First off, I’m just looking for opinions from more experienced PSA submitters. I’m especially interested in those that have experience grading the shadowless set. I am well aware that PSA is the only one that can determine the final grade of the card.
Anyway, here’s the card I’m asking about:
And here’s what I believe knocked it down to a 9. I have looked this card over and over and over and it’s all I can come up with.
I was hoping this thing would get a 10 and was a bit sad when it came back as a 9. I apparently did not see this scratch when I looked it over the first time. What do you guys think? Is this re-grade worthy? Does it have a chance at a 10 regrade, or will that faint scratch prevent a 10 99 times out of 100? Appreciate the info.
Corners aren’t great and top right back border looks problematic. The holo scratch is an odd shape so I’m sure that could knock the grade down all by itself:(
I think what you’re seeing on the top right back border is a combination of a reflection and whatever may be on the team bag, if I’m looking at the same part you’re looking at. You’re talking about the area that looks like surface wear/a scuff, yeah? I tried taking another picture with much crappier lighting but there’s no scuff/surface wear there
looking again, maybe you’re looking at the series of specks? Those are on the slab, not the card - of course that’s really hard to tell from a picture.
Very clean 9. Honestly not my taste color wise (yours is the light yellow border card stock) but I think it’s in stellar condition. Unfortunately that scratch is a scratch and while some times they slip through the cracks, if I was grading it I’d have to give it the 9 as well. After all, if we are sticking to the guidelines which we should be, that card is best described as a 9 since that scratch is not or at least does not appear to be factory. As a side note, I have pulled cards that have weird scratches that aren’t necessarily perfectly horizontal or vertical form the sheet being scratched.
Now if we compare this card to a couple PSA 10 examples of the same card that sold this year, you’d have every right to be frustrated. There has definitely been some massive oversight on other PSA 10 copies. These examples are reason enough for me to be extra cautious when buying 10’s. I’ve already accumulated multiple examples of 10’s that have defects similar to this one, both Shadowless and other sets.
If you plan to keep this card in your personal collection, don’t stress it. It’s a very nice example of the card and you can take comfort in knowing your 9 is in superior condition to a few 10’s out there. Preserve the card and don’t subject it to any more risk. The right buyer will pay you a nice premium for your card’s condition if you sell it in the future, especially if they are the type of person who doesn’t place all trust in a third party company.
The odds might be not bad, since PSA has been inconsistent in their standards for PSA 10. But like many said before me, very strong 9. But the 10k+ price point for PSA 10 is worth the risk I’d say.
could probably hit a gem mint quad 9.5 with BGS. maybe even a quad++ with surface and and centering being 9.5 and corners and edges being 10. Could go for BGS mate, the cases are thicker and adds more protection imo.
Suppose the card is virtually perfect other than the scratch. (I’m not sure even that that’s true, given that on cursory inspection the vertical centering seems a bit off. And looking at three pictures of the card on my phone wouldn’t reliably inform my conclusion anyway.)
If “gem mint” is to be its own grade above “mint,” in my opinion it should exclude any card with a long, clearly visible scratch right on the face.
That said, PSA does make mistakes–and perhaps there are even PSA graders out there who believe that such a scratch is consistent with a 10 grade; are there?–so I’m opining more on the way I believe things should be than the way they are.
To distill my main point: A card with a long, clearly visible scratch on its face should not be considered a “virtually perfect” card (my language above and PSA’s language).
a scratch on holofoil is alot worse to me than a bit of edge wear on the back, the holofoil is what i’d end up looking at the most
but i guess this differs from person to person.
The scratch is only visible at an angle, though, and is not visible when viewing the card straight on. I know what you mean though. Based on PSA’s rubric, the grader would have to determine whether the flaw took away from the card’s visual appeal (which, it does, but only at that angle). I was just wondering if someone could see something that I couldn’t - Gary apparently thinks there’s something wrong with the corners, so I’m trying to understand what he sees that I perhaps don’t.
I saw all that whitening on the top right of the back but you said that was something else like dirt or glare or something else. I was just going by your picture.
