PSA vs Beckett slabs

[bouwob]

Like many have said, psa is much better on resale pre 2000 than bgs. The one thing that makes them better than bgs is the registry.

You can have the best bgs collection of a psa registry set that is far better than anything put out by psa, but it will still sell for less than the psa finest set.

 

[JoshHamilton]

Plus BGS is more likely to label you cards correctly than PSA. It seemed every order of 100 cards with PSA had 2-3 mislabeled.

Cannot agree with this more. I have sent in about 75 cards, and this is the 3rd or 4th one:

Whats the error?

The base card is a refractor

 

[Lifelongfan]

Plus BGS is more likely to label you cards correctly than PSA. It seemed every order of 100 cards with PSA had 2-3 mislabeled.

Cannot agree with this more. I have sent in about 75 cards, and this is the 3rd or 4th one:

Whats the error?

The base card is a refractor

Thats my point--there is no error.

 

[GAbballplayer148]

Plus BGS is more likely to label you cards correctly than PSA. It seemed every order of 100 cards with PSA had 2-3 mislabeled.

Cannot agree with this more. I have sent in about 75 cards, and this is the 3rd or 4th one:

Whats the error?

The base card is a refractor

Thats my point--there is no error.

I think he was telling you the error, not saying that the actual base card in that set is a refractor. The card is clearly a refractor but is labeled as a base card. On PSA's registry, they have the same card listed as a refractor but they just mis-labeled this one.

 

[JoshHamilton]

Plus BGS is more likely to label you cards correctly than PSA. It seemed every order of 100 cards with PSA had 2-3 mislabeled.

Cannot agree with this more. I have sent in about 75 cards, and this is the 3rd or 4th one:

Whats the error?

The base card is a refractor

Thats my point--there is no error.

God damn.

THE CARD LABELED AS A BASE TOPPS CHROME CARD IS ACTUALLY A REFRACTOR, THEREFORE MAKING IT A LABELING ERROR

 

[Hendersonfan]

Ok, I started a thread loosely for this info and was directed to this thread. I'm not looking to start any arguments or anything. I simply want to know what the best choice is and what each company does best.

Pros and Cons of each company (I'll edit this post to list them). Are the prices about the same? I'm looking to grade some Henderson rookies (1980 for those that don't know). I have never submitted card to any company and don't know jack about doing so. Who is best for a 1980 card? Can I request a minimum grade? How do I ship the cards, what kind of holders? As far as Beckett slabs being more sturdy than PSA, I'm not going to be handling these much, just displaying in my Rickey Room.

PSA Pros:


PSA Cons:


Beckett Pros:
minimum grade can be requested


Beckett Cons:

 

[olerud363]

Ok, I started a thread loosely for this info and was directed to this thread. I'm not looking to start any arguments or anything. I simply want to know what the best choice is and what each company does best.

Pros and Cons of each company (I'll edit this post to list them). Are the prices about the same? I'm looking to grade some Henderson rookies (1980 for those that don't know). I have never submitted card to any company and don't know jack about doing so. Who is best for a 1980 card? Can I request a minimum grade? How do I ship the cards, what kind of holders? As far as Beckett slabs being more sturdy than PSA, I'm not going to be handling these much, just displaying in my Rickey Room.

PSA Pros:
Uniform slab appearance no matter what the grade is.

PSA Cons:
Slab reportedly easy to open, thus more chance of fraud.
Need to be a member to have cards graded.
Population report can only be seen by members.

Beckett Pros:
minimum grade can be requested
Slabs more secure, thus less chance of fraud.
Best deal in grading is the FCB Group Sub!
All population reports and registries can be read by anyone.

Beckett Cons:
Different coloured flips for different grades (I personally think they should all be either silver or gold).

See my points in bold text.

 

[sportscardtheory]

I think PSA gets you the best value. BGS has been in a steady decline after many very questionable grades and conflicts of interest. I wouldn't personally use BGS anymore. I'm actually in the process of selling-off all my BGS graded cards and am exclusively dealing with PSA.

The only things BGS has on PSA is better slabs and an open POP report.

 

[Hendersonfan]

See my points in bold text.

Thank you very much.

Are the prices about the same?

 

[bustin_knuckles]

PSA pros
- I have found that PSA is more generous on its grading. So for resale PSA is the way to go because your more likely to get a higher grade equaling a higher resale value.
- PSA doesn't grade the autograph like BGS does. So if you have an auto that probably wouldn't grade a 10 and you are selling it, I'd again go with PSA.
- Same label for all grades making uniform labels trough out which people like.

