The Giant Professional Grading Thread

[cardstockpile]

@pichufan I really appreciate all the data gathering and updates.

[zards_r_us]

@shadowless

Guys, it´ll be 6xx or bust soon, calm down

Guys, it´ll be 7xx or bust soon, calm down

[marchander]

@zards_r_us

@shadowless

Guys, it´ll be 6xx or bust soon, calm down

Guys, it´ll be 7xx or bust soon, calm down

When it goes beyond 9xx, does it start becoming 10xxx, 11xxx, etc. ?

[shadowless]

@marchander

@zards_r_us

Guys, it´ll be 7xx or bust soon, calm down

When it goes beyond 9xx, does it start becoming 10xxx, 11xxx, etc. ?

then it will actually switch to xxx420 and xxx69 only

[Raspberry_Pi]

@shadowless

@marchander

When it goes beyond 9xx, does it start becoming 10xxx, 11xxx, etc. ?

then it will actually switch to xxx420 and xxx69 only

and then final form will be xxx42069

[shadowless]

I´m sure we are all eagerly awaiting the coveteted 69696969 cert which will hit the open market in only a few short months, time to save up for the holy grail.

now back on topic

[qwachansey]

@qwachansey

I have a Goomy Art Academy in the mail which I’ll be sending to CGC as well. Given the quality of the Japanese art academy cards (check the PSA pop report), if it’s been preserved well, it’ll probably be a similar scenario - PSA 10 but CGC 9.5. But any internal conflicts I had about the value difference have passed. I’m not paying $600 to grade a card I have no intention to sell.

If you do want to sell these kind of cards, or prefer PSA for your collection, PSA is probably a better bet. The 10 premium is undeniable and makes up for the service tier cost. But for my collection I am happy to no longer have any attachment to PSA or feel the need to strive for PSA 10s.

As expected Graded via $75 walk through tier. Delivered to CGC April 6, marked as received April 9, graded today April 14.

[knotchi]

Super Express just finished in 3 business days at PSA. My mint 1st Edition Neo Genesis Lugia got a PSA 4. WTF! How is this even possible? There’s no crease on it or anything. There’s print lines and light scratching on the holo but I don’t understand how this got even remotely close to a 4. What do I do about this?

[pokemondanni]

You probably miss an indent or something. They can be hard to spot, still a low grade i Think, even with an indent…

[teraz]

Do you have the card back yet, @knotchi?

Even an indent shouldn’t be a 4 with a card that clean. Maybe a 6 at worse. When you get it back if you still can’t identify the damage, the only recourse is to send it in for review. Maybe email them first to let them know it’s a egregious misgrade and see what they say.

[zorloth]

@knotchi – is it possible it got damaged in transit or that PSA damaged it? Because even if it had a subtle indent or something it would probably only get docked to a 5 or 6 because the card is otherwise pretty clean.

[pokestop702]

Jarvis has had multiple cards come back from psa really low and then regraded at BGS for substantially higher grade. Maybe that’s better than a review from PSA. Someone else can chime in with more experience.

[jaredschallenge]

@knotchi

The PSA 10’s from the 2 mil cert club are so sus. They always look like strong 8’s. I wonder if there’s going to be a distinction in price and collectability of these 10’s vs PSA 10’s from the 4 mil+ cert club. Having a PSA 10 set that are 4mil+ is more impressive than PSA 10 set of 2mil certs. And it’s looking like getting PSA 10’s from 5 mil is even harder so I wonder if the market will recognize that.

Btcntg

[knotchi]

@pokemondanni, Me and my friend closely looked at the card and made note of all the imperfections. Indent was not one of them but I’ll take another look at it when I get it back

@teraz, don’t have the card yet, the grade just popped up on PSA so I checked out the grade and was shocked.

@zorloth, i used the standard card saver in between two cardboard pieces to create shell with masking tape and such. Wrapped that in bubble wrap then put that in a small flat rate box. don’t think it was damaged in transit

I guess the only thing to do is wait until I get the slab back and take a second look at it. This may be the cleanest PSA 4 in existence.

[smokemon]

@pichufan

As a PSA pop report update: PSA have graded at least* 16,200 Pokémon cards in the past week, of which 4,710 received PSA 10 grades and 6,068 received PSA 9 grades.

Interestingly PSA have now graded 1.61 million Pokémon cards, so despite being a few thousand lower than last week 16,200 is just over 1% of all the Pokémon cards PSA have ever seen.

The top 3 cards and top 3 sets are the same as they have been for the past few weeks, so I’m not going to keep repeating that.

As something a bit different, here are the 100 most graded Pokémon in PSA’s pop report:

1. Charizard - 197,632
2. Pikachu - 82,425
3. Blastoise - 41,284
4. Mewtwo - 39,485
5. Mew - 34,893
6. Venusaur - 34,427
7. Gyarados - 25,236
8. Zapdos - 24,897
9. Raichu - 23,190
10. Dragonite - 19,452
11. Moltres - 17,534
12. Machamp - 17,180

GOOOOOOOOOO MACHAMPPPP. In my eyes, I think his base set card is underrated because of how mass-produced it was. Still a beautiful holo and I’m glad our jacked 4 arm friend is muscling his way to the top

[c0ll3ct0r]

@knotchi

Super Express just finished in 3 business days at PSA. My mint 1st Edition Neo Genesis Lugia got a PSA 4. WTF! How is this even possible? There’s no crease on it or anything. There’s print lines and light scratching on the holo but I don’t understand how this got even remotely close to a 4. What do I do about this?

