What is the best baseball card grading service?

Found in the year 1999, Beckett Grading is one of the best and most famous grading companies in the world. The company is headquartered in Yorba Linda, California: Beckett Grading Services is a name to reckon with in the trading card industry.

What is the most reputable card grading service?

Currently, there are several reputable and established grading companies in the hobby: Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA), Beckett Grading Services (BGS) and Sportscard Guaranty (SGC). Each card grading company grades a variety of cards.

Is Beckett grading better than PSA?

The general consensus seems to be that BGS is a bit cheaper and faster than PSA, and it's also the preferred option for newer, modern cards. Most of their services include collectible cards, but also other types of collectibles. BGS uses an algorithm to help them determine the grade of the card.

What is the best grading company for baseball cards?

PSA (Professional Sports Authenticators)

This is a must for any card made between 1950 and 1980, and many go with PSA for modern, as well. Because PSA is considered the first major grading company, many vintage card collectors prefer PSA-graded cards over BGS.

How much does it cost to have a baseball card professionally graded?

PSA grading costs range anywhere from $20 per card all the way up to $10,000 per card, depending on the value of the card, the age of the card, how many cards you're submitting at one time, how fast you want the turnaround to be, and other factors.

Sports Card Grading 101: Learn About PSA, BGS, BVG, BCCG, SGC

What is the cheapest card grading company?

Beckett Grading Services (BGS)

Very well respected in the industry, long-time competitor of PSA. Pricing ranges from about $20 in the economy with no sub-grades all the way up to $250 premium with sub grades.

Are PSA 9 worth buying?

PSA 9s are worth 2x as much as the raw card.

Much like the BGS, the Steve Nash rookie had the most significant difference in value. In that case, the 9 was worth 2.5x as much as the raw.

Is CGC grading worth it?

Most comics from the 80s are overprinted and are easy to find, even in high grades. If your modern comic looks like a 9.6 or worse, then chances are that it isn't worth sending to get graded. You would need to get a 9.8 from CGC on most newer books to make them worth your time and money.

Is a Beckett 9.5 a PSA 10?

The quick simple answer is no bgs 9.5s are not psa 10s.

How much does it cost to have a card graded by Beckett?

Beckett Grading Services Pricing

The BGS Standard service carries $30 with no sub-grades and $50 with sub-grades. For their Economy service with no sub-grades, a card commands $20/card and $35/card with sub-grades. Express services cost $100/card with no sub-grades and $150/card with sub-grades.

Is PSA 10 or BGS 10 better?

PSA outsells BGS by a wide margin: BGS 10 sold for over twice a PSA 10, even though it's between 15 and 100 times harder to get. PSA 10 sells for more than double a “true gem” BGS 9.5.

Is it worth getting cards graded?

Truth is, the answer isn't usually the one that most want to hear. Much to the surprise of novice collectors, getting cards graded does not always increase their value. In fact, most cards, once graded, will return less than if they were sold raw.

Is PSA grading trustworthy?

What is this? Yet while SGC is viewed at the most trustworthy, PSA is viewed as the most accurate as shown below. Collectors most definitely have their concerns about the grading companies, yet believe that grading is a needed part and valued resource for the hobby.

Is PSA card grading worth it?

Even mid-level cards aren't worth the time, money and effort it takes to get them graded by PSA at the current time of writing. Consider the 2021 Celebrations Charizard seen below. It would undoubtedly be worth it with the Value tier, but it's still not valuable enough to make it worth the effort.

What are the top 5 card grading companies?

Is a CGC 8.5 a PSA 9?

CGC 8.5 encompasses the entire PSA 7-10 range. And then CGC 9 encompasses the PSA 9-10 range.

Is Cbcs better than CGC?

We noticed that CBCS is much more consistent in its grading. This is something to consider because you might have a comic undergraded (or overgraded) by CGC, which might affect the value, while CBCS will at least give a more consistent grade (ex: a comic that's a 9.8 will get a 9.8).

Are CGC cards worth less PSA?

SGC's card grading services are slightly cheaper than PSA and begin at $10 for cards that are worth less than $250. They also have higher-priced submissions that are based on the declared card value and turnaround time. Their Express service is priced at $15 with 15 business days as a turnaround time.

What is a PSA 10 card?

A PSA Gem Mint 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss. A PSA Gem Mint 10 card must be free of staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it doesn't impair the overall appeal of the card.

Can I get cards graded in person?

You can get cards graded in person, but it's worth noting it can be very expensive. It also depends on where you live in the US. PSA, for example, offers a 'walk-through' service which starts at $600 per card (at the time of writing this – check PSA's current prices here).

Where is PSA grading located?

PSA is a division of Collectors Universe, which has offices in California, New Jersey, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. As the only third-party grading service to offer a guarantee on its services, PSA has emerged as the clear leader in authentication and grading for trading cards and other collectibles.

Will PSA lower prices?

PSA recently announced that its Standard grading service would reopen to collectors, at a new price point of $100 per card. Recall that PSA shut down everything aside from its premium grading services in early 2021.

How long does PSA take to grade cards?

PSA is currently delayed with grading. They also do not grade cards in the order they were received which makes it much harder to predict when a specific order will come back. These are the approximate turnaround times as of March 2021. Approximately 3-4 weeks.