We have options, it just so happens that PSA is the best one out there. There’s a reason PSA cards outsell BGS equivalent grades in EVERY hobby (minus the “pristine” 10, which is a joke to me since it’s so inconsistent).
Even if I agreed that BGS/SGC were just as good, there is a clear inconsistency in lower grades as Scott pointed out. Whether that’s due to a lower graded volume or not doesn’t matter; I’m not going to be the one experimenting with my investment.
Variety is nice but a half BGS half PSA collection is just silly for uniformity’s sake. I have ONE BGS card in my entire collection because BGS/PSA stopped grading them and the only person I know with a PSA 10 wasn’t selling.
The numerical value of your cards might not matter to you, but it’s a very real issue to many people in the hobby who run into financial troubles and have to sell some things. That being said, if the BGS case or something else appeals to you go for it, but don’t expect an equal investment.
With that being said, grade with whoever you want. However, PSA is the standard for a reason and even if BGS magically became better I’m not interested in filling the holes in my collection with a different case.
IT DEPENDS HOW YOU LOOK AT THEM BEING inconsistant in there lower grades. Thats the thing people dont understand about bgs. It depends on the subgrades. And you have to take into account That there mint 9 has 3 grades above it, yet you can still get a mint 9 with high ass subgrades equvalent to a 9.5 " GEM MINT " and have one lower subgrade.
There actually spot on if there counting a grade to be higher to psa 10. They may seem inconsistant if your comparing to how PSA grades, but that would be unfair comparison considering psa stops at gem mint.
But yeah good point on the things… This is what most collectors are seeing as if they graded with BGS they would have no 10s… Makes psa the only option really. Thats why it would be cool if bgs adjusted some shit.
ONE DAY ILL HAVE BGS 10S YOU WILL SEE ALL NAE SAYERS!!
EDIT:
OR ILL FAIL AND YOU @fourthstartcg SMPRATTICAN AND ALL YA PSA PEOPLE CAN LAUPH IN MY FACE, INCLUDING THE REST OF THE FORUM…
and myself can lauph at myself because i grade primarily with psa to
Who Wants to place a bet. Lets talk psa 10 trophy cards up for wagerbz. or entire ex set of dragon frontiers you got there fourstar… As for me I am so confident in myself ill put up an uncommon xy card
Meanwhile has anyone seen that BGS pokemon guy on instagram? His pretty cool… His graded so many now. He even got a 1st ed shadowless charizard and it was a 9.5 and it sold for like 8kUSD or somewhere along those lines.
I’ve been avoiding this thread because there hasn’t been many new ideas presented since the last time this discussion has happened. Same start to the thread too, someone trying to convince people to convert to BGS on false pretenses. The only thing that’s even remotely new to the topic is the create competition agenda. Which quite frankly I don’t buy.
The two companies are competing, I just choose to use the company that’s more consistent, more popular, gets a higher premium, has a higher standard in what they’ll grade, doesn’t accept trimmed cards (Probably the biggest reason I don’t use BGS), has a better website layout, a better pop report search engine, and doesn’t change their look of their cases within their own company.
The only things that’s made me want to grade with BGS is their pristine grade; which is a gimmick, and the fact that they’ll accept cards without a membership, I’ll also admit their willingness to accept cards packaged in a different manner is an improvement as well, but understand that PSA doesn’t want liability of damaged cards (higher standard).
In all, grade with the company you like. I’m going to grade with PSA, I don’t care who you grade with.
I been trying to avoid posting on this thread as well but I do feel strongly about BGS being just as good as PSA… sooo… here are a few thoughts I have.
