Am I the only one who thinks the difference between PSA 9's and 10's is crazy?

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Maybe people buy the 10s or 9s because they tend to go up more in value? Not everyone views buying high grade cards as throwing out money, especially if the cards have a higher return on their investment.

IMHO, the above statement is far too much of a generalization. It is much more likely in the long run that those cards which are significant and scarce to downright rare in any of the higher grades at all will go up substantially in value, while those "elite" level cards which are readily available in only slightly lesser grades are highly unlikely to even hold their present stratospheric values. Which card stands a better chance of being worth 10X or more what was paid for it in 10-20 years--my 1929 R316 Mel Ott rookie, one of just two graded PSA 7, with none higher, or the heavily dissed--oops, I mean discussed--1993 SP Derek Jeter in PSA 10? And that's not even taking into account the fact that Ott was clearly the far better player by virtually any objective measure which takes into account the player's worth compared to the average player of his time and different playing conditions in different eras.

As of this moment, PSA has graded 3,924 Jeter 7's; 280 Jeter 7.5's; 8,380 Jeter 8's: 281 Jeter 8.5's; 579 Jeter 9's; and 22 Jeter 10's. As another member posted, PSA tends to be very harsh on these cards, downgrading them quite a bit for the smallest of imperfections, which also means that there is not a whole lot of actual difference between an "8," or even a "7.5" and a "10." My bet is that over time, the PSA 10 Jeter will suffer the same fate as the very highest graded coins (grades 60-70 are all part of the "mint" spectrum in coin grading) which are desirable but readily available in just slightly lesser grades--after their initial surge, those "elite" level coins tended to fall the farthest and fastest.

Just as in coins, where there is very little substantive difference in the item being slabbed and graded, and the item is not at all hard to obtain in only slightly lesser numerical or technical grade, the proposition that the holder and the paper slip justify an immense difference in price in and of themselves simply won't last all that long. Instead, reality will hit hard--very hard!

Just sayin,

Larry