Modern cards short in PSA holder

[Peter_Spaeth]

I don't buy a lot of modern cards, but when I look for one, I notice that a large number of them if you look real closely sit either a tiny bit narrow or a tiny bit short in the PSA holder; and if you buy one of these cards, more likely than not it will "rattle" a little. As it's very hard to measure a card precisely in the slab, at least for me, I go back and forth between thinking the slabs just aren't perfectly uniform, and thinking (as has been suggested on Blowout) that a substantial number of modern cards are microtrimmed to maximize the chances of a 10. Surely the technology now exists to shave very tiny amounts. Any thoughts?

[raulus]

Just out of curiosity, is the trimming primarily to fix centering issues, or to sharpen up the corners?

It also seems like even modern factory cuts will have some modest variation in size, if for no other reason than the blades will have to vary in sharpness.

But for someone who is looking for trims, my guess is that you’ll probably find a lot of them, even when they’re just factory cuts that happen to have a small variation from the standard.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by raulus

Just out of curiosity, is the trimming primarily to fix centering issues, or to sharpen up the corners?

It also seems like even modern factory cuts will have some modest variation in size, if for no other reason than the blades will have to vary in sharpness.

But for someone who is looking for trims, my guess is that you’ll probably find a lot of them, even when they’re just factory cuts that happen to have a small variation from the standard.

I assume it's corners.

[G1911]

Open a few packs of 2024 Topps, put them in a stack, and look closely. One will see they are actually several different sizes and discernible by eye alone, and the stack won’t be uniform on close examination. Cards are still not actually all the same size, just a lot closer than the old days. Adding slab tolerances on top of card tolerances, I would not expect every card to sit perfectly. Surely some/much of it is microtrimming, which is pretty easy to do, but even in a perfect world without our fraudsters around they still would not all be sitting perfect.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by G1911

Open a few packs of 2024 Topps, put them in a stack, and look closely. One will see they are actually several different sizes and discernible by eye alone, and the stack won’t be uniform on close examination. Cards are still not actually all the same size, just a lot closer than the old days. Adding slab tolerances on top of card tolerances, I would not expect every card to sit perfectly. Surely some/much of it is microtrimming, which is pretty easy to do, but even in a perfect world without our fraudsters around they still would not all be sitting perfect.

Sure, but none are EVER oversized it seems, just short or narrow or both.

[jchcollins]

It may just be me, but for a very long time I have thought that most cards don't fit uniformly very much in PSA holders. This includes modern cards, junk wax cards, and vintage cards and can be seen IMO with both very new and very old PSA holders.

SGC is different, all cards there seem to fit much more snugly.

This is interesting to me in light of the fact that PSA is so perpetually bad with vintage and determining what is properly sized, what is minsize short, what is trimmed or altered short, etc. - and then how often they of course can change their minds over time on the exact same cards that are resubmitted.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Sure, but none are EVER oversized it seems, just short or narrow or both.

I wonder if this is more of a PSA thing. Do they size the inserts based on the larger standard sized cards, which is why you don’t see cards that are too big to fit in the holder.

Or alternatively, they might have a few different inserts and will always upsize a little rather than end up with the bumpers squeezing the sides.

[CardPadre]

Well, never say never. I had recently bought this 2010 MMA collection to break up and sent some cards to SGC (first ever “modern” submission). For thick cards it seems they have this holder that can’t be custom-sized like their standard black gasket.

Most cards made it into holders but 3 from the same subset were deemed too large to encapsulate. And these aren’t overly thick so it had to be height or width exceeding the holder size.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

Well, never say never. I had recently bought this 2010 MMA collection to break up and sent some cards to SGC (first ever “modern” submission). For thick cards it seems they have this holder that can’t be custom-sized like their standard black gasket.

Most cards made it into holders but 3 from the same subset were deemed too large to encapsulate. And these aren’t overly thick so it had to be height or width exceeding the holder size.

OMG That Fedor card is beyond amazing.

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by bnorth

OMG That Fedor card is beyond amazing.

Thanks, it’s up for eBay auction right now! Ends the 26th.