Lowering Expectations – Submitting Cards to PSA

[donmuth]

They should take current 8's, 9's, and 10's and just call them all 10's and then re-distribute things below that like they should be. The so-called grading standards they are using are NOT consistent with what long time collectors know to be the standards.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by donmuth

They should take current 8's, 9's, and 10's and just call them all 10's and then re-distribute things below that like they should be. The so-called grading standards they are using are NOT consistent with what long time collectors know to be the standards.

I completely agree, but just like your algebra teacher, they grade on a bell curve. This ensures that the quantity of the higher grades decrease exponentially, which translates to exponentially higher prices and a generally higher demand for cards to be re-subbed at higher price levels. It just wouldn't make $$ sense for the graders to lump together all those cards that you and I can't tell apart without magnification and different light sources.

[Snowman]

PSA moved the goalposts from their initial standards by a full grade prior to the pandemic, around the mid 2010s. They have since moved the goalposts by another full grade. They're just ridiculous now. An absolute clown show in the grading room. It's really not difficult to grade vintage cards, and it's not difficult to maintain a consistent standard. Yet, here we are. Soon, PSA will have to introduce the 0 and -1 grades in order to make room for the new goalposts. I've been buying dead mint cards in PSA 6 & 7 holders and EXMT cards galore in PSA 4 slabs. I'm buying hoards of recently graded cards entirely because of it. Eventually, they're going to have to correct this. They're getting a lot of heat about it. Publicly, they keep trying to pretend like it isn't true, but at some point they're going to have to face reality. When they put the goalposts back where they belong, I'll resub my under graded hoard.

[Jim65]

I will never understand people who complain about these companies while boxing up their next submission.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Jim65

I will never understand people who complain about these companies while boxing up their next submission.

When 90% of the value of their collection is dependent on those magic plastic holders it is easy to understand.

I just wish PSA would hurry up and undergrade my card and send it back.

I was actually very happy with my last submission as I cracked out 3 newly graded SGC cards and all 3 received higher grades from PSA. Two of the 3 became PSAs highest graded examples.

[bxb]

Grading is subjective.

The goal posts will always be on wheels.