Last updated October 14, 2026.
Three companies grade nearly every Pokemon slab you will pull from an online machine: PSA, Beckett (BGS) and CGC. They use similar ten-point scales and the market prices them differently, sometimes by more than a full grade point. Here is the map.
The scales
| Grader | Top grades | What is distinctive |
|---|---|---|
| PSA | 10 Gem Mint, 9 Mint, 8 NM-MT | Whole-number grades (half points below 9 only in some eras). The deepest population reports and the most liquid buyer pool. The market's default reference. |
| BGS (Beckett) | 10 Pristine, 10 Black Label (all four subgrades 10), 9.5 Gem Mint, 9 Mint | Four subgrades on the label (centering, corners, edges, surface). BGS 9.5 is Beckett's "gem"; a BGS 10 is rarer than a PSA 10 and the Black Label is rarer still. |
| CGC | 10 Pristine (all subgrades 10), 10 Gem Mint, 9.5, 9 | Historically also a "Perfect 10." Plain CGC 10 is read by the market as "a 10 that was not a Pristine," which is why it trades at a discount to PSA 10 on most cards. |
What the market pays
For a mid-population modern card, the rough order from most to least valuable is: BGS 10 Black Label, then CGC 10 Pristine and PSA 10 near each other (Pristine often above on newer cards where its population is tiny), then BGS 9.5 and plain CGC 10 in a band commonly 30 to 60 percent below PSA 10, then PSA 9 and BGS 9. The gaps are liquidity and reputation being priced, and they are real money: on a $500 PSA 10, the same card in a plain CGC 10 may be $200 to $350.
Two live examples from this autumn: an EX Deoxys Rayquaza Gold Star sold for $1,020,000 in CGC 10 Pristine and $192,000 in plain CGC 10 in the same week (August 2026). Two PSA 10 Treecko Gold Stars sold minutes apart for $132,000 and $114,000. The first pair shows the label premium; the second shows that even inside one label, a grade is a range.
When the label stops mattering
On a card with a handful of copies, buyers bid for the object, not the slab. The $1.3 million Incorrect Illustrator Pikachu sold in CGC 10; nobody discounted it for not being PSA. Rule of thumb: the scarcer the card, the less the grader moves the price; the commoner the card, the more it does. If you are grading a common modern chase, send it where the 10 is worth most (usually PSA). If you are grading something with a two-digit population, send it where you trust the grading.
Reading a slab in a pack machine
Online machines load all three. When you compare pulls, convert to the PSA-equivalent price band before you judge the value: a BGS 9.5 is not a PSA 9.5, it is roughly a plain CGC 10 in money. Rip Station's card pages show price history separately per grader-and-grade lane for exactly this reason, and its estimated values are per lane, not per number. The quiz in each issue of The Pack Report is built on the same idea: guess the grade from the card, then see what the label does to the number.
Subgrades and the Pristine question
Beckett and CGC both print subgrades for centering, corners, edges and surface. A card with all four at 10 earns Black Label (BGS) or Pristine (CGC), and those designations can be worth multiples of the same grader's plain 10, because they are population-of-one objects on many cards. PSA prints no subgrades, so a PSA 10 covers a range from "barely" to "perfect," and the market prices that range with scans, not labels. That is also why two PSA 10s of the same card can sell 16 percent apart on the same day.
Frequently asked questions
Is PSA 10 or BGS 9.5 worth more?
PSA 10 is usually worth more. BGS 9.5 is Beckett's gem grade and typically trades in the same band as a plain CGC 10, commonly 30 to 60 percent below PSA 10 on mid-population cards.
Is CGC 10 the same as PSA 10?
Not in price. A plain CGC 10 usually trades at a discount to PSA 10 because CGC also issues a 10 Pristine (all subgrades 10), so the market reads a plain 10 as 'not Pristine.' CGC 10 Pristine can trade at or above PSA 10 on newer cards.
What is BGS Black Label?
A BGS 10 where all four subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) are 10. It is rarer than a PSA 10 on almost every card and trades above every other label.
Does the grading company matter on rare cards?
Less and less as the card gets scarcer. On population-of-a-few cards buyers pay for the object, not the slab; the $1.3 million Incorrect Illustrator Pikachu sold in CGC 10 without a label discount.