To Be or Not to Be? 0

[theCapraAegagrus]

Does CGC have a sister company who grades cards?

If not, who is considered the CGC of card-grading companies? PSA?

I'm considering getting a couple of nostalgia pieces.

[Kon_Jelly]

Pretty sure Beckett is the gold standard of card grading. 

[celluloidbuff]

3 minutes ago, Kon_Jelly said:

Pretty sure Beckett is the gold standard of card grading. 

They are and have been for awhile after supplanting PSA. The big difference came when they started to display subgrades on the card's label (corners, surface, centering, edges). They also "grade" the quality of the signature on a card, which I don't care for. Sometimes you'll be big price differences for BGS 9.5s that have all 9.5 subs, or especially those with one or two 10 subs. I haven't been in that game for a long time now, but I still get their emails. They have a black label now where a cards rates 4 10s on subgrades, and they also have a cheaper option to grade without subs, just asking for overall grade (the old way).

[theCapraAegagrus]

13 minutes ago, celluloidbuff said:

They are and have been for awhile after supplanting PSA. The big difference came when they started to display subgrades on the card's label (corners, surface, centering, edges). They also "grade" the quality of the signature on a card, which I don't care for. Sometimes you'll be big price differences for BGS 9.5s that have all 9.5 subs, or especially those with one or two 10 subs. I haven't been in that game for a long time now, but I still get their emails. They have a black label now where a cards rates 4 10s on subgrades, and they also have a cheaper option to grade without subs, just asking for overall grade (the old way).

PSA seems to be a more common brand, though, is that correct?

[celluloidbuff]

They were the big dogs in the game from the beginning, certainly. If they're more common, it's because so many cards were graded by them before the others, including BGS, got into the scene. I think their overall price point for grading is below BGS. Some collectors, however, are more demanding than others. For novice or speculative collectors, it's hard to spot the difference between a PSA 9 and and PSA 10 (they don't have a 9.5). With a "gem mint" 9.5 BGS, if you got one with subgrades, you can see how that individual card set itself apart with those four criteria mentioned in the other post. 

Money realized from auction is something you might want to compare between the two brands before making your ultimate decision. Do your analysis with commonly traded cards, such as a Michael Jordan rookie, to get a better feel for the ranges they sell at between both companies, paying close attention to the higher end BGS stuff and the assigned subgrades (if any). If this sounds like I'm on a BGS bandwagon, I'm not. I personally hold more PSA cards in my collection (because of the reason stated - they were all that was available for a long time until competitors opened) than BGS, but I know certain BGS cards would probably realize more in the marketplace if I were to sell because collectors of high-end cards want those extra parameters to judge them by.

[theCapraAegagrus]

1 minute ago, Deputy Mike said:

Look at the bottom of the page:

https://www.cgccomics.com/

I did that. None of them are card-grading companies - hence this topic being created.

[mattn792]

I've been aspiring to send in a few of my autographed cards that were obtained many many moons ago when I was younger to be graded.  This thread reminded me to continue aspiring.  Once I'm down to one mortgage, maybe I'll finally pull the trigger.

[theCapraAegagrus]

2 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

I've been aspiring to send in a few of my autographed cards that were obtained many many moons ago when I was younger to be graded.  This thread reminded me to continue aspiring.  Once I'm down to one mortgage, maybe I'll finally pull the trigger.

Do you have any idea if 'they' (any of them) validate non-witnessed autographs?

I'm not really gonna get 'into' cards or anything. It's interesting to learn, though.

[mattn792]

4 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:

Do you have any idea if 'they' (any of them) validate non-witnessed autographs?

I'm not really gonna get 'into' cards or anything. It's interesting to learn, though.

https://www.beckett-authentication.com/

This seems to be Beckett's service for that.  I think PSA has something similar.

[theCapraAegagrus]

2 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

https://www.beckett-authentication.com/

This seems to be Beckett's service for that.  I think PSA has something similar.

So, if/when you get them graded, you're going for BGS?

Do they appear to be the CGC of card grading IYO?

[Crops068]

2 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:

So, if/when you get them graded, you're going for BGS?

Do they appear to be the CGC of card grading IYO?

Beckett owns Voldemort, so I wonder if their card grading is at all linked?

[theCapraAegagrus]

3 minutes ago, Crops068 said:

Beckett owns Voldemort, so I wonder if their card grading is at all linked?

They recently acquired them, though.

Voldemort had problems well before that acquisition, AFAIK.

[mattn792]

11 minutes ago, TwoPiece said:

So, if/when you get them graded, you're going for BGS?

Do they appear to be the CGC of card grading IYO?

I haven't decided, figured I'd poke around a bit but am not having deep thoughts on the process at present.