I enjoy your knowledge and insights on BGS. What are your thoughts on removal of the subgrade aspects too as CGC did? Do you think BGS who in my very limited opinion is only known for black labels would also benefit from getting rid of the subgrades or is it still valuable to keep subgrades but then round off on the main grades(get rid of the half grades).
Cheers!
Thank you! I am by no means an expert so take everything I say with a large grain of salt!
BGS is known in the pokemon community for black labels but remember they are primarily a sports brand. At one point they were THE sports brand.
As with TCG , BGS has some premium over PSA in the magic the gathering market too.
That being said, with pokémon, it would be interesting to see what they decide to do with the subgrades.
I personally think they should leave it as an additional choice somewhat similarly to what cgc had before they swapped everything over to non-subgrades and their new grading scale.
However, cgc did say, and I don’t know if this is accurate information, that only 10% of submitters actually wanted and paid for subgrades on their cards.
I think in the TCG community Beckett is known and respected and that is why the Black label does have a value.
If Beckett was not respected, they would not have any premium on their Black label gradeS. If you just look at any other non-brand grading company who have a pristine grade, they almost do not have any additional premium.
Long term I don’t know what Beckett will do with subgrades.
I feel as I said they should keep it as a additional option.
As we all know a 10 grade certainly from PSA is a sliding scale. There are stronger tens and weaker tens and what Beckett do is they distinguish between those, especially in the vintage market where a lot of cards do have one minor factory issue such as the PSA 10 shadowless cards. Most have most have a printline of some description.
By getting of 9.5, making 10 their standard gem mint and keeping p10 and BL plus making subgrades optional I think this is what would allow Beckett to cater for the mass market, but also for the market of collectors who do care about the difference between a 0.5 grade difference of a subgrade.
I wrote this with speech to text so apologies for any grammar issue.
I wonder how a grading scale change would go over with BGS since they have been around longer.
Whoever acquires Beckett shouldnt mess with what brought Beckett to that lvl in the first place. They should simply just change what people hate about them, which is customer support, turnaround times, and just hiring some more staff to proceed with this. Everyone knows and respects the Beckett pristines, I would leave the grading scale alone. Its what makes Beckett, Beckett. Active customer support would take this company to a whole new lvl. And maybe a sleeker / new design on the cases.
We don’t need to wonder, they already tried it
Personally I was a fan and thought it was a really good move for them but so many people complained that they quietly let it go
I was personally a fan of this idea too just because of the new and improved cases. I would just take out both the “gem mint” 10s and make the 9.5 gem mint only. That would leave 9.5 gem mint, 10 pristine, black label 10 pristine. I feel that if they implement more 10s it will saturate the aura of what the beckett 10 really is. So taking those out and keeping the new cases would be ideal.
Had a backlash as they initially proposed downgrading existing 9.5 basic and quad to mint+. No bueno.
BGS were laggards in the last bull market too. Imo 10s get more submissions. They should change that.
Man that moment when they announced the change felt like a fever dream! I wonder if they did the free 10dies redemption like cgc if it would have gone over better.
They need to do SOMETHING because they have ceded sports now too. Last month they even graded less sports than CGC which is outright embarrassing since nobody wants CGC graded sports cards except for PC. BGS had a 3% market share last month overall. It’s over unless something changes quick
they probably lost a ton of market share because all their grades below a 9.5 are pretty much useless 
so that leaves a very small % of cards that will even be considered submitting to them in the first place. i don’t even think bgs 9 is worth a psa 8 nowadays
That is an old wives tale.
All lower grades from any company have a high variance.
Look at PSA 1-5s , honestly they can look the same.
BGS 9s overall can be very mint cards, but as always buy the card no matter what the label has on it.
they may have higher variance but psa is way more consistent in the 6-9 range. no idea about below 5. at any rate none of that really matters all that matters is the price they realize and bgs 9 might go for half of a psa 9
This would destroy their relationship with vintage MTG collectors. BGS is synonymous with vintage MTG because people love subgrades and the premium associated with “strong” vs. “weak” grades (e.g., 9++, 9.5++).
The biggest competitor to BGS for vintage MTG is currently CGC because of their quick turnaround time and easier 10s, even after they removed subgrades.
If you think BGS 9 with no 8.5 subs consistently go for half psa 9 value, then I’ll have whatever you’re having as it must be pretty strong
if a card with a 8.5 sub can get a 9 then that means a bgs 9 is basically psa 8 quality
I have a PSA 9 new cert that I cracked and is now BGS 9 with 8.5 corners (and rightly so).
Nothing is black and white.
You should know, you collect CGC Pristine 10s
i think thats mostly coz i feel the pristine are underpriced compared to psa 10 . if that were to reverse i might suddenly stop “collecting” them 
idk if i would make the same bet on bgs 9 vs psa 9 price tho
I don’t know a single person who actively collects BGS cards under 9.5s. Do you?
Looks like when I saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship, the ship crashed
