BECKETT SUSPENDS MOST GRADING SERVICES

Overwhelmed with orders, Beckett Grading Services will temporarily stop accepting most trading card submissions next week.

Like its competitor, PSA, Dallas-based Beckett has a backlog of ungraded cards that's so large that collectors and dealers have been waiting months for orders that used to be completed in weeks.

Beckett Collectibles President Jeromy Murray says all grading submissions other than the Premium Level service will be suspended after Monday, June 7.

All orders that are submitted under the Express, Standard, and Economy level will be returned to the customer, ungraded, he told customers Tuesday in a statement tucked inside the company's plans for the 2021 National Sports Collectors Convention. The reason behind this decision is simply to allow us to focus on the growing backlog we have and to get as many cards back to customers as possible, before the National. This is not ideal for anyone but something our competition has done.

Beckett's Premium Level service costs $250 per card or $150 without subgrades being assigned.

Grading companies have been inundated with orders—mostly consisting of modern era trading cards—for more than a year as collectors and sellers look to take advantage of a robust market for cards. COVID-19 exacerbated the problem.

In late March, PSA suspended all but its higher end services and while the company has indicated it is caught up on processing submissions, it has yet to resume accepting orders beyond the highest service level. Graders have been working to catch up, but the backlog of ungraded cards totaled well into the millions prior to the shutdown.

SGC raised its prices to $75 for regular submissions, hoping to slow the tide of orders, then reduced it to $30 not long ago after catching up.

Beckett's backlog means customers are currently waiting eight months or more for Standard level submissions to be processed and returned and 11 months or more for Economy level orders.

Last fall, the company lost grading directors Andy Broome and Westin Reeves to Certified Collectibles Group, which launched its CSG trading card division.

To read the complete article, see:
Beckett Suspends Most Grading Services as of June 7 (https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/beckett-suspends-grading-services/)

The Certified Collectibles Group® (CCG®), one of the largest private employers in the Sarasota-Manatee area, is excited to announce its goal of employing 500 people at its headquarters in Sarasota's Lakewood Ranch community by the end of summer. To hit this target, CCG is offering a $2,500 sign-on bonus for new employees who start by September 30, 2021.

The CCG companies include the world's leading and largest providers of expert, impartial and tech-enabled services that add value and liquidity to collectibles such as coins, paper money, comic books, trading cards, sports cards, stamps and more. Since 1987, CCG has certified more than 60 million collectibles and continues to grow at a rapid pace as a result of the incredible demand for its best-in-class services.

The collectibles markets are booming and show no signs of slowing down. Many coins, banknotes, comic books, trading cards and sports cards have all recently sold for record prices — some for millions of dollars — making headlines and drawing more people to collectibles. Only a few companies in the world provide third-party certification services for collectibles, with CCG offering the most comprehensive services right in the beautiful Sarasota-Manatee area.

We are looking to immediately add at least 100 more people to our phenomenal team of employees, says Steven R. Eichenbaum, CEO of CCG. They will join a dynamic, growing company with a significant presence in Sarasota and around the world.

To read the complete article, see:
CCG Continues Hiring Push; Targets 500 Sarasota Employees by Summer's End (https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/ccg-continues-hiring-push-targets-500-sarasota-employees-by-summer-s-end)

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