FS: 1984-85 Star Michael Jordan #101 - BGS 8.5
 

Tremendous subs (8, 8.5, 9.5, 10). .5 away from BGS 9. Asking $8950 delivered via Paypal FF

Just a friendly heads up. This isn’t .5 from a BGS 9. You would need centering and corners to both bump up .5 to get a BGS 9.

8.75

Two 8.5s a 9.5 and a 10 doesn't get you to a 9? If you're right then it's the same overall grade as four 8.5s, that doesn't sound right.

I think centering and corners carry a "heavier" weight than surface and edges.

hopefully someone can chime in on this that knows, but it's definitely not just an "average" of the subgrades. there are some other "rules" to how the overall grade is determined.

also, particularly on cards like this one, the subgrades actually do change the value even where the overall grade is the same, i.e. this card very likely would NOT price the same as one with four 8.5 subgrades. that's one somewhat weird thing about BGS cards.

You cannot get a 9 when you have 2 sub grades lower than 9. You have to have to have 3 of the 4 sub grades be 9 or higher to get a 9. An 8.5 with 2 8.5s and 2 higher is going to sell for more than one with all 8.5s, but less than a 9 with one 8.5, even if the total of all 4 grades is more. Think of it this way, if you have a card that is perfect except it has 6 centering, it is not going to be mint (average of 4 grades), but much less (NM in this case) because you look at the worst defects to access a card's grade. It is no different than PSA attaching an OC qualifier to the above card dragging it down 2 grades (or more value wise).

Got it, thank you for the explanation.