I don’t have a ton of experience with BGS but I’ve got a fair amount with PSA. What do you think this card grades with both companies?
I covered the cert so you can focus on the card because a lot of people only see labels.
The card is not perfect but neither are some “Pristine” or “Gem Mint” cards. It’s damn close though. I did my best to highlight any flaws I saw.
The top to bottom and left to right centering on the back isn’t perfect by far.
I wuldn’t even see this as a PSA 10 honestly… too much edge wear…
L O L
Can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or you’ve never seen 1200 dpi scans and HD zoomed in video of a card in extremely well lit conditions.
I agree it is a 10-worthy card. I would say it would probably get a BGS 10 surface, 9 centering, 9.5 corner, and 9.5/10 edges if I had to guess.
I think it comes down to centering tbh. As another poster pointed out it’s far from perfect. They might give you a 9 or less there and then you have 0 chance of getting a 10. Unless you get 3 10’s which I highly doubt.
Edit: I agree with Tyranitar. So it’s surely a 9.5 candidate but it’s a bit of a longshot to get a 10. Very slim chance, but you never know.
Front centering seems to be ever so slightly off, back centering is more off, and back corners and edges have a little bit of whitening everywhere. I don’t think this can score higher than a BGS 9.5 on centering and corners and/or edges, surface could be a okay.
But overall it could still be a PSA 10 condition, even though it might get a 9 if they decide that the corner + edge wear on the back together with the centering is too much.
MY GRADING ATTEMPT
Images are INCREDIBLY HIGH DEF, you may need to right click and ‘open image in new tab’ in order to see the marking’s I’ve made on the images themselves.
BECKET GRADING SERVICES
VENUSAUR FRONT KEY - SILVERING MARKED WITH BLACK Xs, POSSIBLE SURFACE SCUFF MARKED WITH BLACK CIRCLE, SMALL PRINT LINE ON HOOLO MARKED WITH RED CIRCLE, COULD NOT GRADE LEFT EDGE OF CARD (OBSCURED BY HOLDER)
VENUSAUR BACK - CORNER AND EDGE WEAR MARKED WITH RED CIRCLES
Taking the average of each score (rounding down when necessary):
CENTERING: 9
SURFACE: 9.5
CORNERS: 9.5
EDGES: 9.5
OVERALL BECKETT SCORE: 9.5 GEM MINT
PSA GRADING SERVICES
Very nice condition card, so I’d start on the checklist at GEM MINT 10 and go down if it failed any of the requirements.
GEM MINT 10 REQUIREMENTS:
FOUR PERFECTLY SHARP CORNERS - PASS
SHARP FOCUS, ORIGINAL GLOSS - PASS
FREE OF STAINING - PASS
ANY IMPERFECTION IN THE CARD DOES NOT IMPAIR THE OVERALL APPEAL - PASS (silvering on front and microscopic wear on corners on back does not detract from the card’s appearance. While there does appear to be a print line on the holofoil, it is very tiny, is not easily visible, and does not tract from the card’s overall apperance.)
FRONT CENTERING TOLERANCE NO MORE THAN 55/45 to 60/40 - PASS
BACK CENTERING TOLERANCE NO MORE THAN 75/25 - PASS
I would estimate this card would receive a PSA 10 GEM MINT score.
Damn, you’re not messing around hypernova. Nice work!
@hypernova
Thank you for this. If I ever start a grading company you’ve got a new job haha.
I’d like to see some scans of high end BGS cards to compare. I think the resolution I used makes some of the “wear” seem larger than it is. In person, the average set of eyes wouldn’t be able to see most of that stuff. Does BGS grade with the naked eye?
I wish the notes like you made were available from the company. That would make things interesting. Imagine, they’d actually have to look at the cards every time!
I heard they use a 10x loupe for anything 9.5 and over.
I’m guessing that’s why I just got a BGS 9 card that looks like a PSA 7 at best. Cheap mistake that I learned a lot from.
They’re very picky when it comes to giving out a Pristine grade, but not so much on anything lower.
Ah, but it DOES mean something in the context him of scanning the image and uploading it to the web. The higher DPI scan he uses => the higher the resolution of the picture => the more detail of the card clearly visible
In the other thread you were saying that you could send in a PSA 9 and get a BGS 10. You’re baiting us into calling the card Pristine and then you’re going to reveal the PSA 9 grade. 
Real though, the attention they pay when a 9.5/10 is on the line is stupid precise. The back edges especially, and I know it’s zoomed in a lot, have some white showing – especially in some spots around the corners. They look good but just aren’t super crisp. Also, the back centering is not good.
cool shit
I didn’t say I could send in a PSA 9 and get a BGS 10, I said “These insane BGS prices are making me want to send in a PSA 9 and multiply it’s value.”
I’m not baiting you, I asked a question and I didn’t want any bias when looking at the card. The card you are looking at is a PSA 10. I didn’t even go through and pick out the best one I could find, it was one I knew was pretty nice that I had out. I didn’t even measure centering or zoom in and count microscopic dots. I’m sorry but them supposedly being really harsh on 9.5/10’s is contrary to what I’ve seen and heard about when it comes to holo foil scratching. They pay such close attention to edge wear but don’t look at the foil closely? Makes no sense to me. This card has only two real edge spots that are visible to the naked eye and I don’t see them knocking the card down to anything sub 9.5 for it. Plus, everyone talking about the centering being bad. Are you guys serious? hypernova counted the pixels and it’s actually quite good when you look at it from a percentage point of view. Is it black label quality? No way. But compare this centering to the 9.5 Shadowless Charizard at auction right now and I don’t see how this one would get less than that one and that one is all 9.5’s.
At the end of the day, sending it in is the only way to tell but I don’t know if I want it out of its current case since it’s an old cert number and it’s very clean. The thought of it being damaged makes me hesitant and then I have some random BGS card that doesn’t fit my collection at all.
In any case, thank you for your input. These responses are interesting.
That makes no sense to me at all. If I scanned this card at 300dpi (the settings in the scanner program) the image would be 1/4 the size and you wouldn’t be able to zoom in with the same clarity.
Honestly, I don’t see anything that would prevent that card from getting a pristine grade at Becketts. Admittedly, I can’t see everything and would have a better idea if I could view it in person.
Hypernova did a great job pointing out the details. Just to toss an extra opinion out there I’d give it a 9.5-10 on centering (rear side doesn’t matter as much)
9.5 surface (slight factory surface wear on bottom left rear.).
10 edges
9.5 corners (top right rear has a slight wear and possible rise to it).
