I was wondering if some people could help better explain how to go about getting my cards graded by PSA. I recently was going through my old stuff and found my complete binders of Base Set Unlimited, Jungle, Fossil, Team Rock 1st edition, Gym Heroes 1st edition, and Gym Challenge 1st edition. All the cards are In mint/ near mint condition and apparently I had put them all in card savers a few years back wanting to send them to PSA but didn’t have any money to do so. I have been looking at PSAs new pricing model and I could really use some help with determining what I should put for the declared value. I’ve been looking at prices online and for example the 1st edition Dark Charizard PAS 10 sells for almost $10,000 while a PSA 9 sells for much less. I’ve never even held a PSA 10 card so knowing what mine’s condition would be is pretty hard for me to tell. PSA says if once they get the cards if they think you under valued it they will have you pay the higher price or return it. So is it better to under value it at first then just pay what they think it is? I included some photos of the Dark Charizard to give you an idea of the condition of the cards. Thanks for any help that can be provided!
edit: oops forgot to say for now I’d probably only be grading a few cards so knowing what cards whould be the best to grade first would be a huge help!
More photos here: imgur.com/a/ERVLA9P
Also sorry for the bad photos couldn’t really get good lighting without a lot of glare on the card. I can also take a photo of any other card if tht might help.
@joe3651 the link doesn’t work. But never, I repeat, NEVER value your card being a 10. Let them do that. Since this card is valued in NM-Mint condition as being over 2k, you would have to submit it at a fast service level anyway. So you would not benefit from paying more with it only being a chance at a 10, no matter how mint it looks. The picture looks like it could be 9, but you would be the best judge. No 10 on that from what I am seeing. The left side has silvering/edge imperfection. Looks 8 or 9 territory. Back edges must be crisp and perfect or near perfect. The overall surface sheen on both sides must be glossy and nice to be a 9 or higher. So if Dark Charizard is around 2-3k, you would submit it for $75 (or whatever their current express is, haven’t checked in a month), which is only a 5-10 day turnaround. That is very fast. No benefit to overpaying even if someone is almost certain it should be a 10. That would be a waste of money, and hey, they might still not upcharge anyway, depending on the card. So to answer, that looks like an 8 or 9 based on the front. Submit more expensive cards 1st in one box, multiple possible orders, and learn from how they grade etc. Take clear good lighting photos beforehand so you can compare and learn about grading more.
@brendantheclayboy,Thank you so much for the info. That makes a lot of sense. I think I’ll probably end up submitting most of them as express and under than. And I guess worse comes to worse they tell me I need to pay for the higher one. Also got any tips for taking pictures of the cards? I have a really warm light in my room so the cards looked weird with that but using that white light lamp clearly blew out the image.
@joe3651 Glad to help. Well I am a filmmaker so I have the luxury of having really good equipment, so I’m inclined to things like, “diffuse the daylight color temp source light” or that nature. Most people don’t have those little LED panel things, which would be perfect. Use a daylight color temp (5000k+, it means blue light, not yellow incandescent), and try to put it farther from the card (you had it too close to the card) but direct if you can’t diffuse the light with something translucent and white, like a napkin or something. If you have any sort of DSLR camera that would be ideal. But most current phones could take good pics with that good lighting. Take multiple angles and really focus on the flaws you see with your eyes for reminders for when you get the grades back. Here are the kind of pics I took before my last sub so I could reflect on why I got the grades I did. It is about the visual memory aid for me. (I have way more, including angles of the back that are similar to angles of the front, but this is just to give you the idea, sorry to clog up the thread with this big post).
@brendantheclayboy,Ya my light was like less than a foot from the card lol. I’ll see If I can find a way to defuse the light with some sort of sheet and get the light further from the card.
Btw if you’re part of the Pokemon World group you can send your cards to Scott Emer psa prices for 45 days are $12 per card, no min or max number of cards to submit, takes the hassle of worrying about insurance and upcharges, he’s a great honest dude!
@brendantheclayboy ,I got some more questions if you could help, If I’m sending in my card for any level should I declare the card value to be the max declared value if I’m going off of PSA 8 prices but a PSA 9 is way more. Like if a PSA 8 has sold for $1500 and a PSA 9 has sold for $5000 and I’m doing express should I say the declared value is $2499 or $1500? Sorry if that’s confusing and I worded it bad.
Next do I want to select No Qualifiers? Most I have seen online or for sale don’t have qualifiers.
And last does PSA return your card savers/sleves?
If you feel like the card is a good PSA 8 candidate but possibly could get a 9, use the PSA 8 declared value level. If you feel the card is a solid candidate at a 9, and possibly could get a 10, submit it at the PSA 9 level. When in doubt, err on the lower service level.
Don’t worry about the qualifier option.
