new guy here. I yesterday finally received my PSA 9 Unlimited Zard. Why it is so freaking awesome and important to me? I never had the luck to pull the 1999 Zard back in the days. My friends did, twice, but yeah I just pulled Blastoise (no offense)… Some weeks ago I finally started to collect (while still looking for the opportunity to pick up my old collection from my hometown) and wanted to buy this specific artwork after I never had the luck to pull it directly.
While I was excited to finally hold it in my hands, I quickly realized that I did not saw some whatever it is on the case or at worst on the card. Of course it is no perfect card but I am really wondering about these “dots”, especially the left one I will show you now. For me and that is my obviously inner hope, its the case as under some light those marks are invisible but I would like to ask the experts.
At the end, the card remains beautiful and it is still a PSA 9 but there is something about it which drives me crazy. A reholder is no option (currently) as I live in Germany and I am really not interested on loosing the card on its way.
*Edit* Would suggest to use the direct link as you are probably not able to detect anything on the small versions…
Are you referring to the tiny dot near the tongue (to the left)? To me, it looks like a small impurity in the plastic from the pics … the card under looks very nice to me. If it was an indent in the holo itself, I do not think this would have received a 9 …
Thanks for checking the images. Yes exactly, at the beginning of the flame near the tongue. Don’t know if you checked the full size images on imgur directly. Much easier to spot the dots there. Especially on the first and second picture.
Same with the right “dot” next to the wing, very central at the edge of the holo. It’s much smaller, but I can’t really tell if it’s the plastic.
I had the same thought regarding the rating. At least with the left dot, it would certainly never have been graded a 9 but it is really relieving when your first thought is confirmed.
A trick I learnt to check for marks on a PSA case is to hold a phone flash light to the side of the case at the same height as the front surface casing (hard to explain, you can see what I mean in image below). This kinda illuminates the imperfections and makes it much easier to tell that if it’s on the case. I recently got bought this Lugia card thinking the card had bad scratching (due to the seller assuring me the case had no imperfections for some reason) and luckily it turned out to be on the case:
Most (if not all) PSA cards are able to move within the case. Some will already move when you simply turn the case around, for others you might have to give it a bit of a “tap”.
In cases like this where I wanted to determine if something was on the case/card, that’s exactly what I did. I made sure the card moved, and kept track of the spot I found, and whether it moved with the card or not.
PSA cases sometimes have these tiny white squares, those are generally on the plastic. Though, the things on your card/case look different, so I don’t think that’s what they are.
Even if those spots are on the card, I don’t see why that would mean the card would be undeserving of the 9 grade? But I guess grading is subjective in the end. It might bother you a lot, and in your opinion it wouldn’t be a 9. But in PSA’s opinion it is.
Yes exactly, at the beginning of the flame near the tongue. Don’t know if you checked the full size images on imgur directly. Much easier to spot the dots there. Especially on the first and second picture.
