Most submitters that account for PSA and CGC grading volume are bulk submitters or businesses. Actual people grading their own stuff is a smaller % of total volume.
This is why they have no real incentive to do this. So long as their grades keep getting most of the auction sales, businesses will keep subbing to them.
What is needed is a real competitor.
Meaningless
Also largely meaningless, too short term
Continue is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. PSA and CGC are gaining further share if we’re going to use short-term numbers as you did. What niche will they fill? PSA has market dominance as a brand and CGC has inserted itself as the budget option that will also grade errors.
I’m not smack talking BGS as a bad brand, I’m just commenting on their current relevance in the market
obviously we need sub-subgrades. How else will I know if the card is worth any money?
Top Left Corner
Top Right Corner
Bottom Right Corner
Bottom Left Corner
Front Left Edge
Front Right Edge
Front Top Edge
Front Bottom Edge
Back Right Edge
Back Left Edge
Back Top Edge
Back Bottom Edge
Front Surface
Back Surface
Front Left/Right Centering
Front Top/Bottom Centering
Front Rotation
Back Left/Right Centering
Back Top/Bottom Centering
Back Roatation
EDIT for @lyleberr
Card Pulp Quality
Dont forget, we have the technology now. Can we get scans of the cardstock integrity and grade that now as well?
No sub grades but maybe create a 9.5
some of these new certs are so clean but the tiniest hint of whitening anywhere prevents a 10. Which makes it hard to justify as some of these 9s are cleaner than a lot of the ancient 10s im holding
since there tends to be such a huge gap from psa 9 to psa 10 value wise; making a psa 9.5 might create some middle ground
It would also give them more business. Many send to cgc or beckett in lou of psa because their card has the tiniest flaw and will cause an instant 9 so they go to beckett in hopes of a 9.5 or cgc
I hope BGS doesnt stop subgrades 
thats the only reason i grade with them. I think it looks prettier. I dont think subgrades would look right on a PSA slab unless they redid the design though
That’s a large growth and is absolutely not insignificant if a company is supposedly “hanging on” as you put it.
The market is going up but they have made good plays like opening BGS EU.
The grading market is massive and there is enough room.
BGS fills the void such as:
Lots of reasons to choose them over another company.
Remember at one point, BGS 9.5s we’re going for more money than PSA 10.
Now BGS 10s are going for more than PSA 10s.
They do have a worse service than PSA and even CGC for sure, the fact they don’t have scans in 2025 is a crime, but the fundamentals of the brand are strong and ultimately they have a very high and consistent standard of grading.
You said they should make subs optional, would you opt in for that?
One year tells me nothing. Know what else had a huge 1-year surge? GME.
Yes, opening a non US non AP grading site to increase customers is a good idea. An obvious one, but a good one.
CGC had one of the most significant scandals since grading has been a thing, and then raised their prices 20% and still had a huge uptick in graded items
All companies should do this. Yet, the market leader doesnt and it doesnt impact them, so this appears to be a nice to have not a need to have
we’re gonna have to agree to disagree
nobody has given me a compelling explanation for what this concept actually entails
the first half of this sentence negates the second half
Ok well maybe let’s try a bit harder then.
Are you comparing a meme stock to a company who’s value is linked to people actually wanting to use their service?
It is pretty well established that most CGC grading volume is from bulk submissions - also 99% of people dont care about the “scandal”. BGS has been grading cards before CGC and it was the #1 authority on market pricing etc (sports).
Most collectors ask for this from PSA - but this “hobby” is driven by auction sales. Again, most submission volumes are from bulk/business subs who just care about their margins rather than their card getting the grade it deserves. I would imagine almost every single person who submits their own cards to PSA wants this feature.
Subjective. I think Evee sucks, we are all allowed opinions. I also dont mind CGC or PSA, I own cards from many companies. CGC has the clearest slabs.
Just look at market last solds. Not hard to see that people rightly think BL 10s are absolutely “true” 10s.
It does not. Their service is worse in terms of Scans and database etc. but the end product you get, the slab, is consistent, mostly to a high standard - and see point about about their brand’s fundamentals.
I don’t want to sidetrack this thread more, so feel free to PM me if you want to rage bait me futher about BGS etc etc.
Yes, I would always have subgrades on my BGS cards as I think it adds to the fun of grading and I like to see why my card got x.
I am going further - PSA should cut half grades from their grading scale. It kinda makes sense for low grade vintage baseball. A 2, a 2.5, and 3 can be repeatable. But for Pokémon it is such a fake grade. If half grades were real, they would actually be part of the bell curve. So, that is my long winded answer saying PSA should not have subgrades
I’m not going to say “I think” 36% is meaningless, like it’s an opinion. A one-week change, whether +36% or -100%, is statistically meaningless. Tell me what they’ve done over the past 5 years.
also I’m checking out of this conversation, you can’t argue with a fanatic
On a weekly basis, the 36% could be because half the office was on vacation the week prior, or holiday celebrated locally only. Month over month might show better trend lines.
Trying to keep the peace, haha.
I guess it’s good compared to the trend they were on but it’s kinda like when you hit rock bottom you have nowhere else to go but up
In large part due to some sponsored activities and events recently by Beckett.
But lets not pretend they arnt struggling
In a good month for them they managed 3% of the market. and thats discounting tag and other grading companies that we wont consider major. Realistically they are 2% of the market
98% do NOT grade with Beckett. They really need to make some basic changes
I’ve been tracking 1st ed neo suicune psa10 prices since I have one and plan to make it available later in the year. I noticed a bgs 9.5 by ZG only sold for $2.5k while a psa10 in the same month sold for $12.25k, also by ZG. Almost a 5x difference
there has never been such a large of a price disparity between the BGS and PSA gem mints before. Like I still remember the point at which BGS 9.5 was selling at a premium to psa10 way back in the day
“Struggling” I mean is subjective.
You don’t know their business viability.
BAS for example does $100m annually.
They could have higher margins than CGC or PSA.
Or they may not, who knows.
Yea on grading volume they are the lowest out of the “big 3” (I don’t include SGC) but they still have their part.
A growth like that is obviously positive.
Nice, when you resort to name-calling, it generally means you lost the debate.
I own slabs from all companies. Actually 50% of my collection is in a PSA slab.
Just because I’m disagreeing with your very speculative and personal opinion, doesn’t make me a “fanatic” lmao.
Big 3 is subjective as well. I don’t know of anyone else who now includes BGS as a major grading company. History and culture, yes. But when you are 2%-3% of marketshare, I wouldn’t call that a major player.