PSA will not return your sleeves/card savers/top loaders.
As for the upcharges – don’t worry about them too much at this point. There’s not much you can do about them, so just submit them at the level that makes sense for you financially and turnaround-wise. Definitely do not submit them at the bulk/value level. Financially speaking, you’d probably want to submit many of the lower-level holos at the $20 level (Economy) [although they’re not currently offering this service at the moment], and then several at the higher levels. For example, your Dark Charizard and Base Charizard would be perfectly fine as an Express level submission, and then some others like Base Blastoise, 1st ed Dark Blastoise, 1st ed Dark Dragonite, etc. etc. that might make sense to submit at the $50 (Regular) level depending on their condition.
If PSA, after they grade your cards, sniffs out the fact that your cards are worth a lot more than the level at which you submitted them, they’ll email you about the upcharge. In general, that means you got some 10s, and they want their pound of flesh. Given the recent prices, you’ll probably be more than happy to pay the extra fee.
PS, if you want to sell me your Blaine’s Charizard, hit me up
I make short narratives and have a feature to make in the next couple of years. Then for bills I work in all sorts of gigs from documentaries, to shows (usually garbage tv), to commercials and all that kind of stuff. Most of it is bull, but I’m doing it until my own work can get me paid like the gigs do. I was actually going to release my recent short film to national film circuit and kickstarter and various other networks before the pandemic hit. Now I am about to release it in a similar but slightly differently planned way. Mostly minus the festivals as they are all out right now.
@joe3651 It’s okay about wording. I will just unload (hopefully) useful info regarding your questions. First of all, don’t worry about what exactly to declare the max value as. When you pick a submission level, you are told what the max value can be. Example: $75 express is for cards up to $2499. Don’t concern yourself with saying $2000 or $1500 or $2492 etc. Hypernova’s first answering post is correct. If you are expecting an 8, value it as that. Value it roughly. You needn’t worry about how specific it is. Just a ballpark based on your ebay research is totally fine. Believe me, they do not nickel and dime. They will only upcharge you if you are off 1000’s of $$$. As in if you submitted express $75 ($2.5k value) for a 5k card–they would ask you to pay the remaining $125 to get to $200 super express. That sort of thing. And they also don’t just go off of ebay previous sales either. So do not stress about basing your value off of the recent sales. Just use those and other sales to find a ballpark average. If your card is within $500 (likely even more) value, they will leave you alone. So do not stress about that. Now, since there is only a $25 difference between express and regular, and your card is worth at least 1k, whether it be an 8 or 9, just do express, and declare the value at $2499. Just declare the value at the max of the level you are submitting at ($2499 for express, 999 for regular etc) because it does not really matter. It is all speculation on your part and theirs, and it only matters in case of loss or damage for insurance puroposes (before grading), which you also do not need to worry about. If it comes back lower than expected, it’s fine. If it comes back as a 10, they will upcharge, and like Hypernova also said, you’d surely be happy with that news. But grade your card with your eyes harshly. The front looks like 8 or 9. The back has to look at least as good as that to qualify as 9. It looks like 8 or 9. If there is a SINGLE indent or bend (No matter how faint or slight) it will be PSA 6, which is extremely lower in value. Keep all these things in mind.
Do not select qualifiers. Just simply do a standard grading service (No autograph authentication grading). Qualifiers are for EXPECTED defects such as staining, ridiculously off center cards for otherwise mint cards, print defects, etc. Do not worry about this with any of your submissions unless they are crazy/unusual printings of a card. And you would know right away if they were weird like that.
Ask PSA to return your card savers in your submission form that you submit with them in the comments section, which you can edit on the page where you are typing out your card names for each sub service during the first few steps. (Ask nicely). There’s a chance they will, but they most likely won’t.
And lastly remember you can submit as many different service levels as you want in one box. You can submit your express Charizard with a few regular orders in the same box, as long as they are separately stacked in the same box, with both sets of order forms. Follow the same principles outlined above for cheaper cards lower than the express level.
Hope this helps you as much as possible mate!
@brendantheclayboy, @hypernova, Thank you guys so much for the info it really helps a lot! I already got a big spreadsheet going with all the card sell prices at PSA 10-7 (from pokemonprice.com) to see “expected” values. Sadly I am a college student so I don’t have much money to grade cards with but I think I will at least try to do some of the best cards I got, especially since I can’t even do bulk with economy right now. Also wish they had platinum level for the PSA collectors club, those vouchers would be nice.
This is my field as well! Hit me up if you ever want to share any of your work, especially the narrative! I had to cut down my pokemon spending this covid-yr to buy another RED rig.
@joe3651 glad to help mate. Keep an eye on PSA–I think they will bring back their missing services soon once they reduce their neverending backlog. Maybe with updated prices and all.
