James Spence Authentication (JSA) is one of the largest and most respected third-party authentication and grading companies for collectibles such as sports cards, comic books, and other memorabilia. While they do authenticate and attribute baseball cards to determine authenticity and condition, JSA itself does not grade baseball cards on their own proprietary numerical grading scale like some other companies in the collectibles market.
Rather than assigning their own grades, when submitting baseball cards to JSA for review, the cards are sent to a partner company who will physically examine the card and assign it a grade on their grading scale. JSA then validates that grade and authenticates the card and slab, but relies on their partner company for the actual grading determination. Some key partner companies JSA works with for baseball card grading include:
-Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) – Widely considered the gold standard in third-party sports card grading. PSA uses a 1-10 point numerical scale to grade factors like centering, edges, corners and surface. PSA slabs have become the most recognizable and desirable way to encapsulate and certify graded modern sports cards.
-Beckett Grading Services (BGS) – Another top tier grading service owned by Beckett Media. BGS also uses a 1-10 scale grading system along with additional sub-grades for specific attributes. Additionally, BGS pioneered the use of assigning assigned qualitative grades like “Gem Mint” rather than solely a numeric score.
-Sports Card Guaranty (SCG) – A mid-tier grading service that provides a more affordable option for collectors. While not as widely recognized as PSA or BGS, SCG still aims to provide a reliable encapsulation and independent grading evaluation.
So in summary – while JSA is capable of assessing authenticity and attributes of baseball cards, they outsource the physical grading process to respected partners like PSA, BGS or SCG. The grading company encapsulates and assigns the numeric or qualitative grade, while JSA then validates that determination and certifies the authenticity and production history of the card and holder to provide additional credibility for collectors.
There are a few key reasons why JSA has chosen to work with grading partners rather than operate their own proprietary card grading scale:
-Established Legacy: PSA, BGS and others have decades of experience and track records grading cards. It would be difficult for JSA to gain similar trust and renown with collectors by starting their own competing scale now.
-Focus on Authentication: As authentication and expert collectibles attribution are JSA’s specialties, it allows them to focus more resources on research and provenance verification rather than grading minutiae.
-Leverage Existing Infrastructure: The partner grading companies already have facilities, established submission processes and labour forces dedicated to physically examining each card factor. Duplicating that infrastructure would be unnecessary capital investment for JSA.
-Unified Certification: Having the card graded by a company like PSA and then encapsulated allows JSA to provide a second level of certification for authenticity without re-handling the graded card. This helps preserve grades over time.
So in conclusion – while JSA is primarily known as an authentication company, they do work closely with leading grading services to facilitate unified authentication, grading and encapsulation certification of sports cards and other collectibles. Leveraging grading partners allows JSA to play to their strengths in authentication vetting while collectors still benefit from independent assessment of condition through the numeric grading scale of companies like PSA or BGS.
