There is zero reason for me to buy a PSA 9 of a card that’s widely and readily available. The value of the card being certified is that it’s verified in pristine condition, which is the only part that generates any additional value on a common card.
Abstraction of what card grades represent and where the value comes from is a big conversation we could have for hundreds of years until our skeletons turn to dust, but I am not a slab collector. If I just want the card, I buy the card. It goes in a binder. I don’t just want the card, I want the card in beautiful perfect resplendent condition and I want certification that demonstrates that. Anything less than 10, or a bad card graded as a 10, is worthless to me in this case.
Real talk, I have owned and been very happy with dozens of PSA 10s. It’s not like I am impossible to please. But I have a clear image of what I want a PSA 10 to look like and that’s a personal thing. If the card doesn’t meet that standard, I don’t want it regardless of the grade. I am occasionally bitter that it’s so hard to be satisfied with a 10 of my favorite card, though.
Not sure if y’all saw Ryan’s PSA return video with his 60+ shadowless gyarados, but it solidified a feeling that I’ve been having with PSA these days. Similar vibe to the CGC 8.5 ugliness, but it seems like the margin for error to get a 9 is becoming quite small, and it’s safe to expect an 8 on most cards.
Also, this did feel like hella pop control. No way at least one of those didn’t deserve a 9.
I recently subbed a shadowless 8 Raichu that was so clean it was ridiculous they slapped an 8 on it. I cracked and subbed to BGS and it got a 9/9/9.5/9.5.
Basically, the range of what makes an 8 is way to big and it’s nice as a buyer, but brutal as a someone who is submitting.
Had to go watch it. That is such a joke that none of those got 9s. The front of a lot of those Gyarados looked absolutely perfect and there was a decent amount that looked like they had really clean backs. Thought one or two might have been a 10. Must have been so frustrating to record that video.
Here is the video starting when he looks at the grades.
Feel like only a few of those may have deserved 9s. Lots of white corners in all four corners (more than just white dots) and spots of edge wear. These cards were bought from an estate sale. Not like they were pack fresh, immediately sleeved and shipped to PSA.
If I was buying this card raw, I would feel lucky to get a 9 with corners/edges like this and most of them looked like this. Quite a few worse and some better.
Since this is under the post of PSA consistency, I think they were pretty consistent here. Plus, as you get lower down the grade range, the wider the range of wear each grade has. None of the 8’s looked really bad enough for a 7.
This is what 7 should look like and it got a 7. PSA is far from perfect, but I’m not seeing whats that outrageous about these grades.
They were indeed very consistent here, albeit in giving out 8s… I normally am very optimistic about PSA’s grading consistency but the difference in condition between some of the 8s was massive.
Also, just look at the difference in condition between the 8 and the 7 you posted. The 8 has only very minor corner wear, while the 7 has whitening all over the bottom and right edge…
Once again, you can’t confuse one order with “PSA”. “PSA” didn’t do good or bad, this is the result of one grader on one day. I have an order that just finished with similar cert numbers and my impression was it did better than expected. This is not “PSA” being easy on my order, it’s one grader.
If you were to take an unbiased look across a lot of orders, then you can say something general about how “PSA” grades. For instance, we can say that generally PSA is harsh on dents and rarely gives out fractional grades.
This also applies to other grading companies. It drives me nuts, it’s like watching someone draw a line through a single point of data and trying to interpret something from that.
That being said, that Gyarados order is ridiculous
