This question has been asked before but it’s been a few years. I’m potentially looking at crossing my Quad BGS 9 1st Ed zard to a PSA 9. I’m looking at using the cross over service as I’m not interested in cracking the slab.
Should I select a lower service level and then just pay the upcharges if it is accepted as a PSA 9? Or do they upcharge the service level regardless if it crosses or not.
Would also be open to hearing people’s experiences with the crossover service, particular when just trying to maintain the same grade and not upgrade.
You will not want to use a lower service because your insurance limit will be too low. If they damage your card, you’ll be out many thousands of dollars without any recourse.
Crossover is an awful service. I only used it a handful of times for expensive cards and it never worked out in my favor, even for a same-grade cross. Since then, I exclusively crack and submit now.
If it’s truly PSA 9 quality, then it may cross to a PSA 9. If not, it probably won’t. Consider also that you have to risk sending it in the mail which at times cards get lost (and this ones expensive). The last thing to consider is if you bought the card from someone else, maybe they already tried to cross to PSA 9 and failed or they didn’t think it was worthy of the risk to cross grade. At times BGS 9 can be more of a PSA 7-8 quality card. I would probably just leave it as is to play it safe. It still has good value on the market as people like “Mint” on a slab no matter what usually.
It’s 9 quality, which is why I am considering it in the first place. It’s not a slam dunk cross, but based on the condition of the card it is a decent chance of crossing
Excuse my comment, out of curiosity, why are you opting for a crossover service for this card? I am just basing this question given the price point of this card, that if I don’t intend to sell to maximise value (which I assume PSA will do) I don’t see it worth the risk of the crossover process. Even if I was to crack it myself, I don’t think the risk of accidental damage is worth it, unless I am 100% sure a future sale or trade is incoming and will be in my favour.
On a podcast ages ago Nat Turner said if a card is being crossed in another company’s case then they will be more conservative. I think this was specifically when the submitter chooses a minimum grade, because if they crack it and find damage they couldn’t see before, the card possibly wouldn’t meet the minimum grade requested.
This is true, but there are plenty of psa 8s that could easily be PSA 9s. It would be silly to crack an 8 1st Ed zard and try to cross to a PSA 9 unless it was an absolute slam dunk. So maybe it was an 8, but that doesn’t mean that’s it’s cap just because it was one time before.
Earlier this year I attempted to cross a BGS 9 1st Ed Base Mewtwo to PSA. The card had strong sub grades (9.5 centering, 9.5 surface, 9 edges, 9 corners).
I own a shadowless copy of this card in both a PSA 8 and a PSA 9 and felt the BGS 9 was waaayyy stronger than the PSA 8 and much stronger than the PSA 9. I also compared it to every high resolution scan of PSA 10 copies I could find and felt it had a (chance) of getting upgraded to a 10.
Between the strong subs, and my comparison to the copies I had on hand, I submitted it for cross grading with a 9 minimum requirement.
It did not cross.
Looking back I probably should have submitted it with an 8.5 minimum requirement to give them a little wiggle room if they saw something new once the slab was cracked.
I am skeptical of the cross grading service in general. They really have no incentive to run the risk of cracking the slab when submitter is paying the same amount whether it crosses or not.
Also, IF the card were to cross or upgrade, it would essentially be an admission that a competitor’s grade is equal to or better than PSAs grade so it’s really a lose lose for them.
