After spending so much time looking at PSA cards I’m not overly familiar with Beckett graded cards, I just know they differ slightly and I’m wondering if the good folks of this forum could help.
So I’m looking at a Beckett Mint 9
It scores 9.5 for everything else apart from edges which they’ve given an 8.5
Would this be comparable to a PSA 9?
The card in question is about £200 cheaper than the same card as a PSA 9 for what it’s worth.
I think the overall consensus is that a Becket X is worse than a PSA X, with the exception of 10s. Sounds like Becket 10s, especially the black labels are much harsher.
Don’t be fooled in to believing any comparison of BGS = PSA anything. Look at the card in question in detail and determine condition for yourself. I’ve seen and owned countless copies of both and have disagreed with so many grades. They grade every card differently (even though they shouldn’t). If your asking because you want to cross over a card - just analyze a bunch of the grade your hoping to get and see if it matches up based on the pictures you get of the card in question.
Even still - PSA and BGS both throw dartboards at a grading score map while blindfolded half the time.
Always buy the card and not the grade and you’ll be a happy camper. Much love.
The backside of that BGS 9 looks like it would crossover to a PSA 8 at best
I agree it looks super weak.
This topic comes up at least once a week and I really just need to have my answer saved in a document at this point so I can copy and paste it.
But in short people need to understand the grades between companies *do not* mean the same thing, period.
For example, someone recently had a PSA 7 Grand Party cross-graded to CGC, where it was graded a 9 (with an 8.5 surface grade). The person used this to illustrate that PSA “got it wrong.” Well, not really. The fact that CGC gave the surface an 8.5 shows that they saw some flaw on the card as well, but their grading standards are just different.
There was also an Instagram account, can’t remember what it was off the top of my head, that basically has been cracking PSA cards out of cases and sending them to BGS. Pretty much every time the BGS grade comes back with a higher grade than what PSA had given out, and yet somehow some people are still surprised by each new result.
This
Bulba said it well. A 9 is different for PSA than it is at BGS. It’s like when you ask two men what they think is a pretty girl. Their definition will be different…
Exactly this. Also, don’t even throw company names, it’s depends on the GRADER within the company and based on personal opinion which is why the grades aren’t always as consistent across the board. Unfortunately, pictures can be misleading and look good until you receive it. Its on your preference and if the card in question is cheaper with the same grade, why not go with the cheaper one or that it looks better. Just like other’s showed comparisons, you need to analyze it yourself and decide if it’s worth it.
That IG account, btw, is amtsupply – I only discovered his IG because I googled his eBay username after buying from him many times.
To the OP: I’ll give one data point. I bought a BGS 9 TMTA Swampert ex to recently and cracked it out to replace the one in my set. It’s a nice card, but I highly doubt it would score a PSA 9. It looks like a slightly above average PSA 8. I’m happy with the card, but there’s clearly a lot more leeway on a BGS 9 because of how they weight the subgrades. A card with a scratched-up (which a surface subgrade of ‘8’ usually indicates) surface can still get a 9 if the centering/edges/corners are decent enough. Whereas a PSA 9 is not going to have an 8-quality surface. So, instead of looking at the composite BGS grade, look very closely at the subgrades.
Bgs 9 is on average weaker than psa 9 but it’s also cheaper; the increasingly efficient pokemon market has already priced it in
*insert anecdotal evidence here*
im getting requests like crazy from 3 people who want all my psa 6s, 7s, and 8s knowing they can cross them over for 1 or 2 higher grades at cgc. This is really getting worrisome. i understand cgc is trying have to get business but there are other ways to market than getting crossovers.
Off topic, but your profilpicture took me on one hell of a ride
Thanks everyone for the replies.
This kinda reaffirms what I sort of suspected with the fairly large price discrepancy, on average.
They would be in the same price range if they were considered equal (on average) by the wider market I guess.
I wouldn’t cast too much judgement on CGC yet, it’s still very early in the game for them. Not enough cards have been graded to really know how they compare to PSA or BGS.