1953 Topps Mantle PSA Guess The Grade

[Dandor]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

Most important point- GREAT card!

Dandor 1- PSA is "consistent"? I hope you were being sarcastic, wow...

Trent King

PSA in my experience has been very consistent. Out of 300 plus cards I have sent, there has been only a few that were not very close to my guess. Two of them were completely my fault as I missed something like a surface crease.

However, I just entered back into the hobby in late 2019. There are obvious differences from newer and older labels, PSA definitely has changed standards over the years.

I will say over this past year, PSA has been a tad easier with my submissions. I have graded a ton of Mattingly's and McHale rookie cards that were very similar. Most came from vending cases. In 2020 the Mattingly's that I thought were slightly better and graded first, came all back as PSA 8's. The cards graded in 2021 that I thought weren't as good and put in future submissions came back as PSA 8's and I got a few 9's. Same thing with my McHales. In 2020 they were all 7's and 8's and 2021 they were 8's and I got a 9. From my experience I have seen a slightly looser grading standard recently and have gotten back many more junk wax PSA 10's then I did over a year ago.

While PSA has gotten easier IMO, SGC has been getting a tad tougher in my experience. Some of the most recent cards I have gotten back would grade 1 or 2 grades higher at PSA. If you want value for vintage, look at SGC 5 and SGC 6 grades. There are some amazing examples in those grades at the moment.