More proof of BGS being a joke...

ctsoxfan

I was at a show yesterday, and was looking at a Joe Mauer Bowman Chrome Auto RC. It was in a PSA 9 holder, but apparently the dealer wasn't satisfied with that, so he brought it to the kind folks over at Beckett during the Fort show. They apparently have a "raw card review", or something of that nature. They responded by telling him they would put the card in a BGS 9.5 holder, with a "10 auto grade", and left a yellow post-it note with the details of this on the back of the card. This was definitely not a scam by the dealer, as he had many cards in his case from Beckett raw card review, but he had to send this one in for the case switch (which they apparently could not do on site). First of all...an auto grade? WTF is that? Either it's an auto, or its not, right? Second, how does a PSA 9 make it into a supposedly hard to get BGS 9.5 just like that (wink, wink)?

Of course, in light of these events, the dealer now wanted more than double his original price for the card, which I told him to stick somewhere...

CON40

Just remember, Beckett is basically a shill for the secondary card market. Their sole existence is twofold: Help dealers maximize profit on modern cr@p, and be a mouthpiece for the card companies to justify the exorbitant prices for modern packs by claiming their are $500 RCs of nobodies inside. Beckett's goal is to siphen as much money out of the collector's wallet as possible to enrich themselves (scam grading), the card companies (scam pricing) and dealers (inflated secondary market).

Your experience is a another sad reminder of their worthless existence to the backbone of the hobby.

helionaut

I wouldn't be surprised if any particular PSA 9 went into a BGS 9.5. We've all seen cards that were can't-miss 10s end up being 9s, and we wonder why. This might've been such a case. As long as it was well-centered, Chromes usually grade highly with BGS. A card with 2 9.5 subgrades and 2 9 subgrades can still end up being 9.5 overall, as long as the right two scores are pulling up the lower ones.

However, your other issues are valid questions. Raw card review? It wasn't raw, it was slabbed. And if it's slabbed, how can they perform the excruciating study every card goes through? This goes for other companies that do crossover, too. How can you get a good look at the surface if it's within plastic already? I think they just like to take cards out of other companies slabs, not to mention the extra $10 or so they get for slabbing it once the work is already done. And the BGS autograph grade is something of a mystery, too. They only seem to knock it down if the signature runs off the edge of the card, or if it's smudged. If the sig gets that crackly look from a pen like a Sharpie on a slick coated card, it can still get a 10. If you have someone named Dangerfield VanDer Hoofersteinenwackendouche, and he just signs a tiny D__ 23, it can still get a 10.

Snowball

<< <i>First of all...an auto grade? WTF is that? >>




They should actually grade the pen. They don't grade it by the stroke/penmanship they just base it on how bold the signature is. If no blotting you get a 10.

Vincecarder

I've had BGS 8.5's as well as BGS 8's jump up to PSA 10's so your point of a PSA 9 bumping to a BGS 9.5 isn't a good one. I've infact bought MANY PSA 9's only to resubmit to PSA and BGS and get higher grades. From my modern submissions I have had more consistant grading with BGS...PSA has been all over the board. I submitted the same card three times with different grades each time (PSA 9, PSA 8, PSA 10)....go figure.