My CGC-PSA crossover experience — was it worth it?

With the dust still settling on PSA's impact as a competitor to CGC in magazine grading, the decision to cross over CGC slabs to PSA remains a difficult one.

Early returns supported the notion that PSA slabs would command a premium, so when I submitted five slabs to Goldin Auctions in March, I agreed with the decision to send all five to PSA for crossover grading. An overview:

1. I went 5-for-5 in crossovers — a really good percentage considering PSA's grading appears to be at least a little tighter than CGC's. (And all five slabs were graded in 2023, when even CGC's grading was a little looser than it is today).

   
   

2. PSA pressed all five slabs, even though we did not ask for pressing. At the time it appeared you had an option to have them press crossover submissions. Now it appears every crossover submission will be pressed by PSA.

3. The total cost of the five crossover slabs was $1,100 — $220 per slab. With $75 per slab already invested in the initial pressing and grading, that's nearly $300 per slab invested. Yikes!

4. The slabs were submitted to PSA in late March/early April and returned to Goldin by the first week in May. About four to five weeks from start to finish.

Here are the results:

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Most of the magazines in my inventory came straight off a grocery store newsstand and almost immediately into bags-and-boards. But this was a $2 buy at an outdoor flea market. Tip of the cap to Jim Kehoe of Charlottesville, Va. for his stellar pressing on this issue (and all of my slabs).

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The returns were extremely strong, but were the slabs worth crossing over? That's difficult to determine. The general upswing in the hobby and the volatility that comes with it makes it tough to define anything in the market. (In May, a CGC 9.8 LeBron James Sports Illustrated first cover sold for $6,710 in a Goldin auction. Two weeks later, a CGC 9.8 LeBron SI first cover sold for $4,662; In June, the PSA 9.8 Kobe Bryant I crossed over from CGC sold for $3,660. Twelve days later, another PSA 9.8 Kobe first cover sold for $2,501.)

Be that as it may, the difference between a PSA slab and a similar CGC slab remains up in the air. PSA-graded magazines were commanding a premium — and probably still are. But CGC-graded slabs are catching up. At this point, it appears to be a crapshoot whether to cross over, especially anything below a holy grail or prime first-cover slab. So when I submitted more CGC slabs to Goldin at the National for another round of auctions, I agreed with the decision to not cross them over to PSA. Will I win? Will I lose? As long as the hobby keeps trending in the current direction, I'll live with the results.

The two higher-end Jordan covers were the best candidates for crossing over to PSA slabs. But PSA's costly up-charges — often based on comps in a volatile and still-formative graded-magazine market — make it a gamble.

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