The Future of SGC?? Hobby Quick Hits E215

As we head towards the end of 2025 I weigh back in on what the future may hold for SGC and some observations I've made from the trenches.  


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Probby not Quick Hits, delivering that breaking hobby news direct
your earloaders, you want to know those Josh Hard shop shop,
You've got your cover up. Your host John new Name. Hello, everyone,

(00:27):
and welcome to another edition of Hobby Quick Hits. And
on today's episode, we're going back to the well again
to weigh in on STC. And I don't always like
to go back to a topic as quick as I
am on this one, but in this case, I think
it's warranted some new stuff for those that don't know,

(00:51):
I may folk suburb kind of want to weigh in
what I'm seeing on that level. I just had Ryan
Zazyinski of Gemory on Sports Cardination and he wighed in
with some of his insights and opinions. So with all
that being said, I wanted to kind of delve in
on this again on this episode if you will revisit

(01:15):
the topic of SGC. So that is what is on
tap for today. We're going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back with the release schedules to
some of the hobby news and then we'll tackle what's
going on with SGC.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, now, a quick word from our great sponsor followed
by the new product release schedule. Then we'll go around
the hobby verse to tell you all the latest hobby
happenings and news. Then we'll tackle today's topic of discussion.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Hi, this is Pat Hughes, Cubs announcer, coming to you
from the Sports Card Shop in beautiful New Buffalo, Michigan.
The Golcher family has been an incredible place here for
collectors to buy, sell, and trade cards and memorabilia. Be
sure to stop buying let them show you around the

(02:10):
Sportscardshop dot com, connecting sports athletes, the hobby and collectors
around the world.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Hi, this is Alan Pinkett and I'm here to tell
you the Gocher family has done it again. They've just
opened up the Sport Card Shop in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana,
and it is awesome. If you're a collector, you need
to check this place out. Tell them Alan sent you,

(02:40):
and get a free gift on your first visit.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
All right, guys, you got me for the new product
release calendar for the next couple weeks. Let's start with
November fifth, twenty twenty five. Leaf Vivid Hobby, Baseball, Rugglers
and jumbos ain't on the same day, twenty twenty five
ONYX Vintage Extended Series Baseball Megas twenty twenty five, Panini

(03:08):
Certified Football twenty twenty five, Panini PFL Combat Anthology. Also
on the fifth, twenty twenty four Pulse Luman Baseball heat Seekers. Addition,
also on the fifth Big Big Day on the fifth
here twenty twenty five, Slash twenty six uppert X Series

(03:30):
one Hockey Blasters and Tens. Let's go to the sixth,
twenty twenty five twenty six tops Basketball Megas. Also let's
go to the seventh twenty twenty five ONYX Vintage Extended
Series Baseball November seventh, Pokemon Mega Lucario ex Figure All

(03:59):
the seventh less I say Otherwise twenty twenty five, Beaumachrome
University Football Megas twenty twenty five, Panini Mosaic Football twenty
twenty four, Slash twenty five, Panini Noir Soccer twenty twenty
five tops UFC Finest, And we go to the eleventh

(04:22):
twenty twenty five Post Meridian Football Heat Seeker edition on
the November twelve, twenty twenty five Panini Absolute Football Kaboom
Countdown Calendar twenty twenty five Panini Phoenix Football staying on
the twelve, twenty twenty five Tops Pro Debut, Baseball twenty

(04:46):
twenty five Tops Update Series, Baseball, Hobby and Jumbos also
on the twelve. Finishing out that day, Skybox Metal Universe,
Batman from Upper Deck. Let's go to the thirteenth, twenty
twenty five Pulse All Star Baseball moving to the fourteenth

(05:08):
Pokemon Mega Charbizard x ex Ultra Premium collection. Also Pokemon
Mega Evolution Fantasmal Flames all different variations. There also Pokemon
twenty twenty five Trainer's tool Kit, Mega Battle Deck, Mega
Ganguard Deonce Ex. Don't ask me what does mean. I

