It's no secret that when it comes to getting sports cards graded, PSA is on top of the mountain. But that wasn't the case before as Beckett put up quite a fight, especially in the years before the pandemic hit. These days, though, BGS' numbers have been dwindling as SGC has already closed in on the second spot next to PSA. To recover their ground, Beckett recently released a grading scheme that will hopefully put it back on the map. The thing is, it caused a massive backlash instead from the sports card community.

A couple of days ago, Beckett announced that they're updating their grading scale to offer a more comprehensive scheme for individuals who plan to avail of their services. In the table above, we can see that a 9.5 grade, which BGS labeled as Gem Mint before, has been downgraded to Mint+. For a card to attain that Gem Mint condition, it has to at least obtain a subgrade of 10. In the event it gets three 10s, Beckett would award the Gold Label Pristine. Last, but definitely not least, is the sought-after Black Label Pristine, which can only be possible if a card gets four perfect 10 subgrades.

If sports card collectors and investors felt that BGS' grading scheme was already a handful, as compared to PSA and SGC, the updated one is even more confusing. But as baffling as it may seem, Beckett's decision potentially put them in a better position to gain back customers as giving cards a 10 is always better than a 9.5, as evidenced by how the market gravitated to PSA 10s and SGC 10s being flipped faster than BGS 9.5s.

Even if that's the case, the backlash from the hobby itself caught Beckett's attention. Just recently, the grading service released a statement informing everyone that there will be no changes to their grading scale at this time. Beckett added that they will come out with an official announcement soon regarding the improvements to the said scale.

At this point in time, there has been no word yet on what the improvements may be about. Nevertheless, collectors and investors alike should keep a close eye on this issue to see how the company will address the need to update its grading scale.