PM how it works because I dont get the measurements.
I’m not sure I follow on the 7% either?
please don’t jinx it I just sent in some LC cards to PSA today. ONE DAY LC ALAKAZAM WILL BE MINE.
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Which is a major reason why inconsistencies occur
Without subgrades it is really hard to tell what they are doing/seeing/evaluating when they grade. BGS works where they can have a 9 subgrade with all others being a 10 and then still get a 10, correct? Perhaps this was an 8.5 or a 9 for centering and a solid 10 on everything else? I just don’t get PSA and never will though. They have no transparency and no consistency IMO. On my own personal 10’s I have seen shit ton of silvering I am talking 25% of the front edges all silver. I have seen a few decent white flecks on the back corners. I have seen off centered. Not all these things on one card, but individually. No way to tell what they are doing or what grade they are going to give really IMO. Subgrades would add some transparency I think, though I have 0% experience with BGS. Never owned one of their cards and never submitted with them, but at face value the subgrades seems like a good idea.
It really makes it so much more subjective and inconsistent I would think when you don’t flat out write the numbers down for each subgrade and try coming up with some kind of an average that probably varies person to person day to day and card to card to an extent. When you have a grader trying to consider all of these points and have such vague guidelines, it is easy for me to see why there is a lot of disagreement over some grades. There at least must be internally agreement on that card though as two graders would have had to call it a 10. I imagine this would have seen a few passes of that nice shiny metal ruler we saw on their instagram… they must be pretty careful with it, Ha.
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Only one of Becketts 4 grading services has sub grades.
The honest answer is even if PSA had subgrades for their only service, people will still complain.
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I agree and disagree. I think there would be less complaining because you can see exactly what part of the card gave it the lower grade.
It gives it more transparency.
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There’s cards on the high end of a number and others on the low end of a number. Remember, these are third party “opinions” and should be treated as such. There is no mystery involved though of course there are strategy’s that come over time:)
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I think it could help for sure with transparency, only if the accuracy is there. If someone doesn’t think a card should be a 9, 10 or whatever grade, the sub grades are negligible. I have cards from beckett which would never cross to PSA the same grade. The subgrades don’t better explain why my apparent 9 card has fraying on the back.
Basically, since everyone uses PSA, and no one uses Beckett, subgrades are a bit romanticized. Also, only one beckett service has subgrades. They have three other services: BVG (for vintage cards), Raw review, and BCCG which do not have sub grades. The latter BCCG barely has grading standards at all.
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More people should start sending to Beckett, I know this has nothing to do with anything, but PSA and Beckett are both small companies and should be supported equally… It sucks that no one will send cards to Beckett for me…its all about me and what I want.
Also there’s this big collector on YouTube who explains difference to PSA and Beckett and his personal preference, and think its pretty spot on with the knock back from PSA 10 thingy to a 9. Here:
Man that guy is a pure collector. I have seen his videos over the years so many times. Such a happy guy, doing what he loves.
His point about vintage cards is mostly shared for majority of sport card collectors. PSA is the standard for vintage.
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Yeah his couel. I remember watching his how to send psa cards video and he mentioned pokemon. good times.
hE does mention how psa will knock it back from 10 if centering, edges, surface, corners arnt all 10. Everyone probably knows that though, but that is the big difference. I think the subgrades make it better for anaylysis and would be fun to go over, but thats just me. Do it now psa… do the subgradez
I didn’t think this question deserved it’s own topic, and I don’t want to hijack this topic so once I get a response I will delete the posts.
Does PSA get enough International business to warrant an Office/Grading location outside of the US? Even if the amount of International customers they have is strong I can see many things going against the possibility, but would it even be in the realm of possibility in the future?
Great question and an even better idea. I don’t have the numbers though.
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Ive wondered this also but always thought they wouldn’t bother cos heeeaaaps of people just post their shit to them anyway. I for one however would likely use a local service
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Wouldn’t a location outside of the US still be international for every other country that was not that new location? In other words, what would the benefit be of one international hub (if the idea is that it was created to make international shipping easier), when most international shipping would still be international unless they opened a hub in every country?
If they opened a branch in Europe, a lot of European countries would have easier/cheaper access to PSA. A lot of European countries get absolutely rinsed on customs charges simply because the package is coming from outside of Europe.
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That makes sense - I didn’t realize Europe would be treated as one entity, postage-wise.
This is just my theory, but I think the incentive isn’t there as majority of sport card collectors are in the US. The main hobby for PSA is baseball. Outside of pokemon, I don’t know if sport card hobbies fare well in Europe, Australia, etc.