PSA 8.5 Conundrum

General
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Hey all, I’ve got PSA 8.5 Discovery Umbreon, and 8.5 1st Edition Fossil Moltres. I’m mainly just curious about what the rest of you do with 8.5s. Personally, I don’t like having them.

It’s an annoying grade, and I don’t really understand why it exists. If you can enlighten me as to it’s purpose I’d appreciate it. I feel like 9.5 is a more useful subdivision when compared to 8.5, but they don’t have 9.5. For example, maybe the card is flawless except for centering. I have SOOOOO many of those cards they are likely the tiniest possible measurement off of 10, but the rest of the card is immaculate. That kind of thing feels 9.5 worthy.

Also, will you typically try to regrade them to get the 9, or just leave it be and accept that it’s better than an 8?

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send to beckett

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www.psacard.com/articles/articleview/5212/introducing-psa-half-grades-more-precise-grading-your-cards

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I don’t mind buying them personally because other people typically don’t like them and will sometime sell around 8 prices anyway. They just go in my collection with no plan to sell them.

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@pulpyfan, so basically it’s more beneficial in the baseball card market due to the availability of 10’s being significantly more limited and sometimes non-existent when compared to Pokemon. In effect, a PSA 8.5 might be equivalent to Pokemon’s PSA 9? And a baseball PSA 9, is sometimes the same as a pokemon PSA 10. Not in actual condition, but in the sense of availability. As in, it’s more or less the top of the market in many cases.

I hope that makes sense. I understand the logic in my head, but it’s not as easy when drawing the comparisons in writing.

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I personally wouldnt care to have a half grade myself but would rather an 8.5 then an 8 lol

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I think the best thing to realize is that grading cards of all types is subjective. It’s not a perfect practice and people are not perfect. Half grades, additional qualifiers, etc. It all leads to how a grader on any particular day will react to an extra nick, a millimeter of centering, or a scuff mark. Ultimately, everyone will be their own judge. For me, I see it in whole number bands. A PSA 9 is between an 8 and a 10. Could be closer to an 8 for one example, could be closer to a 10 on another. A PSA 8 is between a 7 and a 9, and so on down the ladder.