You know for E series many of the cards arnt a ton more in a 10 or was at least. For example I had a chance to buy a Skyridge PSA 10 regular Holo Kabutops for $100-$150 I forgot exactly how much but it wasn’t a ton more. If I was in the business of buying 10s I’d want flawless basically black label quality PSA 10s. I own two 10s one being Aquapolis Espeon PSA,10 which I doubt I’ll ever downgrade and Skyridge Rhydon PSA 10 both bought with store credit from trading in my modern Rainbow Rares which is a decision I’m happy with. At one point I’d debate downgrading them or at least the Rhydon but my Espeon looks about flawless to me which makes me feel very special to own. 
If you’re on a limited budget, it’s just a matter of quality vs quantity
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Coming from a binder only collector, I would rather have a large number of 9s than just a few 10s. As long as it is mint, that little digit difference doesn’t justify the 2x to 10x price.
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It seems like you’re asking two different questions. The title is “why do you HOLD your PSA 10s,” but in the post itself, you ask why you BUY them over PSA 9s.
Because it seems like most people have taken the route of answering why they buy them, I’ll answer the part that pertains to why I hold them.
I hold PSA 10s over 9s because it comes down to knowing that if I sell the 10, there is a very good chance I will never own that card again. For example, I bought a decent amount of PSA 10 1st Edition Neo Destiny holos back then they were mostly all under $400. Now, those cards are well into the thousands, so if I sell the Light Dragonite I purchased for $300 or so a couple of years ago, I would probably have to pay several thousand dollars to get it back in the future.
PSA 9s are much more attainable. That’s not to say that I sell my 9s willy nilly, because they are still obviously worth significantly more now than when I bought them (I bought most of my 9s from 2017 through 2019 when they were generally all well under $100) and they wouldn’t exactly be cheap items to reattain, but it would be much easier to spend a few hundred on a card than a few thousand.
Hopefully that answers that part of your question 
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I think of it this way (using Ampharos ex for the sake of example):
TPCi printed tens or hundreds of thousands of Ampharos exs. Let’s say, for sake of this example, that they printed 100,000 copies. Of those 100,000 copies, 99,000+ were opened by 5-12-year-olds between 2003-2006. Nearly zero of those 99,000 copies are in PSA 10-potential condition. Little kids just don’t handle cards in such a way that the condition is *perfectly* preserved. The most serious child collectors from back then were not hyper-concerned with condition, let alone privy to the ideal methods for preserving cards in gem mint condition. A much larger number of those 99,000 copies are, however, in mint (PSA 9-potential) condition.
My point is: of 100,000 copies opened back then, it wouldn’t surprise me if only a few thousand were still in PSA 9-potential condition. But I bet that PSA 9-potential copies outnumber the PSA 10-potential copies by a factor 10 or 20:1.
When we’re talking about set cards that were mass-produced and distributed to kids decades ago, being in gem mint condition *is* a meaningful distinction. It puts the card in a different tier of condition rarity.
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10s when at all possible. I don’t own very many graded cards, but will in the future. I know my persobality is such that I’ll hold a 9 if it’s all I have, but will always pursue a 10.
I’m a competitive person, and get a weird sense of accomplishment from owning something that others want and do not have. Sounds petty writing it out, but it’s true. Using Neo Slowking as an example, there are only something like 10 PSA 10s. If someone wanted a complete PSA 10 collection from that set, only 10 people could do it. I would want to own that card because I know others would desire it.
For anyone reading this, you should still of course buy what you like first and foremost, but personally I also like things that are “popular” and others like.
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Step 1: Buy 10s to crack for binders
Step 2: ??
Step 3: Profit
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Why hold 10’s over 9’s
Why hold 9’s over 8’s
Why hold 8’s over 7’s.
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Why hold anything.
I think it is a bit silly anyone restricts themselves so much as to what plastic and label they are after whether that is one specific company or one specific grade let alone a specific one of each. All grading companies suck look at what they’ve got going on right now. I’m equal opportunity and will just add cards that I can at good value and sell them when I value them less than the market. So many opportunities are missed pinning yourself down too much on what you’ll buy and one constant since I’ve been in the hobby is that all my best buys were raw cards.
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I’m a raw set card collector, I collect gem mint cards, fuck the slabs and fuck the labels.
That said, I personally wouldn’t touch anything below a 10 if I collected graded cards. 10 is the only investment grade. 9’s barely outpace inflation (global pandemics notwithstanding), PSA 8-7 should be authentic only and cards below PSA 7 are barely worth the Tupperwares they’re stored in.
