A 9 is not a 9

How we compared them

For every card on this index, we looked for grades where at least two copies were on offer from PSA and at least two from Beckett (BGS) or SGC, all unqualified, all at the same number. That gave sixteen matched pairs for SGC and four for Beckett. For each pair we compared the median asking price of the two graders.

These are asking prices, and some of the pairs rest on two or three copies. Everything below is a ratio, so it holds as individual listings come and go, but the thin pairs are flagged.

SGC: about four-fifths

Across the sixteen pairs, the median SGC copy asks about 0.81 of the PSA copy at the same grade.

The discount is remarkably steady on the expensive vintage cards. The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, the 1952 Bowman Mantle, the 1951 Bowman Willie Mays and the 1951 Bowman Mantle all sit between about two-thirds and nine-tenths, in grades from 1 to 5. The 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky in PSA 1 and SGC 1 is at the low end, at about 0.65.

The exception: Willie Mays in 1952 and 1953

On two cards the pattern breaks.

The 1953 Topps Mays asks more in SGC than in PSA in two of the three grades we could compare, at about 1.3 times in grade 2.5 and about 1.1 times in grade 4. In grade 3 the usual discount returns, at about 0.9. The 1952 Topps Mays in grade 1 is level, at about 1.05.

Each of those rests on two or three SGC copies, so we would not build a theory on them. But it is worth knowing that on some vintage cards SGC copies are not a discount at all, and a buyer assuming they always are can be surprised.

Beckett: it depends on the card

The four Beckett pairs split cleanly in two.

On the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr., a Beckett 8 and a Beckett 9 each ask about nine-tenths of the PSA copy. Beckett very nearly holds its own.

On the 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan, a Beckett 8.5 and a Beckett 9 each ask only about three-fifths of the PSA copy. Both rest on two Beckett copies, but the two agree with each other closely.

One possible reading is that for the 1986-87 Fleer Jordan, one of the hobby's most valuable rookies, buyers want the PSA holder specifically, while on a cheaper card the label matters less. We cannot prove that from four pairs, and we say so.

Why the same number is not the same grade

Part of the answer is the scales themselves.

Beckett grades in half points and adds four subgrades, for centring, corners, edges and surface. Its 9.5 is called Gem Mint and its 10 Pristine, with a Black Label reserved for a 10 with a perfect 10 in every subgrade. A Beckett 9 is a Mint card that missed Beckett's own Gem Mint grade.

SGC graded on a 10-to-100 scale for its first twenty years and moved to the familiar 1-to-10 scale only in 2018. Older SGC holders still carry numbers like 88 and 96, which buyers have to translate.

Beyond the scales, the rest is the market's preference. PSA is the leading grader, with SGC and Beckett behind it, and a PSA holder is the one most buyers are used to seeing. It seems likely that a copy in another company's holder has to be priced to compete with that.

What to take from it

Do not read a number across companies. An SGC 9 and a PSA 9 may describe the same card, but they are not priced as the same card.

Look at the card, not the label, when you buy another grader's copy. A discount of a fifth on the same grade is a real saving if the card itself is as good. Our article on how far apart identical grades are priced shows how much copies within a single grade vary anyway.

Expect to take the discount back when you sell. The same discount that makes another grader's copy cheaper to buy will apply when you sell it, unless you pay to have it regraded.

And watch for the exceptions. On the Griffey, Beckett is close to level. On some vintage Mays cards, SGC asks as much or more. The discount is a tendency, not a rule.

We have measured other labels in what a PSA qualifier costs and what an Authentic label is worth, and the step between grades in what the last grade point costs.

The thing worth sitting with

Every grading company is trying to describe the same piece of cardboard. The numbers line up closely enough that conversion charts can put them side by side.

The prices do not line up. On most of these rookies, the name on the holder is worth about a fifth of the card. On the 1986-87 Fleer Jordan, it is worth closer to two-fifths.

This index tracks every grader and grade separately, which is what makes a comparison like this possible. You can read how we work the numbers out.

Sources