Super weird, but I think the layout of the card makes it look off center. My brain says it is left heavy even though you can measure pixels.
If they are grading them by eye, I could easily see it happening.
It is the similar science/phenomena behind letter kerning where equal space between characters is visually ugly, but inconsistent space is more visually pleasing.
Image of back added. The card itself is extremely clean, practically flawless, the slab case is a bit dirty though
Get it re-reviewed by BGS at a show with at show grading.
You can set a minimum grade as a BGS 10 and they wonât crack it unless it bumps.
I would only do this.
PSA would upcharge you if it 10, which it wonât as they will be biased.
Honestly bro, such a sick card. Do not mess it up.
9.5 quad++
some regard that as equal or better to psa10 as itâs as close to a bgs 10 as you can get.
The centering is more than fine for psa, but you shouldnt have waited if you wanted to cross because now is a bad time for psa. A card like this, they will deny a ten in 2025 if they find whitening
if you had a 9.5 surface and a 10 corner, i would say itâs a safe cross. But a 9.5 corner sub is big risk of psa 9
BGS 10 is a pipedream anyways, just garys cards have ever achieved this. If I were you I wouldnt touch the card
Thanks for the advice
I plan to try this again later this month at National in Chicago. I will include a detailed print out of why this deserves 10 centering as compared to other BGS 10 centered cards.
I did try the Graded Card Review once before, it was also at National but it was 2-3 years ago and they basically gave the reason as Centering is Objective. Thats why I was asking if anyone has ever been successful getting a centering graded bumped.
I agree with that sentiment. I hold it in higher regard than any old cert PSA 10, unfortunately most of the market does not agree. They want to see a 10 on the holder, even if the card inside is inferior to some of the BGS 9.5+
and do you mean PSA will be bias because itâs in a Beckett slab?
graded review is fine just dont crack
dont get your hopes up though. Gary tried the same thing with one of his bgs 10 charizards that he wanted to bump to a black label but it had a 9.5 centering score. He went to their headquarters and even showed up with the biggest poke youtuber at the time. It would have been huge clout for them and would have made waves being the first and only black label 1st edition card. and Gary was giving them good business and reputation to boot. They were still unwilling to bump his score
If its not perfect 50/50/50/50 centering they have grounds to deny a 10 centering score and the implications of them giving you the 10 are too great. I would say with 95% confidence they wont bump this for you but its worth it since no risk to ask. Especially if you can make your case
Yeah sadly this is the case (with all grading companies).
Itâs just like gradingâŚgotta keep going until you get what you want!
People used to submit cards to psa dozens of times before getting the grade they wanted when prices were cheaper (pre 2018)
If it was me personally I wouldnât try to play any games with this. Itâs clearly a very nice copy and the label changes nothing about the actual card. When it comes time to sell it, find the person that will pay for the premium for the condition and not just what the label says. People like that exist, some of them may want to make the risky crossgrade themselves.
I personally would not attempt to regrade this. The reasons being is:
From the pics shared, my guess is this one could lack either the centering or the â4 sharp cornersâ required for a PSA 10. Then you have other things to consider such as possibly damaging the card, maybe something getting lost in the mail or some other thing out of your control. It would be just very disappointing to get it back as a PSA 9, so thatâd be the risk youâd have to take. Itâs just a lot of things playing against it to me, when itâs already such a beautiful copy and overall grade.. just my thoughts.
Thanks for the input. This card was never crossed to PSA bc it feels like a sin to remove it from the BGS slab since its the 4th highest graded copy behind Gary and Loganâs. If it were croosed to psa it would simply be 1/125
I dont think bgs will change the centering score but you CAN put minimum grade on psa card
i know you say it would feel like a sin to cross, but i think you also are concerned about market value even more so
and a brand new cert very excellent eye appeal psa10 zard would certainly bring big money
and if psa doesnt cross? you get your bsg 9.5 back
maybe best not to romanticize the quad++. yes its better than a basic 9.5 but in the end, if you do care about market value which you made a note of earlier, the market still sees a 9.5
I also want to note one last thing. Just doing a search on Beckettâs site, this isnt the only 9.5 quad++
so its disingenuous to say that this is the 4th highest rated card as you share that designation with others
and yes it would be 1/125, but keep in mind how many more people grade with psa. Itâs multiples more. If all those same psa10s crossed to beckett, you would see a ton more 9.5s and suddenly it wouldnt feel so special
125 is a tiny number compared to the millions of card collectors out there, itâs still an elite club, and almost everyone would love to own a psa10 1st edition charizard.
As far as i know there is only 1 other 9.5++. It would be fair to say they are tied for being the 4th highest graded copies of this card.
I must preface this by saying Iâm not shit posting or trolling at all. But what is a â++â? Is there really a market consideration for âthis is a 9.5 but itâs the 9.5iest 9.5 out thereâ?
Back to the original point, no, I would not crack this. You can have your heart fill of debate about centering, and whatever else, but I would not take this specific card from this specific time, which got a near perfect grade, and do anything that would jeopardize the potential resale value of it. Sure, it would be great to re-grade or across and get a 10. But it would seem that the more likely scenario to happen is it either stays in 9.5, or something bad happens to it and you have a seven and now youâre kicking yourself.
This is such an extraordinarily rare card in this condition. I wouldnt risk the downgradeâŚ
âŚwhispers in pop controlâŚ
The + designation is to indicate sub scores higher than the final score. But the term doesnt really apply if you also receive a sub score lower than final score
for example:
9.5 / 9 / 9.5 / 10 final score would be a 9.5 but you wouldnt say its + since its not quad (at least all 9.5s) to begin with
now if the same card was graded 9.5/9.5/9.5/10 the final score would still be 9.5 but you could now say that its quad 9.5 +
in OPâs instance he has quad ++ which is remarkable. thats 39/40. and 39.5/40 would be a bgs 10 final score so its as close to a bgs 10 as you can get. And since the standards for bgs 10 are extreme and a lot harder to achieve than a psa10, a quad 9.5++ is regarded very highly and often targeted for psa10 crossovers. There are many investors that seek out beckett 9.5++ cards in order to cross and bank on a psa10 and the success rate is very high
for beckett what matters is the sub scores. even though he has a 9.5, because its ++ he would literally make tens of thousands of dollars more in the open market vs a charizard card that barely meets minimum requirement for bgs 9.5 (i.e. 9.5/9.5/9.5/9)
also one more point, I agree with you that he shouldnt crack the card, but I want to note that he can do an in slab crossover. Basically he would tell psa that he wants a psa10 minimum grade. They wouldnt crack it open unless they agree to his terms. If they decide it doesnt make the cut and that its a psa9, they would return his card in itâs original bgs slab. And if they damage the card while taking it out of the slab, they must pay him out the full price of a psa10 charizard. So there is really no risk outside of mailing it
This seems to me the majority risk lol
I know Iâm on the normie side of collecting nerd, but this seems incomprehensible to me. Like I donât doubt the veracity of what youâve said, but like from a collecting perspective I simply cannot imagine paying a dime more for a different set of sub grades if the label still stays 9.5 final. Maybe for resale for the purposes of crossing I guess