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PSA 9s were seeing pretty significant movement before the pandemic even occurred (the increase began to occur during the late summer of 2019; the pandemic didn’t hit until March 2020).
This also entirely depends on the card. If we’re talking about bulk, then yeah; PSA 9s probably aren’t the way to go. But PSA 9 1st Edition WOTC holos were phenomenal value purchases right up until late 2019. You could get the good majority of PSA 9 1st Edition WOTC holos for under $50 up until that point, with some going for as low as $20-25. Twenty bucks for a PSA 9 1st Edition WOTC holo is asinine. They were quite arguably the most undervalued cards in the hobby for an extended period of time.
Was the massive spike during the pandemic ridiculous to an extent? Sure, but the fact of the matter is that those cards were always undervalued, and while we have seen market corrections (which most of us anticipated), these cards aren’t going to drop back down to $50 barring some major economic event. They are still up significantly regardless of inflation.
Think about it this way: how often can you find a raw mint condition 1st Edition WOTC holo these days? Even PSA 8-quality cards are difficult to find raw. That’s why PSA 9s (and yes, even PSA 8s and some 7s) have legitimate long-term value.
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This is where the conversation gets difficult, as they say. Still, I don’t entirely disagree with you. Everything above PSA 6 hold some value, and yes, some of the 9’s will retain their accumulated value.
Nothing compared to 10’s, and almost (in a hyperbolic sense) comparable to inflation with the time perspective I had in mind, which is much, much longer back than 2019.
As for how often I see mint wotc 1st ed, I’m probably one of the few guys on this forum with a hoard of mint wotc 1st ed holos. Up till now, I don’t grade and I never sell. If anyone should desire to believe in the future of PSA 9 holos, it is me.
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I agree that with exception to all the times sub-10 cards saw growth, they have been extremely stagnant.
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People collect what they enjoy collecting. I often see advice like “Switch from English to Japanese for cheaper set cards” or “Lower your condition goals so you can afford cards”. For a good chunk of people, that can be great advice. For others, it’s the equivalent of saying “Collect Yu-Gi-Oh instead of Pokemon” or “Collect Venusaur instead of your favorite Blastoise”. If someone collects PSA 10s that’s simply their preference. To sell everything and get a larger quantity of cards in cheaper PSA 9s would not make them happier, it would just erase their collection.
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…you guys have 10s?
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I certainly had to add it to my collection. Japanese exclusive promo art from the earliest era of Pokemon? Done! PSA 10 is worth while on it as well since it was packaged in such a way that could damage the card.
That said, my PSA 7 copy cost me $50 and the PSA 10 is at around $1000. I think that is justifiable but in my personal opinion, not worth the 20x markup.
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Reason for my 10s echoes others.
9’s on the other hand… I have a completely different opinion on 9’s than everyone else so far.
9’s are MORE rare than people think especially off flawed Population Reports that currently can not account for cracking and resubmitting. No one is cracking 10’s to resubmit, at most they will submit the card in it’s graded holder for whatever reason, but never without it’s 10 label.
I think with Genamint coming with it’s ability to uniquely identify every single card, all grades will start self correcting over time, likely in 3-5 years. I say it’s that long because it’ll take time for people to regrade their cards knowing it’ll get a lower grade. Thus, the market needs time to adapt to favor Genamint graded. I think it will when we see Genamint 10’s and will be considered the new highest grade.
Over time, a strict 9 will be seen as the rarity it really is. I think CGC grading is the canary in the coalmine of what stricter AI like grading will be like. CGC 10’s are seriously rare, don’t even get me started on Perfect 10’s.
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I may have mistyped, but yeah I am mostly asking because as I get my graded returns I am getting some 10s that dont match all my 9s. Ill probably sell the 10s to get some 9s but it just feels odd to do lol. The truly expensive collection cards I already own in 9s so I am not about to say lets go for all 10s now that a few others came back 10
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My 10’s were dirt cheap at the time, so the extra $10 between a 10 and 9 was nothing.
Also, like you said, I like the comfort of knowing it’ll be stable or grow (relative to other grades) in case I have to sell.
(AND-sometimes there are fewer 10s, which increases the challenge, etc.).
I like this question though, I’ll keep thinking about it.
I am a happy clam with my PSA 8s. All about perspective.
I also hold them with my hands.
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Step 4: Rejoin discord 