Graded Hockey cards

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I am entertaining the idea of collecting some graded Hockey cards and am looking for some info. I have noticed two companies that grade. One being Beckett and the other being PSA. What is the difference between the two? Is one valued over the other? Any information would be helpfull.

Thanks!

[superman-prime]

psa is still the standard and beckett has been accused over the years of showing favortism in the market they report and grade in.
psa is quite easy to get a psa 10 gem mint
a bgs gem mint 9.5 is another matter and a better card in most aspects a beckett 10 pristine is almost impossible to get and extreamly rare
thats my 2 c

[greg]

I've seen some cards by both companies...
in general PSA is more "lenient" on cards...
that is, a PSA 9 is usually a BGS 8.5.
(BGS uses half-grades, like 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, while PSA only uses 7, 8, 9, 10)

As a result, as BGS 9 usually sells for more than a PSA 9.

Another reason BGS is more valued (in general) is that BGS provides four subgrades.
A card that is a BGS 9 (overall) might have
Centering: 8.5
Corners: 9.5
Surface: 9
Edges: 9

Being able to buy a card based on the subgrades (and half-grades) seems to help
collectors who want more information than a single whole-number grade.

Don't be confused by BCCG, though, another (lower cost) Beckett grading service.

BCCG is a quick encapsulation with very minimal grading at all.
As a result, a BCCG 9 just means "Near Mint or better", which could be a BGS 7.
A BCCG 10 just means "Mint or better" which COULD mean BGS 8.5.

BCCG was created for companies like Home Shopping Network
because they wanted to be able to say "GEM MINT 10" more often.
In reality, BCCG is probably just an 8.5 or 9, and then you have to get
it re-graded in order to find out.

In summary:

BGS
PSA
BCCG

...and SGC, the card-grading service in the same group of companies with CGC,
uses a 100-point grading system, so there's some learning needed for conversion
to the 10-point system, but SGC cards are pretty-well accepted also...
so I'd give SGC a

The other grading companies are "suspect" because they're not one of the big three (BGS, PSA, SGC),
and you have to wonder why someone with legitimately nice cards
would bother to send them to the 4th-best grading company (or worse).

I haven't bought a lot of graded cards, but when I do, I buy from the "big three".

Note: BGS is the Beckett Grading Service for "modern" cards, and BVG is Beckett Vintage Grading for "vintage" cards.
Both BGS and BVG are "full-service" grading and deserve
They are only named differently because of the age of the cards.
BCCG still deserves

[superman-prime]

you can use bgs for vintage if you like though
i think that is because bvg was not around early on so they just let you choose on older stuff
i have a few 60s in bgs cases
(and bgs cases tend to crack more then psa from my experence) it cold be bad luck
sgc and all the others are crap for the most part

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Thanks guys.