Beckett Card Grading (A Collector’s Guide) BGS, BVG, BCCG

Beckett has long been a powerhouse in the media business. 

Its monthly price guide magazines are synonymous with card collecting from the 80s and 90s.

Beckett Card Grading was launched in 1999. While it has long been considered a top-tier grading company, it is now a distant fourth in overall grading volume (per Gem Rate).

In this piece, we review Beckett Grading’s history and explore some details of its different card grading options.

What’s The Background Of Beckett Grading?

Beckett Media was launched in 1984 and started with a physical magazine price guide and corresponding annual price books.

If you grew up in the 1980s, Beckett was synonymous with card prices. It was the de facto standard for determining card values at the time. I fondly remember waiting for the next month’s Beckett to arrive.

EVERYONE carried around their Beckett magazine at card shows.

Beckett price guides left such a lasting impression that I distinctly remember this Mattingly issue. 

Beckett decided to leverage their brand by launching a card grading business, Beckett Grading Services (or BGS), in 1999.

PSA was still the king of the sports card grading business at the time, and a new competitor (SGC) had launched only a year prior. 

In 2001, Beckett also launched Beckett Vintage Grading (BVG) to create a separate grading entity devoted to cards from 1981 and prior. 

My two cents: Beckett should dump BVG and focus on one grading entity. To this day, collectors remain confused by the two different grading divisions.

Oh, and then there is Beckett Collectors Club Grading (BCCG), launched as a low-price, high-volume grading service compared to BGS and BVG. However, Beckett shut it down a few years back.

In our sports grading tutorial, we discussed some differences between Beckett and PSA, but I’ll review it again here.

So, as a recap, Beckett Grading is a subsidiary of Beckett Media. 

Beckett Grading consists of…

Beckett Grading Services (BGS)

Beckett’s Largest and Most Popular Grading Division, Modern Cards Issued from 1981 to Present. Offered with and without subgrades.

Beckett Vintage Grading (BVG)

Beckett’s Vintage Card Grading Division, For Cards Issued Prior to 1981. Does not offer subgrades and collectors must submit at a service level that includes subgrades.

From Beckett:

Beckett only assigns an overall grade to vintage era cards. This is primarily due to the production quality of vintage era cards and the overall aesthetic of the card being the main focus. Additionally, cards deemed as “vintage” are not eligible for the Base Without Subgrades service due to the meticulous grading process required for these cards. Despite not receiving subgrades, all vintage era cards must be submitted using a “With Subgrades” service.

Beckett Collector Club Grading (BCCG)

Beckett’s Lower Tier, High Volume Collector Grading Service. Note this service was recently shut down by Beckett

How Does Beckett Grade Cards?

Beckett grades cards using a standard 1 to 10-point scale, with half grades included.

For BGS, Beckett offers card grading with subgrades or no subgrades.

Subgrades are the four-part scoring system that Beckett uses to arrive at its final overall grade.

The four subgrades are as follows: Centering, Corners, Edges, and Surface.

Beckett scores each subgrade (from 1 through 10) and then derives an overall grade based on the four subgrades. 

The best possible overall card grade that BGS offers is a 10. 

To make it even more confusing, Beckett offers two different 10 grades, Pristine 10 and ‘Black Label’ Pristine 10.

What Is The Difference Between BGS Pristine 10 and Black Label Pristine?

In 2014, Beckett introduced the ‘Black Label’ Pristine 10 grade, a card that scores a 10 on all four subgrades. According to Beckett’s grading statistics, less than 1% of all cards graded have earned a Pristine ‘Black Label’ grade since their introduction.

A graded card can also achieve a Pristine 10 (with only a Gold label), a nearly flawless card that has achieved one non-10 subgrade.  

Cards graded a BGS 9.5 (Gem Mint) or BGS 10 (Pristine) have a gold-colored label.

Silver labels are affixed to cards graded either BGS 8.5 or BGS 9, whereas the remainder of BGS-graded cards have a white label.

Note there had been some speculation that a former BGS employee was getting access to many black label cards. 

Beckett (BGS) Grading Scale

BGS 10 Pristine – Black Label
BGS 10 Pristine – Gold Label
BGS 9.5 (True Gem) – All 9.5 Subgrades
BGS 9.5 (Gem Mint)
BGS 9 (Mint)
BGS 8 (Near Mint-Mint)
BGS 7 (Near-Mint)
BGS 6 (EX-Mint)
BGS 5 (EX)
BGS 4 (VG-EX)
BGS 3 (VG)
BGS 2 (Good)
BGS 1 (Poor)

What’s The Difference Between PSA and Beckett Grading System?

The major differences between Beckett and PSA are twofold.

First, PSA does not offer subgrades, as Beckett (and CSG) are the only two major graders to offer them. 

