Comparing BGS 10 and PSA 10 for the Hobby’s Hottest Cards

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From the examples below, BGS 10 Pristine is usually more valuable than a PSA 10 of the same card. Thanks to Beckett’s subgrades and halfgrades, a BGS 9.5 is typically more in line with a PSA 10 in that they are both considered “gem mint.” With that said, PSA 10 values usually exceed BGS 9.5 values, thus creating a difficult comparison.

Now, I don’t have a big song and dance planned for this blog intro, but if you’re interested in my expert opinion on all the things you need to consider when comparing different grading companies, I recommend reading what I had to say about SGC vs. PSA.

(Or if you want a sentence summary, comparing a service against a service or even a particular grade from one company to the same grade from another company, it depends on a number of factors.)

So given all of that, with this post, we are purely looking at values; no caveats, what ifs, and it depends. Simply, what is the value of a BGS 10 vs. a PSA 10 for the hobby’s hottest cards? Below wis what I found based on 30-day averages data offered by Market Movers.

As you can see from above, fairly consistently, BGS 10 will hold more value than its PSA 10 counterpart. Many collectors will point to the fact that it is simply a lot more difficult to receive a BGS 10 than it is a PSA 10. As a result, it’s not unheard of for people to first submit cards to BGS hoping for that 10, only to receive 9.5 in which it is then cracked out of the slab and then submitted to PSA 10 in hopes for a 10.

So again, while there are a lot of factors and it isn’t true for every single card, the value ladder will typically go from BGS 10 being the most valuable to PSA 10 and then BGS 9.5.