Agreed, that's why I was asking if he screened them, and if they were modern. If they were all ultra modern and he submitted only his truly best cards and he only got an 8% Gem rate, then that's terrible. If that happened to me, I simply wouldn't submit with CSG again. I'm pretty picky with what I send in so I would expect a high Gem rate. If I can't get that on cards I expect to Gem, I won't sub with them.
Having said that, I watched an unboxing of a big CSG order where a lot of ultra modern cards were sent in, and I know the submitter sent only his best. The vast majority were Gems, so I'm much less concerned now.
As for yours, if you don't count the vintage, it looks like you had a gem rate of 33%? Were those ultra modern and well screened? That certainly sounds decent, but I would expect higher from my subs if I was very picky with what I sent in.
My concern is if I would send in a sub of 100 cards and 50 got Gem Mint under the green label, and if I sent those same 100 cards and got 30 Gem Mint and 20 9.5 under the black label, that's a big net negative for us. Having the "10" is nice, but if it's so much harder to achieve (maybe takes 3x9.5 and 1x10 or better?) then that wouldn't be good. If the Gem standard is still what it was, then I'm very happy with the change.
Possibly. But PSA is considered king whether we like it or not (I don't) and it might be a stretch. That said, I am happy to have the 9.5 possibility if some of the previous 9s would be 9.5s under the new label. On the other hand, it seems like 9s will be devalued a bit...
Yeah, this may be true. Lately all the cards I send in are going to CSG. Unless it's BOTH a very high value card and looks gem, then I send to PSA. Cheers,
--Kyle