Beckett Grade or PSA Grade?

General
1

Just wanted to know what mind set goes into which grade?

What are your preferences in making that decision for your cards?

2

I love Beckett’s for mint sports cards. But not Pokémon because only 5% of graded Pokémon cards are Beckett.

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3

Well I always thought beckett would make more sense since they had a magazine for pokemon cards.
I remember PSA fans would talk crap about pokemon fans back in the 1990’s.

So why does more people gravitate toward PSA?
To me it makes more sense to go with beckett.

4

So if I had to choose, Beckett would make more sense right?

5

I find myself agreeing with a lot of Beckett’s subgrades when they’re 9.5 or above, but below that it feels so random at times

PSA is also pretty consistent up until a 9. It can feel like a coinflip at times when they have to decide between giving a card a 9 or a 10. I’ve seen maybe 1 submission video(it might have been from someone on this forum, I can’t really remember) where PSA actually left sticky notes on the slab to say why the card didn’t get a 10, but other than that I haven’t seen PSA leave comments on why cards get their grades

PSA has too much of a backlog which probably prevents them from giving comments on every individual card, and it’s a shame since they don’t do subgrades either so it can be confusing on why your card received a certain grade

I can’t answer why more people gravitated towards PSA years ago when pokemon grading took off, but I can say that right now, PSA has pretty much encapsulated almost every top card in the hobby so naturally people will continue to go back to them

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6

So where is Beckett Located?
What do I need to know?

7

Dallas

8

I like the look of the PSA case more and I dont wanna mix my collection

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9

I would say that given their market share in pokemon (almost monopoly), PSA now has the best know-how for this hobby.

Also, for a graded cards collection consistency in slabs type is something I believe a lot of people value

10

Japanese cards and english cards post 2015 are better off graded with beckett

11

@budget, Why do you think that? If you get 9.5s you would have trouble even selling them at the ungraded price esp. Japanese cards. Even BGS 10s if they aren’t Charizards then they won’t go for more than PSA 10 prices most of the time. Also for how little they give out 10s it wouldn’t be worth it IMO. If you are an ex grader and you can guarantee a 50% black label sub like that sports card guy then maybe it would be worth it lol.

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12

I think you are saying because the printing quality has been impeccable in modern years, you might as well go with Beckett. The reason for that I think is the high likelihood of getting a 10. That does make sense, but I also think it kind of undermines the allure and higher price tag that you see in earlier sets where cards are less likely to get a Beckett 10. Even for those early sets for most cards, buyers won’t flinch to purchase a PSA 10 copy over a Beckett 10, especially if the only Beckett 10s available are priced higher than PSA 10 copies. Most buyers will save the money and get the cheaper option for still the highest grade, plus mainly people express the desire for constancy, especially when you have to lug those collections around, PSAs weighs less net weight.

The other burden of having a Beckett 10 is that you feel obligated to price it higher because it is arguably a better condition card. Doing so however could stunt your yearly sales if your goal is to sell inventory and turn a profit. Your Beckett 10s may eventually sell, but it would be a less frequent occurrence than if you sold PSA 10s. If time is on your side and you don’t care how long it takes to sell, it could be quantifiably, fiscally beneficial to go with Beckett. I haven’t really paid much attention to Beckett 10s or their sales, so I don’t know if most cards graded Beckett 10 sell for a premium or not, other than Charizards and more popular cards.

If we just submit all our modern Japanese promos to Beckett, knowing that many of them will come back 10s, that means several other people are doing the same thing and now a 10 no longer has any distinction to PSA 10. PSA 10 is the highest PSA grade and Beckett 10 has only two different styles of the card for it to be a 10. If there are hundreds of Beckett 10s in existence, then it’s safe to assume that PSA has copies that would cross grade from PSA 10 to Beckett 10. The market logic will realize this in time and soon, for that card, Beckett 10 and PSA 10 prices should be only negligibly different. At which point it becomes mostly a preference.

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13

If you want to resell the card in the future just go for PSA

14

Even though I really like the beckett case, PSA holds much more value as it´s accepted more widely. There´s a few exceptions like Vintage 10s but thats about it.

15

The print quality is immaculate for Japanese and Post-2015 English cards.

Majority of new cards graded come back as PSA 10 to the point where the market is saturated with them. Imo i don’t think these cards really deserve a premium and most PSA 9 modern cards definitely shouldn’t sell for more than what a raw card is worth soon after release.

I just don’t see the value in paying more for those considering how optimised the market is right now unless the card is a rare release in the same vein of a prize card or some unique distribution method, limited supply, staff promo, etc.

BGS 10s are a very realistic grade for new pack fresh set cards and the chance of a Black Label while slim is in the realm of possibility unlike ever before. I’ve graded and sold a few black labels myself. The best ROI is with Beckett atm.

BGS 10 is perceived as the more valuable and harder grade by the collector base if you know your market and grade the right cards you can sell them for more than PSA 10s.

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16

Buy cards, not grades.

Sell grades, not cards.

17

I agree with some things and disagree with others.

18

@budget, have you sent a bulk sub to BGS? I would be interested to know the ratio of 9.5s to 10s I don’t think I have seen anyone post an average grade rundown. For 100 cards what would it look like?

Just looking at the figures quickly BGS is more expensive to grade bulk $12/ea for bulk? PSA right now is $8.50-$9. BGS has no financial grade guarantee as well which is spooky.

You would need a high ratio of BGS 10s to match a PSA sub in terms of resell value even out of the gate you have $300 more in grading costs.

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19

I’ve never had enough modern cards worth grading to do a big bulk sub.

If you just want to look at resell value from a business perspective… I’m not doing what most people do with bulk PSA subs and grade hundreds of $1-$20 cards.

That’s just asking for trouble. You tie up money for months and then there’s no guarantee you’ll sell everything. I see local stores trying to sell $5 cards for $40 and while you may get the one occasional sale it takes a long time.

Grade tactically.