Do I suck at pre-grading?(getting wrecked by PSA)

Can anyone explain to me why all of these cards got 7s? I try to make sure cards are well centered with no dents, and theres barely any whitening on most of them. I get that holo scratches can knock them down to 7s. But I literally have PSA 7s that are beat to hell. These cards are super clean and should at least get 8s imo.

Let me know if I just suck at pregrading, and any suggestions you may have to improve.

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You probably don’t suck at pregrading. A friend of mine sent in 6 psa 9 4th print base set holos cracked in hopes of 10s and ended up with 5 8s and a 7.

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No. They have a few new idiots working over there that don’t understand vintage english, and the unfortunate souls who get their vintage english cards in the hands of these noobs are also getting wrecked.

At the end of the day, a clean back with some light scratching on the holo should be a 8-9 all day. After all, nearly every damn 8 and 9 I buy to crack for my collection turns out far, far more scratched than the cards I send in getting 8’s or even 7’s from the last few unfortunate orders. (Now, I don’t actually agree a scratched card is 9 worthy in my personal view of grading, but since every 9 they give out has scratches on it that I pay a premium for and is totally not worth it, the notion that a card with a few scratches deserves a 7 is ridiculous)

It’s infuriating, and you are right to be disappointed or angry.

The order I sent in most recently, that has completely turned me off to submitting myself for my graded collection (fortunately almost done with it anyway), got hit with a bunch of 7’s and 8’s that were just undeserved. The biggest absurdity isn’t the holos. Like mine, you have a few non holos in there that are devoid of whitening and they got a 7. Those are easy 9’s, really even fair shots at 10’s.

You just got one of these idiot graders that just wasted some/a lot of your money. My condolences. I’ve been there 3 times in the last 2 years. 3/4 last orders.

Did you look under an LED light and tilt the card around? My biggest tip for pre-grading is to detach feeling to your cards and look at them honestly.

If you are grading with the goal of going for 10s:

  1. Don’t look for reasons to send the card.
  2. Look for reasons NOT to send the card.

Being extra critical and meticulous means you are going to mitigate some of the inherent risk in grading cards with a goal grade in mind.

Study the cards that come back as lower grades than you expected and find out WHY they got lower grades. This is literally the same as reading the teachers feedback as to why you got a C instead of an A.

Always be willing to accept that your pregrade was wrong and you missed something. Also be willing to accept that a grader saw something you can’t see.

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REALLY like this!

It’s hard to see the details in your pictures, OP. Resolution is a little low, but there are definitely some justified ones. I generally see scratches on the foil and I think “8-” Just my personal view, even if the rest is immaculate. I won’t send a card with so much as a print line if I want 9+. Some of those though, like kadabra and dewgong DO look low to me… but again, I might not see everything in the pics.

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Let me reveal the answer to your puzzle…

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One day we need a thread for the top 10 Pokemon conspiracy theories :joy:

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You could get lucky too…

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Don’t dream it, do it!

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Good point :smiley:

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One thing for sure with PSA is any surface flaws can quickly bring a grade down. It’s hard to tell in the pics, those cards all look pretty clean to me. I just know I’ve bought low grade PSA cards that have minimal to no whitening or even holo scratches and yet a tiny dent brought it down to a 5, 6, or 7 grade. Other times though I’ve seen these same cards get PSA 8.

So I’m not really sure what else to say, but it’s part of the reason I’ve been just buying low grade PSA cards more and more because sometimes it just doesn’t make sense as to why a card gets a certain grade.

If you feel like you got wrecked and you’re confident, id crack and regrade. I had several subs where i felt i got smashed, cracked and got better results.

Thanks to everyone for taking time to chime in! I appreciate all the suggestions and advice

for greater context this is the grade brake-down of my sub. In my experience its weird to get that many 7s. I may crack a few and resub as an experiment.
PSA 6 and below - 3
PSA 7 - 19
PSA 8 - 9
PSA 9- 2
PSA 10 - 0

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I know it’s a meme but the fact that people think these people grading have any idea what the pop report is, has always been hilarious to me lol

:arrow_right: the people at the top

I have a friend who should know better what not to send and he recently got demolished in an English sub too. Like majority 7s. Makes me wonder if there’s like one employee recently hired that is grading to an unreasonable standard

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