Older PSA cards are graded much easier - is it true?

[darthtiberius]

@vic

So are 5xx certs better than 4xx certs on average? Which certs should I be buying if I want a TRUE™ 10?

Everyone knows that it’s the 6xx certs that are the TRUE™ 10s.

[mosstastic]

@aj84

I hate to make this sort of topic. This is just my personal observations:

After spending over 6 figures on Pokemon cards, its just way too obvious to me that earlier certifications are generally much more poor in quality. This is very disappointing after spending / investing so much. My 5XXXXX certifications that are lower grades seem to be generally better condition than say for example 2XXXXX and prior psa 10 certifications, which sucks. All WOTCs. I feel like I’m spending thousands on mis-grades. This has turned me off the graded cards hobby / investment.

Your sitting here with 5 figure cards and not even too sure if it will be accepted in the future because it is a “weak 10”. I wasn’t the type of person to tell the seller, look your PSA 10 card has a big stain and lots of whitening on every edge of the card (lets pretend that corners don’t even exist) - give me my money back.

I’m just curious to know what cards you bought that you dropped six figures. Mind sharing?

[shadowless]

Once people realize that 99% of PSA 10s are not perfect cards, this discussion will be obsolete. No one is forcing anyone to buy graded 10s, go for 9s or ungraded raw.

[darthtiberius]

@shadowless

Once people realize that 99% of PSA 10s are not perfect cards, this discussion will be obsolete. No one is forcing anyone to buy graded 10s, go for 9s or ungraded raw.

I totally agree. People obsess over a number, when at the end of the day grading is subjective. There will always be anomalies and “strong” or “weak” examples of every grade. I used to hyper focus on 10’s since they were the “best” but now I am more than happy saving lots of money and grabbing 9s. I mean some of the strong 9s could possibly regrade a 10, you never know!

[voltagic]

@shadowless

Once people realize that 99% of PSA 10s are not perfect cards, this discussion will be obsolete. No one is forcing anyone to buy graded 10s, go for 9s or ungraded raw.

Could not have said it better myself!

I’ve funnily enough had an experience which fits this really well:

I had the choice between two PSA 10 copies. One listed on a local Dutch Facebook group (44xx cert), the other on Ebay (18xx cert). Copy on Ebay had the tiniest whitening dot ever, the one of the Facebook group didn’t.

I bought the copy on Facebook, received it, and under bright light and the right angle, some hairline scratches on the holo can be spotted. Actually bothers me more than the tiny dot of whitening would have.

Morals of the story: PSA 10s aren’t perfect cards, they almost never are. The 10s I do own in my collection, after inspecting them “closer” after this experience, except for maybe a handful, all have the tiniest possible defect I could pinpoint. And the other moral… not all types of damage are visible on the typical pictures you will find on a listing/for sale post. A large amount of defects with WOTC holographic cards will be on the surface. This really throws off a lot of inexperienced collectors too. “Why is my card only a 7!? Look at the back, 1 tiny spot of whitening, I’ve seen worse 8s!” I can almost guarantee you that surface has scratching going on.

[pokehut1]

It’s a bell curve. Older PSA certs seem to be shifted more towards PSA 9’s.

[psa]

@enigma

@pfm

It’s been shown that PSA has given proportionately less 10s over the past few years. Whether this is a reflection of strictness or a reflection of people submitting lower quality cards is unproven. Any correlation between the first number on the cert and quality is unsupported beyond anecdote

An easy way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt if PSA has grown more strict would be for any 2XXX cert holder to crack out a bunch of 2XXX cert 10’s and submit them to PSA again to get the new 5XXX cert. I don’t see any 2XXX cert holders brave enough to do it though

This has been done. The grades came back worse. Isn’t that right, @jcincy ?

[mimighster]

@enigma Another thing to keep in mind is that I bet if you cracked and regarded 10’s with 2xx certs the day they arrived years ago, a good chunk of them would’ve also been downgraded to a 9 even back then. So even if you did that experiment it wouldn’t really prove much.

I have 2xx 10’s that look cleaner than 4xx and vice versa. My theory is that maybe graders, even if only subconsciously, started to be more vigilant as Pokemon cards started to be taken more seriously in general and commanding higher prices. The difference between a 9 and a 10 can often be $1000’s so they can’t be so willy nilly when PSA have to provide their financial guarantee. Also with PSA being the go-to service for grading pkmn cards (which now brings them noteworthy revenue) there’s more pressure to uphold their reputation and give accurate grades than before.

But I find most 2xx certs are accurate and if not, just use their financial guarantee. I would never pass on a card because it’s a 2xx cert personally and I know there are plenty of other people that think the same. So there will always be buyers if you want to sell, and a regrade + financial guarantee service if you don’t like the grade. Not really worth worrying about.

[psa]

@mimighster

@enigma Another thing to keep in mind is that I bet if you cracked and regarded 10’s with 2xx certs the day they arrived years ago, a good chunk of them would’ve also been downgraded to a 9 even back then. So even if you did that experiment it wouldn’t really prove much.

I have 2xx 10’s that look cleaner than 4xx and vice versa. My theory is that maybe graders, even if only subconsciously, started to be more vigilant as Pokemon cards started to be taken more seriously in general and commanding higher prices. The difference between a 9 and a 10 can often be $1000’s so they can’t be so willy nilly when PSA have to provide their financial guarantee. Also with PSA being the go-to service for grading pkmn cards (which now brings them noteworthy revenue) there’s more pressure to uphold their reputation and give accurate grades than before.

But I find most 2xx certs are accurate and if not, just use their financial guarantee. I would never pass on a card because it’s a 2xx cert personally and I know there are plenty of other people that think the same. So there will always be buyers if you want to sell, and a regrade + financial guarantee service if you don’t like the grade. Not really worth worrying about.

That’d be great and all in an ideal world, but their financial guarantee, from what I perceive on this forum, never gets honored.

[wisewailmer]

only 7 psa 10 1st ed zards havve been graded since 2017 and all of them before that are old certs so yes there is some merit to this thought

[kingboo64]

I don’t know why this hasn’t been mentioned yet, but supply is a huge factor. There aren’t that many raw mint cards around that haven’t been graded. And opening a bunch of packs to pull the card you want was way easier when a box of base unlimited was $400 and 1st edition Neo was $700.

[zards_r_us]

Grading is subjective and there will always be undergrades/overgrades regardless of certs. Unless people start cracking psa 10’s out to compare in large quantity theres no way to know as its impossible for the everyday submitter to catch all flaws of a card when its slab. As always buy the card not the grade.

[dcs]

I only buy 3xx certs

[fourthstartcg]

This topic has been discussed at length on the forum multiple times. @pkmnflyingmaster gave the best answer you’ll find on page 1.

Once you get into conspiracy theories and ““evidence”” like this which I hope to god is sarcasm, it’s time to drop it.

@wisewailmer

only 7 psa 10 1st ed zards havve been graded since 2017 and all of them before that are old certs so yes there is some merit to this thought