Centering / Edges / Corners / Surface:
Is there a Grading Company which value one of the 4 Categories espacially intense?
Be it subjective or a suspicion verifiable with numbers, I would like to know that.
Was asked in ZandG Livestream and iam curious.
BGS dings you for centering more than PSA – that’s the extent of my knowledge though!
The biggest distinction imo is indents. So I guess that is surface. Psa is the strictest on indents, where the other companies are not as strict. Also it’s tough to answer overall as I don’t think anyone really has a firm grasp on the sub 9 grading standard for non psa companies.
From my experience, CGC is harsh on center relative to PSA, while PSA is harsh on surface relative to CGC. The experience of others may vary.
yes
As others have mentioned, BGS & CGC are stricter than PSA for centering. An interesting note is that while CGC is strict, their lowest centering grade is an 8. Anything below that is marked as OC (off centered) which is calculated as 8.5 in the formula to decide the grade. They don’t have public parameters for centering grades which drives me nuts.
Here’s a particularly brutal example. I have no idea why I sent this to BGS, I must not have looked at it very closely. Bonus for the mislabel as well. This likely would’ve been a CGC 9 with an OC centering grade and PSA 9 with OC qualifier. Maybe PSA 8 if I got unlucky and they dinged hard for centering instead of giving qualifier.
PSA in my experience is stricter all around on grades below 9. Especially the 5-8 range or so. In general, I also find they are toughest on most surface flaws, especially structural ones like small dents or other similar issues.
BGS/CGC are tougher on centering usually, and the 10-sub grades for any of the 4 categories is usually really hard on most cards. So things like a Black Label or CGC Perfect are usually noteworthy and tough to get.
PSA is too lenient towards centering. They have no credibility. (event security attempts to escort me away) What’s the point of condition if you excuse print quality? (kicking and knocking things over as I’m dragged out) Centering is the only quality you can see from any distance!! (hundreds of camera flashes as I’m lowered into cop car)
You must only collect 10’s right? I can’t imagine anything else with your centering problempreferences
(from the back of the cruiser as I’m driven away) I’m a binder collector!! Slabs are prisons!!
You’ll be slabbed for your crimes
Adding this as evidence to the “beckett is a joke” folder
CGC’s centering grades have always been a joke. These cards are all 8.5 centering, all from the same sub. I’ve got other cards that are 8.5 centering that vary wildly that fall within 5-6 certs of each other. It was the biggest thing that riled me when grading with CGC. Theres no reason to it at all. How can you say all these cards deserve the same centering grade given how different they are.
Why? It’s accurate - that centering is terrible
The slab is anything but accurate lol
Check that label again
Doesn’t the back also count for centering? I think they can be different front to back, maybe explaining some of the difference?
Yeah but the back isn’t bad on some of these scans I posted (with the exception of the deserved 8.5 centering ones obviously)
Centering is literally the easiest thing to quantify because it should be based on math, not opinion… 
Also that blastoise and dragonite were robbed (unless their backs are whack)
Oh wow lmao yeah thats pretty bad. Didn’t read the post carefully enough
I know when you submit you basically write in what cards youre sending and as long as you write the pokemon name and card number that seems pretty hard to mess up.
Ive wondered before about the order intake and clerical people handling these cards and I assume it is a relatively high turnover job that is somewhat demanding so I kind of understand issues like mislabeling happening from time to time. It really sucks, but I feel like you can trust that the grades printed are what the grader gave your card since the name and set information are ultimately information that is supposed to be irrelevant to the grader.
