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No
Now this might sound tin foil hat here however, hear me out.
What if it’s all based on an employee grading the cards in each submission and that their own subjective opinion varies from the other employees in the company who may grade the next submission. If they all use the same grading scale for reference albeit the grading scale isn’t an exact guarantee of measurements so there’s a slight difference in understanding per individual. Maybe there could be other factors at play such as differences in training at different facilities and even countries. How about their own experience in the job, length of time doing it, personal interest could also sway the outcome.
Just a wild thought. Or maybe you’re right and Nat says in the morning brief to turn the scale up to 11 today.
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It’s funny how PSA diehards notice when other companies change their grading scale/strictness but flat out refuse to acknowledge that it could have happened with PSA.
All you need to do is look at 2xxx certs which is now widely acknowledged that they were very loosely graded to see that, at least once, psa changed their grading strictness.
The reality is they change it all the time, they just don’t tell you.
Most people who buy to crack and grade or those who grade a large amount of vintage acknowledge that there are variations between certs.
It does even go as deep as 42000 certs are weak and 47000 are stronger, but I think that would make some people here spontaneously combust.
I don’t know what they do it, perhaps to encourage submissions.
But yes, please wear your tin foil hat!
I actually have some examples of this from some cards I recently bought.
I didn’t buy these for regrading (I do also collect PSA slabs).
The ray is a fair 9, the groudon is a very strong 9 and the kyogre should be an 8. This is more or less consistent with my above comments.
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I’ve moved all of these posts to a new containment zone thread so we can keep the old one on topic.
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Lmao I logged on as you were doing this. here we go again
So just to provide more proof that this is all hogwash, I graded about 100-200 cards in both the 8x and 9x timeframe.
8x, grading was much looser and easier to get 9’s and 10’s.
9x, strict as hell to an almost unfair degree.
The reason for this? Individual grader variance. The incompetence of grading doesn’t stem from top down direction on grading standards, rather it stems from the quality of the individual grader.
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The ray is a fair 9, the groudon is a very strong 9 and the kyogre should be an 8. This is more or less consistent with my above comments.
According to who though? PSA didn’t base their scale on your personal opinion…
You could very well be right about PSA changing their grading scale at some point (although probably not as frequently as you believe). But what you’re doing is presenting speculation as fact, and dismissing anyone that disagrees with you by calling them a ‘‘BGS hater’’ or a ‘‘PSA diehard’’. Doesn’t seem very constructive to me.
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When i got my card back from Graded Gem submission (6-series), I felt a few was har very strict graded, and sent 5 back inn, they gpt back with 8-certs, all got same grade. I also sent inn 3 card with 2-cert, 1 got higher, 1 got lower and 1 got the same. Also sent inn 6 card with 4 and 5 cert, and they got back same (1 got up from 8.5 to 9)…
So it looks like it’s the same, yes you will find changes, as cards can be just around 2 grades, and some time they change, but i feel the PSA is giving most of the time the same grade.
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Is Greg Lindberg your dad? You can be honest.
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Dyl’s Razor: Never ascribe to malice deliberate changes in grading scales/standards that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
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Besides the argument that every grading company makes mistakes and has natural variance between graders, the key is the cards on the market are probably the worst condition cards in that grade. Hit a lucky 9 that should have been a 7 or 8? Sell it. Have a mint card that got a 10, keep it in collection for no one else to see.
Most people chase the number on the slab, not the true condition. So if you grade 2 of the same card, both 10s, you are keeping the “better” 10
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This is efours favourite topic and honestly zero point in me replying to it.
If you don’t like my OPINION then that is fine.
People are making a lot of money arbitraging between undergraded PSA slabs and other companies.
That is my experience. Take it or leave it.
I’m talking about vintage specifically. Not sure if that applies to your 100-200 sub.
This is e4s least favorite topic that is constantly argued about by a select few people. Hence the title having the billionth time at the end
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I didn’t start it up again, fren.
And yea, it’s efours favourite topic.
Well, no, you did, when you started talking about PSA fanboys. Nobody likes PSA. Some people like CGC some people like bgs and some people respect PSA. But nobody likes PSA.
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Look at the start of the thread.
I also am grading company agnostic.
I own a lot of high end slabs from all companies.
But I KNOW that PSA does change their grading strictness.
Not sure why this is so triggering.
This thread wasn’t organically created. Posts from the BGS thread were moved here to clean up that one that got derailed
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Not at all. Why this topic reemerges is because someone makes inflammatory claims, (currently you), and then people, typically with more experience try and temper the claim. The topic spins in circles because the anecdotal sample sizes are so limited, and ultimately inferior.
I’ve been grading with PSA for 16 years, and have graded more cards than most people will in their lifetime. Not only quantity, but in every era. Moreover, the head of ludkins US was a mod here, and when this exhausted conversation happened then, they said they didn’t notice a change in the scale. They were the largest submitter of pokemon cards. Inb4 the biased claims, that individual worked for CGC… I’ve also been outspoken how PSA is more strict/focused on higher value cards due to their upcharges. Hell it was the last public video topic I made! I also just talked about how PSA is harsh on packs in my latest Patreon video.
The never-ending issue is the gap between experience and quantity. People summarizing cert era’s with 0 submissions during that time make the conversation impossible. People who start with a conclusion typically don’t listen. Especially when those conclusions are inflammatory statements. A great example of a convincing argument is when CGC changed their scale before publicly doing so. The data spoke for itself. Presenting that for PSA, or any company is more valuable than the same tired tropes.
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