did great on these platinum holos, was expecting 7s and 8s
but this umbreon I was expecting like a 5… the back is completely covered in light scratches
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On christams Eve I got back two submissions from PSA.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the submissions allthough some of the grades where pretty inconsistent. For example some modern japanese cards got 9s without any noticable flaws and the sneasel es got a 10 with a ton of scratches and and dent.
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Great Greninjas!!
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Ludkins return 
270 Card Pokemon PSA Return WOTC Rares and Holos sent via Ludkins 2 years ago! - YouTube
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Absolutely crushed and devastated. We all know how inconsistent PSA can be. But this isn’t inconsistency. This is an instance of a grader being spiteful and giving wrong grades on purpose, for god knows what reason. People joke about it being before lunch, didn’t get laid, etc. But this is serious shit. This grader was out to screw people over, in this instance, I got stuck with this person.
The shadowless cards were for the most part resubs that got unfair 8’s, being pack fresh. I could live with about half of them coming back 8’s and trying again, as some of them do have a faint print line here and there, and so in all fairness they could go either way. But the rest of the order, the bulk of it, is personal collection material that makes me question why I even do all this. Every single non holo card I sent in was either pack fresh easy 9/10, or pack fresh and personally pulled by me, without so much as a single speck of whitening, not a hairline to be seen, and either perfect or near perfect centering. I take great pride in my ability to scrutinize, pregrade, assess condition of cards. Every time I sent to PSA before this sub I have had 90%+ pregrade consistency, with the few misses grading +/- 1, and generally being fair. Not today, not with this grader.
I’ve never looked at grades online, but when I had my lady look at one specific card to check an upcharge (for an 8 ffs), she, even knowing how I don’t like to know anything, couldn’t help but gasp at the numbers, in a bad way. So I knew I had to look. Every single wotc holo got an 8 or less, mostly 7’s. Some of these holos were easy 10’s mind you, rest being sure 9’s in quality.
This grader saw WOTC holo, and said I’m gonna personally screw this guy. The unlimited base I sent were the finest WOTC non holos I personally pulled out of my box, easy 10’s. They all got 8’s. All 3 shadowless starters were precisely same condition… they get 8/9/10. Gym cards were pristine, I was actually worried about getting 10’s and having to sell because of the value. The shadowless porygon? What is up with that? It was a simple pack fresh well centered card with zero flaws, getting a 7?! The wotc slowpokes getting 9’s and their equal condition counterpart slowbro’s getting 8’s. Cello fresh ancient Mew, zero printlines, pristine, gets an 8. The funniest thing of all, is my including a played jungle vaporeon holo at the end for shits n giggles, and it got a 7. This thing’s holo surface was thrashed. Same grade as all my pack fresh cards.
I’m not made of money, I’ve looked forward to doing a big personal collection sub (with a few sellable cards to help pay for sub) at an affordable price at PSA for over 2 years now, and this happens. It’s just really messed up. Completely devastated that I have to crack 40 sub 9’s that have zero business being in plastic at that grade, especially considering how worthless they are to anyone but me, with no recourse. Completely unfair, never had such a bad experience in 10+ years in my hobby. Rant done.
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This sucks dude. I’m sorry for the poor returns. Nothing worse than something that feels like a safe bet falling out from under you. It’s so demoralizing.
I notice you have a “fan book” Mewtwo and I was curious: did PSA assign that label on their own or was that the banner you submitted it under? I’m trying to determine if PSA can really distinguish between them or if they just label as submitted.
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Thanks man. Exactly, demoralizing to say the least. And unnecessarily expensive, too.
That was under their database. Fan book unnumbered promo, glossy, 1997. That’s the correct monicker. Isn’t it hilarious that this clown took the time to correctly mark it a 9 OC (the border nearly is off the card) instead of a 5 or something, when considering the rest of this order? =D
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I won’t pretend to know what goes on behind the curtain but this kind of thing would definitely scare me out of grading my own cards for a while. Like you, this would be a huge expense for me and I’d have only done it if it felt like a sure-bet, as I’m sure you did.
Just a bummer. This easily could have been me.
