The case for old and new certifications in PSA

So for some reason I’ve been seeing this a lot. When someone buys a card they want a newer certification. Which doesn’t make sense because like it’s said in here. Buy the card not the grade. Thoughts for and against preferring a newer certification?

And just as this topic is created I see this on eBay.

Same card, grade and seller but one has a newer cert # and is listed for $300 more.

I just don’t get it :thinking:

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Yeah one being a price difference makes no sense and it’s only 6 vs. 8

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A history of certs

Spoiler alert

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I’m holding out to upgrade my entire collection in 10xxx cert.

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I stay away from first and second gen slabs from PSA (up to like 23x certs) completely but after that have no problem buying anything from an other era of PSA grading. Just buy the card at that point

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My very subjective and anecdotal experience since returning in Jan 2024 to ‘collecting’ after 20+ years is that PSA grades very harshly on vintage. I’ve been completing a shadowless base set recently and learned this through buying. I’ve bought some new cert PSA 6 that looked what I would expect to be an 8.

On the flipside, I bought a 5.5 CGC Zapdos that I almost thought wasn’t real because the damage on it was SO much. It only had one far away picture on eBay, but the grade (and price) lured me. I returned it and paid for shipping both ways.

For me, I like to buy new cert PSA 6+ on vintage. I avoid CGC, unless it has lots of pictures, and BGS feels like a middle-ground.

I have a bunch of vintage in my personal collection I need to send in (complete Jungle, Fossil, and TR 1st ed holos) from 20 years ago, but as I was going to send to PSA I backed out because it seems like it’s more enjoyable to buy PSA slabs then get them graded by PSA. I also discovered Beckett was local, so all the insurance and shipping issues would be mitigated, so likely going that route, as these are for pesonal collection, and not for flipping.

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I bet you the majority of the same people wanting to only buy newer certs wouldn’t sell you an older cert for cheaper.

I also bet that the majority of people who completely reject “older certs” have never wanted a legitimately rare item. Being able to be picky about certs is a biproduct of the desired item encased in the numbered plastic not being rare.

It’s all an argument that is absurd since it’s based entirely on subjective speculation.

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Same. At least with this there’s a visual difference between the current slab design and previous two iterations. I prefer all my PSA slabs to look the same and would prefer to avoid the hassle of reslabbing.

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This post from @pfm is a great one on the topic. The “stickiness” aspect is something I think is important to think about

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I forgot about that. Trimmed on the bottom. Sold on pwcc right?

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So here is the image from psa directly, with the back too.


I care less about the cert # and more about the actual label style. Modern label is way better than the older ones. I have some older certs that have started to ruffle

Here are my thoughts about this type of sampling bias that @pfm has brought up previously.

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image

don’t worry PSA stopped making mistakes after 62xxxx I promise

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Thanks to this thread I am fully educated on which certs are best. From now on, I will only buy 3XXXX certs

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It’s been four years on the “new certs are harsher” train can we please stop I want to get off

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Aye I was just making conversation :eyes:
Didn’t mean to cause any issues

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Pop control & cert collectors:

Thomas The Tank GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY

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