Yea well look at it from this perspective. And hear me out, because I was in a very, very similar situation to this about a year or so ago. I have a very good idea of how you feel.
So, here are the facts:
You found the card in a plastic bag.
You didn’t even know that you had it.
Its your first submission to PSA, and instead of coming back a perfect grade, it comes back only one grade shy from perfect.
You can still sell that card, and depending on what level you submitted it at, easily get your money back and then some.
The reason I included that last bit as a ‘fact’ is due to the sale history on EBay (Probstein sold for $48 recently, link below).
www.ebay.com/itm/253275924511?ViewItem=&item=253275924511
Here is the other funny part - I found this exact same card in my collection I dug out of my garage about a year ago. Only I chose to make my first submission to Beckett.
Here is my card:
Now, it only sold for $26 on EBay. That’s less than half of Probstein’s recent sale price. But I too was (and still am) very new to grading, and thought that was one of my better cards. Well, it was really good, but sure, I felt a little disappointed. Overall, however, here is the most disappointing thing - our cards have (technically) the exact same grade (9). But the fact is, a PSA graded card almost always sells better than a BGS card. There are exceptions, of course (9.5’s and 10’s) but that is the general rule of thumb. And honestly, I don’t know if my card would have gotten a PSA 9, an 8 would have been more reasonable to expect. And regarding the centering, look up PSA and if you want, Beckett’s grading measures on their websites. It does give you some good information for future reference.
I guess all I’m trying to help you realize is that it is a long learning experience, and, although you may have some gold in your garage with your cards, it takes a lot of time, effort and patience to see the grading and selling process out til the end. You’re going to have cards come back lower grades than what you had hoped for. More times than not. Especially when you had hoped for a 10. But is in our nature as people to always hope for a 10, and that’s kind’ve the cool nostalgia in it (for me at least), because it is like opening packs as a kid and having high expectations, only to usually get moderate satisfaction. And then, one day, you open your first Charizard, and holy cat s*** batman… I’ll never forget that moment (lol).
So try and curb your expectations a bit, and realize that, if every person got a 10 back for cards they thought there were going to be 10’s, there really wouldn’t be much of a market. Keep sending cards in, and I’m willing to bet that you will be pleasantly surprised with a card’s grade sooner than later. And if you want to try Beckett, go for it man. Only one way to truly find out how you feel about both graders. But I’m sticking to PSA mainly, because they are simply better, and their cards will sell better.
