I agree that there’s almost no chance there’s a conspirator at PSA. However, it’s surprising that those cards graded 10 when the edge wear is clearly noticeable. I wouldn’t consider those to be 10 worthy.
On a related note, what is the difference when submitting bulk versus a higher tier? Do the new hires grade the bulk submissions and more experienced graders grade the higher tier submissions? I would imagine this could cause some inconsistency for bulk orders. I always submit through bulk now, but I wonder if it’s partly our responsibility as collectors to submit cards at their appropriate grading tier so that a 1st edition base set Charizard isn’t being graded by a new grader.
According to PSA’s grading procedure THREE professionals review your card and the card is only assigned a grade if the first two agree and then the third verifies. It says nothing about the grade and basically states that this is SOP for every card submitted as far as I can see.
Whats curious is that this is only Japanese newbacks that seem to be slipping through with backs like these. Perhaps something with the lighting the reviewers are using making the gold borders blend with the damage?
Ive found with BGS, the larger the order, the more lenient they are with grades. The hockey card community in Vancouver sends all their cards together every 2 months, under 1 name … we’ve sent weak 9s with noticeable defects, which come back as 9.5s.
A local here flew down to BGS to have his 2 Cup Crosby RCs xx/99 and 1 Cup Ovechkin RC xx/99 graded in person. He did not want to risk the transit ( approx. $80,000 in 3 cards ). He was shocked that a few minutes after submitting his cards, someone came out and said “$1000 per 9.5”.
I wouldnt be surprised if graders at PSA and BGS are getting a little side action for some favorable grades
It would be more plausible to believe that there wasn’t much visible edge-wear when it was graded a 10, and the holder of the cased cards mishandles them by taking them along on hiking trips, resulting in visible edge wear from knocking the card around inside the slab.
Even that is more likely than believing PSA graders give better grades to worse cards just because the addresses or names might be occasionally recognizable.
That’s true. There are WAY more weak psa 10s I’ve seen lately with the new japanese back than oldschool wotc cards.
“Perhaps something with the lighting the reviewers are using making the gold borders blend with the damage?Perhaps something with the lighting the reviewers are using making the gold borders blend with the damage?”
That’s a bad excuse imo. They graded these japanese cards much better a while ago. And to be honestly, if we take a look at the third card I uploaded on imgur, there is absolutely NO excuse for giving this a 10.
