Since Beckett Grading Service introduced the black label card in 2014, it’s become easily the most sought after and valuable grade in the industry.
Frankly, it’s not even close. It blows every other card value out of the water because of its rarity and because the black label looks better than anything else out there.
What is a BGS 10 Black Label?
Perhaps the biggest thing that sets BGS apart from the other leaders in the grading world (SGC, PSA) is that they provide you with subgrades in the following categories:
- Centering
- Corners
- Edges
- Surface
Each of these categories gets a rating from 1-10, given in .5 increments.
If a card gets a 10 in a certain category, it means that it’s absolutely flawless in that regard. The overall grade of a card is based on averaging the 4 subgrades.
A black label means the card scored a perfect 10 in all 4 subgrades.
This is incredibly hard to do, and easily less than 1% of cards submitted to BGS actually get the coveted black label.
BGS 10 Without the Black Label
While the black label is extremely rare, it’s a bit more common to score a BGS 10 that isn’t a black label. This happens because you can still get subgrades of 10, 10, 10, and a 9.5 and have it average out to a 10.
While it’s not the best representation, I searched sold results on eBay for “Joe Burrow Black Label” and got ZERO results. A search for “Joe Burrow BGS 10” brought me 151.
While non-black label 10s are still hard to get, the comparison in price isn’t remotely in the same neighborhood—probably 3-15x in value depending on the quality of the player, card, and if it’s a rookie.
How to Get a BGS 10 Black Label
As mentioned before, you have to score perfectly in all 4 categories:
Centering
The centering on a card’s front must be 50/50 to score a perfect 10. Most cards have borders around them, making it relatively easy to tell if a card is centered. The back of the card must be no worse than 60/40 (which is still a pretty strict standard).
In order to measure the centering on your card, your best bet is a card centering tool.
Corners
All four corners must look perfect without a magnifying class. Corners can have no whiting and certainly no “soft” corners. Under magnification, very slight imperfections are allowed, but must be mint condition. Basically, if you can find anything wrong, you’re not getting a 10.
Get yourself a jeweler’s loupe to best view the corners, edges, and surface.
Edges
You’re basically looking for the same thing as the corners, but along all of the edges. Is everything crisp and sharp? Are there any slight nicks or whiting along any of the edges?
Surface
This is where most collectors go wrong—they think they have a flawless card, but it comes back graded a 4 because they didn’t look close enough at the surface!
This step requires the most scrutiny, as you must look over every inch of the front and back with a jeweler’s loupe or magnifying glass, as well as have strong light on it. Look for scratches, dents, loss of gloss or color, print lines, or other imperfections. One trick is to hold the card at different angles under the light to reveal areas of concern.
BGS Black Label 10 vs. PSA 10
In general, the PSA 10 is considered king in the sports card world, but that’s mostly because it’s actually attainable. Black labels blow them out of the water, price-wise.
Here’s a comparison of a few cards:
| Card | BGS Black Label 10 Value | PSA 10 Value | Multiplier |
| 1996-97 Topps Chrome Refractor Kobe Bryant | $1,750,000 | $130,000 | 13.5x |
| 2012-13 Panini Prizm Damian Lillard | $1,735 | $200 | 8.7x |
| 2021 Optic Downtown! Tom Brady | $2,074 | $850 | 2.4x |
It’s interesting to see that an already-rare Kobe rookie gets the biggest bump, probably because it’s a sought after card and there might never be another one of these in history.
The Downtown! card gets the smallest multiplier, but that’s likely because, while it’s a nice card and it’s Brady, it’s not a rookie.
One last price bump I want to show about black label cards:
This is an extremely unremarkable card. You can get ungraded versions for like $2 (PSA 10s are in the $35 range).
Black labels are a collectors item, almost regardless of the card inside.
Can you imagine the selling price if we ever saw an ’86 Fleer Jordan or the ’52 Mantle in a black label? Sheesh.
Submitting Your Cards to Get a BGS Black Label 10
First and foremost, if you’re only goal is to get a black label, you should probably rethink that goal.
I have seen some collectors submit dozens of cheap cards that look pristine with the sole goal of getting black labels…and it still rarely happens!
However, even if you fall short of the black label goal, perhaps you can still get a regular 10 and have a nice card on your hands!
To submit your cards, you can send straight to BGS, or you can go through a bulk submitter like Diamond Elite Cards.