(05:33):
am just reading off a release sheet. With that being said,
that's your next two weeks in hobby products. As I
always say, choose your weapon. Happy ripping.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Let's go round the hobby verse and catch up on
this week's hobby news.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
And find out.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
All right.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I want to start out with an item that's going
to collect auction. It's actually started. It will end on
November sixth. I'm surprised this store this item is not
getting more buzz than it actually is. It's a nineteen
fifty one Bowman uncut sheet four rolls of nine players each,

(06:21):
so thirty six cards total. There are seventy two cards
that make up the High Number series. This is half
of them at thirty six and one of the cards
on there is card you might have heard before, nineteen
fifty one Bowman Mickey Mantel the Rookie car. It's on

(06:42):
the edge panel but surprisingly in very good shape, good color,
the backs are clean, got a small hairline crease in it,
and just an iconic card, uncut form. Again. The bidding
started at ten k it's obviously going to go more

(07:02):
than that. It will end on November sixth, and just
to me an incredible piece and the only one. I
believe it's the only one in existence, you know, if
I'm not mistaken. So really cool there to check that out.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Oh I don't believe it.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
All right. TOPS is back in the basketball game officially
with the license scene going over to them, and they
wasted no time creating the NBA Living set. We're all
familiar with the baseball addition. It now exists in basketball
one card a week, print to order. It's got the

(07:46):
design of the nineteen fifty seven fifty eight TOPS original
design and card number one Lebron James not my favorite player,
but it is what it is, and we can't really
be surprised that they're doing this. They're going to cash

(08:06):
in on this license all they can. Speaking of cool
items hitting the auction block, this auction will open eleven
twenty one, November twenty first, and close between December twelfth
and December fourteenth. What is it? It's the a ticket

(08:27):
stub graded PSA one point five from the Yankees game
on July fourth, nineteen thirty nine. What's the significance of
that game? The luckiest man in the world speech given
by Lou Garrick when he was diagnosed with ALS. Only

(08:47):
nine of these exist and only four are graded higher.
So when it comes to ticket stubs, this is a
pretty cool item if you ask me, whatnot getting paid?
They just announced they have a new two and twenty

(09:08):
five million dollar fund that was invested in them from
various brokerage brokerages and since twenty nineteen. This marks the
nine hundred and sixty eight million dollars that they have
had invested in their company. You know, we hear a

(09:30):
lot about these, you know, fund sources and brokerage places
investing in some of these hobby juggernauts, if you will,
I just wonder like, are they getting you know, bang
for their buck or can there be some losses here
which may prevent future funding or even seeing some of

(09:51):
these entities, you know, going out of business potentially when
money dries up. Don't know, just just throwing down my
speculation hat there. Panini, who's CEO, longtime CEO although Celestro

(10:14):
passed away a few months back on Italian newspapers reporting
that they probably will be on the market and that
Top Slash Fanatics will be one of the first in
line to try to make that purchase. The sale just
not necessarily the tops, but Panini is expected to be

(10:35):
sold and finalized by mid twenty twenty six, according to
this an Italian newspaper. So if Top slash Fanatics was
to acquire Panini, you know, again, just strength more of
a stranglehold of the hobby that they would have. That's

(11:02):
my thoughts there, all right. We don't often hear, you know,
mann card manufacturers, presidents or ceo sort of way in
on the state of the hobby, at least candidly as
usually always you know, Roses and daisies when they talk
about the hobby, but this time not so much, which

(11:24):
I found a little refreshing. What am I talking about?
Upper Deck president Jason Mashera on his LinkedIn page put
a little bit of a dissertation of the hobby, a
statement out on the kind of the state of the
union of the hobby. I'm paraphrasing some of his points.