Here’s a thought from a guy planning to grade many potential 10s from Genesis:

The Neo Genesis holofoil layer is inherently grainy, both 1st ed and unlimited, in a way that is unmatched by any other set. Anyone with years of experience with Neo Genesis holos will probably recognize what I’m talking about. This is a direct result of the absolutely shit QC Genesis went through, and there are several possible explanations as to why it happened.

This graininess can be interpreted as indentations (which, through a strictly objective lense, they are) but PSA is not known for docking those. If they were, I doubt there would be a single Neo Genesis PSA 10 period. They are an integral part of the set, some (myself included) would even say it gives the set some of it’s character.

We know PSA have been hiring. A lot of new, unexperienced graders, possibly not familiarized with all the idiosyncrasies of the different sets. Could this be the explanation? I don’t know, but it’s a thought. If this is the case, sending in for review may be the best course of action.

[knotchi]

@pichufan

Total nonsense. PSA’s grading standards haven’t changed and if anything the introduction of upcharges gives them a lot more incentive to incorrectly grade a card up so that they can make more money; on top of that the sheer volume of cards being submitted to PSA also gives them more of an incentive to rush the grading process now just to get things out the door.

One could argue that since there are more eyes on PSA grading, they will tend to grade the high end cards more strictly, to preserve the image of the coveted PSA 10. I think it’s a moot point. You could argue either way whether PSA has any sort of inherent incentive to misgrade cards. At the end of the day, I don’t think they’re misgrading cards for any nefarious motive since grading ultimately comes down to an individual person grading a card and unless there’s some company memo that went out to all the graders to misgrade cards for X, Y & Z incentives, there is no misgrading happening. As far as rushing to grade, again there is no evidence that this is happening and even if it was, who’s to say they’re not giving more strict and conservative grades due to them “rushing grading”. It’s a moot point.

The argument against 2xx certs originated from sellers with newly-introduced 4xx cert cards in a market where supply was high. How do I get my 4xx cert card to sell when there are 10 other identical-grade 2xx certs cards on the market? I know, I’ll go around telling everyone that 2xx certs are trash PSA 8s graded as PSA 10s.

Do grading companies get it wrong sometimes? Yes. Does this only affect PSA? Not at all. Do grading companies get it wrong most of the time? No.

Sounds anecdotal. Similarly, my assessment of 4XX certs being cleaner than 2XX certs is also anecdotal. There’s also a lot of older collectors who are combatting the idea that 2XX certs are inferior to 4XX certs.

@pichufan

As a buyer: make sure to always look over the card you’re buying before putting down any money. This applies to 2xx certs just as much as it applies to 4xx and 5xx certs just as much as it applies to BGS black labels.

Definitely agree.

As someone who has been analysing PSA’s pop report on a weekly basis for a couple of years now I can tell you there’s no evidence that PSA are any more strict now than they were 2 years ago. The PSA 10 to PSA 9 ratio is pretty much the same as it was back when 2xx certs were being graded.

PSA 10 to PSA 9 ratio doesn’t really tell us much about if PSA is grading stricter or not. It just says for every PSA 10 there is X amount of PSA 9’s. Tells us nothing about the quality of the cards being submitted or whether PSA is grading stricter or looser. Imagine a scenario where PSA 9’s are also harder to come by. Then the ratio maintaining itself from 2XX through 4XX doesn’t tell us whether or not PSA is grading stricter or not.

Let us assume that PSA 10’s are harder to come by now. Why would this be the case? My assumption is that the more mature a company gets, the better the training, tools, employees, etc that a company has. I can see this leading to an overall movement towards stricter 10’s, unintentionally.

At the end of the day, my assessment of 4XX > 2XX is purely anecdotal. But I know if someone were to offer me any PSA 10 holos from any WotC set in either 2XX or 4XX, I’m taking 4XX all day.

[cedar]

Ludkins return is finally back. Took a while but I guess it was a blessing in disguise now that they sell for 8x what I projected!

Shipped to PSA: 5/29/20
Delivered to PSA: 6/6/20
Registered: 7/6/20
Order Prep: 7/7/20
Research & ID: 7/7/20
Grading: 12/7/20
Shipped to Ludkins: 3/23/21

[pokehut1]

@knotchi, crack and resub.

[kpod]

@knotchi

@pokemondanni, Me and my friend closely looked at the card and made note of all the imperfections. Indent was not one of them but I’ll take another look at it when I get it back

@teraz, don’t have the card yet, the grade just popped up on PSA so I checked out the grade and was shocked.

@zorloth, i used the standard card saver in between two cardboard pieces to create shell with masking tape and such. Wrapped that in bubble wrap then put that in a small flat rate box. don’t think it was damaged in transit

I guess the only thing to do is wait until I get the slab back and take a second look at it. This may be the cleanest PSA 4 in existence.

Likely a micro crease you can’t see, could have occurred while at PSA if you swear it was clean when you sent it