I bought about 3000 boosters from the WotC store at the Beverly Center mall in 2003. Every card went straight into a card holder within seconds of opening the pack. I sent the first 45 to CGC for grading. Almost all were 9-9.5. Then they said they were too strict on grading compared to PSA and offered to reholder all the 9.5’s as 10’s. Recently, I noticed that I’d forgotten to send a RH Legendary Pikachu. I sent that to PSA. It got a 7. I’ve been trying to figure out why, and think it must be invisible scratches because I don’t see anything else that could cause such a massive downgrade. I’d include the PSA photos, but don’t see a way to do that here.
That’s not what happened. They just changed the label so that 9.5 gem mint was instead 10 gem mint. It was just an aesthetic change, not a change to the actual grading standards.
I’d include the PSA photos, but don’t see a way to do that here.
If you give the cert number, anyone here can pull up the scan.
Also, by “card holder” do you mean toploader without a penny sleeve? Because if so, that would explain the scratches…
154001829
Welcome to the club. We meet at the Grading Results Thread every other Thursday and have juice and snacks available.
Edit: Actually wait, looking at the scan: Are those print defects on the backside? Or are those marks on the slab itself?
If they are print defects, sorry you are no longer welcome in the club, thats a harsh (but understandable) 7.
Looking at the scan there are some surface odd bubble things bottom right. and some whitening on the corners. From a scan point of view this is a clean 7 and i would expect an 8.5 at cgc. But definitely not a 10 at any grading company.
Looking at recent sold for a psa 7, it goes for 1400-1500$.
CGC 8 last sold was 1025
CGC 8.5 last sold was 1500.
If youre looking to grade for money to sell, go with PSA. They are more liquid, and fetch better prices for a lesser grade than a CGC equivalent. If youre looking to get the highest grade possible to display, go with CGC.
To add, “pack fresh” does not equal an automatic grade of 10 or 9.
Those are either on the slab or created after it left my hands.
The whiening you mention is glare from the lighting, not the card itself. The "bubbles are in the plastic of slab, not the card.
Based on the feedback, I should have sold it to PSA when they offered to buy. Problem is, I didn’t trust the grade because they didn’t bother to explain it when I asked. Here is one of the CGC 9.5’s for comparison: 3846827018
psa doesnt give 10s on wotc holos anymore
LC cards more or less cap at PSA 9, PSA 10s are the exception and a lot of them are PSA 8s out of the pack.
Is this why lc 10’s have literally exploded in value?
On top of everything else, it would have contributed to it.
People sometimes seem to have a collective realisation that a certain card or group of cards is incredibly difficult/near impossible to find PSA 10 examples of that aren’t already found. It just steam rolls once people realise no new examples of it are going to be found even if people start paying 5-6 figures to open old product.
LC was seen as a trash set when I started collecting, but a few years later people started to realise that they were tough grades from a set that was short supplied.
It is not new information, it’s just now when people discover it they have 5 figures in their bank to splurge, and seeing a cool card sell for 30k when the last comp was 19k gets more eyes on it than a cool card selling for 300 when the last comp was 190.
I’m sorry to disagree but the whitening on the corners is very clearly on the card not lighting, they are typical corner wear on wotc holos i see everyday, both in person and through scans. The bubbling is something that i would agree could be on the slab.
PSA offer last i saw was 1100, you would get more if you just auctioned if off and not sell direct to psa. Last sold is 1500. Or send to Zandg when you get it back from psa.
If it was my card, i would crack it out, sent it back to psa in a value plus order and hope for an 8. The card is a strong 7-8(if surface issue is slab), unfortunately in todays psa grading with how strict they are, it wont get a 9. Last sold psa 8 is more than 2k meaning risk/reward is in your favor.
Just wanted to chime in and say that those 3,000 packs would be worth between $11-12 million in 2026 dollars. RIP 
I don’t know how the whitte you see could be on card. It was straight from booster to protector, never played. Regardless, can’t check until it gets back to me, so open question until then.
That’s a big typo. It should be 3000 cards from boosters. I don’t know how many boosters it was. They were clearing out their stock, so I bought almost all of it (Legendary, Fossil, Jungle, Expedition, Aquapolis, Skyridge, and a couple others.
Then it comes back as a 5 cause the grader is dealing with a rough divorce