I know the card isn’t crazy valuable but what would be the lowest grade that you would be willing to actually pay to get graded? Long story short I came across a shadowless charmander and I just don’t think it has enough monetary value to fork over the money to get it graded. That being said I am a complete noob to graded cards and if someone could give me a link to a guide on how to get a good idea on what a card would be graded that would be amazing. I know the basics like they look at centering, edges, corners, and surfaces but I don’t know how much of each would knock it down y a point or several. Thank you in advance to anyone that can help me out.
Look on eBay for prices of psa 5-10. Then look at the photos of the cards to get an idea of where your card sits.
Pictures of the front and back are worth a thousands words my friend. We got you 
Looking at the price of the card, it will only make sense to grade it if it’s a 9 or 10.
By the time you get it back from psa, who knows what’s worth grading and what’s not. I say grade it anyhow.
Shadowless charmander psa 10’s are hovering around $500-$600 at the moment. 9’s are around $200-$300? Right now even a slightly played card (psa 7 range) would still maybe sell for around $50. However, PSA is being flooded with these starters now. Unfortunately by the time you get your graded card back, there will be a lot sitting on eBay. So if your looking to sell this card to make money, you might be better off selling it raw.
As far as condition is concerned, go to eBay and just search shadowless charmanders that have been graded and include decent pictures of the front and back. Whitening on the back, creases, and indents are your biggest factors.
Thank you everybody for your quick response and suggestions! This was my first post on this forum and I’m glad to see that its a very active and hospitable community. I think based on its condition its not worth getting it graded at this time so its going back in the box. However at the sametime I got it I got this magneton which is even less valuable and not even foil but seems to be in perfect condition. I’m tempted to get it graded just to see if it comes back a 10, what do yall think?
If you expect the Magneton to get a 10, it’s absolutely worth it to grade it (based on current PSA 10 prices – who knows about the prices a year from now, which is what will ultimately matter if you’re intending to sell it). Based on the pictures, it looks like it could get there. But sometimes there’s damage that photos don’t pick up.
1 Like
I wouldn’t get it graded even if it was a 10. The problem is PSA backlog has created an artificial mirage for prices. These commons and uncommon cards weren’t really desired to be graded until only recently when the prices skyrocketed. I can tell you from my own analysis that there is a massive amount of the base starters sitting in the backlog. The same applies to every WOTC starter as well and any other popular pokemon that is common or uncommon too.
If you do want to grade it and resell it immediately then I would recommend paying for express grading. If you pay for the cheaper option then I feel the price will have dropped out by the time you get them back.
1 Like
No, I own an 80ish card lot of 1st ed shadowless commons and uncommons in the psa 1-5 range and I’m not even considering grading those
1 Like
if you do express or any of the super high tier grading, expect to pay about 70-100/card after shipping fees, insurance, and grading. just looking at the simple math provided here, unless you are for sure these will come back 9s or 10s, you are probably wasting your time and money if you are trying to cash in.
1 Like