Does everyone feel that PSA sticks to their criteria on their website when grading PSA 10 cards?
"A PSA Gem Mint 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp
corners, sharp focus and full original gloss. A PSA Gem Mint 10 card must be free of
staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it
doesn’t impair the overall appeal of the card. The image must be centered on the card within
a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 to 60/40 percent on the front, and 75/25
percent on the reverse.
"
In particular, is a card that is 65/35 centering on the back (or 70/30) should be a PSA 10. Have people found this to be the case assuming the rest of the card is flawless? It seems like PSA is a lot less strict on centering for the back of a card than on the front. Do people find this to be true?
Yes, I have a freshly graded (45xx) neo discovery holo which is at best 70/30 on the back, still received a 10. 60/40 is more then you might think, and yes I have examples of that in my collection as well.
Yes, as long as a card is within the centering parameters, it has a shot to get a PSA 10. But if the card is really pushing those limits, if the card has some other notable flaw then there is a pretty good chance it will be reduced to a lower a grade.
In general, I’ve noticed it goes like this:
No notable flaws: Probably a PSA 10
1 flaw: Has a chance at being a PSA 10
2 flaws: Probably not a PSA 10.
Centering that pushes the limits of the parameters constitutes a minor flaw.
Thanks for the info! Yeah one of the 10s I purchased recently looked quite off Centre on the back but I measured it and found out it’s only like 60/40 L/R on the back… so that wouldn’t count as a flaw correct? The only other thing it has is a white spec on one corner (but I think this is common somewhat?)
