The Grading Museum

One card — the 1996-97 Topps #206 Derek Fisher rookie — sent to every grading company that will take it, in every holder they have produced. The grade does not matter. The slab is the point.

—slabs
—companies
—holder types

Why One Card

Everywhere else on this site the card is the variable and the collection is the sum of the cards. Here it is reversed: the card is the constant and the holder is the variable. Fixing one thing and changing one other is the only way to actually compare slabs — different dimensions, different label stock, different fonts, different seals, thirty years apart.

The 1996-97 Topps base rookie was chosen because it is plentiful and inexpensive. That matters more than it sounds: a card cannot sit in two holders at once, so each slab here is a separate physical copy of the same card. Twenty holders means twenty cards.

Whatever grade comes back is recorded and then ignored. A 6 documents a holder just as well as a 10, and refusing to chase the grade is what keeps this an archive instead of a portfolio.

The Collection

Grouped by company, oldest holder first.

A Short History of Grading

Why there are so many holders to collect — and why there may soon be fewer.

  1. 1991PSA is founded Professional Sports Authenticator brings third-party grading and tamper-evident encapsulation to a hobby that had relied on seller descriptions. It remains the volume leader and the benchmark for resale.
  2. 1999Beckett Grading Services launches BGS differentiates with subgrades printed on the label — centering, corners, edges and surface scored separately — and a 9.5 Gem Mint tier. Its Black Label, awarded only when all four subgrades are 10, becomes the most coveted designation in modern cards.
  3. 2000sSGC and the black holder SGC builds a following on vintage cards and a distinctive black-matted holder that photographs better than anything else on the market.
  4. 2021CGC enters sports cards Founded in 2000 as a comics grader, CGC expands into cards with a Pristine 10 tier above Gem Mint 10, microprinting, UV ink, holographic foil and a QR code on every label.
  5. 2022TAG launches Technical Authentication & Grading scores on a 1000-point scale translated back to the familiar 1–10, with a photographic sub-grade report reachable by QR code. Submission volume reportedly rose more than eightfold from January 2025.
  6. 2020sArena Club, AGS, ACE and the rest A wave of entrants competes on technology rather than tradition: computer-vision assisted grading, ultrasonically welded holders, digital vaults and marketplace integration. Several will not survive, which is precisely why their holders belong in an archive now.
  7. 2021–2025The consolidation Collectors Holdings acquires PSA in 2021, SGC in February 2024, and Beckett with BGS in December 2025 — putting roughly 80% of grading volume under one owner. A federal antitrust class action was filed in early 2026. CGC, majority-owned by Blackstone through Certified Collectibles Group, and TAG remain independent.
  8. 2026Holders keep changing Beckett announced a revised label and holder on May 12, 2026. Every such revision creates a new variant to document — and quietly retires an old one.

Holders to Scale

Every holder measured with calipers and drawn superimposed at true relative size. No two graders agree on how big a slab should be.

Missing from the Collection

Graders tracked for this project whose holder is not here yet. — still open. If you have one of these, I am buying or trading.

The Companies

Every grader tracked for this project, with what could and could not be confirmed. — verified out of —.

CompanyCountryFoundedOwnership
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Grading FAQ

What the labels mean, who owns whom, and why the holder is worth collecting.

Who owns PSA, BGS and SGC?
All three belong to Collectors Holdings. PSA was acquired in 2021, SGC in February 2024 and Beckett with BGS in December 2025, putting roughly 80% of grading volume under a single owner. A federal antitrust class action was filed in early 2026.
Which grading companies are still independent?
CGC is majority-owned by Blackstone through Certified Collectibles Group, and TAG remains privately held. Beyond the majors, Arena Club, MGC in the UK, MTG Grade in France, GSG in Germany, DSG and Mad Dog in the United States all operate independently.
Do grading companies change their holders?
Constantly, and that is the whole point of this collection. MTG Grade used one holder from 2018 to 2021 and a different one from December 2021. Beckett announced a revised label and holder on May 12, 2026. DSG has run several label generations. Each revision quietly retires a design that then exists only in collectors' hands.
What is a reslab service?
It moves a card from an older holder into the company's current one, usually for a small fee: MTG Grade charges around 7 euros, DSG around 8 dollars. It is useful if a holder is cracked, but it destroys the original encapsulation. For an archive like this one, reslabbing a vintage holder would erase exactly what is being preserved.
Which company gives the most subgrades?
DSG, by a wide margin. It publishes 32 subgrades per card: each side is split into four sections, each section scored on four criteria across eight zones on a 0 to 4 scale. BGS, long considered the subgrade standard, publishes four.
Are there European grading companies?
Several, and they are growing. MGC (Majesty Grading Company) in the UK was voted Grading Company of the Year at the UK & Ireland Card Awards in 2021/22 and 2023/24 and is the only UK grader approved by eBay for both TCG and sports. MTG Grade operates from the Lille area in France with hand delivery in Paris and Lille. GSG (Gold Standard Grading) is based in Germany and runs the CARDVENTION show. Their main advantage over US graders is no international shipping, no customs and no import VAT.
Does the grade matter in this collection?
No. Every card here is the same 1996-97 Topps #206 Derek Fisher rookie, and whatever grade comes back is recorded and then set aside. A 6 documents a holder exactly as well as a 10. Chasing the grade would turn an archive into a portfolio.
What is a BGS Black Label?
The designation BGS gives when all four subgrades - centering, corners, edges and surface - come back as 10. It is the rarest label in modern grading and commands a large premium over a standard BGS 10.
Why collect slabs rather than cards?
Because holders are the least documented object in the hobby. Card checklists are catalogued in detail; holder generations are tracked informally by collectors and almost never published by the companies themselves. Small graders disappear, and their holders disappear with them unless someone keeps one.
How do I verify a graded card is genuine?
Every serious grader prints a certification number on the label and hosts a public lookup page. Enter the number, or scan the QR code where one exists, and compare the record against the slab in front of you: card, grade and, on companies that image submissions, the photographs. If the record does not match, the slab has been tampered with.

Sources and method

Company founding dates, ownership changes and holder revisions were checked against Sports Card Radio, Sports Collectors Daily, Beckett, CGC, TAG and coverage of the Collectors Holdings acquisitions. Verified July 2026.

Holder generations are documented by collectors, not published officially by the grading companies. No generation number appears here unless it can be supported. Where it cannot, the entry describes what is physically visible — dimensions, label layout, seal type, presence of a QR code — and says so plainly.

Every slab lists its certification number and, where the company provides one, a link to the public verification page. That is what separates this from a photo album: each entry can be checked by anyone.