Ugliest PSA 9s and 10s

General
1

Hello everyone, I have only owned about three total PSA 9s and 10s in my whole collecting career (I may have more soon) and so haven’t seen many to compare. But I have heard that even 10s can have minor flaws, or 9s can be considerably scratched.

Would anyone be interested in sharing pictures that show the damage on the ugliest 9s and 10s you have or have seen? I also know that some cards are damaged after grading, or some graders might have inadvertently put the wrong numbers, but I am most curious about cards that most minimally may deserve the grade of 9 or 10, most curious about the possible variation toward the bare bottom of those grades.

Thank you for your knowledge and experience

2

See if you can spot the main issue.

Then tell me what you think this card graded.

I blocked the serial number so you can’t peak at the database :wink:

3

Teeny knick top right corner. But there’s something on the red but of the pokeball :thinking:

4

Ding ding ding! That is a 1 inch scratch where the foil is shining through on the poke ball.

This card graded a 10…

5

Holy !! Damn that’s lucky how did they miss that

6

BGS 9.5 Gem Mint 1st Edition Gyarados with 9.5 corners and edges :blush:



3 Likes
7

Unfortunately with a thread like this you will get a lot of people posting misgrades i.e. cards that may have flaws that are overlooked and receive a grade they probably shouldn’t.

Looking at the minimum condition it takes to get a 10 is also a bad way to approach grading. You’ll just be setting yourself up for “why did my card get a 9 and this worse one get a 10”. You don’t want to treat the lowest outliers as what kind of cards should get a 10.

But it’s still interesting to see cards on the lower end of 10 so it’s not my intention to ruin the fun :wink:

1 Like
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I am positive that’s damage from the enclosure’s edge bumper(?). Notice how it lines up perfectly with the edge of the right side bumper.

There is no way a grader could have overlooked that and gave it a 9.5.

I have one of those too on one of my PSA 10s, albeit to a lesser degree:

The bottom left has chipping on the portion that makes contact with the left bumper edge, and the top right has a pressure dent.

My theory is that if the card is loose inside, it will constantly hit the edge of the bumpers and wear down.

Both PSA and BGS enclosures are not very reliable when it comes to protection. Those silly bumpers will eventually damage cards in the long run.