Sorry if this is not the right place to post this. I am concerned as I have just bought a bunch of PSA 10 cards,
I originally collected cards for the first few years and wanted to get them graded, they are all in great shape as I always use to put them straight into a soft sleeve and into a top loader back in the day, but still they seemed to have white nicks in the corners. I will send them in when I receive the supplies.
Now for WOTC cards I have noticed that there is whitening in corners yet these cards are all graded 10. I understand that a PSA 10 maybe isn’t truly going to be a 10 but i have my doubts what these cards would grade now if removed from case.
Particularly concerning is a recent card I received a shining neo destiny card that was moving around the case - this is the first time I noticed - it moved from left to right, up and down. I don’t feel too comfortable with this but after reading around this is suppose to be normal.
However, there is slight whitening in every corner and whitening on one side of the card. The whitening on the side of the card is more concerning. Another base set PSA 10 has slight holo bleeding in side of the card (front).
These cards are purchased at a premium, in the future if I were to sell, what is the reaction of someone buying a card with a white line showing on the side of the card on the back for a psa 10? Or maybe I am entirely clueless what exactly a PSA 10 is.
Small white dots on the back edges are considered in PSA 10’s grade if there is just 1. Also cards do move inside the case cos PSA lacks an inner sleeve to hold them, and yes they hit the borders and I dunno at what extent that will damage them long term.
No grade is perfect. Even black labels have been off centered, had print lines, etc. Grading is a subjective rating projected onto cards. Perfection isn’t real.
yeah, graders are just humans, i’m aware of that. but still, when they claim that “psa 10 is a virtually perfect card”, i don’t want printlines and whitening on there. make it a 9 then, there are plenty of cards out there that really deserve a 10. it’s like saying you sell a new car but it already has some scratches and flat tires.
Graded cards can sometimes be a bit of a wild west. And really, the best advice I’ve heard on here is “buy the cards, not the grades”. Unfortunately grading does happen by humans, and mistakes get made. There’s a couple things to keep in mind and possible scenarios here:
PSA 10s are not perfect cards, and allow for minor imperfections. It’s completely possible the flaws on those cards were spotted, and the card was still deemed of PSA 10 quality. Even though this might be a bigger flaw than you would personally like to see on a PSA 10 card.
These cards ended up getting damaged, between the grading and casing steps. This does happen, there’s stories like this out there if you have a search.
The grader(s) missed the flaw on the card, and you have a miss-graded card.
I have examples for you of 2) and 3) happening:
This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but it’s a big spot of whitening along the edge of the card. It wasn’t there when I submitted this card (I really carefully inspect my cards), and there was also no notice of this damage by Ludkins who also pregraded the card. It received a PSA 10 and came in the case like this. My guess is, the card got damaged between grading and casing.
PSA 9 I recently bought with corner damage that should not be present on a PSA 9 card. I handled 15-20 cards like this (missgraded or extremely weak grades) since I’ve picked up Pokemon again in 2018. It’s unfortunately more common than I’d like.
However, in your particular case, based on the picture you provided, I think scenario 1) is the most likely.
what i think about it: a professional company grades a card. if it gets a 10, it should be sold for the price of a 10, even if it could also be a 9 - unless you really care about or you want to regrade the card. if anyone wants to pay more for a “strong 10” for a bgs crossover to get that pristine, go for it.
I get what your saying, but your proving my point. Everyone has their opinion of what a grade should be. Even experts in the hobby won’t always agree on grades. It’s inherently subjective. Our idea of perfection is decided by somewhat arbitrary parameters we created. But those subjective parameters make it a nice/fun challenge!
Yes even the new new cars. Next time you go to the dealership look at the insides of the door handles and you’ll find lots of tiny little fingernail scratches. Look around the body towards the bottom and you’ll find bits of rail dust (dust kicked from railroad transportation) stuck onto the car. Next take a look at the odometer and you’ll see that car likely has 20+ miles on it.
Just buy immaculate 8/9s for a fraction of the price. My PSA 8 Shining Tyrantiar looks better than my PSA 9 base Venusuar. And then I’ve seen photos of 10s with more wear than the Venusaur.
Funny old game PSA
This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but it’s a big spot of whitening along the edge of the card. It wasn’t there when I submitted this card (I really carefully inspect my cards), and there was also no notice of this damage by Ludkins who also pregraded the card. It received a PSA 10 and came in the case like this. My guess is, the card got damaged between grading and casing.