First time poster here. Getting ready for my first PSA submission and I’m a bit unsure about something I found on some of my cards.
Back in 2016, I opened 4 Japanese Fossil booster packs and sleeved all the holos immediately. The cards were stored in a binder and I just recently had them sent to me. Currently living in Japan, binder was back home. I’d say that the cards were pulled out of their sleeves a handful of times. Most recently today to check the condition. Well, I found that all 4 of them have these lines. Some more, some less. To me they look like scratches. However, they are consistent all the way from the very top to the very bottom of the cards. And again, all 4 of them have these scratches/lines. They are only visible in very bright light and frankly, I struggled to capture them on camera.
The thing is, my other more recently acquired Japanese cards do not have these lines or are so scratched up that they are not visible anymore lol.
I’ll get the cards graded no matter what since I’d like these preserved for sentimental reasons. Luckily in Japan it is only around 30 USD per card at the moment.
However, would these lines affect the grade? If yes, by how much? Obviously I am not asking for specific grade predictions since I’m only showing the back of one of them. But assuming everything else was perfect, what can I expect?
I guess I would call these factory roller lines, so similar to print lines. I’ve seen similar on old MTG cards. In terms of grading, I would suspect this would count as surface damage/flaw so it would be factored in would be my guess. Better on the back than the front, but still a flaw none the less.
Thanks so much for the replies! Factory roller lines could be it for sure. Just weird that there are so many of them, although very faint. Being perfectly vertical though and all the way across the card, they must be from the factory. I don’t think you could recreate these perfectly straight scratches/lines if you tried.
So the question is, how hard might this hit the grade? Do I still have a shot at a 9 or should I feel lucky if I got an 8? Again, assuming everything else is flawless…
The card in the pictures is a Lapras. The Mew probably has the worst ones. The Magneton the least. Just my luck lol…
If everything else is basically flawless, I would say a max of 9 could be possible as for example on most cards that have print lines on the front holo surface will get knocked down minimum 1 grade point but I feel they are usually harsher on the front of the card as well.
I’d be a bit more pessimistic to be honest. From a submission of only such cards, I’d expect like 80% 8s and 10% each 9s and 7s, obviously depending on the severity and perhaps the grader.
Edit: I should add that I don’t have any personal experience with grading though, only from what I’ve seen on graded cards I bought.
You’re right. I would always hope on the highest grade, but would not be shocked by a lower grade even if it’s the back of the card. PSA is strict on the surface as well from everything I’ve seen.