(11:47):
You can seek out his actual statement, but he pointed
out that fifty percent of the transactions of the hobby
come from only ten percent of the hobby, meaning it's
controlled by the bigger whales. I don't think that's breaking news,
but he really is concerned that, you know, if that

(12:07):
money goes elsewhere, you know, it could affect the hobby
in a negative sort of way, and that it's it's
sort of the the power brokers kind of setting the
tone again. Nothing I don't think we didn't really know,
but you know, he just he's concerned about it. He's

(12:28):
also concerned about the gambling aspect and gambling effect of
the hobby and you know what that could mean long
term and on the younger set. And he pointed also
to the point of wax that's you know, most products
now seem to be according to him, you know, four

(12:51):
figures or more and people being priced out, not just
in wax, but just in in general. And so, you know,
he cares about the hobby. He's concerned about it. It's
refreshing to see a person of his stature sort of
talk about the stuff that's not all that smells pretty

(13:13):
and shiny, right and good. So I applaud him for that.
I know he's taking some criticism because some people have
pointed out that, you know, upper Deck has some very
expensive products that price people out, so he's getting kind
of labeled sort of a hypocrite, you know, but I

(13:35):
don't think. I don't really, I don't see it exactly
like that. I mean, we're all entitled to our opinion, right,
and there are some great, more affordable upper Deck products,
plenty of them, so I get it. You know, someone
else commented that he's just bitter because he lost because

(13:57):
upper Deck lost the other sport license, and he's just
you know, sour grapes. I can't speak for Jason. Maybe
that's what it is, Maybe it isn't, maybe that's his
true feelings. So I'll just end on this. It was
just nice to see, you know, someone really kind of
weigh in someone from that position, right, kind of just

(14:20):
weigh in again, most of the stuff is not breaking news.
Most of the stuff is stuff we realize or should realize.
But it's nice to hear it come from that sort
of level instead of always just you know, how awesome
the hobby always is and there's nothing wrong whatsoever. So

(14:40):
I'll close on that. In a June episode of this
very podcast, Hobby Quick Hits, I weighed in and kind
of where SGC was at, what maybe the future may hold,
kind of stemming from a lot of people, a lot
of content creators and influencers, you know, claiming that the

(15:02):
end was near and that they would soon be killed
off by collectors and you know at the time didn't
see it that way and kind of wanted to sort
of counterpoint counterpoint that. So I did a SGC stated
the union sort of episode and I don't know, again,
I don't often go back and sort of rehash stuff,

(15:25):
at least this soon. Right. That was again in June,
and here we are about the beginning of November and
you know, five months later, but some things have changed,
and wanted to sort of revisit it, update it if
you will. Now if you're asking me today, do I
think SGC is going to be closed by collectors. I'm

(15:49):
still going to say no, but I will say this
to be one hundred percent honest and transparent. I don't
feel as confident about that as I did in June.
I don't expect it still. I'm not predicting that I
wouldn't bet on it, but I feel less confident that
it wouldn't happen today than I did in June. And again,

(16:14):
you know, i'll rehash I love the brand, I love
the company. They're a sponsor of Sports Carnation, but that
has nothing to do with my feelings about them. I
was a user of their product, you know, before they
were even a sponsor. And I'm a bulk suburb currently,
and I you know, even though they got rid of

(16:35):
the bulk subbing rates, I continue to do the bulk subbing,
just adjusting my prices. So let's let's look at it
from that angle. So, you know, I expected a decrease
in the amount of subs I got with the new
pricing structure. Anytime you raise prices, right, you should probably

(16:57):
expect lesser volume. Solda, I'm sure there are exceptions to
that rule. And that was that's been exactly the case.
But I will say this, my projections for how much
less I would get submitted to me as a SGC
bolk suburb I overestimated. Yes, subs are down, but not

(17:18):
by any stretch of imagination what I kind of forecasted.
I'm still getting I got my I just recently got
my fourth largest sub you know, even with the new price,
even without the new pricing, but just across the board
since I started bulk subbing over two years ago, so

(17:42):
I'm still getting large submissions. I just posted on my
YouTube channel a three twenty card SGC bulk sub submission.
That's the other thing, shameless plug. I'm going to start
posting my bulk subs that are going to received on
my YouTube channel Sports Cardination Network. So if you want

(18:04):
to see what I'm sending to book a ratone that
will be posted publicly before they will be posted as
raw cards before I get them back. I am not
going to post degraded cards, but I will post the
raw one, so check that out on our YouTube channel.

