Hi guys
Sorry for the late reply, been busy with work and had to think hard about this. Net net I’ve decided to keep it after the following thoughts. Would also like to stress that Gary graciously offered to take it back so it’s on me to keep it.
Note that because I’ve decided to keep it, writing the below only hurts the value of my card, and I am doing this because I think it would be helpful for the efour community here when they encounter situations like this, and that everyone has taken the time to provide their thoughts
Scratches are visible, I’m inclined to think the card is a borderline PSA 10
First, the scratches are very much visible and it’s not reasonable at all to brush this off as a tiny or barely visible mark. I saw it the moment i picked it up, my friends saw it within a few seconds. Plenty visible without a zoom. For BGS 9.5 discussion; I did not buy a BGS 9.5, I bought an PSA 10 and across ALL my PSA 10 holos none had scratching like this. I saw factory lines etc but nothing this deep for sure
Here’s another picture, turns out there is more scratching at the top RHS, although those are less visible:
imgur.com/a/0lkyYoB
And in the words of Gary, for another point of reference, scratched foils are likely not common on base set holos:
www.elitefourum.com/t/mint-1st-edition-base-set-zard-send-off-result/19432/1
“I’ve examined all my PSA 10 1st Charizard’s and none have scratched foils.
I’m with the fellow who said they wouldn’t be very happy spending over 20k for a card with a scratched front.
I’d just accept the 9 and if the rest of the card is great you could call it a strong 9;)”
I’ve also owned other base set chanseys before and they didn’t have any scratches like this on their foil (they weren’t first ed however).
It likely will never be reviewed down to a 9; this is good enough to remain in a PSA 10 case
The card looks great from a distance. The card’s centering and edges are great, corners are good. Hence, I concur that it will likely never be reviewed down to a 9, although I think it could potentially get a 9 if I were to crack and resend it due to the scratching
Net-net, kept it because of the realization that, it is a pop 45 PSA 10 thick stamp Chansey with two public sales over the past two years only and three for PSA 10 Chanseys
I would have returned it for sureif this was any other 1st ed base set card, including hitmonchan. It was the realization that there’s no guarantee I would be able to get another thick stamp Chansey at a similar price - who knows what the next sale price will be for a card this scarce; hitmonchan is super volatile and Chansey will be worse given lower pop.
Fyi net of fees Gary received at the upper end relative to sellers of the two other public sales (both of which were also thick stamp, and looked good too). Gary is a kind man that has sold me cards at bargains before and I am super grateful for it, but I would like to think that he is a smart salesman too. The price was a fair/good one if this was pristine and that was his pricing intention when dealing with the efour community; just turned out that it isn’t.
This was the result of an unintentional oversight
I also want to be clear that in the end, this was a miscomm. Yes, I felt bitter because I was communicated that it was an absolute beauty and it most definitely isn’t. Would I have said no if I saw those scratches from the start? Yes, because I’ve never seen a PSA 10 holo with scratches like this before.
But after the research I’ve done net-net I would have offered 500-1000 less and move on if couldn’t agree on price. Given that the seller is Gary who has sold me cards a couple of hundred below market price before, let’s give-and-take and save the trouble because a good relationship is worth more.
After all, I still need to fly to LVS to beg him to sell me a zard 
Hope my 2c helps and it isn’t my intention to offend anyone for the above post.