PSA vs CGC vs BGS grades explained

Most slabs you will see at a show come from three grading companies: PSA, CGC and Beckett, whose slabs are called BGS. All three grade on a scale that tops out at 10, so it is tempting to treat every 10 as the same card. They are not, and the difference matters the moment a slab changes hands.

What every grade measures

Graders look at four things. Centering is how evenly the picture sits inside its borders, front and back. Corners should be sharp. Edges should be clean, with no chips or whitening. Surface covers scratches, print lines, dents and stains, and on a holo card it is often the hardest one to get right.

A card is only as good as its weakest area. Perfect corners do not rescue a scratch across the holo, which is why a card that looks clean at arm's length can come back a 7.

PSA: one number, and the slab you see most

PSA gives a single grade from 1 to 10, with no subgrades on the label, so the slab does not say which area held a card back. Each number comes with the same words every time:

• PSA 10, Gem Mint. The top grade PSA gives.
• PSA 9, Mint. One small flaw, often a touch of centering or a tiny mark.
• PSA 8, NM-MT. Near mint to mint, with minor wear you can find if you look.

PSA also gives half grades below 10, such as an 8.5, but there is no PSA 9.5. Some labels carry a qualifier, such as OC for off center or ST for staining. Collectors treat a qualified grade as its own thing, a step down from the same number without one.

CGC: half grades and two different 10s

CGC grades from 1 to 10 in half points, including a 9.5, which it calls Mint+. At the very top it has two separate grades. Gem Mint 10 is an excellent card. Pristine 10 sits above it and is CGC's best grade, for a card that is as close to flawless as the graders can tell. The two slabs say different words on the label, so read the words and not just the number.

CGC can also print subgrades for the four areas, but that is an option, and plenty of CGC slabs do not show them.

BGS: four subgrades and the colour of the label

Beckett grades in half points too, and a BGS label lists four subgrades: centering, corners, edges and surface. A BGS 9.5 is Gem Mint, and a BGS 10 is Pristine.

On a Beckett slab the label colour carries meaning. A Pristine 10 whose four subgrades are all 10 gets Beckett's black label, and collectors call it a Black Label. It is rare and it is treated as a tier of its own. A Pristine 10 with even one subgrade below 10 comes on a gold label, which is a different and more common slab. When someone says "BGS 10", it is fair to ask which one they mean.

Why a 10 is not a 10

Each company has its own standards, its own look and its own buyers. A PSA 10, a CGC Pristine 10 and a BGS Black Label are three different slabs, and they sell for different amounts even when the card inside is the same printing. The same is true further down the scale: a PSA 9 and a BGS 9 are two separate markets, not one.

So when you compare slabs, compare like with like: the same card, the same printing, the same company and the same grade, and for Beckett, the same label.

Checking a slab at the table

• Read the whole label. The company, the grade, the words beside the number, any qualifier, and on a Beckett slab the subgrades and the label colour.
• Look up the cert number on the grader's own website before you agree to anything. How to spot a fake PSA slab walks through what to compare.
• Price from sales of that exact slab. Same company, same grade, same printing.
• Keep raw and graded apart. A loose copy of the card is a different market. Raw vs graded cards explains why.

Whether a card is worth sending in to any of these companies is a separate question, and only the owner can answer it. When grading pays sets out the arithmetic.