So if a TMB no. 1 trainer PSA 10 and a BGS black label 10 pops up, both at the same price (assuming you can only afford one) you’d buy the PSA 10?
I read earlier posts and misunderstood what was being said and took it that grades do not matter and that was my mistake.
Yes considering my No. 2 and 3 TMBs are PSA 10 I would want the No. 1 in PSA 10 too, UNLESS it is a weak 10 (has whitening etc).
For these kind of cards the condition is not as paramount. You can be happy to every get one of those high end trophies, there is usually no room to be so picky. I‘m not saying I would pay the same for a PSA 5 trophy as for a 10, but if you don‘t buy a No. 1/2/3 Trainer trophy because it‘s only a PSA 9 then you will most likely never be able to amass a great collection…
@trophiesonly , As others said, no one says that grades on trophies don’t matter at all, just that they matter much less than they do for more common cards.
To go back to the example I used earlier, something like a 1st edition Charizard is common enough so that grade is a crucial differentiator. A PSA 9 may sell for something like 20% of a PSA 10, a PSA 8 may sell for something like 60% of a PSA 9, a PSA 7 may sell for something like 80% of a PSA 8, etc.
With trophy cards the equation is totally different. Let’s use the example of the 1997/1998 Trophy Pikachus. Just for convenience sake, I’m going to lump together all 3 variants of the trophy (1st tournament, 2nd tournament, & 3rd tournament) and all 3 placements of the trophy (No. 1, No. 2, & No. 3 together). The PSA population distribution is as follows:
Total: 29
PSA 10: 4
PSA 9: 16
PSA 8: 7
PSA 7: 1
Authentic: 1
I own that PSA 7 copy and I paid $86.5k to get it. Would I have paid slightly more for a higher graded copy? Sure… slightly. But I didn’t view the difference between a PSA 10 and a PSA 7 as a particularly big deal when the cards are already this rare. I just wanted to own the card and acquiring any copy of it was incredibly difficult. Again, the above totals lump together all 3 placements of all 3 variants of the 1997/1998 Trophy Pikachus (the original distribution of these cards is 4 of each placement for the 1st tournament, 14 of each placement for the 2nd tournament, and 14 of each placement for the 3rd tournament). So, acquiring a PSA 7 copy of a grail card that happens to have a perfect front and a minty looking back that only has one small flaw of a tiny indentation that’s only visible on the back of a card if you really really go out of your way to look for it didn’t feel like “settling” to me. In fact, quite the opposite.
Which goes back to the point that grade doesn’t matter nearly as much when a card is already incredibly rare.
So again, cool, black label Wonder Platinum trophy, yay. But personally, the card already has enough of a wow factor on its own. The black label feels incidental to me.
The only card that would genuinely give me that wow factor to see in a black label is a 1st edition Base Set Charizard (for all the reasons previously mentioned the grade matters much more for this card than it does for trophies).
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As usual @hyruleguardian knocks it out of the park, leaving me with nothing to add lol. Just wanted to say that this card is fucking sick and I want it.
Actually I guess I’ll say this: the minute difference in quality (especially for these Japanese cards) between a regular old PSA 10 and a BGS Black Label is not the same as the difference between, say, a PSA 10 and a PSA 3. Both PSA 10 and Black Label are exceptionally crisp cards and the minute difference in condition probably isn’t worth splitting hairs over for cards of this rarity. I could see it making more sense to want a copy that appears untouched over a heavily used copy.
Edit I guess I’ll also add that any talk about what this Black Label would earn compared to the price of a PSA 10 is an absolute joke because I’m not aware of this card selling graded publicly in any recent time… remember that thread about the Illustrator and “market price”? This card is (by reported distribution numbers) rarer, so good luck with that.
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Grades matter mainly on popular set cards. Because most aren’t hard to find, so you need condition for that extra challenge. Trophies are entirely about acquisition. Sure comparing a played copy to a mint copy will usually have an obvious difference in price. But PSA 10 vs black label is currently negligible.
Black labels aren’t proven to always earn a premium in pokemom. The Pokémon market is PSA. Most of the actual buyers just don’t care. Now would a black label trophy create noise, sure, we are here having a discussion. But I doubt buyers are coming out in droves.
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Yup exactly!
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too bad cgc label is blue, I like everything except that. It does look cool on colorless and water type cards tho
I think you mean the Hidden Fates Charizard instead of Burning Shadows? The one with a POP-150+ of BGS Black Label 10s.
But BGS is indeed as heavily backlogged as PSA right now. A friend of mine had send cards to BGS about 2 months after I had send my cards to PSA (mid February). I received my graded PSA cards back about 1.5 week ago; he has yet to hear his BGS grades. So it wouldn’t surprise me if BGS and PSA takes about an equal amount of time to grade right now based on that.
Greetz,
Quuador
Idk what this thread is all about cuz everyone knows 2xxx PSA 10 > Black Label > “PSA 10 regrade?” > 4xxx PSA 10.
I’m of the same opinion as stated abpve that a trophy is a trophy regardless of grade; when it comes to cards that rare the grade really doesn’t mean anything and if I were a trophy collector I’d probably prefer it in its original case than in a third-party graded slab. That said, I do think the aesthetic of the black label slab here does compliment this card a lot better than a PSA label would and is thus more pleasing to look at.
I agree with what Scott says on how set cards matter more when it comes to grades because that is what makes them exclusive. There are two main selling points of trophy cards, exclusivity and this feeling of being one of so few people who gets to own one. While wonder platinum is a magnificent trophy, it doesn’t carry the same weight as the original 1997 pikachu trophies like the illustrator or the 1,2,3. Now let’s imagine if one of those were black label. Not only would you be among a small group of people who have them, you would also have THE definitive version. I can see a premium with it in those cases because it’s basically a I 1up’d you.
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Oh how things have changed…
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