The CGC vs. PSA battle tightens up
PSA took the early lead in its battle with CGC when it entered the magazine-grading market in July of 2025, but — while it's still early — CGC appears to have battled back and made it a real competition.
That's good news for collectors and investors. The last thing they need is for PSA to become the dominant force in the hobby. We know from the card-collecting market that PSA is more than willing to throw its weight around when it's the 800-pound gorilla — with excessive up-charges, questionable conflicts of interest and exorbitant pricing. If you don't like it, there's virtually nowhere to turn for collectors seeking to maximize return on investment.
That's not the case in the magazine-grading hobby — at least not yet. When a 9.8-graded Sports Illustrated "A Star Is Born" issue featuring Michael Jordan sold for a record-setting $378,200 in a Goldin auction on Sept. 19, the second-biggest news from that sale was that it was a CGC-graded copy. It broke the graded-magazine record of $328,100 for a Sports Illustrated Mickey Mantle first cover that was a PSA 9.6.
It's hardly defining, and more of an apples-to-oranges comparison between two different holy-grail issues (we don't know what a PSA 9.8 "Star Is Born" issue would sell for), but the CGC 9.8 "A Star Is Born" sale was an indication that — at least at the highest level of they hobby — CGC can compete with PSA.
We'll see if that will be sustained and if it holds true for lower-tier issues. But for now, after an early "shiny new toy" bump for PSA, CGC has made it a true competition. Collectors — including some of the most established and prominent in the hobby — literally don't know which direction to go as the dust in the competition continues to settle.
Including me. In April, when PSA-graded magazines were selling at a premium, I submitted five CGC slabs to Goldin and — upon Goldin's recommendation — crossed over all five to PSA with a minimum grade requirement. All five crossed over to the same grade as CGC (which seems quite fortuitous today), for a total cost of $1,100 ($220 per magazine, which included pressing that I did not ask for). The results, which I detailed in this website post seemed to justify the cross-over investment.
But in July, when I submitted six CGC slabs to Goldin, the landscape had changed enough that Goldin's recommendation was to not cross them over to PSA. And while it's difficult to know for sure, again it seemed like the right call. Here are the results:
It's debatable (and doubtful) that crossing over to PSA would have been worth the expense (which includes a mandatory pressing), so I think the right call was made both times. That's how quickly things are changing in the hobby.
And they're still changing, with reports that PSA's current grading is significantly harsher than in its first year magazine grading. Will PSA's tougher grading be accepted as the standard by the hobby? Will a PSA 9.6 outperform a CGC 9.8?
This is an exciting time for the graded-magazine hobby, but also a confusing one. And my latest submissions reflect that. A month ago, both were earmarked for PSA. Instead, one is going to PSA, the other to CGC. We'll see how that turns out. Stay tuned.
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