With the Base Set Charizard being the most iconic card of the entire hobby, its only fitting to showcase its glory with a PSA 1 through 10 graded scale. The aim of this is to demonstrate the differences between the grades. Hopefully the quality will be shown as I know I don’t have access to a great scanner.
Each picture will have a link underneath it just in-case as well
Nice this is a cool idea! However the only way to tell is in person especially with anything around the 8-10 range usually as scans/pictures won’t pick up or will hide damage otherwise obvious in person especially scratches on the holo that require the old shimmy in the light to catch
This is pretty awesome! Hopefully it also gives me some faith that my cards won’t get totally crappy grades as I’d never buy cards in a condition like PSA 1 to 4 you’ve listed so far
While I 100000% agree with this, I think the article is a really great way for people to become visually acquainted. I’d never pay a grader who only ever saw photos but we aren’t looking to create professionals overnight. Most of the questions we are getting these days are incredibly basic and could be answered with something like this!
It would be extremely interesting if someone could do this with a specific Beckett BGS Pokemon card with all the grades as well; and compare the 2 companies side by side… if it could be Charizard base, all the better… but any card will do if someone wants to put in that type of effort to make a point on the matter.
I’ll leave this here. Thank you to @smpratte . I was planning on ‘eventually’ getting a video up about it, but appears you beat me to it . I guess I can still do the 1-4 part of it xD
Was going to make a new post but thought this may go well in here. I recently picked up a Shining Charizard that got a 8.5 grade and it kind of has me scratching my head. From what I understand and see I don’t know how it graded as an 8.5.
Now, I don’t have a lot of PSA cards but I have a lot that do plan on (eventually) getting graded and think I have a pretty good grasp of what cards have the potential to get. So this one threw me for a loop when I saw it.
The card has pretty significant wear and chipping shown on the backside. Wear is easily visible on 3 of the 4 sides. I took photos of it with a PSA 8 Magneton that has some light wear visible on the left border and a tiny smudge on the pokeball (doesn’t appear to be wear, just a dirty spot that could wipe off). I was curious what others thought. Does the Charizard deserve a 8.5? Images can be seen here:imgur.com/a/DGCFi
TLDR: Why would Magneton grade lower than the Charizard?
If buying I’d give that Magneton a tiny chance on a 9 but 8 would be more realistic, so I can agree on that one.
On the other hand I’d give that Shining Charizard a 7 at most.
That’s basically where I was at as well. Kind of feel jipped buying the Charizard in the condition it’s in but I can’t really argue as it’s a graded card… just don’t think that it deserved an 8.5
The corners on the Zard (and I’m using pictures so I don’t have that in hand feel of it and ability to tilt it) look reasonably well cut and fairly normal. There is edgewear but nothing huge imo. It probably warranted an 8-8.5.
It’s the overall aesthetic of the card, noting that the front is definitely more important than the back.
The Magneton probably could have scored an 8.5, you do have to remember that grading isn’t 100% consistent. Different grader = different opinion.
Appreciate the input! I’m sure there are many much better acquainted with grading than I am. I guess I’m just surprised at the amount of chipping along the edges that is allowed and still receive a 8.5. Otherwise the card looks great. I still have a long way to understanding how PSA judges these types of things.
Without derailing the entire thread. Any clue what this plastic shit is on in this card case? imgur.com/a/yVEqF
It’s like a thin layer of plastic that covers the entire back of the card in the case. Only one of the 40 or so PSA cards I have that has that.
One of my first cards I sent to PSA was that Mew. It too came back in the sleeve and i was like, “What the hell. You’ve ruined the card!” Then I realised what it was
i think there has to be some more discrepancy between some of these grades.
I know psa is the monopoly, we trust their input, but i think alot has to do with the luck of the draw; i honestly don’t see much grounds for differentiating that 2/3 mark, and when we get to the 6-8 range i think there is alot of cards which can swing between these tiers.
In relation to the Magneton and Charizard, I think the Charizard grade is spot on. The Magneton looks like it could be reviewed for a 9. I have plenty of cards that sit between grades, and could be either strong 8’s or weak/less strong 9’s.
