Go buy your own ball.
20 Likes
Surely if bgs craps out their slabs will do the opposite 
I actually agree that people here and pokemon overall go too hard on Beckett. It’s still very relevant in mtg and sports, it’s just always had a smaller footing in pokemon.
As for the topic, bgs isn’t just going to plummet if the doors close tomorrow. There would most likely be a decay. If that decay was more rapid, people could easily cross to psa. It’s not like the cards stop being mint. I could see it being inconvenient, similar to og blue label collectors when cgc changed their scale and label.
The only real worry I’d have is the black label. If you have a larger position in black labels, what’s the move? At least with any popular/rare cards in a 9.5 or below, they will just cross and sell normally. Where I don’t know what the answer is for black labels if they go defunct.
11 Likes
black labels are really the only thing beckett has going for them at this point. since some of them go for 10-20x the psa 10 price they can really only go down. the only thing that is comparable is cgc perfect and those are worth a small fraction of black labels
2 Likes
Their 9-10 range consistently sells for popular cards, especially in mtg and sports. But I agree that black labels are the best thing they have going for them.
3 Likes
Personally, I would buy a BGS 10 gold label or even 9.5 of pretty much any set Pokémon card over a PSA 10 every time. Especially modern
2 Likes
even say bgs 8 or 9 dont those go for like 70% or significantly less than the psa counterpart in other markets 
bgs tanked their rep ages ago and their non-10 slabs have slowly become worthless over the years
1 Like
To just distill my entire wall of text into a sentence:
If any grading company stopped grading then all the values would decay to what the raw card value is, just as we would do with any defunct or off-brand company today.
4 Likes
I would not expect vintage MTG BGS-graded cards to depreciate significantly if the company went down. There is simply too much inertia, trust, fan obsession in that collector sphere over BGS, and so change would be difficult. In my opinion, the graded vintage MTG market would shrink significantly rather than jumping ship and sending their defunct slabs to PSA or CGC. And this market it is already quite small and niche.
This is a scenario in which BGS graded cards might retain or increase in value, but only because vintage MTG grading is so deeply dependent on BGS to begin with and many collectors with significant sums of money use them solely. There are also a lot of older folk in that community who are highly resistant to change and are truly set in their ways.
But outside of this very niche example, I agree that cards graded by a defunct company don’t bode well long-term. I don’t see this example generalizing well to BGS-graded Pokemon cards.
2 Likes
do they just like bgs slabs better than psa or something? like they would pay similar for a bgs 9 vs a psa 9 for alpha?
Just like PSA > BGS and PSA > CGC for Pokemon, BGS > PSA and BGS > CGC for vintage MTG. An alpha BGS 9 would fetch more than an alpha PSA 9 on average.
People who collect graded vintage MTG prefer subgrades, which places BGS above all other grading companies. Some prefer the slab design so that damage on each edge can be seen easily and others like that the card is protected by an inner sleeve. Some collectors chase after gold and black labels as others have said, just like many Pokemon collectors blindly chase after PSA 10s.
1 Like
Bgs is the only real game in town with subs and longevity so it amazes me they could be managed so poorly. I actually like their slab design and hope they get their shit together. I’m almost all psa with my collection but do have a few niche slabs that I think would grade poor with psa but benefit from having subs.
1 Like
I agree in the sense that not all the bgs slabs will go up. As for bgs 10s, I believe there are a many interested collectors. The impact BGS gem mints have had in tcg history and on the market, is already set in stone. Whether its in pokemon, magic, sports etc… nothing compares to a gold label 10. All their gem mints sell for a premium for a reason. Thats the standard they built. If psa ever goes under I believe their cards will go up as well. As for cgc I dont know what to say 
“Look at some Beckett collectors on e4 when BGS was talking about just changing the label, they were ready to be done with BGS slabs” - Im not sure I agree that this has a lot to do with these existing slabs and the impact they have on the market and tcg history. That was also Beckett implementing an entirely new grading scale, that played a big role in the kick back. One bad marketing decision for future slabs shouldnt effect the collect-ability track record of the current slabs (beckett specifically)
In terms of cgc pristines - beckett was established in the graded card market while cgc was grading comics. If cgc goes under tomorrow I dont think many people would care about its TCG pristine 10s compared to psa and bgs 10s.
