I want to finish a Japanese jungle holo set in PSA 10 and thinking about buying boosters/booster box to open and grade the cards myself.
If I look at the POP report most holo cards are around the 50% mark in grading a 10. Would that be the chance of getting a 10 for a pack fresh card? Or maybe a little higher considering people send in non-pack fresh cards?
Never opened a lot of boosters myself, this seems like so much fun to do since all the boosters contain a holo 
!
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Early JP sets have issues with centering 50% gem is probably a good bet
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I bought a heap of Japanese old packs purely to try to get psa 10 or even bgs 10. Out of the 8 I got 7 were off centre. It’s hit and miss imo
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Most, if not everybody here, grade their 10 quality cards.
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Would the centering be somewhat the same for each booster box? So if you get a few off center cards the rest most likely be the same?
It’s a possibility like English boxes but could be random
Yolo, as the popular saying goes! Buy the box! You probably have a better chance doing pack fresh cards then buying and hoping from internet sellers. Unless you wanna scour listings stating cards are pack fresh and hope they are good pictures! Good luck and I hope my 2 cents helps!
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In this instance yolo might be applicable. Already have a box and would like to keep a sealed one though.
Lose packs seems to be a cheaper option as they are for sale at $15 frequently and I can’t find that many boxes in that range ($15x60=$900)…
I would buy the box for nostalgia and fun reasons, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to crack it open for the hope it’ll hit PSA 10s. I know Scott meant this for the base/old WOTC set, but he typically recommends you to just hunt for cards in PSA 10 vs cracking packs and hoping to get a 10. Imagine how disappointed you’ll be if you crack open packs and either not get the cards you want, the cards being not PSA 10 worthy, or PSA deciding not to give it a 10 to a PSA 10 looking card 
Lots of possibilities to make you disappointed!
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i prefer buying the psa 10 copy instead of opening packs as well, there is too much uncertainty when u send in a card for grading, i’ve sent some mint condition JP jungle fossil and base cards before, surprisingly less than half of them came back as 10s, mostly 9s, so i’d recommend buying the psa 10 cards u need
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If you can afford the box, and want to open the box, do it! Not all about money making…
I’ll probably just buy a few packs to crack for fun and see how that goes 
.
Thought it would be a lot easier to get 10’s, appreciate all the input!
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Most of the pack fresh japanese cards i sent for grading were 10’s.
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Me too. I sent a 180 card order and got 150 10s. All deserved 10s though. I did go through a couple thousand of them to get those 180 cards, LeonHart filmed that opening so you can watch it here:
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I understand the chase but at the very most PSA 10 Japanese Jungle holos cost $40.
You’re better off just buying the cards graded. It’s not even the risk factor, it’s cheaper than opening the packs and grading the cards.
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Everyone always underestimates how hard old back cards are to grade being as we are spoiled with new backs being fairly easy, especially for newer sets.
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I have to say it feels like lately PSA has been harsher on grading Japanese vintage cards when getting a 10 seemed a littler easier in the past. The slightest imperfections seems to get 9’s these days while a lot of my english 10’s aren’t nearly as clean. Seems to be a different scale entirely grading English vs Japanese.
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I’ve decided to open some packs and give it a go, seems like the most fun option .
Financially probably not the best option but I was able to find some nice packs at $16 so I’ll give it a go!
I’ll let you all know how it went…
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Update on the proces!
Opening the packs was such a blast. Great looking boosters and a holo in each pack is so rewarding!
I almost got a full set from the 30 boosters, just missing 2 rares and 2 uncommons (seaking and dodrio 
).
Cards are at PSA now through Ludkins.
Of the 30 holo’s I pulled 21 got a 9-10 as a pregrade, I also send in 10 Pikachu’s .
The other nine had minor flaws such as off-center or light surface wear.
It was quite humid in the room I had the cards so most holo’s were slightly curved when sending them in.
I’ll update this when the final grades come in!
Beware, PSA has been tough as nails as of late. Getting tens is not going well. I submitted a 73 card submission in august with about 65 being pack fresh holos/reverse holos. I got 6 tens from the entire submission. It sucked haha.
I wish you luck!
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