Don’t give up, be more patient. Eventually you’ll get it. 
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@spinch I have been able to add the shadowless 9 charizard but it was through purchase of a 103 card complete set (both pikas). Hard to say exactly what I paid for the charizard, but it was roughly in my range.
I have been able to add a PSA 8.5 charizard for $3200 since posting. I feel that was a great add as I got it below what some 8’s were selling for at the time. Still want a 9, but this looks close to one.
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Oh nice one. I think investing in any shadowless card atm is the right time so that set does sound good! I’m looking at completing the shadowless set in 8s and what seemed like a fun side collection at the time has blown the budget now with these damn zards lol
Wow that is a great effort as the 8s are already going to fly past that price. Do you think you will try and go for the 9 then?
Could always buy the 9 now and sell the 8.5 when it reaches the price you paid for the 9 (could be a matter of hours they way things are going haha).
@spinch I definitely would still buy a 9 if the right price came along around what I offered, but I feel that time may have passed.
I have since gotten another 8.5 though so I will probably keep the nicer of those two and be happy with that. 8.5’s really frustrate me in a way. I recall my first 1,000 or so grades I got about 2 of them. Then there was a month or two where I got dozens of them. I know the forums general opinion on regrades, but I have a strong opinion on statistics and statistically speaking that was more than just an anomaly. It was an impossibility. That was an inherent and temporary change in the way they were grading. Since in the thousand or so cards I have graded I have again only gotten a few of them. I sent most of those cards back in the meantime and 90% or so came back 9’s with a couple 8’s and even a 10 or two. A very imperfect grade 8.5 is if it isn’t replicated one single time out of dozens of cards. So yeah if one of these looks nice enough it will possibly go back to shoot for a 9. Especially if I find the serial #'s lie around the same as my batch of 8.5’s that I graded myself.
I’ve been meaning to get firm numbers on all of this and maybe I will make that a project for the long weekend, but yeah there was a bad stretch at PSA where 8.5’s were doled out in unreasonable, uncharacteristic and never before seen as well as since unmatched rates. (removes tin foil hat, but seriously wtf was with that?)
May send my whole PSA base 1st holo set to BGS ultimately anyways. I really prefer their cases and their whole subgrade system in many ways. I like to know why my card got what it got in their eyes. Some of my 9’s lack on centering though and a flat 8 or 9 on centering at BGS will kill the major grade on the card.
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Personally, I hate people trying to regrade cards that don’t deserve a regrade
However, if I feel like the grade doesn’t match the card then I would regrade. I have had some very very strong 10 cards grade 9’s, and I regraded them and usually they all get 10s. If I see any flaw on the card (not perfect centering, any scratching, any whitening at all) I am not regrading.
If you try to regrade a card that deserves a 9 which might have a slight slight shot at 10, then I think you are abusing the system and are in the wrong. However, even PSA employees are humans and make mistakes on occasion 
In the period with the 8,5’s I had a 60 card submission of which 20 cards graded an 8,5 and I was pretty pissed about it.
i remeber arounbd 8 months ago 8.5 went mental dont know what happened there?
and also agree i feel like the 9s are slipping awayfrom me as well 
I am very against abusive regrading as well. But I think it can be used from time to time when doing so in good faith.
Being that PSA is THE professional company we all use and trust I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect repeatability in their grading procedures. I once regraded a PSA 8 1st edition charizard because inside the case I couldn’t for the life of me see anything wrong with it and I thought it looked like a 10 honestly. Upon cracking it out I noticed a couple extremely minor surface scratches that the case made hard to see and a tiny bit of whitening that I had thought was dust. Upon regrading it came back an 8. One of the best 8’s I have ever seen. Getting the same grade twice though, I would never send that card again even though I really thought it should have been a 9. Many would grade it over and over and it likely could get a 9 within a few more attempts. With how low the grading cost is compared to the value differential between 8/9 or 9/10 it is inevitable to have people take advantage. That is very wrong to do IMO as you are just hoping for luck at that point, not checking for repeatability or verification.
However in the case of my dozens of 8.5 regrades I have yet to have one single card reproduce the same 8.5 grade the second time around. That speaks a lot to the grade value itself. If it can’t be repeated by professionals across dozens of trials, how valid is it? On top of that, people search and collect 8’s and 9’s but very few seek out 8.5’s. I actually have scooped up 8.5’s many times for at or under what 8’s earn at that same time. I would never question anyone for cracking out and sending an 8.5 back to PSA. I would love to hear if anyone has ever done it to receive the same 8.5 back.
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Me third, the whole “abusive” re-grade process is kinda unethical. Even in good faith, no matter how many times people re-grade purely based on one certain belief “I think my cards deserve better grades”, but yet some decide to keep or sell flawed or weak PSA 10 cards from thier own grade/re-grade returns. Wait, what happened to that belief? It’s just so hypocritical. Unless otherwise stated, this can hurt the market and may even mis-lead potential buyers or resellers.
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Hmm well it sounds like with all of this PSA8.5 business that you might have a PSA9 afterall. Make sure to update us if you do decide to send in your 8.5. It will be interesting to see what it comes back as.
My brain can already barely decipher the 8/9/10 thresholds in many cases. So this whole 8.5 business as I’ve mentioned is just frustrating. IMO if I were sending these in from raw one of these cards is a solid 8 with a slim shot at a 9 and the other is really a toss up 50/50 8/9. They both have really nice fronts and holos but the main issues are a bit of whitening on the back. So that nicer one will almost definitely go back. Maybe I will even send both as I am actually in progress of building a 9 set as well as an 8 set though I would hate to downgrade, it would at least be a more valid grade at PSA 8. If either one of them were to come back again an 8.5 I would be shocked as again I think it is an awful grade and isn’t replicable in the slightest.
I honestly wouldn’t know what to do if I had an 8.5 as part of a set. If I was building an 8 set I would actually prefer an 8 than an 8.5 despite the worse grade. It just sticks out when you’re looking at them all. If you did manage to get an 8 and 9 out of it that is definitely a win. But if you got two 8s at least you would know they’re pretty strong and hopefully be comfortable with a proper grade. Anyways , makes sure you keep us updated!
Bump. Still willing to do this deal. As I said in the OP I would spend 4.5-6k pending scans/photos. Ideally looking around 5-5.2k for a mid range 9.
Also made available in a potential partial trade a PSA 8.5 1st charizard.