The Magic Librarities

Hey Brian,

BGS has been grading Magic cards since at least early 2005, if not before. I'm not sure when PSA started, but it was right around 2000. That being said, by the beginning of 2005 they had graded very few cards - in fact I had the #1 Arabian set and the #2 Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets, with only 228 cards total between them. There were only about 10 sets listed in all, and none of them were very big. Of those sets only 1 is still around (besides mine), and it has changed hands.

Based on this I really can't agree with your notion that the reason for PSA's dominance is it's head start in the grading of MtG cards. As most of the grading of cards occurred once both companies were grading, collectors could have gone either way, based on personal preference. While PSA did get a jump on Beckett, I don't think it was enough of one to explain why collectors seem to prefer PSA over BGS.

Just my $.02 worth.

Take it easy,
Jared

Magic61983 wrote:

me-and_we wrote:well if you got the voucher, let them grade something useless like a 4th wall of roots or sth... I'm uite sure, there ain't a lot of those out there ^^

Honestly it's not worth my time to send them another card let alone what it is. I have a higher grading standard then PSA on my own.

I'm quite sure you do. And I'm quite sure you're not the only member here. The idea was, that you coul use that senseless voucher for something even more senseless, creating something not too special, but still most likely to be unique at the moment. Just an idea...

I cannot recall when I first saw BGS graded MtG pop up in the market, but I do remember that on the feebay they tend to fetch higher prices than PSA with the same grading. It never seems to be a lot, but enough to notice that there must be some people who are willing to pay more for BGS. But then again, I pretty much stopped using the feebay 2 years ago, so it might've changed...