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The solace you provide helps ease the blow. I posted it here because many here would understand the pain. Thanks again.
The worst part is that I am invested in the shadowless, and my personal collection stuff? So few of these graded. It’s a crappy situation. Also, it’s just bittersweet… you’ll just resub the exact ones that you have to, they’ll come back 9’s, no one’s the wiser, but you’ve lost all this money. It’s so stupid. I sincerely probably won’t grade much after this. It’s a big order, I was excited, and they crushed me. It’s enough of a blow to possibly have altered my taste permanently. We’ll see. I still have unfinished biz on this order.
It’s so especially stupid because I have terrible luck buying graded 9’s. I submit pack fresh ones that get 7’s or 8’s, and the 9’s I buy look like this. I kid you not, this is real:
So I’m supposed to circumvent this by submitting mint cards and this is what happens.
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Sorry man. That sucks, straight up.
And now I’m nervous about my measly 30 card sub lol
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I’m interested in hearing what you observe when you get the cards back in your possession. I have a hunch (completely devoid of any evidence whatsoever) that PSA unintentionally damages condition-sensitive parts of cards with how they’re handled between the different steps of their grading process. I, like you, very carefully observe cards I submit and avoid submitting holos with random light scratching (not print lines), which is almost guaranteed a 7. Yet, I’ve sometimes received cards back that have ended up with random scratching on the holo–sometimes the grade reflects the random scratching, but sometimes not, which makes me think that there are steps before and after grading where this scratching may occur due to how the cards are handled/stored.
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Oh no 
I’m terribly sorry that this happened to you, of all people. Human error will always be a factor, grades are subjective yada yada, but these phrases don’t help much when you’re the outlier getting screwed.
As @stagecoach mentioned, it really makes you think thrice about sending in anything at all, let alone larger single submissions all at once.
At least the grader didn’t damage your cards, right? Even though that’s about the lowest imaginable standard for a PSA customer experience…
Have you made up your mind about wheter ever using PSA again or what to do with all these unfairly graded cards?
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@hypernova, yeah man. I know I’m not alone in concerning myself with their handling all the time. I’ve been fortunate, I’ve never seen any discrepancies. But I will take great, keen note on this, especially considering I am cracking these cards. I will definitely be reporting back here when I have them in hand, presumably this weekend or early next week.
Thanks a lot @muk! We will have to see. I am praying they didn’t. If they did, I’m not sure what I would do, as I could never gain back all the I spent hunting down those cards in the cases where I didn’t pull them. I would obviously call them and demand that they refund and begin to make some sort of reparations, but again, we all know how mafiaesque they are with these matters, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to do a banking case of some sort. But I believe nothing would come to that. I really like to hope that the grader was just an ass. After all, holos may get scratched, but that doesn’t explain the non holos getting bad grades. So logically, the non holos getting equally bad grades is kind of reassuring.
I know one thing: after I close the case on these cards I will likely not be doing grading much because of this. But to answer your Q, I am too deep in this lot of holos, and need to reluctantly try again for the 9’s. I probably have spent well over $1000 on these shadowless holos in the last 3 years, and it’s too much time and energy to just sell and have to pay for already graded copies, that, again, will be likely in worse condition than the ones here (unless psa damaged them of course).
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If you’re sure it was a rogue grader and obviously misgraded, simply send the cards back for “review”. This will accomplish 2 things. You’ll get the deserved grade and you’ll help cut the chaff from the wheat.
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You might also consider showing up outside PSA HQ with a katana (“The Stagecoach Method™”).
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Fancy seeing you here, Gary. haha.
I think we’ve all learned better than to give PSA the free tip. I’d rather crack. I don’t have faith in their integrity in specific matters such as disciplinary measures of the kind you described. The worst thing I could have happen is getting them back saying we stand by these grades.
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Hi Brendan. I understood you to say there was malicious intent and the misgrades were “intentional”. This is a different story and PSA will correct it. If it was just opinion then I agree with you. They won’t change it:(
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Really sorry to see the lackluster return, @brendantheclayboy. If you’re willing, I am looking forward to seeing some of these cards with high quality front/back scans/pictures. These grades are abnormal if the cards were as minty as you suggested.
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