PSA cons
- They mislabel a lot of cards that are not basic issues even if you have it clearly marked (you can send it back and they will fix it but you
have to pay for shipping which sucks).
- Sensitive cards can be easily damaged (borders) in the holders if moved around a lot due to no inner sleeve (on most, some newer PSA slabs have inner sleeves).
- You have to be a paid member to submit.
- They only grade the card, not the jersey, hence grading fake patches, which lead people to believe the patch is real because the card is graded (I don't know if BGS does this or not).

BGS pros
- Open population report and registry.
- Don't have to join a club to get cards graded.
- They have a break down (4 categories) of how they graded the card.
- I gonna get ripped on this one but I think the slab is better in every way except the auto grades, see below in cons (I have about 400 PSA slabs and about 15 BGS and I wish it was the other way around).

BGS cons
- For the most part, they grade harder equaling lesser grades, lower resale value.
- Autograph grading which in the long run is pointless because the autograph can grade a 10 at the time of the grade but 5 years down the road the auto fades to a 5 grade but it is still in the 10 holder.

 

[BunchOBull]

I disagree about PSA grading being more lenient. On modern card stock, absolutely (refractor lines and autos namely), but on vintage card stock, I always send my PSA 9s and 8.5s to BGS for the 9.5. I'm 100% with BGS for 9.5s.

 

[nborton]

I disagree about PSA grading being more lenient. On modern card stock, absolutely (refractor lines and autos namely), but on vintage card stock, I always send my PSA 9s and 8.5s to BGS for the 9.5. I'm 100% with BGS for 9.5s.

In reality, this is the key point. PSA is for vintage, BGS for modern. They have their niche, and are better in their respective areas. All the talk about the holder is just personal preference. Outside of possible tampering of PSA cases coming into question. That does suck beyond personal aesthetic reasons.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

PSA is for vintage, BGS for modern.

for now. When the PSAers want something modern, then they will spike those, even if for just a short time.

PSAs registry will not be beaten. That's just the way it is.

 

[G $MONEY$]

but on vintage card stock, I always send my PSA 9s and 8.5s to BGS for the 9.5. I'm 100% with BGS for 9.5s.

would love to see "before and after" pics/scans of these vintage PSA 8.5's and 9's, that you turned into BGS 9.5's. Can you please share them?

 

[olerud363]

I disagree about PSA grading being more lenient. On modern card stock, absolutely (refractor lines and autos namely), but on vintage card stock, I always send my PSA 9s and 8.5s to BGS for the 9.5. I'm 100% with BGS for 9.5s.

In reality, this is the key point. PSA is for vintage, BGS for modern. They have their niche, and are better in their respective areas. All the talk about the holder is just personal preference. Outside of possible tampering of PSA cases coming into question. That does suck beyond personal aesthetic reasons.

I agree with the second point about aesthetic preferences. The tampering argument cannot be overlooked if you're talking about high-value cards. If you search YouTube there are a lot of videos about how to open a PSA case with minimal damage to it. The BGS-cracking videos usually involve detroying the slab to get the card out.

On the topic of cross-grading, has anyone else had a PSA 8.5 come back as a BGS 9.5? That seens like quite a bump! So would a PSA 10 be almost guaranteed to come back a BGS 9.5 or 10??

 

[gradedeflator]

I can only speak to my limited experiences, but I recently used the FCB group submission (which is awesome and a great deal if you are looking to slab!). In my order I cracked a few pre-slabbed cards and sent them off raw.

The two PSA 10 cards came back BGS 9, with pretty low surface scores--neither one was a refractor either.

I sent an SGC 92 and an SGC 96 (old label) and both came back BGS 9.5.

it's a small data set, but thought I'd share...

 

[G $MONEY$]

but on vintage card stock, I always send my PSA 9s and 8.5s to BGS for the 9.5. I'm 100% with BGS for 9.5s.

would love to see "before and after" pics/scans of these vintage PSA 8.5's and 9's, that you turned into BGS 9.5's. Can you please share them?

bump

 

[BunchOBull]

In as much as I hate when people call me out and ask me to prove myself, I'll see if I can come up with scans. One of them was posted already...the BGS 9.5 '87 Auburn issue. It's not like we're talking about every PSA 9 card in existence here, but I've been very successful at cracking 9s and getting 9.5s...always on traditional cardstock.

 

[BunchOBull]

Here's a beauty. I'll see what scans I have available on my older computer.

 

[scotty21690]

I can only speak to my limited experiences, but I recently used the FCB group submission (which is awesome and a great deal if you are looking to slab!). In my order I cracked a few pre-slabbed cards and sent them off raw.

The two PSA 10 cards came back BGS 9, with pretty low surface scores--neither one was a refractor either.

I sent an SGC 92 and an SGC 96 (old label) and both came back BGS 9.5.

it's a small data set, but thought I'd share...

Why would you crack PSA 10's? :?