[rusty222]

OK,

I'm not looking to debate who is better or more strict or anything like that...I have jumped into eBay selling lately and during my pre-listing research I have noticed that even for post 1980 cards not only are there far more PSA cards listed and purchased on eBay, the PSA 10s generally grab between 20 and 50% more money than BGS 9.5s. Anyone care to share their thoughts?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have only used BGS and will continue to do so despite my findings.

I tried to point this out in forum months ago but you probably articulated it better than me. Your original post is spot on. Its apparent some collectors are more enthusiastic about PSA 10 and willing to get into bidding wars hence the higher prices. Its not hard to notice this on Ebay. I collect mostly Brady RCs and last week I bought Brady Omega BGS 9.5 with all strong subs for $565 and the PSA 10 sold same day for over 1K. Then a Brady SP Authentic .5 away from BGS Pristine only sold for $1500 and week earlier two PSA 10's sold around $2800. So if you ever hear "BGS 9.5 = PSA 10" phrase it is BS. There is nothing to prevent me from cracking out the Omega BGS 9.5 I bought and having it sent and graded a PSA 10 and then reselling it next week for $500 profit. I could do this as long as the market is there for PSA 10s. Once PSA 10s become more abundant in pop reports the prices MIGHT start to inch closer to BGS 9.5 prices.

At the moment there is a definite problem in disparity of prices. Clearly there are many BGS 9.5 that are in fact much better condition than some PSA 10s. BGS made a big mistake using 9.5 in their grading system. If they want to help their business they should remove it and adopt the same grading scale as PSA but no chance of that happening. In the long run they are only hurting themselves and the people who are religious to BGS grading.