That’s really interesting and yeah I feel the same as you about that 8 in your pictures. If I went to a shop to buy a mtg card labeled as NM and it was like that I wouldn’t buy. But I can’t be as picky in pokemon I guess. It’ll be a tough adjustment haha
Yup. Here’s a normal, roughly average PSA 8 BTW:
If you shine a light on the surface, it looks like someone rubbed it with steel wool. And this is common for PSA 8 holos, especially exs and reverse holos. Any of the collectors on this forum saying that PSA 8 cards are NM-MT are full of shit. PSA 8 cards are usually MP or LP. Sometimes they are NM, if you get lucky. I try to find PSA 8s that look like they have poor centering – sometimes a PSA 9 quality card will get dinged to an 8 if it has totally shit centering. And centering is irrelevant to me, at least. Do note that, even with this surface wear, the card looks great sleeved up in my binder. PSA 8s generally have great eye appeal (from afar, at least), in my experience.
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Really interesting seeing all the pics
That’s a ton of scratches on that psa 8. Makes me seriously reconsider sending in the exs I do have since they have far less scratching than that one. 4xx cert strikes again haha
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Make sure to shine them with a bright, very direct light to check for scratches. Because if you looked at this Charizard in normal lighting, the scratches aren’t visible. These things do not show scratches easily. But if you genuinely think you can get PSA 9 or higher, then go for it. Do know that there is zero premium for PSA 8s, so it’s basically throwing money away if they don’t come back a 9 or 10.
And if you think the FRLG Charizard is bad, you don’t even want to see my 2xx certs. I have dozens and they are literally all worse than this. It’s a controversial opinion to have on this forum, but 4xx cert PSA 8s are nearly universally superior to 2xx cert ones. In fact, I had a 2xx cert PSA 8 FRLG Charizard that I cracked out and had to resell it because it had a literal dent in it. I believe I posted pictures of that one when originally happened (back in April) if you wanted to see. I’ll take surface scratching over dents every day of the week 
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They treat the reverse holos and border holos differently than ordinary, and especially WOTC holos. Every 7 I have is way better than those EX’s pictured.
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Well damn. I’m about to buy up all those psa 10 raw 1st ed Bulbasaurs
I’ll respond once I buy my lambo. From all that sweet sweet profit
If you’re looking around online at examples, I recommend PWCC. They have crazy good images compared to other sources.
I can’t really talk much about grading in the past and if its changed. Only cards I have from the past are all PSA 10s. PSA 10s are not flawless. My 8.0 card recently graded is in pretty good condition (nm). I was hoping for 9.0 (predicted 8.5).
I got two of my own cards back: base charizard. The card that looks worse got the 8.5. It has a couple of nasty scratches on it (holo part). Why did it get a better rating? Probably because the 8.5 had better centering. The 8.0 card is one that I pulled myself - no scratches on it.