Buy SGC or Bye SGC?

Buy SGC or Bye SGC?

With the news last week that Collectors (the parent company of PSA — more on that below) is buying SGC, the most common questions I’ve heard are if SGC will truly remain separate, and is it worth it to keep buying SGC slabs. I’ve come around a bit on this since the news hit on Thursday.

My source then told me that the plan was to keep SGC independent until Collectors goes public again, probably about two years away. I’ve since spoken with some people who are familiar with Collectors’ thinking, who believe that Collectors fully intends to set up SGC as its own company and keep it that way if things work.

The point made to me repeatedly is that SGC is a successful, profitable, popular company that fills a huge gap for Collectors. And that gap is vintage collectors. PSA is very popular with ultra-modern collectors, and investors of all types, but vintage collectors very clearly prefer SGC. And that disparity is growing.

So why would Collectors do anything to upend that?

I now believe this to be true. I also think that Collectors will use their current tools and infrastructure to improve SGC and make them an even better company. Imagine:

• Better security features

• Better flips

• Slabs that are tougher to crack

• SGC slabs added to PSA’s registry

And John Keating would love it if SGC would stop including their company name on their packages, speaking of security features.

So while I don’t submit or buy much SGC, I am actually bullish on the company’s future. I’ll be very interested to see what Collectors does in the months after the purchase is complete.

Time will tell.

I Know PSA Didn’t Buy SGC

If you watch my channel, you know that I truly enjoy petty and pedantic corrections. Last week several people commented and talked about content creators (including me) saying “PSA bought SGC!” because, obviously, PSA did not buy SGC; PSA’s parent company did. To that, I say:

Here’s the dirty little secret of content-creation: using a headline or thumbnail of something boring just won’t get clicks. “Collectors Buys SGC!” just won’t cut it. Most people don’t know who Collectors is. Meanwhile, PSA always gets clicks. People either love or hate PSA. No one cares about PSA’s parent company.

It’s like of Meta bought a social network. Most people would not care about a headline that says “Meta Buys X!” But a lot would care about “Facebook Buys Twitter!”

People click on things they like or hate. And content creators play off of that.

YouTube Comment Of The Week

Upcoming Videos

I’m looking deeper into the rumored Collectors sale of Goldin Auctions. I may have a video mid-week.

I went to a packed card show in Portland, Maine, on Sunday, and bought a couple of cards, including my first-ever football card. I’ll do a recap video.

I’ll do a pickup video, where I show a couple of new Yaz autographed items. And I think for one of them I can pull video showing that I was very wrong about it.

How about an 8,000 subscriber Ask Me Anything livestream Sunday night? 7pm ET.

Channel Highlights From the Past Week

What a week! And it capped off a huge month.

I did my first two-video day ever, covering Collectors’ acquisition of SGC as well as some rumors and speculation about the purchase.

My Attic Find Friday was the Band-Aid Find.

On Sponsorship

You likely noticed that I now have a sponsor. At the end of 2023 I talked about why I didn’t like sponsorship, but left open the possibility for another sponsor who fit my strict expectations. Excluding financial details, here is what I expected:

• Very reputable sponsor (I spoke with customers, competitors, and currently- and previously-sponsored content creators)

• Sponsor gets no editorial control over videos or newsletter

• It needs to be a company and/or product I would use

• They need to be heavily involved in the hobby

• No strict expectation of a number of videos per week or month

  • Similarly, regularly-scheduled videos may not come out on their normal day. For instance, Attic Find Friday sometimes (often?) is released on Saturday.

• No more than a 15 or 20 second spot per video

And a bonus is I now get more Attic Find Friday content.

My Pickup Of The Week

Another sneak preview of this week’s pickup video:

Subscriber Pickup Of The Week

My friend Jon sent me this one:

As I mentioned yesterday, my wife is related to the late and great Sean Connery. 

This week I found a 1966 James Bond “the incredible” Aston Martin card on EBay and thought it would go PERFECTLY with my Lego Aston Martin DB5 model car. 

Thought it was super cool and was a worthy add to the collection and thought I’d share! 

To nominate your card for next week, reply to this email and include why it should be included and a photo. Please don’t be offended if I don’t reply.

Links I Recommend:

Since I think the acquisition of SGC was pretty big news, I’ve been really interested in learning more about it. I thought Hobby News Daily did a great job, and got a unique perspective here from Ryan from Gemrate.

That’s it! I covered everything else in my weekly Clearing The Bases episode on YouTube.