# BGS Modern English Analysis Suggests 80% of Black Label Denials Hinge on Centering Lottery **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Links\ **Tags:** charizard\ **Created:** [April 15, 2026, 9:40am UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929 "2026-04-15T09:40:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![banks](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/banks/32/255729_2.png) [@banks](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/banks)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 9:40am UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/1 "2026-04-15T09:40:42Z")
Analysis of 3500 BGS slabs of five modern EN cards was posted on reddit. OP doesn’t provide their dataset. From their analysis they drew the conclusion that: > **80%** **of BGS 10 cards** from this analysis **missed Black Label only because of centering** – corners, edges, and surface all came in at 10.0. | Card | Graded | 10 for Corners | 10 for Edges | 10 for Surface | 10 for Centering | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Charizard X SIR (PFL 125) | 1,453 | 70.8% | 77.5% | 60.3% | 4.8% | | Mewtwo ex SIR (DRI 231) | 1,102 | 65.9% | 69.7% | 55.9% | 7.7% | | Zekrom ex SIR (BLK 166) | 320 | 77.8% | 68.8% | 64.6% | 3.2% | | Red Victini (WHT 172) | 161 | 45.3% | 54.7% | 13.2% | 5.0% | | Gold Charizard | 374 | 14.4% | 21.1% | 0.5% | 3.2% | Full post below: [https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeGrading/comments/1sjpc59/i\_analyzed\_3500\_bgs\_grades\_and\_obviously/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeGrading/comments/1sjpc59/i_analyzed_3500_bgs_grades_and_obviously/) ---
**Author:** ![Bellsprout](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/bellsprout/32/198969_2.png) [@Bellsprout](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/Bellsprout)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 10:16am UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/2 "2026-04-15T10:16:30Z")
Some people say paying the PSA10 premium is stupid. But I think the BGS black label is on a whole another level of stupid. Basically what the Redditor showed is that there is no tangible basis to the black label and it’s just random luck, because there is no objective method to accurately differentiate 50/50 and 51/49. The concept of 50/50 centering in itself doesn’t make sense if you think about it And by extenso, the concept of a perfect card in itself, is stupid. ---
**Author:** ![eeveeteam](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/eeveeteam/32/2219_2.png) [@eeveeteam](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/eeveeteam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/3 "2026-04-15T12:35:01Z")
> [@Bellsprout](#): > > because there is no objective method to accurately differentiate 50/50 and 51/49. Isn’t centering literally the only thing that is objective? Corners, edges, and surface all look like crap at the microscopic level… even on a “perfect” card ---
**Author:** ![Bellsprout](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/bellsprout/32/198969_2.png) [@Bellsprout](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/Bellsprout)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/4 "2026-04-15T12:42:14Z")
Quote from the thread ![Screenshot_2026-04-15-14-41-44-107_com.reddit.frontpage](https://efour.b-cdn.net/uploads/default/original/4X/c/0/6/c06ab0a5771349b0c91d64a401c662f1e09cac81.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![DarthEevee](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/dartheevee/32/219955_2.png) [@DarthEevee](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/DarthEevee)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/5 "2026-04-15T15:10:23Z")
> [@Bellsprout](#): > > Basically what the Redditor showed is that there is no tangible basis to the black label and it’s just random luck but I’m the asshole if I say it’s _all_ random luck ---
**Author:** ![eeveeteam](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/eeveeteam/32/2219_2.png) [@eeveeteam](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/eeveeteam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/7 "2026-04-15T15:45:44Z")
> [@MidEraCollector](#): > > Unfortunately I have given up on the sweepstakes and will try a different company this time I heard Ultra Pro and Vault X make a pretty good card holder, and they don’t judge you unfairly 😀 ---
**Author:** ![RoyalOak](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/royaloak/32/250674_2.png) [@RoyalOak](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/RoyalOak)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 8:15am UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/8 "2026-04-16T08:15:32Z")
Black label is truly the biggest meme to exist ---
**Author:** ![tidaldreams](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/tidaldreams/32/26292_2.png) [@tidaldreams](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/tidaldreams)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/9 "2026-04-16T20:44:02Z")
just be an “influencer” to get that extra 0.5 on centering ez ---
**Author:** ![wooltchi](https://efour.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/www.elitefourum.com/wooltchi/32/2438_2.png) [@wooltchi](https://www.elitefourum.com/u/wooltchi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.elitefourum.com/t/bgs-modern-english-analysis-suggests-80-of-black-label-denials-hinge-on-centering-lottery/61929/10 "2026-04-16T21:11:01Z")
This has more or less been known in the community. No grading company has proven capable of being able to consistently give a card the same grade as proven by resubmissions. If you cannot consistently grade a card on a 10 point scale (let alone a 0.5 scale like beckett), then a cards grade is more of an estimation than actual definitive grade valuation. Which makes black labels a useless determinant of actual quality since the card would more likely than not, _not_ receive a black label if regarded. Its like if I was measuring a building and got 9.5 meters so I tell you “its 9.5 meters.” But, if I measured it two more times I get 9.7 meters and 8.8 meters. It would be okay to say its about 9 meters tall, but to say its 9.5 meters would be disingenuous since I cannot accurately measure to that level.