The Blastoise not being in a blue guard has triggered me lol. Awesome set so far though man and best of luck with the rest. I think Chansey may be the hardest
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I think it’s mainly due to the PSA graders now not giving (well, giving fewer) any allowances on factory surface issues which 99% of vintage Wotc have.
For example, these may have a tiny print line on the back or a roller line which would have been acceptable for 10s before.
But with the massive increase in the volume of cards have been graded, particularly modern, my thoughts are that it has made graders bias for 10s.
Most PSA 10 base shadowless and 1st ed have one or two factory issues - such as a very minor print like.
These would have been acceptable for 10s then, but now I think sadly that is no longer the case.
It’s one of the reasons why I grade BGS - I think they are very fair and by far are the most consistent.
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Thanks ! At some point I’ll get another blue one but I can’t find them in Europe anymore, sadly.
Technically raichu is the hardest by pop, but I’ve had two so far.
Hitmonchan and Chansey will be very tough too.
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Considering sending my 9.5 Blastoise for a cross to PSA. It’s just as clean as this and arguably better centering.
Has anyone here successfully crossed in the slab from BGS to PSA? I usually crack but wouldn’t want to do that here.
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I have only tried once and personally wouldn’t bother trying again. Pretty similar situation to yours (I felt like the card was strong and didn’t want to risk cracking myself) except I was only hoping for a lateral move.
I’m curious to hear your results if you go for it.
Very cool collection btw!
I documented my experience in the post below.
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If you want opinions from BGS collectors, you can look at the sports card forums. Weak BGS 9.5s (9.5, 9.5, 9.5, 9) have almost no shot. The sports card collectors claim that strong BGS 9.5s (9.5, 9.5, 10, 10) have a higher crossover success rate (25%-50%).
My personal opinion is to never, under any circumstance, use PSA’s crossover service for a PSA 10. Always crack and submit if you want a real shot. You are 100% likely to waste money on this submission if you don’t crack.
Loosing the beautiful gold label is a sad thing to hear but if you can flip the 10 and find another 9.5 I’m all for it 
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It’s not a weak 9.5 though !
I see the issue when it’s got a 9 subgrade on corners as it’s usually got some whitening that is visible but anything 9 centering is usually extremely strong.
9 surface can be strong if no print lines or scratches (like my zard). It has a tiny hickey on the Holo that is like a pin prick dot, should still be able to cross to psa 10.
The issue is the bias the subgrades may give a psa grader… It’s like a reason not to cross something when they don’t objectively look at the card itself and ignore it’s existing label.
I guarantee you that the 9.5 will not even be considered for a PSA 10. No company will objectively examine a card’s condition in a crossover. I would only choose crossover if it was a very expensive card and I didn’t care about a downgrade (e.g., trophies, very rare cards where the grade doesn’t matter).
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Aren’t they supposed to be objective?
BGS has been good to me in this regard. Some cards don’t cross but recently had a psa 10 go to a black label.
Mostly they are very good at being objective and ignoring the existing label.
It was in the PSA slab too.
This Blastoise is 100% stronger than 99% of shadowless PSA 10s I’ve seen, just don’t want to crack it.
I know a guy that cracked a super clean 6xxx cert PSA 10 shadowless zard and sent it to BGS, came back a 9.5 with 9 surface, lol.