you know, I'd still like the subwat chain. It cost me a little more for the convenience it is for me. You take care of everything. I'm not worried about that.

You know, if I send on my own, it's still going to be fifty sixty seventy bucks in shipping to and from charges. So that's a cost that would be added in if I did it myself, so you know, and then I figured out what the new price structure that I'm gonna use. You know, anyone that subs twenty or less cards, it's still gonna be cheaper to use me even with the new price structure. So it's still gonna I'm still gonna offer a cheaper alternative for those who sub twenty cards or less when you factoring they're not paying shipping to and from from SGC, So I decided I'm going to continue to do it, obviously at a higher rate.

I expect to fully expect to get less and smaller subs. That's just the nature of the beast, and I'm okay with that. I obviously have to have a minimum amount of cards because I am paying the shipping to and fro, so I have to have a minimum otherwise I'm gonna lose money. Again, I never really did it for the money earning factor.

It was a nice perk. I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you. It was a nice perk. But I just explain you how I sort of even happened by accident.

It wasn't something I was even thinking to doing on my own. It was that show promoter asking me that would I be interested in doing it? So it's more of a service I was providing that I enjoyed, that people enjoyed. So I'm going to continue that, or at least try to continue that. Now, if I try and the subs go way down and it's not I'm losing money or you know, it's costing me more to do it, then then it's bringing in.

Then you know, I have to make a decision, right like you know it's costing me sixty bucks a show to do it out of my pocket, then I'm probably not going to do it. You know. If it's costing me ten bucks or I'm making ten bucks, then I'll probably do it. You know.

Again, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But so for the foreseeing future, I'm going to continue to do it. But you know, it's it's the change, you know. So the question I get, does this decision is it foreboding of something else? Is this the first shoe to drop? And is SGC in trouble of being non existent? My gut says no.

But will there be changes? My gut says yes. I don't think this is the last shoe to drop. You know what those changes are? I don't know. I don't know.

You know, there's a rumor it's already happened that you know. I do know this turnaround times went from ten days to thirty or plus thirty plus days. How did that happen? You look at the generate report, there's not a huge In some cases there's less cards going SGC. Why is it taking three times as long? So there's a rumor.

Again, I don't have any substantial evidence to say this is factually true. But there's a rumor that PSA took some of sgc's better and high rate greaters and made them PSA greaters, leaving the cupboard a little bit more bare less greaters on the grading floor. So in turn, turnaround times increased. You know, put yourself maybe in PSA shoes right.

Your service costs more and takes months and months and months to get cards back in people's hands. And here you have your little brother, right, SGC at fifteen sixteen bucks a piece getting stuff back in ten to twelve days when they were running at peak. It makes you look bad, even though you're just under the same corporate umbrella. Makes you look bad.

So maybe a decision was made internally, let's quit having our own company make our number one company will look bad, And so some things were put plugged in and put in place to kind of even that out. You know, if PSA was to get rid of SGC, you know CGC would just move right into that number two slot and then gain even more market share with SGC not taking away any kind of intake from them. So I think, if you ask me again, I'm not in that room. I think it would be foolish for collectors to phase out SGC, but they own them.

They can do very well do that if they wanted to, And I don't know that they do or they don't want to. I hope they don't want to from a selfish point of view, who likes As a person who likes and has a relationship with SGC, you know, I get asked, let's put the car to ahead of horse and say it happens SGC is phased out and no longer is it exists as a grading brand. What does that do to all our SGC slabs? I don't think it does a whole lot, even if the brand doesn't exist anymore. I think they are such a known commodity that the value is there is what it is.

While you might not be able to get any new cards graded, it's still SGC, and people who like SGC will buy SGC slabs. People like SGC subdayh GC when you know, since they exist right now, you know, And so I don't think if SGC went away, I don't think that changes anything that already exists. That obviously changes the terrain of future existence because they wouldn't exist anymore. But as far as slabs already graded, I don't think that's a major major hit.

I think they've they've built up another enough street cred and hobby provenance that it won't affect those cards. You know, my Jackie Rookie. I have a lot of SGC graded cards that are already my Jackie Rookies in an SGC slab. If that was the it's gonna stay in an sg slam.

I'm not gonna cross it over. Sgc's a widely known hobby commodity. I don't think that changes anything that's already graded. That's my opinion.

Someone else might might beg to differ again. I hope that doesn't happen. I'm not predicting it as others have. I think there may be some changes, though maybe here's some thoughts.

I'm not predicting these. I'm not even speculating. I'm just saying things that you could see besides SGC going defunct. Maybe you see them adopting the same uniform grading scale.

Maybe you see collectors making SGC sort of their vintage grading hub and PSA vintage and modern ultra modern. Maybe you won't be able to grade a modern or Ultramardin with an SGC brand again. I hope that doesn't happen, but maybe that kind of business decision is made. I don't know.

No one knows except the people behind those closed doors, So be wary. That'll be kind of my you know. And who knows what else they might decide to do. They could do a lot of different things, and something will.

I think there will be some decisions coming. What they are will will remain to be seen. I'll close with this, just like this content creation, right, be wary of these are people's opinions. This is my opinion.

It doesn't mean it's true, it doesn't mean it's coming from the source. It's just, you know, we try to pluck. We try to put two plus two together and get to the four. Sometimes we get to the form we're right.

Sometimes we get to three and we're wrong. It's so take what you know. Any content creation you hear, you know, it's interesting, it's curious, But until it comes from the source itself, it's speculation, right, It's fun to speculate. That's what we do.

I do it all the time. So keep that in mind, keep it in perspective. So we're gonna wrap it up there. Any questions, comments, thoughts, My doors always open reach out, but we'll see you next time.

All right, thank you for listening to another episode of Hobby Quickets. Want to give out our social media, starting with our website, which is www Dot Sportscardinationpodcast dot com. Facebook. You can follow us at www dot Facebook dot com, forward slash Sportscardination Podcast forward slash Twitter.

We are at sportscard nat t one so it's sportscard n ATI one, Instagram at Sportscardination Podcast, or you can email the show Hobby Quick Hits at gmail dot com. Again, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.