CGC vs BGS Grading

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Not sure if this has been post before if so please lock or delete. I don’t have a large sample pool but am I crazy or does it seem like CGC grading is better than BGS grading in the lower numbers?

I know it has been mentioned that some BGS 8.5 or lower grades can equal to a PSA 4 or 5 but looking at some CGC the cards looks a lot cleaner at the same grade than BGS

Mostly talking grades from 5 to 8.5

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BGS has different grading parameters for their lower grades, they are not consistent with PSA. When people claim they are equal or they grade harsher it is disingenuous I think a lot of people get caught out by this and it is not BGS’s fault. It is still probably too early to make an overall judgement for CGC.

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BGS seems to be more exponential and lenient with grades around 8 and under. CGC and PSA are more linear.

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Just thought this was weird since BGS is the go to for grading MTG cards. I wonder if there are any difference in grades on that end too

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My subjective view:

I view grades 1 through 4 most to least strict parameters as psa>cgc=bgs

5-8 cgc>psa>bgs

9s I see psa>cgc>bgs. (9.5 bgs included as equal to these other 9s for me)

lastly for 10s I see roughly the same from all 3. But I’d rate them bgs>cgc>psa.

Just my two cents not including a lot of the cracked case controversy etc. and other stuff into account.

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I agree. I also think CGC slabs are undervalued currently but makes sense given the new entry into market

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Agree with this completely. CGC’s grading scale for 1-6 makes the most sense to me (although I’m still learning the nuances) as PSA’s has always made little sense for those grades (except for psa 1 everything else seems pretty arbitrary) and bgs seems like throwing a dart at a number for those grades.

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its interesting on cgc slabs, because my exact first thought is: would this get the same grade at PSA? I’ve sent in cards to PSA i felt were solid 10’s and they come back 9’s. you could have a great cgc card and it come back a 9 on PSA. Becket 10’s and black labels seem the hardest to get, but the risk is always floating in your mind that if you break a card out of anything, you may never get back the grade it earned to begin with, let alone keep a grade if you send to a different company. it can be done, i’m just not sure the odds of success. if you were looking for arbitrage, you’d likely want to work backwards. take a psa 9 and crack it, see if it gets a cgc 10. extremely risky, but as others have pointed out, if you want your graded cards back any time soon, PSA is going to let you down.

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Are PSA cases easy to crack? If so how can I do this without damaging the card at all?

And noob question, but does CGC grade their cards digitally?

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PSA slabs like any other are crackable. With a little practice you’ll find it quiet easy. There are several Youtube videos showing how to do so.

CGC does not grade the cards digitally. They grade the cards manually and upload a high def pic of it to their data base for future references.