2001 Topps Reserve PSA Graded Auto Rookie Set

[swarmee]

Here's an oddball set I thought was interesting. In 2001, Topps and PSA coordinated to add boxloader cards that were rookies, PSA graded, and autographed on the custom PSA flip. They look like this:

2001 Topps Reserve - [Base] - Graded Autographed Rookie #103 - Albert Pujols /1500 [PSA*8*NM‑MT]
Courtesy of COMC.com

Despite being numbered to 1500, only 555 of each seemed to be graded by PSA and autographed. And the vast majority (~90%) of those graded PSA 8 straight off the production line:
https://www.psacard.com/pop/baseball...-reserve/50958
Many of the cards in the subset never got a PSA 10 or PSA 9 grade. All 555 cards were graded PSA 8. This was also pre-half grades, so 8.5s were out of the picture. The other 945 cards were presumably in packs.

The only cards to be pre-graded and autographed were the cards numbered 101-145, but there were six more cards at the end of the set, including Ichiro Suzuki. So while Albert Pujols had 555 auto flips in boxes, I guess there weren't any autos of Ichiro included.

Here's how BaseballCardPedia explains it:
http://baseballcardpedia.com/index.p..._Topps_Reserve

Did PSA really grade 90% of brand new cards as PSA 8s straight off the factory line, including many cards where all 555 were graded 8s? Was there ever a chase for these? What would happen if you send the card back to PSA to get a condition review and they said it's now a PSA 8.5 or 9 or 10? Would they have to get the player to autograph the new flip? ;-)