The Giant Professional Grading Thread

[cursebot]

@pichufan

Time for another weekly PokéMetrics update.

This week PSA has graded 28,884 Pokémon cards, beating the previous weekly high of 28,015 set last month. I mentioned back then that when PSA reopened at the end of June last year after closing due to coronavirus they graded a then all-time high of 15,121 Pokémon cards in that week which is a pretty staggering 13,763 fewer than were graded this week, 1 year on.

The 28,884 figure includes 9,331 PSA 10 grades and 11,424 PSA 9 grades (pokemetrics.org/stats). This is the 8th consecutive week of PSA handing out more PSA 9 than PSA 10 grades, so I don’t think there’s any merit to claims a few people were making a while ago that PSA are now handing out easy PSA 10s just to clear the backlog.

Some Pokémon card grade milestones were hit this week: there are now over 13,000 PSA 4 grades (13,136 [+243]), over 50,000 PSA 6 grades (50,856 [+1,198]), over 80,000 PSA 8 grades (81,454 [+1,535]) and over 700,000 PSA 9 grades (701,040 [+11,424]).

In the same trend as we’ve seen over the past few weeks, unlimited Base Set cards across the board are being graded in large numbers. 112 Magnemite cards were graded in the past 7 days (35 PSA 10, 76 PSA 9) which is an increase of 51.85% of the card’s total population (328). Base Set Blastoise also had 112 cards graded including 27 grades below PSA 6 - I can only hope those submitters are happy with those grades! On top of that, Base Set unlimited Charizard has had 1,031 cards graded in the past 5 weeks - an average of 29.46 per day!

Hidden Fates took the top spot as the most graded set in the past 7 days with 2,301 cards graded, almost 600 more than Base Set unlimited which took second place. Skyridge made its first appearance in the weekly top 10 this week with 732 cards graded - including 200 PSA 10 grades and 468 PSA 9 grades, as did the English 2019 SM Black Star Promo set with 629 cards graded.

Ampharos, Bellossom, Kingdra, Lugia, Meganium 11, Pichu from the 1st Edition Neo Genesis set all had their PSA 10 populations increase by 1 this week, which I can only assume is a sign that some of the boxes which have been sold recently have now been opened.

And saving the best to last:

After seeing over 160 PSA 9 grades without any PSA 10s, the first PSA 10 XY Evolutions Chansey was graded this week!

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ur weekly updates are probably my favourite part of this thread.

[admiral]

Congrats Chansey on becoming a Pop 1

Someone find that card

[redsticktcg]

@wisewailmer

Now that the auction is over, feel free to tell me the obvious flaws I missed because I’m at a loss

My best guesses: back top middle dark spot on border (slight water damage?)
back left corner bottom maybe a small crease?
front bottom near #6 has some discolorations (might just be normal from other pics)

Would be really interesting to see the sub grades on that one

[wisewailmer]

@redsticktcg

@wisewailmer

Now that the auction is over, feel free to tell me the obvious flaws I missed because I’m at a loss

My best guesses: back top middle dark spot on border (slight water damage?)
back left corner bottom maybe a small crease?
front bottom near #6 has some discolorations (might just be normal from other pics)

Would be really interesting to see the sub grades on that one

Oh trust its going back for subs! (probably at BGS though) I swear that nobody watches those heritage blocks that dont have boxes in them. Still seems like a new platform when it comes to pokemon. Correct me if I am wrong, but they’ve only been doing pokemon stuff consistently for a year or so now?

[dragon1te]

Wow, there were 3 PSA 10 1st Edition Holo Sabrina’s Gengar added to the pop report overnight…

[parkermrparker]

@wisewailmer

Now that the auction is over, feel free to tell me the obvious flaws I missed because I’m at a loss

My best guesses: back top middle dark spot on border (slight water damage?)
back left corner bottom maybe a small crease?
front bottom near #6 has some discolorations (might just be normal from other pics)

I dislike cgc slabs without subgrades

[wisewailmer]

@parkermrparker

@wisewailmer

Now that the auction is over, feel free to tell me the obvious flaws I missed because I’m at a loss

My best guesses: back top middle dark spot on border (slight water damage?)
back left corner bottom maybe a small crease?
front bottom near #6 has some discolorations (might just be normal from other pics)

I dislike cgc slabs without subgrades

I think a lot of people do which could be why this had very little publicity. Looking at other CGC 5.5s this thing is considerably cleaner.
Ill probably crack it when I get it

[cqllectibles]

@pichufan

…

And saving the best to last:

After seeing over 160 PSA 9 grades without any PSA 10s, the first PSA 10 XY Evolutions Chansey was graded this week!

