Newfound popularity for Pokemon, Magic the Gathering and sports cards created a perfect storm. At one moment, PSA, the most prestigious card grading company, had 500,000 cards for grading weekly. The submission would usually come in three months. Such influx made PSA stopped requests in April because of the enormous backlog. Less valuable cards were in the queue from last August.
Similarly, BSG, CGC and Becket grading companies all struggle with the incredible popularity of Pokemon cards whose prices reach more than $300,000.
Who does the grading?
The professional graders come from the same pool of collectors that send the cards to the grading company. Grading cards is a time-consuming, meticulous job that requires high concentration and attention to detail.
All popular grading companies are looking for card graders. Unfortunately, the card submission still doesn’t seem to slow down, and it’s necessary to find new talents to tackle the demand. Just a quick look on PSA, and pages of other grading services, you can see job postings, and this is how they acquire new graders.
The graders look at several different components, and every company has its own rules. Generally, they will base their grades on centring, edges, corners, and surfaces. The grading company won’t tell you how much the card is worth, but it will grade the quality and preservation. You will get a plastic enclosure and fancy sticker with the final grade and, in some cases, subgrades.
Once you get your gold 9.5 or 10 grade, you can return the card on the shelf or hit auction sites. The crazy buzz around the cards means you can sell the cards from the original series for insane amounts, but online auctions are sometimes random, like games on live casino websites. So don’t rush with the sales, and you can get the expected value withstanding the ground.
What are grading companies looking for in graders
People who apply for grading jobs must have in-depth knowledge of trading cards and other sports collectibles. When looking for workers, card grading companies look for problem-solving skills. Attention to detail and perhaps crucial ability is the focus over prolonged periods.
All these requirements don’t mean you can come in and start grading cards. To become a professional card grader for PSA, BGS, CGC or Becket, you must have at least one year of grading experience as a dealer, collector, or skilled grader. So far, the payscale researches still don’t include new data. However, grading companies did increase the salary, and some, like CGC, offer a $1000 signing bonus.
The issue with finding grading experts is they must know their stuff around collectibles. There are levels to the knowledge, and if this trend continues, we could see the average $20,556 salary, according to Comparably, to go significantly up.
It’s hard to find information about card graders. The multi-billion market and the companies are trying to protect their most valuable assets. The constant recruitment continues from groups that visit Comic-Con visitors, card collection enthusiasts on Reddit and other social media.
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