Lowering Expectations – Submitting Cards to PSA

[parkplace33]

I was talking to a vintage baseball card collector over the weekend. He has submitted cards to PSA to grade since the late 1990s. From that time up until 2018 or so, he was able to guess the grade of his submitted card to 1 grade above/below and was normally right on the number. All of his submitted cards were vintage, maybe half prewar and half postwar.

However, since 2019, more often his guesses were incorrect by 1 or more grades. Cards that used to be 7s are now 6s or 5s… or ever worse. In the group he submitted a few months ago, 60 percent came back at least 1 grade lower than anticipated.

For those that submit to PSA, are you seeing the same thing? Have you lowered grading expectations in the last few years?

Please no discussion of utilizing other grading companies, this is strictly a PSA submission expectation post.