Wondering if they’re actually a psa 10 equivalent or just misleading titles on eBay.
They are not.
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Lol
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@kingboo64 ,And yes, the “BGS 9.5 PSA 10?” titles are misleading. They are sellers trying to pick up on the people searching for PSA cards (for which the market for Pokemon cards is vastly larger). In fact, the vast majority of BGS 9.5 Pokemon cards were either already submitted to PSA and given a grade of less than 10 or these cards were submitted to BGS instead of PSA because they suspected the card’s qualities would merit a BGS 9.5 but not a PSA 10 (and BGS 9.5s generally sell for more than PSA 9s). I say this because if sellers truly felt the cards deserved a grade of PSA 10 they would simply grade with PSA and get the 10 (which sell for much more than BGS 9.5s). I also base it on conversations with people I have had over the years confirming that this is largely true.
Having said that, BGS 9.5s are still excellent cards, particularly ones in which all of the sub-grades are at least a 9.5. And it’s also true that there are some Pokemon card collectors who genuinely prefer BGS.
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BGS 9.5 is mostly consistent with PSA 8 and 9
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One of Scott’s old videos has a pretty solid remark about BGS vs PSA where he flips around a high graded BGS card and he says “what the actual fuck is this?”
Also I’ll take my center bingo space now please
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Nope
They can be. They can also not be. If you are searching to upgrade 9.5’s from eBay into PSA 10’s believe me the seller has already tried and failed this multiple times. However this is not to say that you can’t cross-grade many PSA 10’s in to BGS 9.5’s, it’s all dependent on the grader.
Not sure why people are responding with yes or no.
Usually, a 9.5 is a cracked PSA 9. That being said, there are for sure very nice 9.5s which could possibly(!) crossgrade a 10.
From my personal experience, the vast majority of 9.5s is not even close to being a PSA 10 though. That is also shown in the prices these cards regularly fetch on ebay for example.
@hyruleguardian , this cracked me up haha!
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Credit to the E4 Discord for that one (I forgot who made it).
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It depends on the subgrades, a BGS 9.5 is misleading because it’s basically 6 different grades depending on the subs. It’s either a basic 9.5, a basic+ a basic ++, a quad, a quad+ or a quad++. A quad or better ‘has a chance’ at crossing to a PSA 10 while anything less probably doesn’t in most cases. To a lot of BGS collectors, anything less than a quad isn’t very desirable and is the ‘budget option’.
Edit: Also as stated anyone putting ‘PSA 10?’ in the listing title of their basic 9.5 or even better, no subgrades 9.5 is just preying on peoples ignorance. If it had a chance at a PSA 10 they would’ve sent it there in the first place.
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The eBay title thing is true, I do have my Dark Charizard listed with that title so guilty haha.
But I disagree about the PSA 10 attempt. There is a general consensus that PSA dominates the game, though it should be left at general because there are many who choose Beckett for other reasons. They like the service, turnaround times, hate PSA, or shoot for BGS 10s. I can say my Dark Charizard was inspected by Beckett at a show raw for a raw 9.5 grade so I just chose to encapsulate it by Beckett.
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Whoever made it should swap the double up ‘PSA damaged my card’ with ‘thread locked due to politics’ 
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Yeah, this. I would have a lot of confidence in a BGS card that had all sub-grades of at least 9.5 (not that this necessarily makes it a PSA 10 but I would feel confident it was an excellent card). If any of the grades were less than that my confidence would waver.
Recently I almost purchased a BGS 8 for a card I’ve really wanted with sub-grades of 9/9.5/10/7. Sounds not too bad, right? But the 7 given for the surface grade was a glaring dent that would have made the card like a PSA 4 or 5 at best.
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Pokemon is a PSA market for graded cards. That ship sailed a long time ago. Per comments above it’s safe to assume in most cases it would not crossover because it was deemed not PSA 10 worthy or it already failed at a 10. I wouldn’t consider trying with any single BGS sub-grade less than 9.5, and ideally like 2x9.5, 2x10 sub-grades. That almost makes it a Pristine 10 by BGS standards but those cards from my experience are a much different level than basic 9.5s. And they will be priced at a premium to a basic 9.5 card.
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PSA is less demanding on centering than BGS but more demanding on the surface. A 9 grade on centering is not going to be an issue to achieve PSA 10, but there’s no chance (barring a grading oversight) for a 9 surface to cross over. It just depends on the subgrade. Most BGS cards seem to be quad or lower. Higher grades have probably mostly been crossed over. I would think something like a 9/9.5/10/10 centering/corners/edges/surface wouldn’t have a problem. But you rarely find those high BGS 9.5s.
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You are largely correct, but each company grades certain flaws slightly differently so it’s tough to make absolute generalizations.
I have crossed over BGS 9 and 9.5 cards to PSA 10, and a few had a BGS 9 surface (but they had near flawless holos). The bgs 9 surface on each card was for roller lines on the back of the cards and for some factory speckled silvering on the non-holo portion of the cards. PSA didn’t care about either flaw… maybe they were overlooked by PSA but these are common characteristics with many WOTC cards and many PSA 10’s have them.
Here are some generalizations that I go by:
PSA 10 - soft on:
- centering (just can’t be too OC)
- edge silvering
- occasionally corner nicks
PSA 10 - strict on:
- holo scratches (needs to be near flawless)
- holo print lines
- holo smudges
- no more than 1 nick on edges/corners
BGS 9.5 - soft on:
- factory print lines
- minor Holo scratches
BGS 9.5 - strict on:
- centering (both front and back matter)
- corners (good luck getting a 10 sub corners)
- silvering on edges (any silvering at all gets a 9 sub max)
- any silver speckling on face of card
Like anything else, you need to see and inspect a card with eyes that know what to look for, inorder to make an absolute determination on the value of BGS 9.5 vs PSA 10. Great cards can be found in both cases.
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I have crossed about 5 bgs 9.5s and only 1 got a psa 10, the rest 9s. They all had 9.5 or above subgrades
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Its not a yes or no answer. Some 9.5s do qualify for a psa 10. Usually the ones with the subgrades having 10s in them can qualify for a psa 10 but its tough. This doesnt always happen but its very possible. It all depends on the subgrades and which subgrades are stronger. A 9.5 is a gem mint card for a reason, and sometimes does pass to a 10 when submitted for a regrade. If you have a 9 in your subgrade chances are it wont hit that 10 though. Unless maybe the 9 is on the centering. Ive seen plenty of 9.5s transition into 10 recently more so than ever. If you have a couple of 9.5s and 10s in the subs why not give it a try! At the end of the day Gem Mint is Gem Mint and not everyone can see the difference between a 9.5 and a 10. Especially with some 10s ive been seeing. So to answer your question, its not likely but possible on stronger 9.5s. And if youre looking for a gem mint card 9.5s are a safe bet for the most part.