The Giant Professional Grading Thread

[mosstastic]

It’s a trainer deck B squirtle so not super high value but I still think it could hit a PSA 10. It does have good sub grades, but still think I’ll crack it out and give it a shot

[kpod]

@cbd1235

Just wondering if anyone has sent a “Mechanical Error” order to PSA recently (one where PSA is fixing mislabelled slabs)?

My inquiry is about how long it might take for the order to appear on the PSA system? Since it’s manual order sheets, I could not put a barcode on the outside of the package. I’m worried it’s going to be a year before I can rest easy knowing that PSA has confirmed receipt of my cards and entered it in their system.

Thank you in advance if anyone has done this recently and can shed light on the turnaround time.

I have a recasing order they are still working on from July. Two cards in that order were mislabeled and I noted so on the submission form, once they registered the order they somehow were able to split them out from the other cards in that order and got them back to me already all corrected. Took around 5 months.

[traineramy]

@cbd1235

Just wondering if anyone has sent a “Mechanical Error” order to PSA recently (one where PSA is fixing mislabelled slabs)?

My inquiry is about how long it might take for the order to appear on the PSA system? Since it’s manual order sheets, I could not put a barcode on the outside of the package. I’m worried it’s going to be a year before I can rest easy knowing that PSA has confirmed receipt of my cards and entered it in their system.

Thank you in advance if anyone has done this recently and can shed light on the turnaround time.

this was my most recent mechanical error fix. took about a week+ for them to have it show as arrived

[zorloth]

@headlessape

I have seen some sort of discussion elsewhere but have been unable to find good feedback on the issue:

Would Grading providers such as PSA or Beckett be open to starting other international grading stations to reduce the turnover period and provide greater access to their product for people outside of the US and Japan.

Why I am interested: I live in New Zealand, and while the grading itself is affordable, the risk when sending the item overseas and the cost of shipping can not be worth it. I have had a couple of my favourite cards lost in transit while grading over the years.

A PSA grading “station”, or whatever you may call it, that is located in Australia or New Zealand for us customers down here would be neat… You would probably only need a couple people trained and relocated??? Anyone here from PSA or Beckett that would know more on why this hasn’t been done yet?

I have heard of plenty of middlemen grading services pop up recently around the world too (we have some in our community here that do it). Not that I think what they are doing is bad, it is actually great for the average collector, but shouldn’t Grading services recognise their international demand and expand??

Would love to hear your thoughts!

They should first open some new ‘stations’ in the U.S.

I love how PSA has literally one U.S. grading location, which just so happens to be located in a veryhigh cost-of-living city. And then they get confused why they’re having trouble hiring more graders for $35k/year lol. That’s not even enough for a frugal single dude to survive on over there. It’s surprising that they have any graders, frankly.

If they won’t even open another grading location in the U.S. in a lower cost-of-living area, then I doubt they’re going to open international locations any time soon.

[headlessape]

@zorloth, Hmmmmm, interesting… I understand if they have an opinion on it being a streamlined process with reliable grading done by a single specific group of people “in house”, but I think the current industry has far surpassed that limit.

I had a look at the PSA grading website and their history of the Base Set grading numbers using the Wayback Machine Internet Archive… it is predicted that somewhere in the region of 50,000 base set submissions alone are to be processed into the coming months of the year.

I guess another concern would be if/when the hype dies down or we get some crazy event that turns pokemon cards into “Beanie Babies” (I personally don’t think it will), getting rid of their new overseas assets and employees may provide just as difficult and potentially costly.

I’m hoping with the recent $700m takeover and new ownership, PSA will look to expand. From what you have mentioned, it seems as though they need to expand to more affordable areas as well as overseas.

[mrmilk]

Has PSA turnaround times gotten any better in the last month or so? I know last fall grading times for bulk were getting into the 8ish month timeframe. Is it still as backlogged?

[cuboneismetal]

I don’t know about what other grading companies do, but I would think having multiple locations would be hard on QC. Especially if it’s other location is in another country.

“Oh man, I only got 1 10 back from PSA USA.”

“Oh, really? I sent cards into PSA UK that were just like yours and I got 6 10s back.”

Seems like it could potentially be a nightmare unless card grading moves to complete automation via robots/computer programs.

[traineramy]

@mrmilk

Has PSA turnaround times gotten any better in the last month or so? I know last fall grading times for bulk were getting into the 8ish month timeframe. Is it still as backlogged?

It’s worse

[vpsdrew]

How much value will I lose by submitting my order with CGC vs PSA on vintage stuff? Is it worth the wait? Does CGC bring the value down significantly? Is there any compiled sales data showing percentages or average price differences between the grading companies for different grades?

[vpsdrew]

I mean with an average loss of 420% with only a 69% success rate it seems like a no brainer to grade them with the $750 psa service

[mrmilk]

@traineramy

@mrmilk

Has PSA turnaround times gotten any better in the last month or so? I know last fall grading times for bulk were getting into the 8ish month timeframe. Is it still as backlogged?

It’s worse

Ya hate to see it

[muk]

Had my first purchased PSA 8 coming in in the mail today. Gotta say, it’s a huge drop from the 9s I’m used to. If I had this card in raw condition, I’d honestly expect a grade roundabout 5-6. Is this normal for 8s?
If it is, I have tons of extra cards I would consider grading now.

[GymLeaderTaylor]

@muk

Had my first purchased PSA 8 coming in in the mail today. Gotta say, it’s a huge drop from the 9s I’m used to. If I had this card in raw condition, I’d honestly expect a grade roundabout 5-6. Is this normal for 8s?
If it is, I have tons of extra cards I would consider grading now.

Wow I would think that would be a 6 or lower all day…but PSA seems to throw a dart at a board and go alright nice this one got an 8!

[cuboneismetal]

Crack it open and send it to CGC if you want an accurate grade. I kid. But not really.

[dblast]

Is cgc legit or gma style

[kingboo64]

@dblast

Is cgc legit or gma style

It’s not gma lol

[silver]

Hey everyone, do you think this little lift along the edge gets this card an auto 6?

imgur.com/a/qku7QxV

[mosstastic]

@silver

Hey everyone, do you think this little lift along the edge gets this card an auto 6?

imgur.com/a/qku7QxV

It did for my dragonite

[libbylibby]

Hi everyone. I had never heard of SGC before today…are they well respected by the Pokemon community? How would you say they compare to the other main players? xx

[admiral]

@libbylibby

Hi everyone. I had never heard of SGC before today…are they well respected by the Pokemon community? How would you say they compare to the other main players? xx

They are respected enough by collectors that it is one of the 4 grading companies PWCC accepts (PSA, SGC, BGS, CGC).
If I had to rate them in tiers for 10’s I would say

BGS 10 Black Label
CGC Pristine 10
BGS 10
CGC 10
PSA 10
SGC 10

(in my opinion)

Personally, I find the SGC labels quite ugly compared to the others, don’t you?