Basically I’m familiar with PSA graded cards in general, however I’m basically not familiar with 8 vs 9 vs 10 pokemon cards, especially ones from the earlier sets.
Obviously 10s are near flawless, but what flaws can a card have and still get a 9? And what flaws result in an 8?
Is there a good place to go and see examples of pokemon cards that have graded in a 8 - 10 fashion?
I’ve looked at some youtube videos of people getting PSA returns and the video image quality often isn’t good enough to be able to see what the actual reason behind the grade would be.
Any feedback of examples is nice to know, but I’m most interested in what flaws are allowed on pokemon cards that can still get a 9!
Cards are graded a 4-point system for the most part:
1- Edges: Any whitening can result in a downgrade depending on how picky a grader is.
2- Corners: Corners need to be cut correctly and not be dinged up.
3- Surface: This included scratches, smugding, and printlines in the holo AND the rest of the card including the back.
4- Centering: A card needs to be withing a 60:40 ratio centered to be a 10 and I believe a 65:35 for a 9 etc etc. A card can be perfect in every way but if not within the centering for a 10 then it won’t be a 10.
Keep in mind that cards are graded by hand and human eyes. They miss things and they grade differently. One grader may say a card is an 8 while another may say an 8.5 or 9. It just depends.
Advice: pick only the best specimens that you have a hard time finding anything wrong with in these categories. If you find more than 1 thing wrong just assume 8-9. If you don’t want 8’s try to find only 1 minor flaw.
Special Note: Creases no matter how small instantly knock a card to a 6. Misprints are up to the grader as to how they affect grade.
Can a hologram type card get a 9 if it only has 1 small hard to notice scratch on the hologram part of the card? I’m talking a hologram type card that doesn’t otherwise have any other problems like edge / centering issues.
Like I said - when your talking small defects and differences between a 9 and 10. It is up the grader. I know cards that were sent 4-5 times because they kept coming back 9’s and then they come back a 10 finally. So there is no definite way to say whether it is a 9 or 10.
Hey, thanks for the quick responses. This all makes sense! I think 9’s are pretty sweet to collect and that I’ve heard there is good portion of cards that come right out of the pack that can’t do better than a 9, but then i’ve also heard a decent number of cards can even hit an 8 right out of pack! And I’m weary of those cards!
For me, the subjectivity of grading combined with the price difference between PSA 9s and 10s makes me greatly prefer the former. Once you’ve seen enough cards, it starts seeming like 10s get their price point purely because there’s a 10 on the label for the perfectionists while a good amount of PSA 9s are essentially perfect cards themselves minus an uncontrollable factory flaw like centering. The way I see it, if a card is in the condition that it was in when it came out of the pack, then that’s a perfect card in my opinion. Of course, that is becoming harder and harder to say with the quality standard of English cards nowadays…
well I can understand psa grading cards for proof of condition, but yeah 10s of even common cards hold a premium I don’t wanna get involved with. I like the idea of 9s though, and I have a good number of old shadowless cards I was thinking of getting graded, but want to get fully educated on what to even bother grading. Some of the cards practically came out of the pack and just went right into a binder or box, but basically I was thinking about seeing how many 9s I could get with what I have and then potentially collecting the rest.