I can understand when you have invested so much into PSA pokemon you want to remain loyal to PSA not only because you may like them better (or not) but you are financially invested in them with little turning back (unless you were to try and cross grade, which most people (with good reason) would find too time consuming and costly). But there are those who invest their Pokemon into BGS and go against the current with their own good reasoning and that shouldn’t be discounted… Let’s not forget that Beckett has been around since 1984 (I believe) and sets the “book prices”/values for sports cards as well as many other hobbies including pokemon cards. There are strong and valid reasons why some people choose Beckett(even if it’s only 1% of people). Beckett has value it’s just about the collectors realizing the value that is all there and not blindly putting all their eggs in the PSA basket. I can understand both sides speaking here but the thing that really bothers me about PSA (please disagree with me if you will, but this is how I feel based on what I see), is their marketing tactics… I do not like the facade it feels like PSA puts on as being the superior source in grading and authentication… it’s what turned me off and turned me away from liking PSA, I feel like they are trying to force me into believing something, it’s just the way some companies/people naturally operate(whether they do it on purpose or not), I feel like I’m being “bamboozled” by PSA and I don’t like the way they seem to take advantage of people’s trust through their marketing campaigns. It’s like a cut throats competition to them when it should be a fair and free market for all with the customer getting the most fair opportunity for a fair evaluation, whether it be by Beckett or PSA. I think Beckett is awesome, that doesn’t mean I don’t think PSA has nothing to offer, but, for the buyer and collector Beckett is a smarter option and for the seller PSA is the smarter option(you clearly will get more money for your cards if you grade PSA), but does that make them a clear cut run away winner as the only place to get your pokemon cards graded? No, and that type of mentality bothers me to the point to want to speak up about it not just for myself but for the benefit of others as well and like I said PSA needs to slow their roll in how they approach their client base…
As far as trimmed cards go, thats a pretty misleading blanket statement there… but there are probably isolated .0001% occurrences where “trimmed cards” (probably mostly in sports cards and not pokemon) where PSA has denoted that a card has been trimmed and Beckett graded it, but to say “they accept trimmed cards” is pretty harsh way to push that against any company… its like me saying PSA not only exploits but capitalizes on the “lack of general knowledge when it comes to professional card grading” of Pokemon card collectors when it comes to grading their cards and are running with it, even if it is a very small percentage of their sales, that percentage is growing faster by the day… but that would be harsh of me to state that because i really have no business nor understanding of the intentions of anyone, let alone a company with a marketing department team I’m sure… Beckett is also professional graders too, just as professional humans as PSA, an older company than PSA i believe since 1984 (thats a lot of years in a business where companies fall daily, relatively speaking), so to discount Beckett without giving them fair shot (which is what most collectors do i believe) is not giving Beckett an honest shot and not creating the competition in that marketplace that a few people on here have mentioned would be good for the hobby… this is not a personal attack on anyone, i just see everyone speaking up for PSA, and ill play the Beckett side and hopefully that will open up some new ideas you guys seek…
with that said… i can be just as ignorant, or misinformed, about any matter in life thats why i do not speak out quite often, so please take what i say lightly being that i am just a human with a limited capacity to think… forums is just thinking out loud and sharing that with the internet pretty much (right?).
I have no clue what you’re talking about in my statement being misleading.
If you want to email Beckett and ask them their stance go ahead. Here’s an email exchange from them I pulled from a different message board:
Could you please shed some light on this situation? I’m very much interested in knowing if it is Beckett’s policy to knowingly grade “sheet cut” cards.
Thanks, and look forward to hearing back from you!
— Jeff D
To: JeffD
Subject: RE: Question regarding “sheet cut” cards
Thank you for the inquiry. Yes, we will grade sheet cut cards if we feel the cards measure up to our standards. This is a policy we have had since we began grading cards. The cards must measure up and must have a clean straight cut. Many customers cut cards from sheets which produce a wavy edge. We will not grade cards like this. If the card does not measure up to our standards, and shows any sign of alteration, it will not be placed into a BGS case. There are several grading companies in the hobby that do not grade sheet cut cards. We are aware of this but also realize that all cards originally came from a sheet. We hope this information helps and clears up any questions that you have.
To: Grading
Thank you so much for your prompt response.?? So does that also mean you would grade trimmed cards that measure up to the sizing standards (assuming it’s a clean trim job)? Because there’s really no way to tell if it was a trim or cleanly cut from a sheet, correct???
Thanks again for your help!
— Jeff
From: Grading
If the card measures up, meaning that the card is not short from our listed standards, it can be graded. If the card has a wavy edge, is short, is recolored, etc. it will not be placed into a Beckett case.
in the end this is cards and yes it affects lives seriously but in the end it is still a kids game, kind of like when i used to play with my ninja turtles and pretend they were fighting one another but these days kids have streamlined that imagination into a card game instead of toys and you get to play against another person which is pretty cool, and grading a card makes a kid (or an adult kid) reflect on a particular card in a more sophisticated manner, and the simple sub grade system adds to the sophistication of being able to enjoy that card for whatever its worth. Yes its just cardboard and we get an unbiased 3rd party PSA or Beckett to measure up the quality of that card and we accept their results; the two companies can be equally appreciated and accepted in the light under which they present themselves to the collector… i believe the differences are very subtle but yes the small things matter and a small thing that one company does better than another may be more important to any particular person, and vice versa. Life has many more crucial/critical issues to face every day, pokemon is just a great distraction and getaway from some of those issues for many if not most people.
