Grading LC Reverse Holos

Grading
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Hi all. I have a few LC Reverse Holos I’m hoping to get graded, including the above Pikachu. This one in particular I’m hoping for a 9-10 range. It has the one tiny dot in the upper right corner of the back, and an invisible to the naked eye Holo line that takes up around an eighth of the card width in the middle of the card. It’s only detectable if you angle the card just right with a direct light on it in the dark. It always takes me a bit to find this light scratch, but it’s definitely there lol

This subset is difficult to pre-grade because of the surface from what I gathered online. Unlike regular holos or reverse holos, it’s almost impossible to take a picture of this card to share any/all of the surface issues due to the firework holo. So, I wanted to ask people who have any LC Reverse Holos graded already a few questions;

  1. how many scratches can they detect on their surface(s) when looking very closely (especially people with 9s or 10s, but other grades are good data points to go off as well)

  2. Are there are any tips/tricks in being able to take a photo that would help show any front surface issues on? I’m not a photographer myself.

  3. Opinion on the potential grade of this card. I’ll post the rest of the ones I want opinions on in the super thread.

Thanks!

Once I grade a few of my LC Reverse cards, I will definitely share my observations too.

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You mention anything regarding the surface or back no matter how small and it’s probably not a 10. These cards are tough to grade because so much holo pattern is on the card. PSA these days docks heavy for surface scratching to boot, so based on your description do not be surprised by a psa 8, but it certainly can be a 9 as well

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The back edge wear and centering looks indicative of an 8 to me but I’m don’t have much experience grading.

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That white dot on the top right corner alone is probably enough to rule out a 10. These things are super difficult to grade, especially the way PSA are grading vintage at the moment.

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As others have already mentioned, LC reverse holos are super hard to grade in PSA 10. Also as you mentioned scratches can be hidden very well, sometimes you can only see them holding the card at the perfect angle with the perfect lighting. Back in 2017 I was ripping hundreds of packs and was getting less than a 10% PSA 10 rate for pack fresh reverses. As for taking pictures you just need to find that perfect angle with perfect lighting to highlight it, easier said than done. Good luck on the grading!

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Thanks for the info! For any of the cards that you got graded an 8 or a 9, and you believe it was due to holo scratches, would you mind describing the extent of what that damage was (for example, x amount light scratches that aren’t easily visible). Unfortunately for this set, I have got to get references for pre-grading from other people’s descriptions more than any observations I can make off of pictures of sold cards in the set.

Also, I’ve heard a lot of people say that PSA has recently been grading vintage harder. Is that based on some sort of new policy that was passed, or just general observations? Thanks for any answers to the above.

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Was a very long time ago when I graded them frequently. Hard to come by grade worthy reverses these days. I couldn’t really give you a number on how many scratches, how long they would be etc. for determining the grade. If you want to dm me here some videos or pictures or on IG I would take a look and try to help determine.