It’s really not that simple.
People who are willing to pay a hefty premium for 10s don’t just care about the labels. Maybe they love the card so much, they want the best of the best, even acknowledging the subjectivity of it all, and they can afford the PSA 10. Sure, people you’re describing exist, but it seems awfully silly to broadly assume someone doesn’t care about the card just because they are willing to buy something you aren’t.
I keep 9s, sell 10s. If the boom calms down and I can get a 10 for not much more money, great.
I’m not saying that it means someone only cares about the label. But a lot of what your paying for with a PSA 10 is the label. The best evidence of this is that weak PSA 10s consistently sell for way more than strong 9s. If people weren’t paying for the label, this wouldn’t occur.
To be clear: no hate to PSA 10 collectors. Do what makes you happy! Just giving my thoughts on collecting PSA 9s vs PSA 10s in a thread dedicated to discussion of exactly that.
Yes, I feel this kind of gets overlooked at times with 10s. Even if the pricing of certain 10s seems crazy to one collector, for another collector it basically doesn’t matter to them. Even if we think a certain 9 is ‘strong’ or a 10 is ‘weak’ - the collectors who are buying don’t really care, they simply care that one is a 10 and the other is a 9 and will pay accordingly.
For example, I bought a PSA 10 1st Ed Base Set Squirtle for $700ish back in late 2022. PSA 9s were going for maybe $250ish at that time. Could have bought probably 3 of them, but I bought the 10 because I simply really liked that card and wanted it in my collection in a 10 grade regardless and that’s why I paid up for it. Does it make sense? To some, probably not. But for me I wanted the 10 and I was willing to pay for it.
With this said, I definitely believe there’s times the 10 price premium is crazy on some cards, but at the same time I can totally understand why people pay the premium depending on their exact goals or because they love that specific card, etc as I’ve explained. We all have individual goals and reasons behind our purchasing decisions at the end of the day, and that’s basically to me what is the driving force behind it all.
I have only bought three PSA 10s to date in the last 5/6 years. Could never justify the 10 premium versus a 9 and the three 10s I bought combined a total of less than €400 
I’m a binder gang fan but in Europe before this crazy boom I would buy PSA 7/8 and 9s and crack for my binders as it was cheaper for me to source graded from America & Japan than buying “near mint” raw copies on cardmarket.
Not really buying many cards atm however given the hype train we are currently on and I think some cards will drop a good percentage in value in the next year or so.
while generally psa10s are better cards than psa9s
people DO pay for labels, but..thats part of the point
The biggest best example to this is the pikachu illustrator.
Look at the bunk psa10 illustrator owned by logan paul:
anyone whos seen the card knows it’s no true 10. If it was cracked and regraded today it would be lucky to get an 8
and yet, the label says 10 and it’s allure is the grade. It’s the defacto top card of the entire TCG for this reason and commands the highest price and desirability
We put our trust in psa that they know what they are doing; whether it’s true or not.
Maybe a more core collector will buy the card not the grade, but the label holds a lot of allure for people
I only buy 9’s these days. Most of the time I am cracking them to put in a binder anyways. I can buy a handful of 8 and 9’s for the cost of just one 10. I sold the two 10’s I had in my collection and never looked back.
Now thoughts modern 9s? Because I think the prices have gone insane but you can buy 9s of pretty much everything for very affordable. I think there’s still plenty of room for growth financially on the alt arts and SIR in 9s and way less of gamble. From a investor/collector I prefer sealed but as lover of the cards I prefer the 9s to add more pieces to my collection without bankruptcy
Never regretted collecting 9s even for a second (vintage at least)
I can only speak for myself, but I personally would take the 10 over 6 9s, and I don’t consider myself to be just a label collector (although I admit grading is an important part of my collection).
I don’t see the point in having a large number of the same cards in similar condition. I’d much rather have one copy in the best condition than several lesser-quality copies. In many cases (but not all) I can look at my 10s and feel completely satisfied with them because I can see no apparent flaws in the card condition and I feel there is no possible way to upgrade from that card. I can’t say the same when I look at my 9s, which often do have small visible flaws.