(18:27):
So numbers are still pleasantly good. I was, honestly, and
I think I might have said that on the June episode.
I was concerned that the numbers would dwindle to a
point that I'd have to stop, folks of me, not
because I wanted to stop, but because the volume wouldn't
be There would be a decision that I didn't make,

(18:48):
but would be made for me. And again when I
called people and email people telling them of what happened
the new rates, I got just so many calls, text
and emails of support, you know, saying, hey, I'm still
subbing with you. The convenience is worth a buck or
two more, you know, in in pricing. I'm not worried

(19:12):
about it. You know. Also keep in mind with folk subbing,
whatever the rate is right, anyone that subs on their
own right. And this isn't just an SGC thing, but
when you when you sub with a grading company, you know,
especially the bigger ones, you need to really expect between
a forty five dollars and sixty dollars shipping bill both

(19:34):
ways combined, right, probably about twenty five going to that
grading company at about thirty five forty that you're gonna
have to pay for shipping, if not more coming back.
Add those together and you're looking at fifty to seventy
five Bucks just in shipping charges before you even pay
for your first graded card. So for many of these folks,

(19:57):
you know, it's still cheaper to you whose my BOLK
sub service, even with the adjusted pricing, And many of
them pointed to that reason. And again, I'm handling all
the packaging, shipping, insurance, dealing with it right, sorting it out,
entering it in on the system. They don't have to

(20:20):
do any of that. They literally just fill out a
sheet of paper, a form SGC sub form that I
created for what I do. They fill that out with
what they're subbing their info, name, address in, phone number,
and email, and then hand me the cards right, and
I take care of the rest. Now. I do not
ship the cards back to them unless they pay twenty

(20:42):
dollars which is signature confirmation ensured shipping. They're generally picked
up at my house, at a Dunkin Donut, Starbucks, or
at the numerous card shows that we have in the area.
Most of the time they are picked up at the
card shows itself. At the card shows, I'd say about
seventy percent of my BOLK subs are given to me

(21:05):
at the card show and then picked up and graded
card form. When the gratings completed at a subsequent card show,
and there's another thirty percent that may be dropped off locally,
whether that be at Starbucks, dunkin Donuts, my house, and
that sort of. So it's been surprisingly still good. You
know that I wasn't confident that that was going to continue,

(21:30):
but here we are, and for the record, we are.
Our next sub will be sub number thirty nine, and
they're generally one to two a month, So using that
thirty nine number, you can tell sort of how long
I've sort of been doing it. Recently, Ryan Staczynski of
jem Ery was on Sports Carnation as a guest, actually

(21:53):
the last couple. If you're listening to this on show
release date, go check out his what he had to say.
You know, he does a great job with the generate
reports and newsletter and emails, but those give you data, right,
it doesn't give you sort of his opinion. So I
love having him on the podcast to get his opinion

(22:15):
of what's going on in the grading world, and he doesn't.
You know, he's a pretty laid back sort of guy,
but he also gives his honest opinion and honest assessment.
I really appreciate that from him and on you know,
on those two episodes, I asked him, you know what
he thought when he first heard the news that Collectors

(22:38):
was acquired STC and whether he thinks, you know, SGC
is going to be phased out by collectors. And again
I don't want to give out the whole episodes and
photo check it out, but he doesn't believe that the
SGC is going to be closed by collectors. He thinks
he's there. They're going to do what they've read he's

(23:00):
sort of done and made him a smaller company, right
and kind of you know that boutique word that Ryan
Hosch used when he said they weren't closing. And so Ryan,
when I asked Ryan, you know, do you think that
you know, Ryan from gem Rate, do you do you
think that SGC is going away? He says he obviously

(23:22):
doesn't know, he doesn't have any insider info, but in
his opinion, he doesn't believe that's going to happen. He
thinks they're going to be sort of that boutique, whether
it be heavy vintage or pre war that sort of thing.
He thinks that there remain viable like what we're seeing
sort of going on currently he think that was he's

(23:43):
he believes that was the plan all along. What we're
seeing now, you know. He pointed out to you know,
what a cost to purchase this company, you know, kind
of the closet wouldn't make a ton of sense. But
he also said, you know that it wouldn't be the
first time something like that happened either. Again, he doesn't
have any working knowledge, he's not getting any info from

