PSA 10's

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by rdwyer

For me PSA has been real rough on my last submissions.

Agreed, a few crack outs that looked good for the grade, came back a full grade lower.

[Johnny630]

Grades have nothing to do with the card but everything to do with whom submits the card. Bottom line

[glynparson]

never
Mind you aren’t worth the time to fight with.

[forceplay sport]

my 2 cents - if you spend thousands with PSA they will throw you a few bones, otherwise , good luck !!

[japhi]

Originally Posted by forceplay sport

my 2 cents - if you spend thousands with PSA they will throw you a few bones, otherwise , good luck !!

Agree with this. The way to play the PSA game is to go big.The system is very clearly two tiered.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I debated hopping into this discussion. I am far from a big fish, and to my regret My auction switched from SGC to PSA right before the scandal hit. Been debating switching back. But I am FAR from a heavy hitter. If I grade 1000 cards a year I'd be surprised. I grade every card myself before it is sent in. I average less than half a grade off over all. there are a couple swings in there, but they work both ways. I had an Alcindor rookie I graded 4.5 and it got a 6, I just had a 1956 FB checklist I graded a 6 and it got a 3 (actually still trying to figure that one out, been over the card with a loupe several times)

Anyway my point is there are PLENTY of things to be concerned with as regards PSA, and I am not a fan of the heavy hitters getting in person reviews thus making a sham of the anonymity that they at least imply the process has, but I don't think they're punishing small fry submitters with bad grades. Some people posit that they do it to encourage resubmissions, but those resubmissions would have to offset the defection of people who get sick of undergrades to other companies. Maybe I have the metrics of that equation wrong but I'd have to be damn sure of my plan if it included pissing off a large quantity of submitters.

[milkit1]

Has anyone on here ever submitted a pre war card to PSA and got back a 10? Would love to hear about that.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I don't think they're punishing small fry submitters with bad grades. Some people posit that they do it to encourage resubmissions, but those resubmissions would have to offset the defection of people who get sick of undergrades to other companies. Maybe I have the metrics of that equation wrong but I'd have to be damn sure of my plan if it included pissing off a large quantity of submitters.

I think this is true but also not quite on point.

I doubt that PSA ever deliberately punishes small fry. Like you say, they have no incentive to actively piss submitters off.

The real issue is whether they give gifts to big fish.

The biggest opportunity for them to give gifts to favored customers without pissing off less important ones lies entirely with the PSA 10 versus PSA 9 distinction for big value cards. The distinction between these two is so arbitrary that its almost impossible to dispute a call between them. Yet the difference can be worth thousands of dollars to someone who gets a 10 instead of a 9.

In order to maintain the value of that 10, they can't give away too many of them. So they've got a limited number of these gifts to give, and basically complete discretion in deciding when they are going to give them out. Its not hard to figure out how they'll dole them out based on the incentives they have.