PSA vs BGS vs CGC: Card Grading Compared for Australian Collectors
"It's a 10" means slightly different things depending on which company put it in the slab. PSA, BGS (Beckett) and CGC all grade on a scale that runs from 1 to 10, but the naming and the granularity aren't identical — and that difference genuinely affects how a graded card gets compared and valued.
PSA's scale
PSA's standard 1–10 scale, from their own published grading standards: Gem Mint (10), Mint (9), Near Mint-Mint (8), Near Mint (7), Excellent-Mint (6), Excellent (5), Very Good-Excellent (4), Very Good (3), Good (2), Fair (1.5), Poor (1). Eleven named tiers in total — the most widely recognised scale in the hobby, which is part of why PSA population reports get quoted so often.
BGS's scale — close, but not identical
Beckett's naming tracks PSA closely for most of the scale, but with one real difference at the very top: BGS reserves the label "Pristine" uniquely for a perfect 10, and names a 9.5 "Gem Mint" instead. That 9.5 tier is a genuinely distinct, commonly-traded grade in its own right — not just "almost a 10" — so a BGS 9.5 and a BGS 10 aren't interchangeable the way people sometimes assume.
CGC's scale — meaningfully more granular
CGC grades cards on a noticeably finer scale: a named tier at every half-point from 1 all the way to 10 — 19 grades in total — and it splits the top grade itself into two distinct labels, "Pristine" and "Gem Mint," both of which score as a 10. That's real extra resolution PSA and BGS don't offer at the same points on the scale, which matters if you're comparing two CGC 10s and want to know which label they actually carry.
| Company | Top grade name | Notable difference |
|---|---|---|
| PSA | Gem Mint (10) | 11-tier scale, most widely quoted population data |
| BGS | Pristine (10) | Names 9.5 "Gem Mint" as its own distinct tier |
| CGC | Pristine / Gem Mint (both 10) | 19-tier scale — a named half-point at every step 1–10 |
Does the grading company itself change the price?
Sometimes, yes — independent of the numeric grade. PSA's population reports and long track record mean a PSA 10 of a well-known card often commands a premium over an equivalent BGS or CGC 10 simply on brand recognition and liquidity, particularly for older or higher-value cards. That gap has narrowed over time as CGC in particular has grown its own following, especially in modern and Pokémon collecting. The practical takeaway: when you're comparing sold prices, treat "PSA 10", "BGS 10" and "CGC 10" as three related but separate categories, not one interchangeable number.
MV's Sold Price Guide lets you narrow a search by grading company as well as player, year and parallel — so you can compare a PSA 10 against other PSA 10s, not against a BGS 9.5 with a different distribution of buyers.
Check sold prices by grade →MV also runs a real, automated PSA cert lookup where available, and accepts raw or graded cards from any of the major companies — memorabilia listings, separately, must carry PSA, JSA, BAS, UD or League certification to list at all. If you're deciding whether to grade a raw card before selling, factor in the grading company's turnaround time and cost against what the sold-price data actually shows for that specific card at that specific grade — grading isn't automatically worth it for every card.