It is indeed bizarre to change something so foundational this late in the game. But BGS must think they have more to gain than lose at this point.
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Ideally no change is best but frankly BGS is floundering. They need to change something to adapt.
I think the frustration is the intention. They are doing this for money/out of desperation.
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The biggest issue is quad 9.5s gem mint being lowered to mint plus when people have collected gem mint collections that are no longer gem mint. Plenty of other issues. Most 9.5s have been relegated. For @bigtechbill aswell.
IMO the new CGC grading standards were a mess as well. Completely devalued the company in my eyes
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Actions like this remind me of the 3 pigs tale specifically the one pig with house made of straw. I see the value of BGS trying to align themselves with the other “10” standards of PSA. The IG post has garnered more than a thousand comments of backlash.
Questions that come to mind:
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What happens to the existing 9.5s that meet the new “10” requirement? Is BGS going to churn money out to rectify the old qualifying 9.5s or charge the customer similarly to a re-holder fee? Is it even fair to assign a 10 grade to a 9.5 or will they do a complete overhaul and reevaluate the grade of current slabs people send in (9.5, 10 or even less)?
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BGS “9.5+9.5+9.5+10 = 10?” . How are you going to feel when we start seeing slabs with majority of 3 subgrades starting with a “9” + 1 “10” sub and it has a 10 overall grade? LOL. Wild times.
Instead of fundamentally changing their grading scale in the present; I can think of much better times in the past to implement this as this now changes the concept of 9.5/10"Gem Mints" .
At the end of the day I believe this is a very rash but bold move by them If BGS can weather this storm.
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Cgc had to lower you couldn’t get a 10. Way too strong grading. They are now more similar to psa but with a slight edge in being harsher still.
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Absolutely.
I simply disagree, but they were indeed the harshest graders in the beginning. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with “pack fresh” cards getting 8.5/9/9.5
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Us disagreeing is absolutely fine. Its just my opinion buying and grading again and again and seeing the average difference.
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Purely anecdotal but I cracked my BGS 9 Sightseer and got a PSA 10. Not even a 9.5
What’s cgcs next move now they’re the only gem mint 9.5? Bgs now have to sort out the no sub 9.5s. No man’s land.
I will use BGS infinitely more times than I do now, zero!
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I don’t think CGC has to do anything in response to this. BGS making this draconian change is a boon to both PSA and CGC. If CGC does the same thing as BGS, I think it would be a disaster. Consumer confidence in CGC in the Pokemon community is already not particularly high, and making another grading scale change would just destroy whatever trust is left.
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Here’s my conspiracy theory:
You remember when BGS was marketing their new label design and everyone hated it? So they just cancelled changing the label.
Well, they announced this new grading scale right in time for April Fools, so that if the same thing happened again, they can just say it was an April Fools joke. And, if the news was received positively, they can just stick with the idea
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No move for now. Cgc consumer confidence is high they’ve just graded their most cards.
I feel for the A/B/U/Four Horseman vintage MTG set collectors who graded with Beckett. The registry is torn to shreds and some of their cards will have lost considerable value.
That said, I think the trend that @jabby mentioned is accurate. MTG is a binder-collector hobby for the (relatively) small proportion that do collect. For many, the BGS case was protection for their card and nothing more.
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I think this is a much better change than actually changing the grading scale. The grading scale has not been changed here.
The label now better reflects the quality of a card that matches what people are used to with PSA.
Moving forward it should reduce the value of BGS 9.5s, because they now accurately inform on the fact that the card is NOT deserving of a 10, and may reduce the value of a BGS 10 Pristine.
All in all, should only help BGS, even though it DOES seem like a slightly desperate act, but they really weren’t going to make it without this change, so something is better than nothing.
Modern pack fresh Japanese cards being graded by BGS should not be coming back 9.5s, and this will help retain value against CGC 10s and PSA 10s, while providing further possible upside via Pristine and Black Label grades.
Previously, any modern JP newback card getting a 9.5 was a disaster.
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