First time posting here, so thanks in advance for indulging my backstory: I’m a 90’s kid, and Pokemon had an incredible impact on my childhood (whether it be the TCG, Game Boy Red, Blue, and Yellow versions, Pokemon Snap and Stadium, etc…). In the past couple of years, I began slowly purchasing a number of WOTC holos that I never had during my childhood. Where I grew up, a few shadowless cards would pop up once in a blue moon, but nobody had 1st edition base cards. As such, when I was growing up, the 1st edition base Charizard only existed in lore. Back in early May, I purchased a PSA 8 1st Edition Base Charizard for $6,350 (which I believe was close to a record price at the time). Forget owning this card, I didn’t think I would ever even set eyes on one, so I consider it a true privilege to own and enjoy a NM-MT copy of such an iconic card.
Getting to the purpose for this thread (and please forgive me if I have posted in an incorrect place), something has weighed on me since I purchased the card: it was billed as a “strong 8”, suggesting possible re-grade potential for a PSA 9. Still being relatively new to this, I was hoping for some advice on whether it is worth taking a shot at a re-grade to try to get a PSA 9. I don’t even know what it would cost to attempt a re-grade (although, I assume it would be considerable), and I of course worry about damaging the card if I break it out of its case (or receiving a lower grade than it currently has). I’m not sure how common it is to attempt re-grades and what the typical success rate looks like. If worth it, what is the best approach to doing so? Any advice would be very much appreciated.
If it got an 8 you have to remember it got an 8 for a reason. Two different graders looked at the card and found some amount of flaws that they thought made it deserving of an 8. If you crack it out of the case and resend then you’re risking damaging the card in the process in the hopes that the graders this time either don’t find those same flaws or think otherwise.
Your other option is to send it in as a review which in the vast majority of cases never comes back as a higher grade.
Regardless of what the label says it’s the same card in the same condition. The only difference is the price if you sell it and if the goal is to just try and get a higher grade to resell then you start getting into shady territory.
It would be a considerable cost to regrade and the safest route would to be to resubmit still in case for a review. If you do this, then you can specify that the lowest accepted grade would be an 8.
Now as for the grade. It is a strong 8, BUT it is an 8 based on the small bits of whitening on the backside. This is assuming the front has no light scratching too because it is hard to tell on a picture. Your 8 is similar to my own in that both are clean, except for small amounts of back edge whitening. Your card is better centered than mine as well.
Can it be a 9? Yea, but it would be a very weak 9. I think it sits better as a nice strong PSA 8. Based on risk and cost to regrade, I say keep it hwere it is an be happy. It’s an 8-10k card in value which is a pretty solid value.
As a buyer I would not buy this card if I would look for a PSA 9 because it has too many white points and bad centering. In my opinion your notation is correct (considering the pictures).
If it’s an 8 then it’s an 8 due to back chipping, and I can almost induce from this that the other areas most people want cleanest in sub10 grades are very solid, ie. centering (which is PSA 9/10 worthy; BGS 9/9.5 worthy) and surface/holo clean and with very minimal to no scratching with no other major flaws. You have yourself an excellent “8” that has all the appeal you’d want in a high grade card. I’d leave it be. You made a great purchase and I hope to get close to what you got when I finally spring for mine—which I’ve not done yet!
Thanks so much to everyone for the perspective and feedback. The gambler in me will always wonder whether it could pull a 9, but, based on what I’m seeing here, the risk/reward leans towards sitting on a strong 8. Perhaps It’s best to put the would-be cost of an attempted re-grade towards flipping this into a PSA 9 one day.
in my experience to upgrade an 8 to a 9 the 8 needs to look almost better then a 9 verging on spotless otherwise I cant see there being any point in sending in for regrade as PSA wont give them out likely. with the edge wear alone, i think PSA will instantly see and disregard any chance of upgrading to a mint 9, not to say its not a nice 8 because it is!! but thats all it is! there maybe worse looking 9s on the market but thats a potential overlook by PSA resulting in a miss grade which is a process whereby human error can more easily occur but to upgrade a card the grader will be aware of the grade it was given and therefore will naturally accessing the condition with more scrutiny so i beleive there to be less room for human error being it has already been graded which would therefore act as a reference point for grading analysis leaving less room to miss damage when looking back over the cards condition.
I’ve seen way worse 9s and better 8s. Its unlikely PSA would give a 9, maybe CGC would give a 9. I wouldn’t send it in only because theres always a chance the card could be damaged when opening the case or when PSA seals the case. If this was a 9 I would be satisfied if I have bought it as such (i’m assuming theres no holo scratching), so you do have a very strong 8. As a comparison this 8.5 has a very bad back imo and oc front . I’ve learned people just pay for the grade most times since grading is just subjective.
If you are happy with an 8, I would definitely keep it as an 8 because it happened before that someone in the forums cracked a 9 to regrade as a 10…and got a 5 in return.