I think he’s trying to say bygones be bygones. This seems to be a topic where it doesn’t matter which side presents better reasons nothing will be achieved. Everyone has their preferred styles in everything. For example I only buy ASICS when I buy shoes for work because I prefer the duration I get from them.
This discussion only leads to someone getting ass hurt about why USING THE SERVICE THEY USE is better. They both are great either because of easy grades(PSA) or the infamous Prestine Black Label(BGS). But as far as I’m concerned both companies have damaged cards, so that says alot(none is better than the other simply because of that). As to why I’m throwing in my ¢2 despite the fact I do not get my cards graded, is because common sense should play a huge part in this debate. You’re all paying for an OPINION. Opinions vary and will always vary, hence why no one is better. Until grading services use laser technology, PSA and BGS will be the same in the sense that they’re giving an opinion which cannot come with consistency. Unless both companies were ran by one single perfect human being than maybe there would be consistency worth analyzing, yet again that one person can come in to work pissed off or too happy so now leniency is a huge factor controlled by emotion; there goes the consistency issue.
I understand most chose PSA because it helps them make a quick buck due to a simple grade versus sub-grades. But we have to think about the people who don’t care about selling but pure collecting. Those pure collectors might like BGS because the aesthetics of knowing why a card graded what it did separated into segments might feel great and settling to them. On a sellers point of view they might say “no one will buy this because deep down inside that one different subgrade is going to bug some one” so they grade with PSA because one number(1-10) is almost a no brained when it comes to settling down for.
Everyone can have their opinion, but when one company grades trimmed cards and another does not, that is an objective difference, not an opinion. How you value that difference is up to you, but it is a quantifiable difference nonetheless.
There’s inherent subjectivity in every grading service no matter who or what company… so there will never be a perfect grading service. Maybe PSA could turn it up to eleven and add an Ultra Gem Mint criteria like the “Black Labels” from BGS but what doesn’t change is the subjectivity involved between each individual pairs of eyes. For instance, this is covered in the PSA Customer Agreement form:
“Grading involves individual judgments that are subjective and require the exercise of professional opinion, which can change from time to time. Therefore, PSA makes no warranty or representation and shall have no liability whatsoever to Customer for the grade assigned by PSA to any item, except pursuant to PSA’s Financial Guarantee of Grade and Authenticity.”
Although it’s fun to talk about and ponder there really isn’t a conversation to be had here. It’s been well established (& hashed out) over time that PSA has the most consistent and accurate grade reporting available for Poke’mon cards (with the exception of pristine & Black Labels). And they do a very good job at that with respect to their market share. I would think the overall higher resale value is evidence enough of this.
A sheet cut card is still authentic. I think it’s a big plus that they are willing to grade sheet cut cards, as long as they don’t grade fake cards, I think it’s ok, but every company has its flaws, like recently I read PSA graded fake Yugioh cards… that’s factual if it’s true, is it true? I don’t know because I didn’t follow the matter closely at all, but it’s out there… but I can understand if one may have an opinion and separate it from facts and evidence. I respect both.
Sheet cut cards are not legitimately produced. Grading them is a significant issue. They ruin the integrity of the grade. Again, if someone doesn’t value the fact that the cards are illegitimately produced, that is fine; the cards are still illegitimately produced.
Isolating a mistake or oversight such as fake cards being graded is a separate issue, which is certainly not unique to one company.
getting a card cut from a sheet means you can get perfect centering through artificial means. This is obviously bad for the hobby as centering is one of the key points to a grade.
Again, we have this statement with no factual proof. So here’s some numbers for you. This time I used 1st edition Base english cards, I think last time I did this I used Japanese Base. Feel free to dig up that old post.
BGS
Near Mint or lower - 15.6%
NM-MT - 33.8%
Mint - 31.5%
Gem Mint - 19%
Pristine - .1%
PSA
Near Mint or lower -19.6%
NM-MT - 22.7%
Mint 47.2%
Gem Mint - 10.4%
Pristine - N/A
