Well after all the salt and incredulous responses I got for making my statements, I feel as if it is deserved retribution. At least in an amicable manner. You have to adapt. I was just willing to pay more for a card now than have to wait in this bull market.
It matters very little if it’s true or not. It only matters if the populace believes it to be true. And I’d rather pay a premium to exclude myself from having to take on the risk of whatever the markets final decision is, especially because I can see the writing on the wall.
We are all at the mercy of PSA. Just a PSA cert brings a 6$ raw card in immaculate condition to 50$. I’ve seen 10s that look worse than 9s and sell for quadruple of what the 9 did. You would have to be blind to not think that if people fall for that crap, they won’t fall for this.
If you’re buying and selling cards to that same market. It truly doesn’t.
Fire was right, we don’t know whether or not it will demand a higher premium yet. So that is unfounded. But the movement is definitely beginning and this is evidence.
I really blame PSA for this. There does seem to have been a marginal shift in standards, at least for a time. Some of their employees have told people this directly etc. I tend to believe, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”.
That said, and my thinking has evolved on this, it really should not matter what the cert says on the card you buy. Every card is a unique, individual item subject to it’s own grading flaws. When you buy a card, you are not buying an average.
I have seen blatant mis-grades on many 4xxx certs. At the same time, you can’t make a truly gem mint card any “minter”. If it’s sitting with an old label or case does that mean the card itself had changed? Come on now.
All the 4xxx cert says is that this card was graded fairly recently at a time when *maybe* it was subjected to a stricter standard. But there are so many open questions that can never be answered unless PSA wants to say something, which they won’t. Was it one particular harsh grader? Was it a response to all of the sports card scandals and now it has settled back down? It’s so hard to know.
It’s too bad there are newer collectors and such that are learning and don’t know better and they have to try and sort out this noise. We can’t hold it against them if they are just looking for the answer. To me the best way to guide people is to remind them to buy the card and always look at what you are buying and make sure you are happy with it. As with anyone who is new at anything, if we can exercise some patience that is best.
I have no stake in the game until my my first batch of cards come back from PSA. I’m going to sell the 4xx cert cards for a premium and then buy the 2xx cards at a discount. Then once I have my collection I’m going to flip it around and start a movement on how the 2Xx are the only real certs because PSA hired new graders after COVID. Therefore those newer certs are invalid.
We’ve had more than enough threads on this idiotic conspiracy theory. Those who are still entrenched in this madness obviously have a serious issue with facts.
The person who propagated this idea had a sample size of a few hundred cards. Most weren’t mis graded. It’s a group of inexperienced people creating a trend.
Ultimately if people are dumb enough to blindly pay a premium for a cert number, I and other sellers will gladly regrade and triple the prices.
@zorkzork69 Oh and since you want to die on this hill, here is a message I got from a buyer yesterday as well about a Psa misgraded card, check the cert:
