I take back what I said
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Also just to clarify the following two statements are not the same:
it’s much hard(er) to grade a psa 10 Legendary collection reverse holo Charizard today than it was before the bubble.
its much hard to get a psa 10 today than it was before the bubble.
I imagine most people would agree with one of those
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Yeah…. Psa had a group meeting and said we are going to be a lot tougher on specifically LC but every other set is fine make no changes… 
Its not something to get worked up over. Its a statistical probability. Its a mathematical fact.
I only talk about LC because I’m not going to write out an entire book here.
But you can do the same thing with other sets.
If i had 2 identical vintage grail pokemon cards. And submitted these identical cards at different times
Overall a great card, nearly perfect! but has just a tiny bit of whitening in 2 spots. The first was submitted in 2018. The second was submitted in 2024
The one in 2024 isnt getting no 10. The one in 2018 probably did
Blanket acquired, popcorn buttered.
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I think you should become a binder collector. i feel like you would enjoy the hobby much more! Also remove yourself from the trash that is YouTube content creators.
Every since I stopped watching the drama and strictly stick to my monthly Smpratte Patreon videos I have been a much happier person in this hobby.
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The difference between you and me is that I’ve actually graded cards in 2018.
The reality is there will always be variability in grading. I have PSA 9 cards with old certs I guarantee would get 10 today and of course there are plenty of examples of cards graded in 2018 that would get a 9 or less today.
Certain cards now receive higher scrutiny because they are forced to be submitted at higher tiers. Something like an LC Charizard is going to be in a higher tier. Which means less variability in grading than what it used to receive.
This is nothing new. People swore by the fact that the new 4xxx was way stricter than 2xxx. Turns out 4xxx is now an old cert and graded easily. I don’t even know what’s considered a new cert these days. 6xxx? 7xxx? Maybe they are too old now too.
I can’t wait for PSA to have a $5 cert upgrade service to end this entire conversation forever.
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not buying that at all. If anything it would be the opposite. You can submit the card at any tier level and wait for psa to upcharge you if it is actually a 9 or 10.
also, this tier system that your blaming it on actually incentivizes psa to grade the card higher, not lower
My opinion is a highly common one and some of the most respected ppl in the community share that opinion
but there comes a point when its not even an opinion anymore. When you pull out the numbers to show
it becomes a statistical fact
and of course the old heads who have stacks of old certs will claim there is no difference.
They dont want to devalue their inventory/collection; which they kind of effectively do if they admit new certs have higher standards
And even if they never want to sell; just the thoughts that some 10’s they are holding are secretly fraudulent 10s. yeah… I understand. you dont have to explain anything to me.
Its just a reality that if you watch sales, old certs are not getting the same premium. The community at large has already devalued them
because the truth is they have a lower floor
and its a tough pill to swallow
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There is clearly a conspiracy of people new to this hobby who want to sell their new cert cards at a premium 
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There’s a lot to unpack here. It’s easier to say one time frame had different standards than another because it’s a straightforward statement without ambiguity. Have a few thoughts.
- Pokemon didn’t get the same respect or attention from PSA in 2018 than it does today. Sports had always been by far PSA’s largest submission category until recently. This could lend to the argument that it was easier to receive a PSA 10, as there were less critical eyes on the cards in QA checks. Eh, it’s just another one of those orange dragons, whatever. Not stating anything definitive here, but think this point is plausible.
- It’s important to acknowledge the bandwagon mindset when it comes to social media and PSA grading standards over time. People always say that the older certs are weaker no matter what era we’re in. It gets traction and so it’s something that continues to persist. 4x is stronger than 2x, 5x is stronger than 4x, etc. The burden of proof should not be to prove that something that hasn’t changed hasn’t changed, but that’s where we are.
- The negative examples are the ones that you see. People don’t feel the same need to share with the world the accurately graded PSA 9 Victreebel, but do feel the need to share the PSA 10 Dark Dragonite with 4 spots of whitening. This can skew perception and people can take these examples as widespread trends.
- There have been no published changes to standards over time. You can argue that how stringently they have been adhered to over time has changed, but don’t think that’s significant either. PSA’s entire value proposition is consistent evaluation to their standards. I’m not saying PSA is perfectly consistent, no grading company is, but I can say they have a vested interest in reigning in graders or areas that start to drift out of line.
- One can’t look at available PSA 10s that have come up for sale in a cert range and state those are representative of all of those era certs of that grade. Cards are locked into collections, and it’s more likely someone will sell a weaker card for the grade than a stronger one. A lot of the early cards graded pre-2020 were done by hobbyists, not someone looking to flip for a profit. That was still there of course, but not nearly to the extent of today. I bet a good amount of those strong copies are still in closets.
- 2020 likely pulled out most of the gem ungraded cards due to those prices. Anything left should not be assumed to be of the same quality as 2020 ungraded cards. This is why it’s harder to get a 10 now than it was before, not because the standards have changed. There are still pack fresh cards being submitted, and still 10s being received, but you can’t expect 10 percentages to be the same now that they were 6 years ago. The raw population of cards has changed since then.
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Theres a more obvious answer as to why psa 10 pop growth is slower in 2024 than in 2018. There are less gem mint raw examples out there than at that time. Also, opening packs or buying mint cards raw is probably around 10x more expensive now than it was then due to less supply and due to more people in the hobby. You could go on ebay and find most cards mint back then for literal fractions of what they cost today. I rarely see truly mint English for sale anymore on ebay.
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The one thing that being an old head has taught me is that any specific narrative or complaint in the hobby has a limited lifespan. A lot of people don’t stick around for long enough to see it happen. But there’s always some fear or strong belief that “the most respected ppl in the community share” and just ends up fading into background noise and eventually forgotten.
I have openly said in this conversation that PSA has tightened up grading on certain cards so fundamentally I’m not even saying anything you disagree with. But my point of disagreement is whether any of it matters.
PSA is not a static company. New certs become old certs. I’m sure they will be perceived to be changing their grading scale every few years. A cert upgrade service would indeed make this conversation irrelevant and they could implement that overnight.
The lesson I’m trying to share is to ignore the noise. It doesn’t matter what the cert says. If you want the card, find one in the condition that works for you and buy it. The rest is fleeting and not worth getting caught up in.
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And also the reason the 10 growth is relatively slower to other grades is because for basically all of pre-2019, anything less than PSA 10 was not worth grading.
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Also just feel the need to reply to this specifically, this is such a logic trap. You’re trying to paint a picture that anyone who owns old cert cards can’t possibly have an objective opinion on this topic because they would be financially disincentivized to do so. It’s way too simple of a way to approach this and doesn’t invite discussion, it does the opposite.
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I agree. You can´t compare Sun & Moon with what I call modern anymore (anything post 2020).
But it´s very difficult to say what Evolving Skies will be worth in two years. Sword and Shield has a lot more fans it seems so that may be a factor. However, I´m pretty sceptic about this era as well because of all the hoarding. I don´t think Pokémon still being popular in ten years will be a problem. If there´s one company I have faith in, it´s Pokémon.
Let’s just stick with the idea that “old heads” are holding only old certs, that means they most likely paid relatively nothing for those cards. So even if there is a -10% on old certs, they are still up like 20x.
Why “old heads” don’t care or seem dismissive about whatever new theory is happening is because they already won. Some of the biggest gains are behind us. Being early to market is > than whatever trend is happening today.
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While we are on the topic, if we just take it all to be true and agree that PSA totally changed how they grade, then how should we react?
It demonstrates that PSA has consistency issues (frankly, that shouldn’t be news). So logically, we should collectively value all PSA cards less if they have shown themselves to be a less reliable third party authenticator. Right?
Instead, the logic trying to be sold is we should value certain slabs more and certain ones less, based on when they were graded. It’s extremely short-sighted. Because if the company can completely invalidate all grades before a specific date, they can do it again.
So the problem I have is that the lesson should be that we should all collectively question whether the PSA premium makes sense and how much stake we should put into their opinion - which I’ve been advocating for years ( → Why even bother with PSA 10s? ). Instead, we get a strange doubling-down on PSA in an extremely specific way. “We can’t trust PSA before this date”. This logic has been around for years and the date just keeps moving forward.
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I’m glad I was able to stir up discussion 
this is good
regardless of the opinions
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@POKEBEAST Dang man I have a spare PSA 10 LC Reverse Charizard that I was just going to give you for free but it’s a 2 cert and apparently “an imposter” so I guess I’ll just keep it now
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In all seriousness though, think about it. The old heads that have been grading for a loooonnggg time tend to agree the standards haven’t changed much. Maybe a little tougher for certain cards now, but not much. Meanwhile people that are brand new to the hobby seem to be the ones constantly jumping up and down about standards changing and older certs being less valuable.
Also, @POKEBEAST serious question. What do you consider an old cert? Because that changes every day.
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