Been watching a lot of returns videos and I plan to do a submission soon, but here is the the thing… PSA grades seem to be super inconsistent all of the sudden. Cards are being graded harder it seems or get a lower grade for things that were not knocked as hard previously. Does it have to do with the newest modern cards being so dang perfect? I’m seeing a lot of people say “How is this not a 10?”, which is concerning, but then again I’m not judging their cards and they might have missed something I would not.I know last year I was spot on with my personal expectations.
My concern is that my WOTC holos that I submit will start to get seriously knocked for flaws that previously would grade 9+. Last year I pulled a PSA 9 shadowless charizard that today I think would only pull an 8 or perhaps 7. Anyone else notice some sudden changes in how they grade or is it a scatter?
Curious to know thoughts on submissions. My next one will have all WOTC mixed with a few japanese. I feel like submitting modern product is asking for trouble because a WOTC card can not compare with that level of perfection.
On my recent submissions, from the past year, I’ve noticed either consistency or maybe a bit easier now. As a test I sent in a 15 card order that fell nicely within my pregrade middles, meaning I felt they were all borderline and could go either way. When they come back I’ll be interested to see what they got.
My last order came back pretty much as expected. Funny enough the only cards I had issue with were newer japanese promos with centering issues pushing them to an 8. All my old Japanese and english cards from EX series and WOTC did just as expected. Aside from early 2018(I think it was) when they were literally letting everything slide, I haven’t had any issues except for a few damaged cards being graded too high.
No PSA returns video is complete without at least one “hOw Is ThIs NoT a TeN?”. Since you’re not physically watching someone grade your card in person, it’s easy to let your brain fill in the gaps and speculate what caused your card to get the grade it did.
On the other hand, it’s always been my opinion that PSA should include some sort of checklist that shows what standards your card did/did not meet so that the grade feels more justified. What if you could look up a cert number of a card you’re interested in and see a detailed breakdown of the exact condition of the card? One can dream.
They are definitely grading harder these days, anyone who says otherwise has a vested interest in old serial numbers. I would say the huge influx of modern product people are sending in to get graded has changed the view of the graders as to what a “10” card is, and comparing old WOTC card quality to modern product is like apples to oranges.
PSA took me to the cleaners on my last submission which was August 2019 - December 2019. I submitted 73 cards and expected that 65 should have been 9’s and 10’s. I got six 10’s and about 30 a piece 9’s and 8’s. The others were 6 and 7 which I was somewhat anticipating. I’ve never had a submission with so few 10’s and so many 8’s. I think your statement that they are grading harder is completely accurate. Alot of those 9’s I got used to would have been 10’s and alot of the 8’s i got used to would of been 9’s. I’m scared to submit again haha.
Same man. I’ve been sitting on hundreds of cards that if graded 10s are super valuable for ten years now and I just now finally decided to send them in. A lot of pack-fresh 1st ed Base, Shadowless Base, 1st ed Jungle, 1st ed Fossil, and other stuff. 362 cards in total. RIP
The one card I really want graded is an Ancient Mew. Such good memories with that card. So I am close to sending off my first submission through Ludkins with two Ancient Mews, but Smpratte’s video is making me kind nervous. His look in better condition than mine and got a 6!
This new discrepancy in something that is already inherently subjective is definitely making me nervous as well. I am new to this game, and I haven’t even sent in cards to get graded myself yet. Just going off of what you guys are saying, and Scott’s new video…I think I may hold off on buying anything graded for awhile and just see how this plays out.
I watched the @smpratte, video and that is alarming. If I understand this correctly, each set cards has it’s own way of technically being graded or at least appears to have it’s own set of standards. I noticed the first edition base set cards can sometimes be a PSA 7 and still have a decent amount of whitening for instance, but in general a WOTC cards should not be graded under the same standards as a Japanese “old back” card or a modern japanese/english card.
So if I am to understand this, PSA now appears to be grading more cards under a more general umbrella where they seem to acknowledge set differences less or not at all?
This can cause a huge disparity between old certs and new certs and is exactly the kind of thing that can make people annoyed when hunting graded cards. It could even hurt graded cards values, which is annoying. I feel it is in poor taste to make it so that a PSA 10 old cert is suddenly drastically different from a PSA 10 new cert. Not cool…
We’ll see how my submission turns out. I can’t afford to not do bulk, since it’s simply the cheapest option. I’ll try to not submit too many duplicates I suppose. Oh and @garyis2000, the biggest issue I have is that I have a lot less japanese cards than english, so my only option is to really submit them together. We’ll see how it turns out I guess. My next submission I plan to have is in January.
Don’t worry, I’ll show it off like a cool guy, but not with that baller69 z00m in z00m out 4k high def resolution. I’m classy & retro like that!
