Should PSA be held to a higher standard, and as collectors are we getting the highest quality in term of grading or should we move on to BGS, since I’ve heard that BGS grades harsher. I ask because I’m seeing more and more people asking if a 10 is strong vs weak, which I don’t think should be an issue to begin with if we are indeed receiving a fair grade.
Who’s we?
I’m not switching to bgs because PSA provides a more efficient service and PSA grades fetch a higher premium compared to equal grades with BGS except for 10 grade.
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I whole heartedly agree, I’m just curious why problem are looking for strong 10s when a 10 is only awarded to the highest quality card.
It is hard to hold oligopolies to higher standards. There is a lack of competition in the business. PSA can do whatever the hell they want until other companies besides just Beckett enter the game and start delivering a product (case) and service (grading) that are up to par or better.
I’m actually quite suprised that some of the other “competitors” haven’t stepped up. SGC’s slabs have been just as shitty today as they were in the 90s so they clearly couldn’t give a shit. Still waiting for Gary to start his company!
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I guess my next question would be, what can we do about it?
PSA is the superior service for a number of reasons. Going to BGS won’t make BGS become better, but likely a migration to BGS would make BGS services slower/worse.
Putting too much pressure on PSA’s grading quality of your submission doesn’t seem to work out well, ask @hammyfresh.
I understand the concern about variation within a single PSA grade, but honestly until robots start grading there will never be absolute consistency unless humans suddenly learn to function like robots.
What will improve grading consistency is grading timeframe consistency. In other words, if PSA gets into a steady flow and doesn’t fall behind, then the pressure to complete orders will be reduced and thereby careful attention while grading will improve, improving grading consistency.
PSA raising bulk prices next month I think is an excellent move, and I say that knowing I’ll have to pay more. Raising prices will reduce submissions, which will improve efficiency, which will reduce pressure on the graders to bust out the grades, which will lead to more care by the graders and thereby more consistency.
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I considered doing more Beckett lately because I think their cases are more elegant but primarily I still mostly grade, own and trust PSA. I am however enamored by the Black Label from BGS. It feels so special for a Pokemon card to get that label which is near impossible it appears. I personally feel if a raw card is essentially perfect BGS is a better option as the BGS 10 and Black label is far superior to PSA’s 10 which is loosely given out by comparison to BGS. But if a card feels like a mint 9 going with PSA is clearly a better option as it could still hit a 10 which would increase the value significantly.
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There is no such thing as an absolutely consistent grade. There is always going to be variation within grades, and if we think that every PSA 9/PSA 10 should look exactly the same and have no variation then we don’t have a very good understanding of trading cards.
Strong vs. weak of any grade is always going to be a debate and is why you use the PSA-assigned grade not as a be-all-end-all, but an opinion as to the card’s condition.
The reason we don’t hear more bout BGS problems is because fewer cards get graded at BGS. Let’s do some quick (exploratory purposes only) maths:
Assume PSA grades 100,000 Pokemon cards per year with a defect rate of 0.1%. That’s 100 cards per year.
Assume Becket grades 8,000 Pokemon cards/year with a defect rate of 1%, for 80 defective cards per year.
PSA’s defect rate is ten times less than BGS, but BGS has less error cards. I guarantee you if people start grading at BGS we will see more BGS problems and people will start making threads about ‘holding BGS to a higher standard.’
The reason why people don’t grade with BGS is that their problems are more endemic. Just watch Scott’s video on PSA vs. BGS. To list a couple:
- Lower grades at BGS are notoriously unreliable for Pokemon and are often several grades higher than what PSA would assign (which is why certain individual(s) graded their very high-end cards with BGS instead of PSA)
- BGS has graded high-end cards with favor to promote their company
- BGS has the BCCG which devalues their grades and cards
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Probably also because BGS gives you an explanation/justification for why your card scored what it did. Harder to take issue when you know why its receiving what its receiving.
Thanks 4thS, it’s just that if I want to sel a set later and am then denied a sale because 1/100 card isn’t strong enough I’d be frustrated, albeit it is there money but to me it devalues the grade as that, a grade. Sorry I missed you at Worlds, hope to see you next year.
Can someone explain what the higher standard is? Right now this is just a blank statement. Should we ask psa to check hold to their financial guarantee when they misgrade? Yes. Should we expect perfection from any company? No. Should we ask for more consistency? I’d hope that’s a goal of every company.
I find that a lot of these debates are hearsay, aka one or a few people think the grade they got isn’t correct. The funny thing is it works both ways. Some people think their grades are too high, others think it’s too low. How can both be true? Because grading is subjective. Suggesting switching to BGS will fix this issue is asinine, this issue still exists with BGS. I’d argue that if you go from psa’s standards and switched to BGS you’d be complaining even more depending upon what you value.
I find that BGS cards allow for more surface damage than PSA. Both are pretty consistant on edges and corners, centering is stricter with BGS. BGS subgrades are a total crapshoot, seriously. If you complain at all with a psa grade you’re going to freak at how inconsistent the subgrades on BGS cards are.
In all I don’t care what company people want to grade with, I do find it anoying that BGS supporters want me to start grading with BGS, as if it somehow is going to effect their collections.
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Wasn’t the total estimated per day around 10,000 graded? And by minimum wage employees to boot… I understand some frustrations but I feel like the community tends to vent off of every hiccup. The premium earned from grading through PSA puts more money into collectors pockets than every other service combined, even through revised pricing.
This is all absolutely true. Anybody hyping BGS over PSA is either basing an opinion on a tiny number of examples or else they need to stay out of their parents medicine cabinet.
Now 20 years ago there was a much closer comparison but after 2003? Forget it.
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What kind of medicine cabinet did you have? Hahah