The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questions are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
PSA should not start subgrading. Uniformity in the label is what a lot of collectors like about PSA. If PSA introduced subgrades, will cards with the same overall grade but different subgrades be valued differently? There’s so many new grades and nuances that will be introduced if subgrades are involved.
Also we already have the old vs new cert argument, adding anything else to fuel the “weak vs strong X grade” argument is meh.
Absolutely not. History has shown that collectors are generally happier without subgrades, and a prime example of this is CGC. CGC’s business is thriving, performing better than ever, precisely because they do not offer subgrades.
Even some Chinese grading companies, like CCG (which was once the most popular), have introduced a ‘no subgrades’ option, and I’ve observed a recent shift towards submissions without them. My core argument is that subgrades ultimately cause more harm than good for the grading company and the hobby.
Beckett Grading Services (BGS) has largely benefited from the allure of their ‘Black Label.’ If they were to drop subgrades, a significant portion of their unique selling proposition would vanish, removing a key reason for collectors to choose them over competitors. Instead of eliminating subgrades, BGS should focus on refining their ‘10’ grade.
A few years ago, BGS experimented with a ‘BGS 10’ designation for cards with two 10s and two 9.5s, which I believe was a step in the right direction for improving their business. While this initiative faced backlash for reasons I don’t fully understand, it demonstrated a willingness to innovate within their existing system. Ultimately, focusing on the integrity and consistency of their top grades will be more beneficial than abandoning subgrades entirely.
No but they should make it optional. Not sure why they got rid of it tbh.
What they need is at a bare minimum hd slab scans and a change of grading scale… replace 9.5 gem mint with a 10 gem mint, keep pristine 10 and BL 10 - will make them more competitive.
I would say that the sub-grades was one of the main appeals to BGS compared to PSA for many TCG hobbies. That was a complaint a lot of people had with PSA is that they didn’t understand ‘why’ a card scored the way it did and so BGS was supposed to be the answer to this ‘problem’ and help better explain why a card received the final grade that it did.
It would be nice maybe if PSA would give a very brief verbal explanation why a card scored the way it did, but I guess they just assume that collectors will find the fault(s) on their own. It could also get messy when you factor in human errors and other ‘opinions’ in all of the criteria, so it makes sense why they just assign a grade as-is and leave it at that and don’t use sub-grades or other detailed explanations.
So short answer is, no, I don’t think either company would benefit from changing up how they grade. They both fill a particular niche and BGS most likely wouldn’t survive or have grown if they just totally copied PSA or vice-versa.
Not a fan of subgrades (or the .5 grades), but bgs offers that so why not let em keep offering it. Let people choose the type of grader they like most There is room for all
Somehow I didn’t see the topic I suggested pop up.
Yes to destroy the further arbitrary within the already arbitrary. Although, BGS is seemingly hanging on out of pure spite at this point so does it matter?
I mean yes I think all graders should have to justify the grade, if that’s what you mean. Like tell me why my near perfect card got a 7 while a card with visible whitening got a gem 10. You’re already grading the card surely you used a rubric, tell me what it is. Even if subgrades remain an internal feature, printing them on the slab creates additional artificial rarity
I think ALL companies should drop grading, and just authenticate. Its all subjective and is a cause for artificial pricing on such similar items. Unpopular opinion is probably where I shouldve posted, but its relevant.
PSA needs to improve their product. Grading with PSA is an objective service that could provide a more data driven review of each card, and PSA chooses not to because people keep using it. Assigning sub-grades on the label shouldn’t be the path forward, but providing more information on the grade to consumers should be demanded at this point.
There is room for all
hence why cgc moved off of it a while ago