Buying BGS 9.5 to get PSA 10?

General
1

Just wondering if anybody has any experience with this. I’m sure several of you have tried this before - did it turn out in your favor? Any approximate % of success?

2

Theres been a few different people who I know who have done it.

But 9 out of 10 times, all the subgrades have to be 9.5+, with the exception of centering can be a 9, for it to grade over to a PSA 10

1 Like
3

Yup, I have cross graded a couple cards and the centering is the thing they are most lenient on. The lowest centering sub i’ve had while still getting a 10 was an 8.

4

So if you have a 9 or lower on anything other than centering, it’s almost guaranteed to come back PSA 9?

5

Pretty much. I have never had a card cross as a 10 if it had a 9 on anything but centering. (granted I haven’t crossed a great amount)

6

Centering being the most lenient surprises me… If I send in raw cards then PSA is always very harsh at centering, but perhaps BGS is by itself already very strong on centering?

7

Well, PSA on the front can be 60/40 and still get a 10; At BGS an 8 on centering is at worst (from what i’ve read) 60/40. Another factor to consider is that BGS grades front and back centering on the same scale but PSA does not.

8

I have done it and I am about 50/50 if I had to guess. I don’t really pay attention to the subgrades, I just pay attention to the card itself. That being said, I do have in my files somewhere a list of the subgrades and the crossover results. It is something I plan to share once I have a meaningful amount of results which at the rate I am going is likely years.

Best advice though has already been said in that centering can be the lowest and get the other subs as high as possible for your best shot. As always I would recommend buying the card not the grade, that is what I have done and it has served me well. Pay a price where you will be breakeven or slightly better at PSA 9 ideally. It is fairly easy to do from time to time on BGS 9.5 auctions as they don’t perform well except for base 1st starters from what I have seen often times. I think @pokemonsyndicate has scans/photos of a BGS 9 that converted to a PSA 10 because it had an 8 centering and the rest 9.5 or 10’s.