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Amazing! I’ve been keeping an eye out recently for when this would happen since they have been making decent progress in the Value TCG CTD. Thanks for the update!

[null_user]

wow my super express order when from arrived to assembly in 1 day. A lot faster than I was expecting.

[knotchi]

@rarecandy

wow my super express order when from arrived to assembly in 1 day. A lot faster than I was expecting.

Super express takes like a week from the time they get it to the time it arrives at your door. It’s pretty fast.

[parkermrparker]

@wisewailmer

@parkermrparker

I dislike cgc slabs without subgrades

I think a lot of people do which could be why this had very little publicity. Looking at other CGC 5.5s this thing is considerably cleaner.
Ill probably crack it when I get it

There’s definitely going to be some type of damage, i know cgc doesnt give out low grades unless it’s deserved. I had a few cards come back which had dents and they got 6.5 on the surface grade and 7.5 overall… my guess is theres a serious indent on the card, or maybe water damage

[geg89]

PSA Express is now open $200

[traineramy]

@wisewailmer

looking at other zards those discolorations near the #6 seem to be standard. Maybe a binder dent somewhere or those small dark spots near some edges could be discoloration from water or whatever.

Regardless I’m pretty happy, for a 5.5 it has great eye appeal imo

For $3300 I’d be jumping for joy. Wow

[wisewailmer]

@traineramy

@wisewailmer

looking at other zards those discolorations near the #6 seem to be standard. Maybe a binder dent somewhere or those small dark spots near some edges could be discoloration from water or whatever.

Regardless I’m pretty happy, for a 5.5 it has great eye appeal imo

For $3300 I’d be jumping for joy. Wow

yeah it was a good price on a card that honestly has great eye appeal, and compared to the backs of other 5.5s I’ve seen it looks good. Its definitely possible the 5.5 is a completely fair grade, but I searched it over for like an hour and it seems a tad harsh. Honestly even if 5.5 is exactly fair I think its probably worth maybe 5k.

I sold my psa 6 1st ed zard before all this hype for around the same price so its like a chance to negate my mistake lol

[wisewailmer]

@rarecandy

@rarecandy

Recently rediscovered this card. Been reading a lot of great info on here the past few weeks. Planning on sending to get graded soon but was hoping to get some opinions on what to expect in the meantime. Thanks.

Well psa just emailed to charge me another $300 on my super express sub. Looks like they ended up giving this card a 7

congrats thats a good grade

[kemost]

Service Level Complete Through Date
Walk-Through 27 Jun 2021
Super Express 22 Jun 2021
Express COMPLETE
Regular 7 Mar 2021
Economy COMPLETE
Reholder 13 Oct 2020
Collectors Club Vouchers 29 Jun 2021
Value - Ultra Modern 8 Oct 2020
Value - Modern 20 Sep 2020
Value - Vintage 7 Oct 2020
Value - TCG 20 Sept 2020
Quarterly Specials 19 Aug 2020

Last Update: 7/1/2021 at 12:47am PDT

Is it not strange that economy is complete, but regular is not?

[kaldoverde]

@kemost

Service Level Complete Through Date
Walk-Through 27 Jun 2021
Super Express 22 Jun 2021
Express COMPLETE
Regular 7 Mar 2021
Economy COMPLETE
Reholder 13 Oct 2020
Collectors Club Vouchers 29 Jun 2021
Value - Ultra Modern 8 Oct 2020
Value - Modern 20 Sep 2020
Value - Vintage 7 Oct 2020
Value - TCG 20 Sept 2020
Quarterly Specials 19 Aug 2020

Last Update: 7/1/2021 at 12:47am PDT

Is it not strange that economy is complete, but regular is not?

If I remember correctly, economy was suspended a couple of months before all other service levels so there was probably very little left to process at that level in comparison to regular.

[cardstockpile]

Sent in a card via PSA super express $300 tier last week (arrived Saturday) got an email today that they wanted to upcharge to the $1000 tier. Was able to call and get that lowered to $600 tier. Just FYI - they are willing to work with you. Plus the customer service agent was fantastic.

[null_user]

@cardstockpile

Sent in a card via PSA super express $300 tier last week (arrived Saturday) got an email today that they wanted to upcharge to the $1000 tier. Was able to call and get that lowered to $600 tier. Just FYI - they are willing to work with you. Plus the customer service agent was fantastic.

Nice. Didn’t think there was much room for negotiation. What was the value of the card?

[Coop13]

@cardstockpile

Sent in a card via PSA super express $300 tier last week (arrived Saturday) got an email today that they wanted to upcharge to the $1000 tier. Was able to call and get that lowered to $600 tier. Just FYI - they are willing to work with you. Plus the customer service agent was fantastic.

Feels more like a hostage situation than a negotiation