I think for bgs standards, it wont only hold. I believe there would be a premium (not for all the slabs obviously) but imagine a shohei rookie auto bgs 10 starts going for less if bgs closes its doors? Same goes for many other bgs 10 chase cards, the standard for collect-ability they’ve built over the decades will always be there imo. With low pops as well, it would be very interesting to see what would happen to the bgs gem mint market.
These examples dont really shed light on what would happen to bgs specifically. Comparing a cgc blue 10 label to a bgs gold 10 isnt even comparable imo. For many reasons. One being that cgc blue 10s came out for a good 20 seconds and disappeared where as a bgs gold labels have been around and established with the highest premium for decades and are very desirable. You cant compare what would happen to bgs 10s just because cgc is a joke. Cgc is still open, just with new labels.
“A card’s value is positively impacted if it suddenly becomes scare or limited. This is not how people treat the slab” - id have to disagree on that for the most part. Yea slabs are useless if theres no card in it, in this case that analogy isnt viable. If a card is scarce or limited (and considering its a hype/chase card) People would treat a bgs 10 gold label of that card or any bgs slab that card is in, with a much higher regard. “Everything to do with value perception” you said it there. Imagine a gold label lugia neo gen losing its value because bgs goes under? The perception on value is there for bgs 10s because it is already established in the tcg community for many years. More so than any other grading company for gem mints. Thats why it always holds the premium. If the company closes doesnt mean its standards for its gold labels disappears. We know those cards would still be in the toughest gem mint condition to acquire by any grading company. And now they are out of print… If anything it would be the opposite if they are the last of the golds. A collectors dream to even have in their collection. I think they would be more desirable seeing as though its the toughest 10 to achieve in tcg grading and is now out of print.
People are picky about old psa labels but I never heard of anyone being picky about a bgs old label. Thats news to me. It would also be new labels that go out of print. Just because psa and people perception have issues with psa old labels shouldnt effect an out of print bgs gold label market that has never had a track record of non desirable old certs.
Again, I do not care to speculate about what may or may not happen to the value of BGS slabs.
No one knows what will happy to the company and no one knows what will happen to market value of their slabs.
Plus it is completely irrelevant to the purpose of this thread.
Manu users here clearly just want to bash BGS at every opportunity.
If BGS slabs value drops like a rock, that’s perfect for my collection.
Id buy, buy buy and send them to PSA with their over inflated stupid red labels.
Ps I love paying upcharges, thanks PSA!
If you read what I wrote and thought that was me bashing BGS then you need to manage your emotional projection. Everything I said applies to all grading companies. It was an objective attempt to explain why any company going under is bad for slab values. If that triggers a BGS defensive mechanism inside you, don’t confuse that internal emotion with your apparent perception that everything I say is in service of PSA. I can assure you, I care way less about the the brand name of the slab than you seem to think.
You are the one to bring up the problems internal at BGS and talking about the possibility of bankruptcy. Of course the natural discussion would be about the hypothetical future of the slab value under a bankruptcy, it’s entirely on topic. If you want me to separate out the discussion into its own thread I’m happy to do so.
13 Likes
This is the core sentence of the argument, which I agree with. Where I disagree is whether the reputation of any company is maintained after they stop grading.
To think a company’s reputation is permanent is normalcy bias. The hobby moves so quickly, perceptions change. New people enter the hobby every day. The inertia BGS has specifically would help maintain value in the short-term but on a longer time horizon of 5-10 years I really can’t see any slab from a defunct company not eroding on value.
2 Likes
“Emotional projection”
My guy, this post is emotion-less and was intended to make people aware of a serious issue that could potentially lose them money if they have cards there.
If it was emotionally “projecting” I wouldn’t have made it in the first place.
I’ve also said that I don’t care if slab values drop, I would just buy more of them as the quality of the card/grading itself doesn’t change - however I see this as unlikely to occur.
If that is your perception of being emotional then I am worried about you.
Lock this thread. There is nothing left without any future news.
2 Likes