PSA graded cards question

[glchen]

With PSA, I believe the serial numbers actually do correlate with the timing of the submission. The smaller the number, the earlier the submission.

Ironically, just today in the PSA forum, a poster has a thread on the history of PSA flips: Linky

[cozmokramer]

Originally Posted by glchen

With PSA, I believe the serial numbers actually do correlate with the timing of the submission. The smaller the number, the earlier the submission.

Ironically, just today in the PSA forum, a poster has a thread on the history of PSA flips: Linky

Yes and no... PSA certification numbers do go in order... however when a flip is returned as a card that was crossed over, that certification number gets reused... thus an original early certification number can now be used for a card that was graded just last week for example.

[bunst]

Sorry if my question was confusing. Yes I was under the impression that serial numbers were sequential; the lower the number, the earlier it was graded. But didn't think about the crossover situation. I ask because I've heard to stay away from low serial numbers because the grading wasn't always true.

[WhenItWasAHobby]

My observation is that the serial numbers up until about 4 years ago were rather random, but all started with the number "0". I recall in a discussion with a former PSA grader that the 08xxxxxx slabs were graded at shows and in his opinion those tended to be overgraded since they were mainly for the "big" dealers.

Then of late, the past three or four years, they have shown a pattern of being in some type of numerical order i.e. 157xxxxx to the current 189xxxxx. This closely coincides when PSA went to the 1/2 grade scale.

Another observation is that the early graded cards, (the ones with the font that has a diagonal through the zero) had a reputation of being overgraded. As a result, many of those cards would get reholdered to have a newer looking flip without changing the grade.

Overall, I don't think there's any question that the PSA grading standards, in terms of assigned grades, are tougher now than they were 20 years ago. However, in my opinion, advanced card doctoring wasn't that pervasive as it is today, so there's probably a better chance of getting a doctored card in a slab today than one would get twenty years ago.