Second, PSA’s top grade is Gem Mint (PSA 10).  PSA does not distinguish between Pristine and Gem Mint cards like Beckett does. 

Recall that Beckett’s Gem Mint grade is 9.5. The hobby has latched onto the ‘True Gem Mint’ Beckett 9.5 terminology, simply a BGS 9.5 with all 9.5 subgrades. Note that ‘True Gem’ is not an official Beckett term.

PSA allows slightly off-center cards to earn a PSA 10 grade, but they must not exceed 55/45 to 60/40 on the front or 75/25 on the reverse.

Thus, PSA 10 cards can sometimes be slightly off-center, which makes a black-label Pristine card a differentiator for Beckett Grading. 

Distinguishing between a PSA 10 and an equivalent Beckett BGS grade is a complicated task. Theoretically, a PSA 10 grade card could fit into any of the top four BGS card grades.  

A PSA 10 with flawless centering might very well be Black Label worthy. Or it might be slightly off-center and equivalent to Beckett’s Gem Mint (9.5 grade).

Typically, the value of a PSA 10 card is up to the eye of the beholder. Certainly, those that appear slightly off-center will not warrant any secondary market premium.

How Much Does Beckett Card Grading Cost?

Like the other grading companies, Beckett was hit with demand during the pandemic, forcing it to shut down its two lower-priced (Economy and Standard) grading services.

Currently, Beckett offers Base, Standard, Express, or Premium card grading.

The base pricing for the four grading service levels is as follows:

Base (w subgrades): $17.95 – 45+ business day turnaround
Standard (w subgrades): $34.95 – 20-25 business day turnaround
Express (w subgrades): $79.95 – 7-10 business day turnaround
Premium (w subgrades): $124.95 – 2-3 business day turnaround

Express: $150 (or $100 with no subgrades)Premium: $250 (or $125 with no subgrades)

Beckett Grading is also priced based on the card’s declared value, which determines the level of insurance needed.

In addition to the insurance cost, there is a return shipping cost. 

So, for one card worth $1000 or less, the cheapest grading method with Beckett (and with subgrades) will cost nearly $60. 

This puts Beckett Grading on the higher end of pricing for most collectors. 

See Beckett’s Submission Form For Most Card Grading Pricing Details

Evaluating Beckett Grading Prices vs PSA and SGC?

Beckett’s Base Grading Level is $17.95 but does not include a declared value. Thus, the true price for their cheapest level of service with the longest turnaround is $29.95 (up to $1000 declared value). This is on par with PSA’s lowest-cost grading option, $25. However, PSA pricing has become more affordable for Collector’s Club members.

SGC’s lowest grading price is even cheaper: $15 for a 5-10 business day turnaround and a declared value up to $1500. I can’t imagine anyone paying the premium to grade with BGS vs. SGC right now.

And let’s not forget that SGC is now owned by PSA, so I would only expect service and pricing to improve from here.

Using our Sports Card Grading Calculator can provide an example of the pricing differences:

For a $2000 card, the estimated cost breakdown is as follows:

PSA: $184

SGC: $130

BGS: $106

What Are Beckett Grading Turnaround Times?

Beckett has been notorious for very slow turnaround times, especially during the pandemic boom. Collectors often reported waiting nearly a year to get their cards. 

Beckett used to have a card grading turnaround tracker on its website, but that looks to have disappeared.

Premium Submissions	Approximately 10-15 Business Days
Express Submissions	Approximately 15-20 Business Days

For collector commentary, I also encourage you to check in on this running thread, which has more frequent updates.

Does Beckett Grading Have A Population Report?

Beckett does have a population report, which you can find here. Unfortunately, it is far inferior to the population report data offered by PSA. 

The search function on Beckett’s pop report is abysmal. For example, if I type in 1980 Topps under basketball, nothing appears. You would have to enter 1980-81 Topps for anything to show up. 

It is clear that Beckett has not invested much time or capital in the data part of its grading business, which PSA has excelled at. 

How Do I Submit My Cards To Beckett Grading?

Beckett offers an online submission system, or you can print out Beckett’s grading submission form and fill it out by hand.

I must say that I’ve only submitted to Beckett once, but I did find their online submission form very confusing.

For some reason, when I search for a card, the page is all jumbled. Here is an example: To select a card, you need to check off that checkbox, but on my screen, it shows up in the wrong column. I’m not sure what’s going on here. 

How Do I Lookup A Beckett Grading Cert?

Collectors can look up the serial number on the front of the Beckett slab to help verify authenticity. 

To see how this works, here is a 1961 Fleer Wilt card graded by BVG (or Beckett Vintage Grading).

We can see that the serial number is 0005990997

By visiting this link here we get the following info, showing that this card was indeed graded by Beckett back in 2008.  They have graded a total of 148 copies.