This is of course predicated on the card being a good example of a 10, which is why I also review the scans of the card before purchasing. I won’t buy a 10 if it doesn’t feel like the pinnacle of collecting.
I appreciate that perspective. I would probably feel the same way if I were allowed to examine the PSA 10 copy very closely in person before deciding. Maybe I’ve just gotten unlucky, but I’ve found that looking at scans has not been all that helpful for cards w/ extremely sensitive surfaces (like TRR reverse holos). Basically, I’m not averse to spending 6x the price for a genuinely superior condition card. I just am not confident enough in PSA’s (or any existing grading company’s) grading ability to make paying 6x the price anywhere near justifiable.
Without the ability to inspect the card(s) first, would you still take one random PSA 10 over 6 PSA 9s?
buy psa 9 if u are a collector
buy psa 10 if u are a flipper/dealer/scumbag/reseller/“investor”
It’s a difficult question to answer because without being able to look at the cards I wouldn’t buy any of them.
I still would probably take the chance on the 10 on this specific example because my experience tells me that the chance of a low quality EX era 10 is low. However, if we changed this to BW or XY era cards, I would take the 6 9s in a heartbeat.
I wouldn’t want 4x PSA 9s of Card A. I would want 1x PSA 9 of Card A, 1x PSA 9 of Card B, 1x PSA 9 of Card C, and 1x PSA 9 of Card D for the same price as 1x PSA 10 of Card A. That’s why I like PSA 9s - it allows me to collect more while maintaining top-notch condition. I do buy “strong” PSA 9s whenever possible, even if they are slightly more expensive.
This is a great point and I agree! I have shifted to 9 collecting for a lot of my English goals mainly because of how much more I can get for my money. However, I do buy 10s when I can, so I don’t agree with the “all 10 collectors are just label collectors” claims.
I think an important point that has been brought earlier and made me understand better where people are coming from with their rationale is : are you a collector of Japanese or English cards.
I decided from the very beginning to only collect Japanese, and for me it was very obvious that 10s were the way to go, I couldn’t even comprehend why someone would collect 9s, didn’t make any sense to me.
But now I realize, if I’d instead been collecting English, I most surely would have been considering 9s…
In japanese, it makes sense to trade 10 slabs because it is an easy way to protect, authenticate and liquify a card that by default from it’s production is high quality and intrinsequely gem mint (i’d say overall psa10 rate fresh from packs is 35-55%)
The default state of an english card is that it will present flaws, and actually the card being 10 is more of a fluke, a non anticipated Hazard of production. For me it doesn’t really make sense to pay a 10 premium because a product is inherently flawed, the economics of it is aberrant in my opinion. And collecting in English 10 i would have 10% of the collection I have today, so I think I understand the concept of 9 now, because if you are a collector of English, you are kind of forced to accept this idea of acquiring flawed cards, even simply by the fact that an extremely small percentage of people have the financial means to buy everything in a 10 and still grow large satisfying collections
There my opinion on why I’ve been getting 9s. To spending 7-800 on a single card in a 10 when I can buy the 9 for 150-200 and then add more
Pieces to my collection that I’m proud of then to just have the one 10 I may like But to tie money in like that I don’t get as many opportunities to add what I like. Especially as I’m in the rebuild of my collection
Based off of what I’ve seen, grades seem to increase values exponentially, not by factors.
So when I see a PSA 8, 9, 10, and they increase at a fixed incremental rate, for example $500, $600, $700, I’d look to buy the highest grade.
But if they pop off, so to speak, I’d buy the grade that is right before the biggest percentage of price change.
That’s aside from the main question. Id definitely go with a 10 over a 9. But if the 9 is half price the ten, that to me sounds like a good deal on the 9.
As a collector, if it’s not a 10, I might as well get the best price on a 4-8, honestly.
But, I would assume most collectors hate 4s . But I don’t mind them so that’s that
I too don’t mind the lower grades as long as the front looks decent
Your premise is that the 1 PSA 10 copy is cleaner than all 6 PSA 9 copies. As I said, I think that premise wrong.
If your premise was correct, I would agree with you.