I thought at first in pictures the CGC slabs were, okay… But once I got them in person, I like it wayyyyy more. It definitely shows the card more. The labels are pretty good too. Since BGS and CGC are the only ones that do subgrades, I do like the look of the BGS label but I don’t think it necessarily holds a premium unless it’s a black label as we all know. I don’t care for subgrades, too much writing over the label but of course this is all subject to opinion.
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I’d take CGC over BGS every day.
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Honestly I would never buy a BGS slab. Reselling with them though? All day
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I agree with this. I’ve only ever owned 1 BGS card and had to sell because it didn’t “fit”.
Personally I don’t like CGC labels at all. PSA just seems clean.
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I’ll buy a card that I like no matter what slab it’s in, provided the price reflects the condition of the card.
I totally understand why people want to stay with one company and have uniformity.
I also understand people wanting cards with an integer for a grade.
This is the beauty of collecting, we can all do it how we want. I think being open to the prospect of different grades and different companies would allow you to have a more rounded collection though.
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I’m slightly tempted to send a chunk of WOTC inventory to CGC and see if the there is any interest for master sets, holo sets etc.
I’ll probably end up with PSA though. Despite doing their best to screw their own brand, they are still number one, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The only thing I think could actually topple PSA is if the market explodes more than it already has and the blood tax becomes so astronomical that people start taking out mortgages to grade Rattatas and Weedles.
CGC is shooting themselves in the foot with the subgrades and point 5 grades. A total of ten different mint/near mint grades and the subgrade/no subgrade versions? Forget about collecting uniform sets, which is what most people seem to prefer.
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To me offering the no subgrade option is a terrible idea by CGC. Make people go all the way with it. I mean charging $5 to unlock a bit of information that they are (hopefully) already tabulating in their evaluation of the card is just crazy to me. Or if you want to look at it the other way… offering a $5 discount on grading to save a bit of ink and omit the subgrades on the label is just insanity IMO. Unless their no subgrade versions are graded on an entirely different scale then that is just even more insane. It is just a terrible look any way you look at it.
I really like subgrades personally. I know the market overall though just buys labels and a 10 with no explanation and no visual reminder of defects is just something the market is always going to prefer to getting 9.5’s or 10’s with a 9.5 sub. I really want CGC to succeed and take a huge chunk but they never really will I don’t think. I do think they can potentially knock BGS off at #2 and have a niche of collectors grading their own cards not as worried about resale value. “TRU collectors” if you will.
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I agree completely, either go with it or don’t.
As for subgrades, I appreciate both perspectives. I like the subgrades, not only for myself, but for the item as it matures (hopefully) into a timeless piece to be appreciated not only by experts who know every little detail, but also by a more general audience.
At the same time, I also like the clean no-nonsense look of just a number and a cert.
I, too, feel that CGC will never truly succeed to the point where they challenge PSA, but it is possible if not straight up probable that they will beat BGS eventually.
Yup I agree with this and some of them won’t grade some of my other TCG’s, so I put it in whoever will grade it lol, i.e. Final Fantasy TCG, only Beckett was grading them at the time, hence they are in BGS slabs.
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I understand the visual reminder, but aren’t you doing that yourself anyways? I guess it adds to the visual. Definitely sucks that CGC adds those charges, especially in bulk, that adds up. PSA has had the longevity with no sub-grades, though when reading the forum, I am seeing a lot more people enjoy sub-grades but not BGS slabs…
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In this past week I’ve actually gone from being a PSA only collector, to owning both CGC and BGS slabs. My personal preference and opinion is anything under a BGS 9 - the white labels look bad. On BGS cards the inner sleeve makes it hard to see indents or minor damage as well. I’m very impressed with CGC, as well PSA has never done me dirty. Between the two I have a hard time choosing which I more heavily prefer. I will add that CGC labels, much like BGS look very naked without sub grades.
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Just sent off an error WB Kids Dragonite, champion road totodile, and an appletun (for funsies) to CGC. We’ll see how they do with them. The label should look cool on the totodile and PSA won’t grade the wb errors so that’s why I went with them. Ever since the whole Beckett black label scandal I’ve been kind of turned off when it comes to using them.
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Black Label Scandal? Can you explain further? I never heard of the topic you can link me to a article or something. Sorry to derail thread that black label statement is disturbing if true!
www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1297069
It’s 175 pages but long story short…one large sports card seller who used to work for bgs was getting upwards of 10% or more of his cards back as black labels when the average person was getting 2% or less for similar cards
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Which is statistically impossible because grading is just a random number generator and not based on actual card condition right? So somebody with experience and access to a lot of mint cards has no way of going 5x joe schmoe’s black label percentage after opening a few packs, right?
I’m not saying something fishy wasn’t going on because I really don’t know but the mathematicians I saw calculating the odds of that happening “legitimately” was the one of the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
Human graders are the ones assigning black labels so surely a human not employed at BGS should be able to exist that have an eye for them as well. Unless mere mortals do not possess the powers that are 3rd party professional grader gods.
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I am hoping more people go to CGC and BGS so I can get my graded cards back from PSA faster 
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Good point:)
Nah, it’s impossible. These are other dealers with 1000+ submissions a year that were making the complaint. Not people sending 5 cards they got from a pack.
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Exactly, and even then one time is totally fine. But that happening over and over again is just so improbable that you may call it impossible.
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I would buy a BGS graded card if it were 9.0 or higher, although if the surface had a bad subgrade compared to that 9.0 holistic grade, I would hesitate even more. I do like that (all?) BGS encapsulations seem to have a plastic sleeve within the hard plastic case preventing the card from knocking against anything hard inside the case. My one gripe with PSA cases is that the card sits exposed within the plastic, so if there is any gap between the edges of the card and the sides of the inner part of the case, the card might “rattle” and the edges might ding against these sides. Although this might only be my paranoid imagination at work rather than anything that happens in reality (any anecdotes about whether this is a realistic concern would be appreciated). I’ve noticed that some PSA slabs seem to have this inner plastic sleeves. When I send my first cards for grading, I’ll probably do whatever is necessary to get that if that is still an option. Regarding CGC, I would rather wait another year or two to see how the cards shake out on the market before buying any of their graded cards.