We are not here to Sell, just a great forum for information.
1st post. Pop control is real ?
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Nice cards!!
I think pop control is a myth, i think its a way for people to cope with not getting the grade they want.
But I do think graders see a first ed charizard and go hm ill take an extra look at it rather then a glance with a common card from Sword and shield.
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had a ton of 10âs , but in between 10âs Blastoise is a 9, then bunch of 10âs again⌠LOL
Happy with the results for vintage, but it does seem strange.
Have some other subs with funny and strange grades squeezed in between.
Anyone who genuinely believes in pop control doesnât understand the volume PSA goes through or how little the average grader cares about your submission.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence and apathy.
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Feel that, I had a complete VS set submitted, all 10âs except the charizard got a 5. I was like wtf. Then i cracked it out, looked closer and saw a tiny dent on the back, so that made sense. Sometimes just unlucky and i hope the grader has a good day the day hes grading future cards haha
I have some sets that would be #1 in the PSA registry if and when i register it. The vintage set i am collecting is very condition sensitive with many in the set does not have PSA 10âs yet. There is some type of pop control going on.
When anyone starts to specialize in certain sets, they will understand when pop control is in play. The blanket statement would be that PSA graders know 10000% more about sets than i do, but when it comes to collectors that specialize in specific sets, the collectors know more, seen more ,handles more and understand the pop #'s more than any grader in that specific set.
Pop control exist . Do some research, even specific sets like 1980 topps baseball, specifically the 1980 topps ricky henderson card.
Everyone , check it out . 1980 Topps Baseball set and pop control. That set will make anyone think about POP CONTROL again.
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Check this out. There are many hardcore collectors that use PSA and does much more research on their sets that most will never understand.
Check this out. The sportscard collector sector is much more advance and knowledgeable than most in the Pokemon world.
My point was the graders at PSA donât actually know much about what they are looking at most of the time, not the other way around. Remember that the people who do the Research & ID are not the same as the graders. And also generally the graders for sports are not the same as the tcg graders. Regardless, Iâm not sure I can follow the logic of your post here. If graders donât really know much about the sets or the pop report⌠what exactly are they controlling?
If you want to make an argument that PSA is more reluctant and/or more discerning about very specific and expensive cards, I can buy into that. Base set Charizard, for example. Itâs easy to recognize and known to be valuable. You can call it pop control, I find the term to be very conspiratorial though. There doesnât have to be a conspiracy. These are cards typically submitted at higher tiers going to more experienced graders. The key valuable cards are also going to be the most resubmitted so if you didnât tighten up the grading on these, youâd have PSA 10 inflation from cards slipping through across a long period of time.
Either way, a Squirtle Deck Blastoise is not getting pop controlled. Some minimum wage employee looked at it for 15 seconds and decided to give it a 9. They are not cross-referencing the pop report, they are trying to meet their daily quota so they can go home. The data doesnât agree either. Roughly 25% of the mint grades (9+10) are PSA 10 for the deck Blastoise, which is a comparable ratio to Jungle holos (unless those are being pop controlled too). The Japanese base Blastoise is almost at 40% PSA 10 wrt mint grades. If there is pop control on these, they are doing a really terrible job.
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My point is, it is more complicated . The grader or graders are just doing their job as you explain. But then there are Q1 , Q2 and possibly another group just looking up values/pop (hearsay). You are right , who cares about a blastoise card, but that does not mean there is no pop control. The other POKEMON sets i collect are vintage, very low pop and raw can go for some good money. I rarely publish those returns to keep that set out of the public eyes until someone else sells their set or pumps it to set a market price.
There is so much dishonestly in collecting of sportscards and now pokemon cards. To think there is no pop control is just thinking everyone is honest. Collectors in this hobby search $4 packs, sadly people can stoop real low in this hobby.
Things like this video below should make everyone rethink many things in collectibles.
PSA are financially incentivized NOT to pop control because they can upcharge with higher grades for potentially thousands of dollars. People who believe in pop control generally do so as a coping mechanism because they think they are elite tier graders. You canât just just âWell ok pop control doesnât exist for this card but WHAT ABOUT THIS ONEâ as evidence that it exists.
Some folk have never actually read the PSA grading standards, or have read them and fundamentally misunderstand them, so they are surprised when their predictions are wrong. People love to fool themselves into thinking they know everything and understand something when they often donât.
Also keep in mind that the more cards that PSA grade means that there are going to be more cards that are misgraded, simply due to that volume of cards graded. If you think you card has been misgraded then crack it and send it again. Simple.
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Wish it was that simple, but it is not.
Dont think some understand the scale of a pop 1 becoming a pop 2 and the financial lose to the pop 1 owner.
