I’m just curious because I contacted the owner of this zard and he said it was a pack fresh pull that he just graded, so I’m assuming the card has all its original gloss still. I can PM the ebay link if anyone wants it(if that’s allowed) but yeah this looks like the freshest 9 I’ve ever seen. The back/front centering is slightly off but they both should still be within the 75/25 and 60/40 parameters. Assuming the card actually looks this clean in person with no hidden big holo scratches(owner said there were none, doesn’t understand how this wasn’t a 10), PSA might as well create their own black label if this isn’t gonna get a normal gem mint 10 so that cards of this quality can go back to being 10s and absolutely perfect cards can get the black label
There could be damage you can’t see from those photos like holo scratching, back whitening, edge silvering or surface imperfections. I agree though it appears to be a strong 9 from what we can see.
The centering does look within 10 guidelines. Obviously there are many 10’s with that or worse centering. I would argue though that you really don’t know what the card looks like. These pics are cloudy and against a white back ground. Im sure crystal clears pictures on a black background would tell a different story. But let’s say. The back is “perfect”, and the centering is within guidelines. What normally holds a card back with PSA? Surface. Surface every time. Base set cards are notorious for coming straight out of pack with print lines/ holo defects. There would be some sort of issue with this card. Although PSA seems to have upped its standards, if this card was perfect aside from centering. I don’t see PSA holding it back, and if they really did, then maybe it needs a review. But. I doubt there are no flaws.
I feel like even if this Charizard had a minor scratch, it’s not even visible while looking at it directly(again this is based off the pics, you are right that I need to see it in person to actually verify its holo.) Whereas that Chansey had multiple scratches/deep scratch on a white holo background and got a 10 because the rest of the card was so clean. Point is, even if this charizard has a tiny hidden scratch, the card looks so clean that I’m a little amazed that it didn’t get a 10
I’m just concerned because I have a few old cards I want to submit(jungle 1st clefable, base 1st blastoise, etc.) that I think are in gem mint condition without holo scratches/back wear, but if this card can’t even pull a 10 then I’m scared for mine
That’s what I’m thinking now too. If I had any ounce of belief that it should be a 10, I’d resubmit/have it reviewed at least once or two more times lol
Yeah a white background definitely makes it hard to highlight the flaws.
But, assuming the rest of the card is perfect(no holo scratch, no hidden edge whitening, etc) that one white mark should not stop it from being a 10. I’m sure you’ve all seen many different psa 10 1st edition charizards and they all have similar if not worse backs
heck, even this one that got regraded recently : www.elitefourum.com/t/psa-10-1st-edition-charizard-recased/25758/1 with a worse left corner mark got a 10. Again though we don’t know the whole situation about this card because it’s just a set of like 5 pictures against a white background lol. My whole opinion is just that if that was the only error, it should still be a 10
That’s the only thing I can see too. Hard to point out in some of the other pictures but once your looking for it you can almost see it on the others too.
First of all, the idea that you’d ever be able to see all the potential flaws in a card from any set of photos that is posted by the person trying to sell the card is laughable.
Second of all, there is very clearly a good amount of whitening on the top of the back-border of the card. This seller, like many others, uses a white background to hide the whitening from the untrained eye.
And yes, there does appear to be some staining on the back in the top-right corner of the card as well.
The flaws mentioned, along with the not-so-great centering, are certainly enough to push the card out of 10 status. That’s not to say there aren’t other flaws that aren’t evident from the selected photos, though.
I could hide a semi-truck in that kind of lighting with that kind of background and that kind of resolution.
I didn’t read other posts but this took all of ten seconds to find:
