getting cards ready for grading, help please.

Dgilbert

So I'm putting together a possible 5 card submission for psa grading. (If I ever get lucky with the submission lottery I might actually send them). This card I will be submitting for my own personal collection not to sell, just for my collection, so dollar value and "is it worth grading" are not a big issue it's worth it to me. I'm wondering what you folks think it will grade at. It is a 1990 hologram card from the marvel universe series, was a bonus insert card. I took some close up pics of each 1/4 of the card to really see the card up close as well as a pic of the hole card. If you care to comment with a "grade number" pleas give a reason for the grade and not just a number as I'm trying to learn and understand the grading process, standards, qualities etc...
Thanks. At the end I will show how I score the card, keep in mind I have no hands on experience with graded cards, only knowledge from reading about grading, pictures and consulting with experts such as yourself
here we go...

Above pic. The borders, north and south 50/50 I measured. East west sad to say are closer to 70/30. So that's a -1. Edges and corners seem good in the above pic.

Above pic. Closer look at the corner and edges there are 2 fibers attached to the right side upper border, is this a problem or am I getting to picky?

Above pic. I got no issues, that is a fiber resting on the card to the left of Spiderman's right ankle not attached to the card.

Above pic. Highlighted area has a scratch mostly visible in the print where the black letters are scratched. eeks -1?

Well that's it. There are some fibers along the edges in some of the pics as you might have seen. Are these an issue? I can easily remove them without damaging the card. Are the fibers there because the card has had very little handling and they haven't been knocked off. They seem to be attached to the edge of the card maybe pulled from adjoining cards in the cutting process? I see these fibers a lot on this set of cards.

So I score the card a PSA 8. due to the mentioned scratch and centering issue.
I have 4 more cards to look at to get my submission ready for PSA, when I win the submission event lottery. So I'm going to do this four more times, thanks.

Love to here back from some more experienced people. Especially with hologram experience.

jfkheat

At the current PSA prices, I wouldn't send it in. With the scratch and centering I would be surprised if it graded a 7.

burghman

I see 3 spots/smudges in the black below and to the right of the pumpkin in your first close-up. Also some white specs throughout the black that might just be dust. Are any of those on the card? Might be more deductions there. I’m far from a grading expert and won’t guess a number, but I know that baseball cards with huge black areas are graded very critically (1971 Topps is frequently cited for this challenge).

DotStore

With the centering, I think your highest grade would be an 8. And that’s not considering any other attributes of the card. Based on the images I think this card would grade between 7 and 8. But depends on the silver surface - sometimes there are light scratches or lines on that sensitive surface.

Considering you can currently buy already graded PSA 8’s of the 5 holograms between $50 and $100 each, it might be easier to just buy them graded.

Also, buying a graded 8 you can review it in hand to see what they allow in terms of surface scratches, and edge fibers, etc…

Since dollar value isn’t a priority for you, then perhaps consider sending to SGC for grading at $30 each. I personally think these holograms look better in the SGC slabs because of the contrast between the white borders of the cards and the SGC black frame inside the holder.

Dgilbert

@DotStore said:
With the centering, I think your highest grade would be an 8. And that’s not considering any other attributes of the card. Based on the images I think this card would grade between 7 and 8. But depends on the silver surface - sometimes there are light scratches or lines on that sensitive surface.

Yes the silver surface is very sensitive, I have 4 other holo cards from this series most of them have lines/scratches.

Thanks for the reply. I've been thinking on the whole grading process and what it will mean to me with my collection. I started with the intent of my cards being the best possible when being viewed without any magnification. Just to have a good looking "pack fresh" collection is all I need. After all I'm collecting for myself and can set my own standards. So I will likely not get this card graded after all. I was getting stuck in all the $$ value of graded cards and the thought of grading as an investment. (it can be profitable but only seems to be at the PSA grade 10 in this series of cards).

I do like to make an extra dollar or two here and there just like everyone else. So I am going to continue to learn about grading in hopes of being able to flip some cards for a profit. I will be looking at the high value cards in my collection such as # 30 cosmic Spiderman, picking the best #30 I have and then assessing its grade with the help of ppl here. We might just find something worthy of a PSA grade 9 or better. Todays market even a 9 isn't worth the cost of PSA grading but the future market just might make it profitable for some cards in this series.

82FootballWaxMemorys

@Dgilbert said:

@DotStore said:

Todays market even a 9 isn't worth the cost of PSA grading but the future market just might make it profitable for some cards in this series.

Plausible of course, but also plausible bubble has start to already or will soon burst. This was an over printed Junk-Wax era set. As Census POP's of these cards continues to jump and demand continues to ease I'd expect anything less than 10 to drop below grading cost threshold.

As for 10's I do not foresee most (but not quite all) of these 90 Impel's dropping back to pre-pandemic levels however I do see many who paid the highest prices for them being very disappointed. As with other's who have taken modern day losses on Junk Wax era cards, like many of those who did same almost 30 years ago, some will exit the hobby never to return.

Since on topic of Superhero's; Already seeing trend down with many graded Comic books of the Glut Era. Glut Era in comics had a concurrent time frame with Junk Wax cards. Most consider Glut from 1990-1994 and some say it began as early as 1989. The trick with the "junk" regardless of hobby like any market, is to sell high.

GoDodgersFan

The suggestion from an earlier post is spot on. Consider SGC as an option and they are well respected in the hobby and also at a lower price point. In addition, CSG is also a viable option at 20.00 for their economy. If you do get an allotment, you can just submit 1 or 2 cards and 5 is not a requirement. For my personal collection, my preference is PSA and I am fine paying a little more for it.

Dgilbert

@GoDodgersFan said:
The suggestion from an earlier post is spot on. Consider SGC as an option and they are well respected in the hobby and also at a lower price point. In addition, CSG is also a viable option at 20.00 for their economy. If you do get an allotment, you can just submit 1 or 2 cards and 5 is not a requirement. For my personal collection, my preference is PSA and I am fine paying a little more for it.

I will defiantly look into other grading company's to see if there is a decent profit in grading and flipping cards. PSA makes it easy to see the market place with there population reports and latest auction reports, prices realized. Very convenient reports and links on there site.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of comparison between grading company's,
eg an SGC grade 10, that same card would be a PSA grade of 8???

Dgilbert

thanks for all the responses, I further investigated the scratch I highlighted. Looks more like a print defect than a scratch. not sure if that makes any difference for grading but there is no surface damage to the card just some ink issue.

Dgilbert

@burghman said:
I see 3 spots/smudges in the black below and to the right of the pumpkin in your first close-up. Also some white specs throughout the black that might just be dust. Are any of those on the card? Might be more deductions there. I’m far from a grading expert and won’t guess a number, but I know that baseball cards with huge black areas are graded very critically (1971 Topps is frequently cited for this challenge).

I see the the 3 spots/smudges you are referring to in the pic. They are not there on the the card itself only in the pic, might be time for some house cleaning lol.