Not all sports cards are created equal. That being said, not all PSA 10s, BGS 9.5s or SGC 9.5s are created equal either. Mike Baker and Demian Werner are trying to differentiate the cream-of-the-crop pristine cards from the rest of the field.
In August 2020, the duo started Mike Baker Authenticated (MBA), a certification service for high-end graded products from the three leading third-party grading card companies: Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Beckett Grading Services (BGS) and Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC).
Baker’s grading roots date back to when he was PSA’s first employee and then its first director of grading when he worked at the company from 1991-2001. He hears all the time: “You’re grading the graders? We send a card off to get graded, and then we send it off again to get it regraded?”
Well, not exactly.
“Just in its appearance, it can be looked at that way,” said Baker, the company’s chairman and CEO. “We’re not trying to spin it, I’m very accessible. The reality, within the grading standard — especially with PSA, because they have the lion’s share of stuff out there in plastic — but there’s differences.
“PSA doesn’t have a half-grade for the 9 grade, so there’s no 9.5. So, you’re going to have a 9.0, 9.1 to a 9.9. And, so, right there there’s a massive flex between what could be considered a really high-end 9 — what Beckett or SGC would call a 9.5. So from that
