I’ve searched and searched but I’m finding trouble seeing great examples of what PSA graded 10s look like on the actual holo foil itself. Are scratches okay if the rest of the card is flawless (light scratches) And if a bit of white is showing the tiniest bit on a edge do they usually nit pick that?
I had a once in a lifetime thing happen one of those things you dream about when it comes to collections I found extremely mint looking cards hundreds of holos from the WOTC era mostly gym cards and a lot them are first edition they look pack fresh I’m honestly stunned how they look but I’m no professional.
I’m looking to get them graded for my collection but I’ve never done this so I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for. As we know looks pack fresh doesn’t always mean there isn’t light scratches. Some have tiniest bits of white on the edge. some have a weird black dot? (literally only flaw on a few)
Also do you ever bother grading non holos? I got 2 flawless non holo dark charizard 1st editions I’ve been sitting on since I was a kid and I am wondering if it’s worth grading non holos?
Btw sorry for long post I love this site looking to be a long time poster here. (Let me know if it’s okay to post pics of these cards)
Welcome to the forum!
If they´re truly packfresh just send all of them in, 9s bring a nice premium as well. www.pwccmarketplace.com/sales-history is a good place to view all kinds of graded cards.
I would love to I gotta take some pictures I’ll do that later today. I actually made a video going through the entire box I bought to document it for myself to remember I’ll now never forget the day I bought a box labeled “used box of Pokémon cards” from a sports store and they ended up $2,500 worth of value lol. Quick question does PSA care about natural curve cards like out of the pack sometimes they are curved .
No they typically do not care about the warping of the card out of the pack. I sent a warped Base Charizard that I pulled recently to PSA and it got a 9 as I expected.
Here is the pictures of just 4 of the 300+ cards I got these are definitely ones I’d hope to send in if possible? I took macro type shots so you can see the backs clearly and so you can see the tiny little scratches otherwise its not very noticeable when looking at the card straight up. Again thank you for all your help here’s the album (let me know if you’d like to see more) imgur.com/a/ZO3DIYf
Scizor 1st edition front and back
Skarmory 1st edition front and back. (white spec at bottom is lint and there’s also a small piece of hair is on the back photo lol)
Politoed 1st edition front and back
The natural pack curve they all have someone was saying PSA doesn’t care about this since its life will be in a hard case and will end up straightening out is this true?
Ok, the two caveats are that I’m a pretty strict grader and PSA can be inconsistent. The lowest grade I can truly say I’m familiar with is PSA 8. But I have many, probably several thousand, of PSA 8/9/10 cards. To me, none of these cards meet the minimum standard that I would accept for a PSA 8, except maybe the venusaur EX. While the backs of the cards up until the Venusaur EX look pretty clean and look like they have a high degree of original factory gloss, there is some minor edge and corner wear on the cards. But the major killer are the scratches on the holos. It looks like somebody took sandpaper to the holos. I don’t have any PSA cards with holos that scratched up, and certainly not any 9s. I would think even with a pristine back that PSA would grade those cards 7 or below, except maybe the venusaur EX if it doesn’t have front scratches on the holo. It could get a PSA 8. Just can’t tell but those EX silver borders can be really delicate so I’d be surprised if it isn’t scratched. You’ll have to go through the card values and make the decision whether to grade each one. But based on this sample I would certainly ignore PSA 9/10 prices when making that decision. You may be better off selling some of cards raw and move away from PSA grading standards to the “lightly played, moderately played, heavily played” standard used on web sites like TCGplayer
The Skarmory might get an 8 or 9 as it looks like it has the fewest print lines and scratches on the holos. If these are you personal cards you want protected, I would go ahead and send them to psa. Other wise they make good binder cards.
Thank you so much for your input and time on this first of all. On the charizard I would say the macro type picture really makes all the card faces look worse looking than it is u close with your eyes in the light but especially on the charizard, does PSA use a jewelers loupe to get a closeup on the holo surface or do they just go off of close inspection without tools? I heard a few people say they have seen 8 and 9s with holo surface scratches is PSA inconsistent big time on this point as you sort of eluded to in your post. Specifically would the blaine’s charizard be worth grading if it were to max out at PSA 8 or do you not see the value for PSA 7 or 8 on that card being worth it in the long run? Its really not in the plans to sell it anytime soon I am planning on adding it to my personal collection.
Is BGS worth it over PSA for certain cards ?
Yeah they are for my personal collection, but I also may consider selling if I got a better copy somehow
Dang sounds like PSA is really strict with the holo surfaces after all, I keep hearing so many conflicting reports of this some say they are some say they aren’t.
Cards come out of packs scratched a lot of times so I would think they know this and are sort of understanding of this, but I suppose maybe not
Here are some more I took pictures of that were in my box find and also included the shadowless Blastoise that I picked up from a retro store for $50 this weekend as well as my promo Venusaur from my personal collection that I had since I was 12 (still have it 20 years later lol).
More backs are clean on these as well I just forgot to actually take pics of them whoops.
The pictures aren’t taken from the same angle but those holos look much better. Personally, if these are for your collection and you’re not selling, you may want to consider putting them in a nice binder and keeping them that way. It’ll be easier to look at them and enjoy them in a binder. If you sleeve them inside the binder (some people double sleeve - I don’t) they should hold their condition just fine if you use good sleeves and a good binder. Not a three ring type that can damage cards. If you just want to have the PSA slabs then by all means go for it. But when considering future resale, many collectors won’t be interested in slabs of less than a PSA 8, and certainly not less than PSA 7. Something to consider. Exceptions would probably be cards where the PSA 10 copy goes for some minimum amount, like $1000 or more. The higher the value of the PSA 10 card, the more stratified the cards underneath it will be in terms of the collector base willing to pay for lower grade copies. The first edition base charizard for example is very collectible/sale-able at lower grades.
PSA definitely takes scratches on the holo into account. I have collected all of the reverse holos from expedition through EX dragon. Those are full card, shiny reverse holos and very prone to scratching. With consistency, a very scratched up holo will get a PSA 7 (or less!). Hope that helps!
Thank you for your input yes it does help a lot and I will take it all into consideration. I would say I definitely do want them to be maximum value possible so if I ever did have to sell it be the most I could get for that said card thats why the idea of grading them was high on my list (I’d also love to display some as well on my shelf). I use the Ultra Pro Binders with the built in pages they seem to work great, I don’t like double sleeving either.
Also many of these cards I already have binder copies as there were so many duplicates in the box that I bought plus what I had in my personal collection and I do want to have the really nice ones that could be pretty rare one day in a nice PSA case, for example that shadowless Blastoise seems like a good candidate right?
You have some great looking cards! I would recommend sending most, if not all. It can be a learning experience for you to see what grades the cards actually got. Regardless of their final grade you will atleast be able to have an accurate price evaluation of your collection if that matters to you.
the shadowless blastoise will likely get a 7 or an 8 depending on the level of holo scratching on the front. Can’t quite tell. To be clear I ALWAYS sleeve cards inside my binder. But I do not double sleeve (like a perfect fit sleeve inside an ultra pro sleeve) inside my binder. Some people do that, I do not. I would not expect cards to hold their condition if they aren’t stored in sleeves within the binder sleeves.
Thank you! I think I will probably weigh the pros and cons and see what makes the most sense I definitely don’t wanna waste money sending stuff in that won’t get at least a 7 or 8 but ill never know unless I do it or just get more feedback before I do it.
but you do make a great point having that accurate price evaluation is a good perk long term to have. Since when people say NM on eBay its usually lightly played if your lucky… so I’m sure im not the only one who gets burned by that.
Thank you I would probably be fine with a 7 or 8 anything better would honestly be a surprise but could you tell me what the flaws would be from first glance on why its a 7 or 8 so I can better understand how grading works (I’ve read about it but I am still trying to get a feel for it)
Also yeah I figured you meant that I also sleeve my cards and then put them in a binder
I tried to let the light hit it at different angles to show any scratches or any other potential flaws
on the holo from your previous picture, a large scratch on the lower left side running vertically from the edge of the holo, also a few more small ones. From your more recent pics, a holo scratch below where his junk would be. Also another large scratch running vertically on the lower right. A scratch print line running out from his neck on the left side of the holo. A scratch or print line running up from his tail.
on the back, top two corners look pristine. A minor mark or two on the top edge. Left and right edges look pristine. A bit of white on each lower corner. A nick on lower left of bottom edge, and some more edgewear on the bottom edge.
front of the card looks good outside the holo. Centering on front looks solid. A bit off on the back left to right
PSA will consider ALL of that when assigning a grade. I really don’t have much experience below PSA 8. The back edgewear alone would probably give the card a grade of 8 or 9, or maybe 8.5 if the rest of the card is pristine. Since grading is cumulative, the scratches and print lines on the holo will definitely bring it down to an 8 maximum. And honestly it could get a 7. I would not be thrilled to have an 8 with so many holo scratches.
All of that assumes there are not defects that can’t be seen in the pictures, and that none of the scratches are deep or badly detract from the eye appeal of the card. My estimated range for the card would be PSA 6-8, with 8 being unlikely, 7 being highly likely, and lower than 7 likely if the eye appeal is worse than the pictures make it out to be, there’s a hidden flaw, or any of the scratches are deep.
Thank you so much for your experienced feedback and knowledge on this subject your input helps a lot. I would say eye appeal for all the cards I showed are definitely not worse than the pictures so I am hoping that Blastoise could get an 8 but I think id be ok with a 7 like you were saying too you definitely helped me temper my expectations and learn a bit more about how PSA determines its grading. I got a little bit higher hopes for the Sabrinas Gengar 1st edition though since the eye appeal of that is really nice, and it isn’t till you get the right lighting that you see one or two flaws on the holo but it is one of my fav cards regardless and I would really like It graded for my long term collection.
One other thing I was wondering is would sending in rarer non holos be a good bet since they don’t have a holofoil surface to be worried about? If there’s no markings on the card and the backs check out it should be a good bet to get at least an 8 right? Only asking because I got a few good non holos like 1st edition base Dragonair, 1st edition Umbreon Neo Discovery, and two 1st edition Dark Charizards from rocket. (also got a couple of base 1st ed commons and uncommons)
Again I can’t thank you enough for being so responsive to me despite being new here.
