This is also because it is much more difficult to just find mint 1st Edition/Shadowless cards lying around these days. Even the best condition ones you’ll find on eBay are generally PSA 8 quality. Yeah you’ll find some gems here and there, but that’s a much more difficult/arduous process than it was in, say, 2017. Even before 2020, the supply was dwindling. Now, forget about it.
This applies to WOTC cards in general.
Yea base set is gonna have probably one of if not the most fleshed out pop report. Some of the guys even on this site have been grading shadowless/ 1st edition base set for literally 15+ years. Thats to say, a vast majority of the gem mint raw copies have pretty much already been bought and graded. Its not necessarily that PSA standards have changed, the supply of mint raw cards has been getting hoovered up by collectors over the past 20+ years.
Also side note, did you guys see theres a bunch of psa 10 shadowless holos on pwcc weekly?
If you are willing to move up to First Ed…this 9 looks incredibly clean and will probably be cheaper than what you were originally looking at
Hold up now… maybe they should stick with shadowless 
In the video I remember him saying that there were ALOT of new 9’s registered in the pop with no 10’s added. I took it as the standard for 10 has gone up. ill try and find the video and link it here
Edit: okay, I just realized the video was by zandgemporium, And Im looking for it but cannot find it. maybe it was deleted.
I considered going this route. But for now I am leaning towards going for shadowless 10s
what seems like the better value to you?
Honestly this thread really made me think on which I would chose, and the price being nearly the same between the shadowless 10 and the 1st edition 9 makes it an attractive talking point.
I think looking merely at price was a bad suggestion on my end as it strips away what the card is and reduces it to what it sold for.
When buying a card, rather than looking at price, the best thing to look for is value. Yeah, the 1st edition stamp is great but I think looking past that and into the pop report gives a better story on the rarity of the card. Although I very rarely choose a card for condition rarity, the pop report solidifies this card’s charm with me.
One could argue species, another could argue release, and another preference. But I think this card is slept on so I hope you picked it up as any psa 10 shadowless is legendary and rarer than its 1st edition counterpart.
I have been torn between the two. ultimately I think I am going to go with the shadowless psa 10’s. I agree on that they are much more rare. And I like the prestige of having an all 10 collection(that charizard will still be a no go)
I say go for it! And nothing wrong with not having a 10 zard 
