[Abandoned] New BGS Grading System for Gem Mint 10s

MINT++ 9.75 :joy:

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Do they even know?

Awesome idea! I’m looking forward to submitting cards without as much of a fear of getting a 9.5 when it would have gotten a 10 at psa now, while also having a shot at a black label. Excellent choice by beckett, I will be sending my next psa sub to them instead.

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I am guessing if the backlash is extreme enough which seems like it is, they can just do a reverse and say it was an April Fools joke. Seems like a good time to release a big and controversial change to test the waters.

Cheers!

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But they did months and months and months of research and everyone wanted it. The IG new stuff is hilarious. 1000 terrible messages and they picked the 8 alright ones to show off. Talk about a monstrous pretend everythings great.

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Sorry, I not sure if this is sarcasm or no.

Even as an outsider, who does not grade, this scaling seems so ludicrous that it might as well be a joke. Coupled that with people’s nature of not liking changes in general, this seems like a perfect storm. But I don’t know much about running a business so…

Cheers!

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Its in their vid further up the thread. As an outsider looking in it’s not a good look at all.

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I think the change is interesting, especially as someone who apparently has several BGS GEM MINT 10s suddenly - apparently.

That said, it really strikes me as an elaborate April fools joke deployed a couple days early to make it feel real. If you look at their instagram, their social media person is apparently inclined to tell people to ā€œstop cryingā€ about this, the day before 4/1.

I for one dont really care much either way, though it think its overly complicated, but the idea that their social media would kind of like, taunt upset customers? Feels strange and I’m not inclined to believe it until a week or two from now when they’re still sticking to it.

What are you talking about? Within and beyond Pokemon theres tons of people who pay a premium for a BGS gold label 10 over a PSA 10.

I’m not quite sure if anyone has really articulated why they don’t like it other than change = bad

I get that if you have a 9.5 that doesn’t get bumped it is a bit sad but functionally you bought a 9.5 with objectively weaker subs and you still have a 9.5.

I see some complaints that the Gem Mint scale is now too complicated. Honestly, it’s already was complicated when you have 12 different kinds of grades above ā€œmintā€

So what exactly is the root issue causing the backlash? I think the actual effect this will have is to reduce the values of 9.5s and 10s but increasing the overall value of submissions you get back. It’s very similar to what CGC did with their 10 grade

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One thing that strikes me with this is that outside of MTG slabs, I feel the market has not valued a 9.5Q or better on the same level as PSA 10 for quite a while now. So in Pokemon and most Sports cards, a PSA 10 seems to have always sold for more, even compared to a ā€˜strong’ 9.5. It does seem though that it’s been a more psychological thing regarding having a 10 on the slab vice the 9.5.

With this, BGS has now essentially decided to ā€˜round up’ to a 10 it seems. So I really wonder if the market will adjust to this and value it the same as PSA 10, or will there still be a psychological barrier in place for any reason, the same as the existing/previous 9.5 stigma?

I know for myself personally, I would always just want a PSA 10 over a 9.5Q or similar now and in the past, and I feel I’m still going to want a PSA 10 even with this change BGS has made with the 9.5Q and rounding up like this.

On a side note, I feel MTG collectors have been pushing more towards raw NM cards for binders/toploaders more and more. Seems like grading is really going to be simply for high valued ABU era and other high demand cards to help rule out inking and other stuff.

I also saw a video where Rudy showed a bunch of BGS 9.5s that all came back PSA 5 that a viewer tried to cross over and how much money he wasted trying to do it and how he was ā€œdoneā€ grading Magic cards ever again because he felt PSA didn’t even care when they did it, and so he lost a lot of his trust in the grading game and went exclusively to raw cards.

I’m so glad PSA hasn’t gone to the 9.5, 10, 10+, 10++ nonsense.

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If it was like this originally it would be fine, but 24 years later you basically render all 9.5s a new grade in one day. Not only do people have to re-sub for the slabs to be up-to-date, but you have essentially devalued the old 10s and the old 9.5s even more. They should have just done what CGC did and loosen up the grading behind the scenes. Changing a label and a grade based on subgrades just wasn’t the move. 10s will be worth what 9.5s are now, unless its a BL or 9.5+++ pristine and 9.5s will be slightly devalued. That’s unfair to the consumer who trusted the service imo. Would be like PSA introducing PSA 10 Gold label, shifting an entire grading scale is asinine.

They were clearly losing more market share with the 9.5, but that was their decision from the get go. Changing that to me, is a massive blow to any BGS collector, can’t imagine having a large BGS collection and deciding what to do.

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I agree, they’re trying to appeal to a broader market. Atm thier main consumer base is people submitting ultra modern chasing black labels. With the new scale more cards will be capable of achieving a 10, thus increasing the number of cards submitted and appealing to 10 collectors. Lets face it there arent many 9.5 collectors

Haven’t read a single post in the thread but who gives AF still never have understood how they determine a quad plus plus minus squared

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I think there is an inherent feeling of betrayal. Same when cgc changed their scale. To give beckett credit, at least they had the balls to acknowledge the change instead of gaslighting everyone like cgc. But the whole thing just feels disingenuous.

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From my perspective they are just rounding up instead of rounding down. All subgrades stay the same, the hierarchy of subgrades are also the same but 10 sets are easier now.

If you mostly have 9.5s, many will become 10s now. I think the only slice of collectors this hurts is anyone who collected or bought the gold label 10s, which is a lot of people of course. But even then, the Pristine still gets it’s own distinction

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Please get your rational take out of here, this is Outrage Country

Id have to imagine 99% of the outrage comes from people who own no bgs anyway. At least in the pokemon community.

And of the remaining pokemon outrage id guess it mostly is from people who have been grading for a maximum of 2 years. The people who have been grading for a long time dont seem to impose their grading prefernece on the world as much. Itll pass

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I think it’s fair to be upset with a company changing their scale. It’s probably easier for PokĆ©mon collectors to dismiss because because bgs isn’t that relevant. But a hobby like mtg, it’s more of a headache.

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