Info about PSA/BGS grading methods

General
1

Hello all, I’ve been wondering if there is some information available about the grading methods that PSA (and also BGS) use?

Over the past months I’ve gotten quite a good feel for PSA grades and I can predict them closely, but this still goes of to my intuition and not on a predetermined process. Things like a bent across the card is an instant 6, I have a feel for corner/edges whitening (and at a certain point damage) from a 9 downwards to say a 5, I’ve got a feel for centering, but I don’t have any process.

More specifically I was also wondering about the following cards which I think are all perfect except one flaw:

  1. A card that on the front is a bit off-centered from top to bottom edges
  2. A card that has some weird dots in a straight line all over the back
  3. A card that a factory nick/wear on a single back corner, it’s not even white, it’s just something noticeable
  4. A card that has a single white speck on the back bottom edge

And I’m mostly worried about that card which is a bit off-centered, even if it falls within PSA’s centering guidelines, could they still deny it a 10 based on that it “does not look worthy of a 10”? And on top of that this card has a very small population of 10’s compared to 9’s and the exact reason is that these cards are most of the times off-centered.

On one hand some of my cards don’t feel like 10’s because they are not perfect, but on the other hand I more and more get the feeling that PSA 10 is not about having a perfect card but it’s about having a very nice card, whereas a BGS 10 is all about that perfect card.

Any advice would be appreciated :blush:

2

Actually I just checked the card that is a bit off-centered, and the top border measures ever so slightly under 3mm, and the bottom border measures 4mm. Now 3mm/4mm in itself is 42.5/57.5, so yeah it seems to fall more into the PSA 10 45/55 to 40/60 category than the PSA 9 40/60 to 35/65 category.

Even though I still cannot see this card getting a 10, because of the centering.

3

For centering specifically I use a scan of the card and count the pixels. It’s decently precise and seems to be the easiest method that I could think of.

4

But do PSA really care about it? Or, is it only a guideline? That’s more my worry.

Besides that, I’m lucky enough that it’s really on the 3mm and 4mm marks, so it’s not in between :stuck_out_tongue: But I’ll still scan it in later haha.

5

I mean it varies from card to card obviously, but my general feel is that they do a pretty good job of distinguishing PSA 9 centering and PSA 10 centering.

6

Measuring is definitely not accurate… we’re talking about quarter millimeters etc… so scanning and counting pixels is the only good way we as collectors have

7

Right… Maybe a silly question, but can scanning in a card hurt it in any way? I suppose I’ll leave it inside the toploader too, wouldn’t want to risk too much with it.

8

Maybe it’s easier to share an image too…

The border seems quite straight so I measured in the middle and it gave me 189 pixels top border, 136 pixels bottom border, which gives a 58.15%/41.85% ratio.

I’m sorry that there’s some dust on the case as well, but I did see some small holo scratches but sadly there’s also an ink dot (near the Weakness) which I hadn’t noticed yet… I think that’s my chances on a PSA 10 gone. (The back looks perfect but the image I took is too poor - too much dust on it, so doesn’t tell a lot)

9

The problem with this card is always the centering, the factory holo lines are also notorious for this set. By the looks of it, the centering is already off so maybe a 9?

10

My point here is that the centering is within PSA 10 guidelines, though I agree that I don’t see this card getting a 10.

11

Don’t think PSA are that strict with centering . If everything else is fine, this card has a shot for a 10

12

@skiwi

I briefly looked at my PSA 9, side to side centering are really similar and top to bottom centering is actually much better in your copy. Just send it in.
Btw. the dot isn’t always problem in grading, check word “Paralyzed” in Meganium’s attack… :sunglasses:

13

That’s quite reassuring :blush: I’ll definitely send it in and I agree that it has a shot, just not sure how big of a shot it is… I actually do have another one too that I still need to carefully check, but it was looking good, except it has a massive red ink dot right next to the Neo Genesis symbol so I’m really unsure about that one :stuck_out_tongue: