Graded Sports Cards are cards that are evaluated by a third party company for their authenticity and condition, and are then sealed in what we call a "slab" to preserve this condition and prevent tampering.

 

There are mainly four sports card grading and authentication services which deserve attention and are reputable : The PSA, BGS, SGC, and GAI.

 

Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA): PSA pioneered the graded sports cards grading industry. They're part of Collectors Universe, a publicly traded Nasdaq company. You will however need a membership to take advantage of their grading directly. They use a 10-point scale and just recently added the half-point scale in their grading system (7.5, 8.5...) 

 

Beckett Grading Services (BGS): The BGS is affiliated with Beckett magazine and also uses a 10-point scale with half-points. What makes BGS unique is that it also offers a secondary rating for centering, edges, corners and surface. Many people believe the BGS scale is graded more strictly than the PSA scale. BGS also offers their BCCG grading service, a more economic service than the BGS one, which is looked down from many collectors who don't see a BCCG graded card as something as professionaly graded as a BGS one.

 

Sportscard Guarantee (SGC): SGC is another reputable grading service out there. The SGC grading scale starts at 10 (poor) and goes up to 100 (pristine).

 

Global Authentication, Inc. (GAI): This grading company was started by two former PSA employees and bring a lot of that prestige with them to this new company.

 

Any other grading company out there is trying hard to get their share of the market, but unfortunately a lot of them where shady businesses from the get go and it's getting really hard to be considered as good and authentic as these four grading companies.