Over the past year I’ve been getting into the back into the hobby and have manged to turn a few hundred bucks into a few thousand. I’m planning on continuing that growth by putting what I’ve earned right back into it. I’m planning on moving forward with my first PSA submission but I’m having a really hard time deciding what to submit. I have never sent cards in to be graded, nor do I own many, so I don’t feel like I have a good eye for grades yet. Because of this I was planning on avoiding submitting any holo’s, and sticking to some of my 1st edition shadowless, 1st edition jungle, and 1st edition fossil commons and uncommons. I’ve picked up a few collections from people who broke booster boxes, so most of the uncommons/commons are fresh out of the pack. On the other hand I really haven’t managed to acquire many holo’s of any set that I feel super competent in their grade.
Any advice of any kind would be greatly appreciated! I’m mostly just looking for the safest chance at a moderate profit, not necessarily looking to hit it big.
Gather together your strongest condition cards (the guaranteed 9s, likely 10s) and look up the PSA 9/10 prices. Submit the ones that have the largest premium in PSA 10 over ungraded. It’s pretty simple; don’t overthink it.
I would grade holos and 1st ed base first and any starters. The others can wait. No one can tell you what to look for when you grade. Pregrading is speculative and can hover over certain grades. You will never get better at pregrading unless you dip you toes in.
Okay thanks! I’ll just take some time and really go through everything and try not to over think things. The only issue with that again is that I really have no idea what a guaranteed nine would even look like, let alone a 10. Thank you again!
Thanks! That’s sort of the mentality I was trying to have with all of this. I guess ill try and pick out some of my best holos and send them in, just so I can learn from it.
If it has any flaws that are immediately apparent, then it’s probably not a 9 or 10. A 10 has to have decent (but not perfect) centering and should appear flawless, even under close inspection. A 9 might have a rough cut edge or poor centering or print lines (which aren’t just on holos). But it should still look like a pack fresh card. Basically, a good rule of thumb: if you’re not confident the card will get a 10, it won’t lol. For cheap stuff like 1st Edition Fossil bulk and the like, stick to cards that you’re very confident will get 10s. For what it’s worth, I opened 4 1st Edition Fossil packs over the past month and have like 5 non-holos in total that I’m 100% sure will get PSA 10. I submitted those and put the rest in my bulk bin. So basically just be conservative, and make sure to view cards under a direct light, which can expose subtle surface flaws.
My advice for psa grading right now, have some patience. You probably won’t see your cards for a very long time, but it is probably worth it money wise.