Which grading companies have graded Pokémon cards?
The ones I know:
PSA(Professional Sports Authenticator)
The most popular and well-known grading company for Pokémon cards, located in the US with professional middleman services to submit to them located in the US, UK, France, and Japan.
They’ve been around before Pokémon was even a concept, since they started grading sports cards since 1991. Their labels and cases have therefore also slightly changed over the years. The Marill (or I should say Pikablu) below is an example of one of their earliest cases and labels they’ve used for Pokémon cards. Their labels are all white with a red border at the front.
BGS (Beckett Grading Service)
Another very well-known one, also located in the US. Their lower grades are a bit inconsistent, but BGS-10s tend to go for a lot more than PSA-10s since they are more strict for 10s specifically (and because they also have 9.5 grades, unlike PSA). BGS has four subgrades (for centering, corners, edges, and surface), where a Black Label 10 (with all four subgrades a 10) is the highest possible grade. Subgrades aren’t mandatory though, so it’s also possible to have a label without subgrades (as can be seen at the bottom card below). Their cases are thicker than PSA’s.
BGS was founded in 1979 when they were known for releasing Baseball magazines, and they started grading sport cards in 2001 under the name BVS (Beckett Vintage Grading).
Where PSA has a single label for every grade, BGS has a different label depending on the grade. BGS-10 (quad 10) will get a black label; BGS 9.5-10 (non-quad-10) will get a golden label; BGS 8.5-9 a silver label; and BGS 1-8 a white label with Beckett Grading diagonal across it.
CGC (Certified Guaranty Company)
This grading company has been grading comics and posters since 2000, but started picking up the grading of Pokémon and MTG cards since 2020. Even though it’s fairly new, it quickly gained popularity, especially for misprint/error collectors. They also use the latest techniques for determining the authenticity of test prints or misprints of cards, and release articles about them from time to time (a good example of that can be found here).
Their light blue labels are just like PSA the same across all grades, and just like BGS they have optionally four subgrades (Centering, Surface, Corners, and Edges). A CGC-10 (both Pristine 10 and Perfect 10) will have a golden 10 instead of black 10 as grade, though.
PCA****(Professional Cards Authenticator)
A rather new grading company in France that started in 2016, but is fairly popular within Europe as well (especially in France for obvious reasons). Their cases are smaller and thinner than PSA, as can be seen in the picture below.
PCA cards will like PSA have the same colored labels across all grades.
SGC(Sportcard Guarantee Corporation)
Don’t know too much about this one personally, but I’ve seen a couple Pokémon cards graded by them, and it’s usually mentioned at the same time as PSA and BGS when it comes to sport cards. They’ve started in 1999and are again located in the US. The currently highest price paid for a graded Base Set Charizard was also a SGC-10 (sold for 369k USD at the end of 2020), which is saying something about the credibility of the grading company.
In 2018 they’ve changed their label, and updated the cases. Their cases also have a black inside, whereas all the previous mentioned grading cases are just fully transparent. Below the Charizard that sold for a record price (with their newer case/labels) and below one of the older variants.
MAP (not sure what it’s an abbreviation of)
This grading company doesn’t exist anymore. I do have a MAP-graded Pikachu myself, but the owner passed away and the company went with it unfortunately. I therefore also don’t know too much about it, and can’t find too many pictures. From what I see, the cases are all the same, and just like the previous SGC has an inner non-transparent layer - white in this case. MAP also uses a system of + and ++ for their grades, and also has three subgrades (for cut, color, and condition). A MAP-10 is outlined in black; a 9 in red; 8 in green; and below that I don’t know since I couldn’t find any.
BCCG (Beckett Collectors Club Grading)
This service is also owned by Beckett. From what I understood, you could send in 100+ cards as a bulk to grade for very cheap (like 2 bucks a piece). Although the grading standards are completely different from BGS, and a lot of cards get a 10 which would be a PSA/BGS-6-8 at best. It’s usually used for aftermarket products which will add grading cards ‘for free’ in their products… I’m pretty sure Beckett’s BCCG isn’t available through Beckett anymore though, since I couldn’t find it on their website.
I also couldn’t find a single BCCG Pokémon card graded below a 10 despite having seen almost fifty graded Pokémon cards through google images (which is saying a lot about how lack their grading standards are)… So instead the second picture is a lower graded sports card (even though almost all of those I see are also BCCG-10s…).
KSA (not sure what it’s an abbreviation of)
This is a Canadian grading company apparently. Don’t know anything about them, but I’ve seen some Pokémon cards graded by them.
GMA (again, couldn’t find what it stands for)
One of the cheaper grading companies, with about 4 USD per card. A lot of their 10s still have flaws that would give it a lower grade in most other companies, though. And I’ve also heard the slabs aren’t in too good quality (which is to be expected with the lower prices I guess).
CGA (Card Grading Australia)(not to be confused with CGA (Collectible Grading Authority) whom grade figures, dolls, and games)
This grading company is located in Australia (as its name suggests), and started around 2012. Their grading scale is from 1 to 100 instead of 1 to 10.
CTA (couldn’t find the meaning of the abbreviation)
This is just like MAP out of business. It used to be pretty well-known for sport cards in the early 2000s, and I’ve seen a couple graded Pokémon cards by them, including three Trophy cards below. Since I can’t find too many graded Pokémon card pictures by them, again some sport cards instead.
They also include a card that shows per corner/edge both front and back where the flaws are at, basically subgrades of subgrades.
EG (European Grading)
Located in Spain, and started in 2015. They mostly focus on MTG, but also grade other TCGs including Pokémon. Their cases and labels are both pretty big, and just like some of the previous grading companies they have four subgrades (Centering, Corners, Edges, and Surface), and also mention the weight and thickness of the card.
Since I can barely find any pictures of EG-graded Pokémon cards, here below also an MTG card instead.
MNT (Mint Grading)
They mainly focus on sports, but I’ve seen a few Pokémon cards here and there. Their cases look very similar to the BGS slabs. In addition, they also have the same four subgrades; black labels if all four subgrades are 10s (I couldn’t find a Pokémon card like that, so below a DBZ MNT black label 10 instead); golden labels for the higher grades; and silver labels below.
GRAAD (Grade Authority And Authentication Division)
This is an Italian grading company that started in 2018. It’s therefore still fairly new, but I have seen quite a few Italian Pokémon cards graded by them thus far, and they’re fairly popular in Italy (just like PCA in France).
They have a green label that is the same across all grades.
SCC (Stati di Conservazione Carte - translates to: State of Conservation of Cards)
Another Italian grading company. No idea when it started, but probably not too long ago. Their cases are pretty big and ugly imo. They have five subgrades (Surface, Centering, Edges, Corners, and Print quality). Their grading scale goes from 1 to 10 (and can have .5 like most grading companies mentioned earlier); for the 9 specifically it’s split between 9, 9.2, 9.5, and 9.7, though.
Does anyone know any others? Or opinions about any of these grading companies besides the most well-known ones (PSA, BGS, CGC)?
Greetz,
Quuador