With recent Hall of Fame losses, collectors are turning their attention to baseball’s living legends—while they still can.

Best known for grading comics (CGC), coins (NGC) and banknotes (PMG), CCG leapt into the card grading category in 2020 as the markets for sports cards and TCGs such as Pokémon were rapidly growing.

Last Updated: April 23rd, 2025 by Matthew Brown In August 2022, a small piece of cardboard sold for $7.25 million. Not cryptocurrency. Not a tech stock. A baseball card. But the T206 Honus Wagner ...

Navigating the trading card and sports memorabilia hobby can seem daunting, whether you’re coming into it for the first time or returning to it after decades away. After all, there was a time ...

SGC was entrusted with grading a Mickey Mantle 1952 trading card that later sold at auction for over $12.6 million, making it the most expensive trading card ever sold.

“Our director of grading has been in his role since 1998," Hoge said. "That is a really long time to have the same director of grading. Some of our senior graders have been with us since the 90s.

Several professional grading companies evaluate and authenticate baseball cards. The most reputable among them include PSA, BGS, and Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC).

2024 SGC continued to show that they are force in the grading industry, with a total of 1.87 million graded cards (per Gemrate).

“He now is the No. 2 graded baseball player all-time with 740,000 cards graded, behind only Ken Griffey Jr. If you only looked at 2024 grading activity, he would still rank 15th all-time for ...

Beckett Grading Services (BGS), Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) and Sportscard Guaranty (SGC) are the top companies used to grade a card. While several other grading companies have emerged in ...