the saga continues…still super interesting :
My conclusion still stands : if you want peace of mind only go for psa10s, because it will be incredibly unlikely to get a 10 from an altered card
@Professor_Broke i rewatched the video and he clearly says the surface modification appearing in the scans is from water with a cotton swab. which makes sense because cotton is abrasive, and cardboard is also fibers, so it’s fibers against fibers with a solvent in between.
They still show as damaged though, technically.
And yes you can absolutely get PSA 10s that are altered.
Several high end cards (one Psa 10 japanese Rayquaza gold star) were trimmed/humidity treated and that came out last year.
Just depends if the graders do their job or not - that’s basically what this process is trying to take advantage of.
My conclusion: Old cert superiority
Not really. Both have pros and cons.
Old certs are on average are loosely graded. Newer certs have a higher chance of being altered.
Pick your poison.
Buy the card, not the grade. Problem solved
0-27xx - Graded by the three blind mice
3x- doesn’t actually exist
5-7x - during the covid times, we don’t talk about that era
8x-current - Got the Kurt juice
You know what that means. There is only one true king: 4x era
That’s like one of 10 I’ve ever seen lol nice own
The second quote is from 2022.
And it’s still correct. 2 and below are what most people are referring to.
But the guy was saying that he doesn’t trust anything below a 4 because PSA was more lenient. You don’t think there’s any truth to people thinking that new is better and more strict, even though people have been saying that for the last 4 years (at least)?
Card condition wise, yes. But it does depend. PSA Change their standards frequently often depending on submission volume and sentiment.
Ill go down the rabbit hole…
2xx certs and below were often loosely graded. Look at the Shadowless PSA 10s. MOST are early certs - and there is a reason for that. Most have print lines. I guess PSA didnt care so much about that back then. Hardly any PSA 10 shadowless have been graded in the past few years.
Some early 4 certs are over graded, later 4 certs can be under graded.
5xxx certs are often over graded for example.
6x-7x are usually solid. I have crossed many PSA 9s from these certs to BGS 9.5s or grade bump PSA 8 to BGS 9.
I dont have an opinion really on later certs as I havent done much cross grading on them. All I know is I see people talking a lot online about pop control on vintage, so I assume its strict.
Altering/cleaning wise…yeah later on certs are more likely to have been treated. But it’s the graders jobs to find these…it’s crazy they cant detect everything yet.
But ultimately they may get through with lower grades as it could just be seen as damage, as like in this video.
[ill now prepare my body for the likely onslaught from certain E4 members]
