Ok what do you think? This can't be a PSA 2!

[btkpath]

AJ,

I wouldn't want you to suffer through life with such a low grade card in your collection. Let me do you a service and take it off your hands !

Beautiful card and great acquisition!

[MattyC]

PSA seems to be grading much stricter than their stated grade definitions this year (and it appears going forward). The prevailing vibe I get, and this is just based on my own experience and that of a handful of buddies who submit and review quite often, is that they are getting stricter and stricter. Going by those definitions on their site, I've encountered many cards with harsh grades this year. Just an observation that might help manage expectations and thus potentially avoid disappointment. I do think the stricter grading is resulting in many great cards in lower-grade holders for collectors to obtain, and such value for the technical grade is a good thing. That card is outstanding for the grade and hits the eye like a much higher technical grade card. Must have been a fantastic feeling to get that baby for anything near the going rate for 2s. Congrats on an awesome piece.

[RGold]

Originally Posted by MattyC

PSA seems to be grading much stricter than their stated grade definitions this year (and it appears going forward). The prevailing vibe I get, and this is just based on my own experience and that of a handful of buddies who submit and review quite often, is that they are getting stricter and stricter. Going by those definitions on their site, I've encountered many cards with harsh grades this year. Just an observation that might help manage expectations and thus potentially avoid disappointment. That card is outstanding for the grade and hits the eye like a much higher technical grade card. Must have been a fantastic feeling to get that baby for anything near the going rate for 2s. Congrats on an awesome piece.

If you submit for review, for example, a PSA 4.5 and it doesn't bump, how does that translate into PSA must be getting stricter? Seems to me that they are grading the same. Especially considering, that they may have already bumped the card a half grade already.

[MattyC]

I do get the insinuation/assumption, but I am basing my observation on the strictness of their grading on a couple of friends. Two of whom routinely sub hundreds of raw cards a month, and the other two have reviewed about fifty very high-end pieces this year. I have held a couple of those reviews in hand, and even an ex grader with a conservative eye whom we all speak to said past grading regimes would likely have bumped the strongest of those review candidates, hence the vibe that things are tighter as of late. When it comes to my own cards, I am not much of a reviewer, actually, since I don't do much Registry stuff for GPA and don't sell much unless going after a big piece; I am a big fan of the card over holder philosophy (as evinced by all my lower-grade stuff

[RGold]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I do get the insinuation, but I am basing my observation on the strictness of their grading on a couple of friends. Two of whom routinely sub hundreds of raw cards a month, and the other two have reviewed about fifty very high-end pieces this year. I have held a couple of those reviews in hand, and even an ex grader with a conservative eye whom we all speak to said past grading regimes would likely have bumped the strongest of those review candidates.

Not insinuating anything other than your logic seems faulty. Most everyone that submits cards for review believes the cards deserve a bump. If they do not bump that indicates to me PSA is grading the same.

I know three friends who submit to PSA hundreds of cards a month. They seem to think the grading standards are about the same. So I guess our anecdotal evidence is a tie.

To come to your conclusion, PSA would have to start downgrading many cards which we know they won't do.

[Peter_Spaeth]

The failure of a card to bump means only that they aren't grading easier. It could be consistent with grading the same or grading tougher.

[glynparson]

They are grading very strict on 8-10. Below that I feel they are fairly accurate on the 1-5 grades. It's the 6-7 that have a lot if gorgeous cards that one time would have been lock 8s.