Grading Pokemon cards with PSA or BGS is a real challenge if you don’t live in the states. Cost of shipping overseas is fairly high, it takes a long time and the risk of losing expensive cards is definitely not negligible. Not to mention the potential of getting charged absurdly high import duty on your own goods. In the last few years however, a few TCG grading companies have appeared in the EU. One of those being a French service called PCA Grade. A while ago I sent off some of my cards to test the waters.
Here are some key details about their service:
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Their grading scale goes from 1-10 with the addition of of 9.5 and 10+. 10+ is their BGS black label equivalent.
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The return times are 35, 20, 7 or 2 business days, each increasing in price (9, 12, 15, 39) €
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They also offer authentication without a numerical grade, which is slightly cheaper.
Pros:
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They grade foreign cards of any set.
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They grade FPO cards.
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In my experience, they’re very responsive on Instagram.
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They’re willing to add missing sets to their registry. When I wanted to grade my FPO zard, the set wasn’t in the registry yet. They added it per my request.
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The holders are very sleek. They fit Pokemon cards really well and are considerably smaller than PSA slabs. Their thickness is the same as two regular toploaders stuck together.
Cons:
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The labels are in French, regardless of the graded card’s language.
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Their website is quite annoying to navigate as it’s originally in French. They have English translations, but they’re very inconsistent and don’t work everywhere.
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The pop report is not browse-able. You can only check it if you have a cert number of that particular card.
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Since they’re new to the scene, they aren’t as reputable as PSA or BGS
Size comparison between PSA and PCA slabs:
With all that said, here are some high resolution scans of my PCA graded cards. I personally think some grades are different than what PSA would have graded. This is solely based on my experience with around 30 PSA slabs from my collection.
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Grade example scansThe following scans are only a portion of all the grades. The ratio of grades I disagree with is not representative, because I included most of the cards I had thoughts regarding the grade. There were twice as many cards that I completely agreed with their grade.
Agree with the grade. Visible scratches on the holo and strong whitening on the top back.
Agree with the grade.
I strongly disagree with this grade, because of the nasty dent at the top. That alone would have killed the grade at PSA. They might treat dents differently on their scale though. I feel it’s fine as long as they’re clear on it and consistent with it.
Personally don’t think this one deserves a 9.5 grade. The print line across the bottom and along with the strange stain in the middle and some micro-scratches should definitely detract more from the grade.
Honestly don’t see why this one didn’t get a 10. Don’t see any flaws with it.
Agree with the grade. Could potentially regrade to 10.
Agree with the grade.
Agree with the grade, at the same time I think Sceptile ex deserves it more.
In conclusion, while they could improve some aspects of their service, they’re definitely on the right track. The holders are sleeker than PSA and BGS slabs. Grading multiple languages makes it possible for European and other foreign collectors to properly protect their non English cards. The service also makes grading much more accessible to EU citizens.
