There's definitely a difference in how the two companies grade. For BGS, the other subgrades can pull up a non-mint card to mint. Like in your two examples where the corners or surface is 8.5. The other subgrades pulled it up to a 9. For PSA, the damage/wear that caused the 8.5 subgrade means the card isn't mint, so it got a near mint grade. The only BGS 8.5 subgrade you can try to get bumped up is centering in most cases.
I will say, BGS hammers refractor lines, and those often result in a 8 or 8.5 surface subgrade. PSA doesn't hammer cards due to refractor lines since they aren't technically damage. So these can result in PSA 9's and sometimes even 10's.
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