Hey guys I’m prepping my first send off to PSA and I have a couple cards I wanted to get PSA 9 or 10 grades on but I’m unsure if they will or not. I made a video i’ve attached and was wondering if any of you that have had experience sending cards in and getting 9’s and 10’s could maybe check out the video and give me your opinion. Also after taking the video I noticed a small hard to see but definitely there scratch across the holo on Charizard. Thanks guys for your help!
They both look like 9s or lower to me. But that being said grade them if you want them 
What flaws do you see? Videos are not very conclusive.
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Well I think the Charizard isn’t going to work out. As far as the umbreon it mostly looks perfect but there is a small patch on the back that in the right angle of light shows these little very light abrasions. I’m wondering if PSA grants a 9 grade with any sort of scracthes or abrasions on the back of the card ?
My Annie’s Espeon I had, had one small ding in it and the size was really miniscule and I got a 9 for that
Heck, my first FA Pikachu I graded had no edgewear, dings or abrasions and got a 9. Even after we looked it over and read about it Jason and I couldn’t quite figure out why it got a 9.
Point being: always assume it will get at least one grade below what you expect and you’ll be less disappointed in the long haul. Haha
First off, it’s almost impossible to predict a certain PSA grade without having seen the card in person.
A few things you should keep in mind: If you already noticed minor flaws by yourself be sure PSA will notice them and take them into account as well. If cards have gone through the hands of pre-owners it usually makes them suspect regarding condition. That being said pack fresh cards are not guranteed to get high grades. Last time I recieved a pack fresh card back as a NM 7 for example.
Now of course PSA has guidelines and grading standards but there is always subjective perception involved. There is also a chance that PSA employees make ‘mistakes’ as they are only humans too.
If your sending your cards to PSA to get a certain grade, I really believe you are doing it for the wrong reasons (at least as long as it is for your own collection and not for reselling purposes) but yeah, I could write pages about that…
Good advice!
Hmm well thanks for all the input guys. I think I’m going to send these two cards back for refunds. Acd I can see your point in some respects on sending cards in for a certain grade, but I think it’s completely legitimate to want a certain grade of a card in your collection. Not to mention in this case I want the opinion because if these cards don’t get 9’s or 10’s I will lose money reselling them in the future. Ya theoretically you don’t resell cards that go into your personal collection, but interested change, times change , things happen and you may have to shrink your collection and when it comes to that point all people care about are PSA 9’s and 10’s especially in cheap cards so 7’s and 8’s are not worth the grading fees for these particular cards. For super rare cards that completely different. Having an 8 might be a total gem for how rare that card is how hard it is to get good grades. The Masaki cards are a great example. I’d be absolutely excited to have that collection in 8, heck probably even 7 would have me quite excited. And yet newer cards it’s a bare minimum of 9 and cards that I really like. Anyway I think on these I should probably send them back. Up to this point I’ve been very picky about cards I’m prepping to send in to Psa making sure to pick ones with no scratches or surface wear I can see and only the most minor edge wear. I appreciate all your help.
If you are planning on getting those two cards graded to resell don’t waste your time. They are cheap cards… As the wise @mkpokecc told me… Only grade cards $100+ or cards you are CERTAIN you will keep
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I completely disagree with that advice. Lol. But to each his own.
But I do agree with not grading these for resale.
Eh I definitely disagree. Most of the cards I’m getting graded are worth more like $15-30 but I value them for my collection and with good grades many of them double in price from what I’ve been watching on eBay. So I would argue it is worth. The point of Psa is threefold. You preserve your cards condition, the presentation of the card in my opinion is awesome in a PSA case, and you preserve more of the cards value should you want or need to sell it in the future. Nothing is ever guaranteed of course, but a PSA 10 or 9 card can carry it’s value much better than non graded.
In the case of these two cards it’s mainly just because I really like the cards artwork 
Does a 15$ card double up in price just because it recieved a PSA 10? Nope! And we discussed this many times, ebay listings are a good source to get a rough price estimation but by no means do they set anything.
I can guarantee that even if you recieve 10s on your cards you will have a hard time selling them in the future for what you think they are worth.
At the end of the day you have to make your own decisions. We can just give you advice and talk about experiences we made. You like the cards - get them graded. If this helps you I had a few cheap cards graded myself and not all of them received 10s yet still I appreciate them to the fullest extend!
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Agreed. Personally I don’t care for graded cards unless they are in PSA 9 or PSA 10. Pokemon cards are produced in high enough quantities where it is quite possible to obtain PSA 9 and PSA 10 copies of almost any card. As per the Trophy cards, I think most of us would be willing to make exceptions.
Another good point. My interests changed quite a bit over the years before I settled on Japanese expansions. Before then, I aimed to collect every WoTC set. Once I was close to accomplishing that goal, I decided to go for every English set. Then eventually PSA 10s on every ex card and so on. I ended up selling everything when my interest shifted to the point where I didn’t want English cards.
This is also well put. Not every card will gain significant value with a PSA 10. Most cards will gain some value, but often times that won’t even cover the grading fees. How much a card will go up after being reviewed by PSA is something that needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Take a look at Sabrina’s Gaze. That card is incredibly common in Japan yet PSA 10 copies have consistently sold for $50-75 due to the novelty of the card.
Anyway to be on topic, I personally agree with much of what else has been said. It usually isn’t profitable to grade cards for resale unless they hit high grades. This is especially pronounced with common cards. There are a few sellers on eBay who constantly tell me that they lose money with PSA yet they continue to do it.
I would agree not EVERY $15 card will double, but I wasn’t making that claim. I was making the claim a lot of the cards I’m sending in will double. To give you an idea of some of the cards I’m talking about, Gameboy promos, T promos, ANA promos, etc. A lot of these cards I got a decently low prices and should nearly double in value on the prices I paid for them. Some definitely will not. And maybe less of them will than I think. Overall most of them I want for my personal collection, so the value just comforts my decision to spend so much money.
EDIT: Maybe your right acd. I certainly hope I didn’t sound aggressive with my reply. I find this stuff interesting to discuss. There’s a lot of factors that go into a card’s value. As I look more closely at the cards in sending in your right, most of the them won’t double. But I feel confident that 90% or better of them I would at least be able to break even selling them for the price I paid plus the grading price. Which in my case due to my large order it’s coming to about $8.50 per card including shipping both ways. But I guess we’ll see