I have had a 25 year vintage card that was pop 1 for a long time become pop 2 recently. Now imagine if Nat Turner had a low pop or even a pop 1 vintage. I am sure PSA is watching out for the owner over a simpleton noob collector like me.
So much sketchy things happen. We can go into emotional management at CGC and the revenge grading if you all want. I have solid proof on that also.
Grade 1000âs if not 10,000âs of cards and things become both clearer and even more unclear as strange as that sounds . This is the strange world of TPG.
Please watch the above videos everyone. Many collectors put hard work to uncover the dishonest players in this hobby.
For example, I really donât think that the price of a card like Neo Genesis PSA 10 Typhlosion #17 would be negatively affected if it doubled (4 to 8). If the card is truly rare and valuable, slight changes to the pop report wonât matter. Realistically, that small change wouldnât be enough to satisfy the marketâs desire for it.
The pop control argument falls apart IMO the moment you start to zoom out of the most valuable cards in a hobby. PSA doesnât care if a pop 1 vintage set holo 10xâs overnight.
The truth is, alot of these videos are made by people who are epically butt hurt. Salty that a card they pregraded incorrectly or had blinders on when it came to surface wear they hoped PSA wouldnt notice recieved a 9.
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But youâre not arguing about pop control on those cards. Youâre saying that your PSA 9 Japanese Base Set Blastoise is being pop controlled. Itâs not pop 1 or pop 2. There are 528 PSA 10s. Doing some quick research, it looks like at minimum 88 10s have been added to the pop report over the last year. If youâre referring to the Squirtle deck Blastoise, there are 110 PSA 10 copies with at minimum 25 new 10s added over the last year.
Do you believe that PSA is aware that you are looking to grade this card in a 10, and are being unnecessarily harsh only on your copies of this card?
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I think, generally, the pokemon community overestimates the amount of care and attention the graders give these cards.
The minimum wage employee on his 1500th card of the day does not care what card they are grading. Hell, they probably donât even register how rare, how unique or how expensive the card is in their brain. They pick it up, scan the barcode that comes with it, quick glance at the centering, whitening, look for dents etc, then slap a number on it and move it on. These guys see thousands of cards a day, anything that would make their head turn would be sent in at a higher tier (where yes, they probably do get more attention.)
How would pop control even work at a company the size of PSA? Do you think when the grader scans the card a little pop up appears on their laptop saying âDont give it a 10â? Or they get a company wide email that tells them too many 1st ed zards have gotten 10s this quarter so we need to just dial it back a bit? Neither of these make sense.
tl;dr - we think psa graders care about what they are grading way more than they actually do. They dont give a damn if your card is a japanese base blastoise or a 001/sv-p
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Pop control is pop control, it can be a $100 card, it can be a $1,000,000 card. Someone mentioned maybe more time and scrutiny maybe why cards , in my case the blastoise, but it is what it is.
Watch the videos above. If you honestly think pop control does not exist. Not a problem at all. I collect vintage sets, i have more subs that are really strange, like subbing the whole set and only the most expensive card in that set is not a psa 10. Really strange.
Many times when subbing vintage cards i collect, i try to sub from the same set or complete sets . I have done up to 3 complete sets in a submission. The submissions are very controlled samples as 99% of the cards are personal collection that have been stored since new 25+ years , stored the same way by the same person . Not going around buying singles from various collectors.
Nothing will change your mind or mine. I just go by what has happened to me . FOR ME THE STATISTICS DONT LIE with not only PSA, but other companies also.
PS: i do not disclose my rare or more valuable cards publicly cause i monitor those sets closely for sales. When the market is set i sell if the price is right.
Many seem to focus on the blastoise pics, that is just a recent bulk sub.
I know the people in this thread only collect million dollar âbangersâ. But i collect certain vintage not as valuable sets but in quantity.
Non bulk sub recently .
Great, I also agree we should use data to back up our points. So how do you explain the large number of new 10s added to Blastoise cards that are being âpop controlled?â Clearly PSA isnât âpop controllingâ 10s writ large on these cards, or else weâd see no new 10s.
So they must know that you specifically want a 10 of that card, and whenever you send one in, they make sure you get a 9.
It what it is. Get your mind off the blastiose. I do other more valuable sets that show some type of pop control.
continue with your non pop control thinking. I will adjust my subs accordingly to try and avoid any GOD, POP control and strange events when grading. We, my family, do grade a lot. So for us we see some data on certain sets that would be interesting.
Have fun, pokemon is great for the family.
I have no idea what i am doing, i am a noob in grading.
Look at this BGS bulk return . Mostly Gems but
NO BLACK LABELS for vintage pokemon. what a ripoff.
LOL
I think if youâre arguing that no black labels out of a 39-card vintage sub is pop control, youâre beyond help at this point.
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