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GMA GRADED CARDS

          I have read previous discussions about GMA graded cards and have some personal experience to share. 

          I have been involved with the sportscard hobby since 2000. Like many of you, I have learned how to examine cards and what to look for to get a good idea of approximate grade. As we all know though, grading buy a human will be subjective and error prone and sadly nowadays influenced by large dealer submissions to get better grades,yes that is how it works! I know it can be hard to have people see things with an open mind when they have all been brain washed into thinking a certain way as with in this case grading companies.

          Like I mentioned earlier, yes there have been "grading" companies out there that have no business in this hobby. I have also  seen like many of you out there mistakes made on ,in my case ,PSA cards not graded correctly but yet people still think they're god and forgive THIER mistakes and move on. I have seen my share of bad cards out there as many of you also have. I have submitted to PSA & BGS as many of you also have and paid the price! We have all seen grading companies come and go but the big 3 have remained. I guess it seems to most people out there no one in the world is capable of grading a card but them. GET REAL PEOPLE! So what you may be saying, (I'm talking to those who think about quitting thier job and going out on thier own because they think they can do the same thing) it's not possible.

          Why do people continue to also pay $20 to $35 to have a card examined? That's just ridiculous!  I had purchased over a months time a large amount of some rookie cards from packs that I had planned to go through and submit what I thought were my best chances at good grades. They were 2010 thru 2014 modern cards, base and refractors. After careful consideration, I ended up with 47 cards I felt good about. Ok, now I thought who to send them to? Yes I thought about PSA and BCCG. After considering the costs, I couldn't see spending at least over $700 to almost a $1000 PLUS shipping back just to have my cards examined in a minute or so by a so called "expert" and returned to me with thier unquestionable opinion. Why do you think you read about people re-submitting cards and getting a different grades back! This is all just a big expensive scam that I was a part of once.

         I currently have some GMA graded cards in my collection which I love so I thought to myself, let's maybe try them and see how they are.  I packed them up carefully and shipped them off.......nervously!  GMA states on thier website 5 business day service, so I thought, why not.  By tracking they recieved them on Monday December 1st and I had my order back by Wednesday December 10th! Talk about great service! My totaI cost with shipping was $115.

        Opened the box and they were proffesionally packed to perfection. Now for the moment of truth, what grades did I get back?  Surprisingly , they don't just give out 10's like people may think. I got back 27 10's out of 47. The rest were 8's 8.5's and 9's. In my opinion they were very accurate and even surprised me some.  Bottom line,  those of you doubters out there want to try them and see for yourself, you have nothing to lose but may gain peace of mind that just because they aren't the big 3, don't have the massive overhead that the others do (which believe me you pay for) and have chosen to run thier company efficiently, doesn't mean they can't do a good job. 

        We all need to be open minded sometimes that just because something is different, it doesn't mean they are bad or inferior.  Just wanted to share this with all of you out there as to maybe help someone who thinks that PSA and BGS are the only options and that you can also have your favorite cards graded fairly and accurately and that this hobby doesn't have to break the bank.  I will never use the big 3 again. I look forward to seeing what you all have to say about this and maybe hope to hear maybe some of you give it a shot and are pleasantly surprised that there are good options out there.

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Saves time and money when you don't have to grade the card. Just throw a slab on it. If that's what you want then good for you. But the cards are worth less in those slabs than if they were raw. Come on people!!

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GMA GRADED CARDS

They're charging $2 to grade a card with 5 day turnaround. The &*^%$$#% slab costs $1. I'm sure they're spending a lot time looking at the card. If it's GMA it's probably trimmed. That's my experience. 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

          There's only one problem with this. If you look carefully at the holder and how the card fits the holder. Like a PSA holder, the space for the card to fit in is 1/16" bigger than a standard size card which is 2-1/2 x 3-12". There are no real gaps that look larger than normal over a card in a PSA holder. It appears to fit in the holder like it should if correct size. If you see something more than a 1/16 of an inch then there would be cause for suspicion.  Also looking as close we can at the card, it has some of the rough edge characteristics typical for that issue. I also have a Dwight Clark of the same issue I just looked at and the card doesn't look wrong to me as far as border size and edges.

          We can go through this forever. I can find PSA cards that are overgraded as well. 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Stephen - here's a pretty simple test.... look at the number/ % of cards in each grade being offered on eBay for GMA and, say, PSA. Looking at only the cards graded 8 and higher:

 

% of  cards graded TEN (# graded 10 divided by # graded 10 through 😎  :    PSA 30%   GMA 68%

 

 

In eBay listings GMA has 1,396 grade 10s out of 2,059 graded 8 through 10.

 

 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Well Bud you lost me there and I'm not even drunk.

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Oh now I get it. LOL

 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

If you want to use EVERY card listed on eBay for each company - 49% of all GMA cards listed are grade 10.  For PSA it's 7%

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Thanks Bud for your input. It's nice to see I got some people fired up!  Since you brought up that point. I checked PSA pop report just for 2014 baseball cards only and found for grades 8 through 10 they graded a total of 9,748 cards, cards graded 8 through 9 totaled 3,519 and 10's were 6,229. So you're basically a 62% - 35% split. 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

"... Also looking as close we can at the card, it has some of the rough edge characteristics typical for that issue."

 

That bottom edge of the Montana rookie alone would lower the grade to at most an 8 by PSA, Beckett, or SGC.

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GMA GRADED CARDS

Not going to argue with you there.  I can only refer back to my original post and experience with the cards I recieved back. Vintage cards from that era are a different animal as far as production quality.  I have though an example of a Rickey Henderson RC that I bought because it was nicely centered (hard to find)and has your standard edges for the day and slightly soft corners as you'd expect for the issue. It was graded a 7 and card measures correct size, not trimmed. After I got the card at the time I did some visual comparisons to PSA graded ones and am satisfied with the grade given.

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GMA GRADED CARDS

stephen - first, I'm not in the slightest bit "fired up"  lol.... this just gives me something to do in the idle time between poker hands  🙂

 

So.... what is the corresponding ratio on 2014 cards graded by GMA?  Oh, they don't publish that do they?

 

 

Looking again at eBay listings for apples to apples comparison: for 2014 baseball GMA has 77% 10... PSA 53%

 

Perhaps you'll do the rest of the legwork for us - find a year, or sport, or ??? where GMA has a lesser high grade ratio than PSA, BGS/BVG, or SGC. You might accidentally find one

 

 

I'll say this for GMA.... if all one wants to do is to encapsulate cards in one's collection for appearance or safety then sure, go to the cheapest source! That makes perfect sense to me. GMA may also be pretty consistent in their grading - considerably softer than the big 3 in my opinion, but they may be pretty consistent in their interpretation of condition. I say "they" but I picture 1 guy or gal (maybe 2?) at GMA being the receiving office, grader, encapsulator, supply clerk, mail room, etc.

 

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GMA GRADED CARDS

they have been known to authenticate reprints thats why they suck

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