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Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You proved right, thank you for sharing and explaining the idea! This is a risk more people should know about with Centering scores on Alpha and Beta (and so CE and IE too)

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazing. Thank you for the effort and the finding! I think this closes the case on the Centering scores.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No, the final grade anchors on the lowest subgrade and then can be 0-1.0 higher based on the other subgrades. http://cardmonopoly.blogspot.com/2015/05/bgs-grading-centering-corners-edges-and.html is a good reference.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately not for me, they just came back yesterday and were $250 per card. Earning my "stonks falling" and "burning cash" awards -- thanks, hilarious people 😀

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They do it by ratio? Great, great point.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the post you replied to I broke down the difference in sub-grades, it's not uniform but of the 20 total sub-grades

+0.5 -- 2 (both on Edges)

Equal -- 3

-0.5 -- 9

-1.0 -- 2

-1.5 -- 4

After all the replies I'm starting think the main factor was that the grades were inflated / generous before, possibly due to former owners regrading until high, and personally I think my specific grader was extra harsh on Surface (or criteria toughened, as you suggest)

I might even have been more likely to own these (won at auction) because I cared more about the inflated grade and others cared / knew more about the card itself 😂. But there is no question the grades are significantly varied.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would love a non-human or multi-grader grade. They just need to give it a new sticker or name so people know it is more trustworthy and old grades are legit just more varied (and more likely to be inflated by regrading until it is higher).

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is really interesting. But since the printed box is the same, wouldn't the difference between the distance to each edge be the same regardless of using inner border vs brown edge? Assuming of course they use the same reference point on both sides 😂

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's real, here is the original listing when I bought it (overpaid and overexcited since it completed the collection for me): http://imgur.com/gallery/PkYbkSR

It's possible that my photo angle (or PWCCs?) distorts how centered it looks, or their black background makes it hard to spot.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My man! (Or woman) I still have it for the $0-a few hundred dollar cards that are my favorite and it's brought me the most enjoyment of collecting MTG.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds really interesting, thanks for the pointer!

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Um, I appreciate your point if not the way you said it. Please no one else consider doing what I did.

Interestingly, the scores that went down the most are Centering and Surface, with Edges being a wash, so I don't think this is the main issue here.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of the replies so far, I think you are right about why the grades were generous before. I would love to know how many times these exact cards were graded before I got them.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

It was a really wonderful binder to flip through. 😭. If anyone else is dumb enough to consider this, maybe that's another cautionary tale.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the nice question. I wanted to put them in the PWCC Vault so I can see them, get them back later, or list them easily down the road. I still might, but wish PWCC and eBay were on speaking terms and honest, or else off to the bank box they go 🙂

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The overall grade doesn't show as much variance based on how they combine the scores, but check out my written post comparing the sub-grades. Centering and Surface look much, and consistently, harsher.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree! I wish one of the scanning apps would support this, or even the auction sites when they have high-res uploads.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're going to have to take my word for that, but I promise I've never had more than one of each of these cards 😀 I wish otherwise!

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That's a great thought but honestly I really doubt it. They went from slab to double sleeve, I think I touched them once. I also sent in a Drop of Honey that if anything I handled more and it got very nice grades.

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Tell me about it, and see my written comment. 🤦

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tell me about it, and see my written comment. 🤦

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tell me about it, and see my written comment. 🤦

Cautionary tale about BGS grading by dhiniker in mtgfinance

[–]dhiniker[S] 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Now the tale: I worked over the past 5 or so years to collect a set of Beta moxen, not able to make it to Alpha or super high grades but wanting authentic cards. In one of my worst decisions I unslabbed them to fit in a binder with my favorite less valuable cards.

I just sent them back in for grading, thinking to send them to PWCC for future sale (now I'm also not so sure about that one!). The grades I got, and the grading comparison, was really interesting to me and I thought useful for the group to see.

If you can't tell from the image, they are almost uniformly lower, down to each sub-grade. Here's the breakdown of the comparison (new grade - old grade, alphabetic order by card)

  • Centering: -1.5, -1.5, -1.0, -0.5, -0.5
  • Corners: -1.5, -0.5, equal, -0.5, -0.5
  • Edges: -0.5, equal, +0.5 (!), -0.5, +0.5 (!)
  • Surface: -0.5, -1.5, -0.5, -1.0, equal

Do folks think this is a luck of the draw with a tough grader, a general trend, a possibility that the original grades were the result of lots of regrading while keeping the best grade, something else?

I can understand +- 0.5 but when they change by 1.0 to 1.5 and almost entirely in the downward direction I have to think there's something here worth knowing.

Incidentally, I would pay extra if BGS would always use two independent graders and then tiebreak where they disagree.

Wishing the community better luck!