(24:07):
the powers that be, you know. He also pointed out
another thing that some of us know, right that one
of the one of the reasons for the acquisition, right
was to uh, you know, acquire some of that manpower.
Some of that SGC workforce, including graters, have went over

(24:27):
to the PSA side, and that's what happens with acquisitions,
and so now PSA has poached some of those probably
top of the line SDC graders and that was probably
part of the whole plan to begin with, and not
just graters, but office staff and corporate people at the
corporate level uh as well. Uh you know, so that

(24:50):
was one of, you know, probably the reasons for the acquisitions.
Let's talk about you know, people who point out to well,
PSA is moving into existing SDC locations and setting up
shop there. That signifies that the end is near, and
they may be right again, I don't know, Ryan Sezinski

(25:13):
doesn't know, But let let's take you know, there's two
sides every coin. So for all those folks saying, well,
that's the sign that they're going to phase SGC out,
they're just going to their locations, they're going to phase
SDC out, and then they're just going to be one
hundred percent PSA locations rather than fifty to fifty sixty forty.

(25:34):
But there's again the other side of that coin, right, Well,
they can just be you know, cutting out overhead. Right,
if you have two companies but you're under one roof,
paying one rent or one building costs to build, right,
you're consolidating costs. That's just sort of smart business practice.
So for me, I don't look at it as a

(25:56):
red flag that the end is near. I look at
it as they're just trying to you know, save some funds.
If we're going to Florida, why don't we just share
space with SGC who's already there, rather than just you know,
pour a bunch of money into a new building or
renting a new large facility, so I don't look at

(26:19):
it like that. So, you know, kind of coming down
the home stretch here to wrap sort of this episode
up right, And I hope I'm right. I don't know
I'm right, but I don't think SGC is going away,
And from a selfish point of view, I hope they don't.
I love the brand. They're my favorite grading company, and

(26:40):
I hope they're, you know, around, you know long after
I'm I'm not, and I hope that's the case. You know,
one one more thing I want to touch on real quick.
You know, I get asked to this question as a
folk suburb. You know, if SGC was to be phased
out and didn't don't exist anymore, Hey, you know, hey John,

(27:02):
what will my cards in SGC slabs? What would happen
to them? Would they go decrease in value and go
down in price? And here's my two cents, any kind
of price d decrease to me would be very minimum
here to me, here's why, right, Even if SGC was

(27:24):
to go away, they built up so much providence in
twenty plus years of providing great grading. Many of the
record setting cards you're seeing on the auction block are
in SGC holders. That's you know, providence, but people know
who SGC is, right, this is not a fly by

(27:44):
night company that lasted two years and went away, you know,
the HGA. So will there be a little hit if
that was to happen, Sure, a little bit, but not
to what some some are claiming or predicting, and especially
on the vintage side, I think that's even less minimal.
You know, I have a Jackie Robinson rookie and an

(28:07):
SGC holder. If SGC went away, I'm not getting it
taken out of that holder, and I don't expect the
value to decrease at all if you know, or very
much if it did so. Again, the card in the
holders are still the cards and the holders. And when
you have a brand with a reputation that SGC has,

(28:29):
I think that any kind of hit would be of
the minimal variety. But the only time will tell, and
so we'll have to wait and see. What I wanted
to kind of rehash, kind of tub you know, punch
back in and kind of you know, revisit this topic.
Any questions or thoughts, you know, you want to tell

(28:49):
me I'm wrong or nuts, reach out to me. My
door is always open. Thanks, everyone, will see you soon
all right. Thank you for listening to another episode of
Hobby Quickets. Want to give out our social media, starting
with our website which is www dot Sportscardinationpodcast dot com. Facebook.

(29:10):
You can follow us at www dot Facebook dot com,
forward slash Sportscardination Podcast, Forward slash Twitter. We are at
sportscard nat t one so it's sportscard n at I one,
Instagram at Sportscardination Podcast, or you can email the show

(29:34):
Hobby Quick Hits at gmail dot com. Again, thanks for listening.
We'll see you next week