Discussion on the consistency of PSA grading

Grading
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83

It can be 9.99 if you had more names you wanted to use :wink:

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84

Id draw the line for a card that is creased or dented that was mistakenly given a 10.

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85

I watched a psa 4 or 6 become a bgs black label some things are just crazy.

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86

Iā€™ve also seen low grade PSA cards bump up like crazy for bgs

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87

Someone i like and bought cards from regraded his psa 5 to a 10 i have put this somewhere on a post before but no idea which one now lol. I can send youtube link if you want it.

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88

Yes post the link here!

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89
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90

I love a good psa 5 to black label story as much as the next guy but I think grading companies are generally consistent. Though this blastoise still annoys me.

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91

Thatā€™s wild!

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92

Did you try PSA? Lol

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93

That cards at bit of a disadvantage due to interesting centering. A 9 would be best outcome. At least the surface is getting better as time passes 8.5 to 9.5 :wink:

94

No i dont have a membership. Its an 8.5 to me and i wanted it for my 8.5 set but since rhen ive actually bought and graded 3 8.5s that look worse

95

For less money than all those resubs

96

It was originally graded in december 1999 hence the old sgc label so the surface is actually very nice

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98

I wonder if the psa 4/6 was a misgrade or the black label was, or perhaps both.

99
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100

And I thought my PSA 7 ā†’ PSA 10 was wildā€¦ :laughing:

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101

i think this is the proof that PSA at least still use human to grade our cards, not an AI (?) just random personal opinion tho

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102

Thereā€™s a lot of focus on clear errors and misgrades in the topic so far, which I think is the least interesting example of inconsistency. Obviously if a card is incorrectly labeled in such a way that does not represent its true condition, the swing from A to B is going to appear huge. This isnā€™t an indication something is wrong with PSAā€™s grading scale that somehow two people can come to such different conclusions about the card, it is just representative that a human being made a mistake and a second human being corrected that mistake.

Think of it like any other job. Say you order a black coffee at a cafe and the server hands you a coffee with milk. This isnā€™t representative of the definition of black coffee being meaningless, or that thereā€™s something wrong with the way the establishment makes black coffee, it means the person making the black coffee made a mistake. This isnā€™t as dramatic of a story to me as with PSA as it is for others.

But I guess my hang-up, again using my signature Meowth card as an example, is when it seems insurmountable for a card to grade a 10 and even the most beautiful splendid examples are given 9s. But then when you look at the 10s that are already available, they look way worse. So many of the PSA 10 Meowth #10 promos are off center with edging, So many of the 9s have neither.

This is where I get frustrated with the grading scale and the method of scrutiny given to the cards. I am fine if they want to make achieving a Gem Mint 10 very difficult to do. But I am really annoyed when the ones they do certify are justā€¦ not good. This shows a pattern of allowing undeserving cards into an upper echelon that is otherwise heavily gated, which is more the kind of thing I become disillusioned to.

Part of why I even do the silly Black Label hunt for this card isnā€™t because I have a unique love for BGS or their Black Label certification, but because every time I see a PSA 10 of this card it sucks - including the ones Iā€™ve owned.

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103

Buy the card not the grade then if 9s generally look better. Itll save you money on top. We all have different standards we want from a 10. In my case with 3rd print fossil ill take anything and everything with a 10 to get the job done if i didnt id never finish for sure. Ive got 8s better than 9s and 10s etc etc.