Registry Qualifiers

Mantlefan

The Registry penalizes 2 points for a qualifier....for example making a "9oc" the same as a "7". Seems harsh to me. I have some beautiful "9"'s off center which I've replaced with some ugly "8''s, just to improve my set rating. Any sentiment out there to try and change this?

koby

The card will still be the same but if you want a higher grade for the registry, you should submit your 9oc cards to PSA and ask for no qualifiers and an 8 minimum.

theBobs

Frank, some folks (Marc I think at least) will keep an 8 on the registry, but a 9Q or even a 7NQ also. The 8 is for registry points, the 9Q or 7NQ would be for the personal display, eye appeal.

Kinda sucks, but it balances the card and the registry desires...

sixdart

A PSA 9 o/c qualifier translates into PSA 8. I never understood the two grade reduction for the PSA Registry Set.

Mantlefan

A PSA 9 o/c qualifier translates into PSA 8. I never understood the two grade reduction for the PSA Registry Set.

Precisely my point!

Dhjacks

I think it's a fair representation of the market. I've been finding a PSA 9 (o/c) to sell at about a PSA 7 price.

mikeschmidt

I love my 1955 Bowman PSA 9 o/c cards -- no annoying border chips, deep dark brown borders. Beautiful cards and much preferable over an 8 many times.

The two-point penalization is probably fair overall. For example, if you have a card that is PSA 9 o/c and centered 95/5 both ways -- that is just a darn ugly card. But if it is 50/50 across the larger border and 70/30 along the smaller border -- it's a very nice card overall. Also -- comparing centering in general from a 1952 Topps card to a 1954 Wilson Weiners card makes absolutely no sense. The 1952 Topps have large, generous white borders where the 1954 Wilson Franks have about the width of a human hair on any give side.

Overall it is a fair process, I think. At the end of the day, you should be happy with your collection the way *you* collect it. The Registry should not be about ego -- it should be about showcasing your quest and accomplishment. From a resale perspective, it often makes good financial sense to have a straight PSA 8 instead of a PSA 9 o/c. But there are a number of us that enjoy the o/c's.

MS

JasP24

A few years back I had spoken to a PSA rep at a card show concerning what decides if a card gets a qualifier or not. I was told that if the card looks like a 9 in every aspect but centering. And the centering equates to a PSA 8, the card would be graded an 8. They only use qualifiers if the card does NOT meet the qualifications for the grade directly under it. For example, the card that looks like a 9 in every aspect except centering. The centering equates to a PSA 6 or 7, then the card gets a 9 OC. Thus the 2 grade deduction.

Anyone else hear the same thing?
JasP24

mikeschmidt

JasP24:

I have not heard that. I know that I have at least a few PSA 9 o/c cards that definitely meet the qualifications for a straight PSA 8. Not all of the 9 o/c's I own, but definitely some.

MS


In fact -- on a recent invoice I received back two days ago, I had three 1986 Fleer Star Sticker Mike Schmidt cards to submit. All three were slightly off-center from the top to bottom. Two of the cards received a straight PSA 9. The third card received a PSA 9 o/c. The first two are both in the 60/40 to 65/35 range. The third example is between 65/35 and 70/30. I am confident that they would give it an 8 if I had put "No Qualifiers" on the submission.

1420sports

Would you rather have a 1952 Topps Mantle PSA 9 oc or as a PSA 8?

srs1a

1420Sports,

I don't think you can answer this question. In the case that MS talks about -- a 9OC can actually be a better card than a straight 8 (meets centering of an 8 with all the other attributes of a 9)...but it can also be a much worse card (for instance 90/10 in both directions). SI, I'd take the 9OC if it is like the first case, and a straight 8 otherwise.

Scott

mikeschmidt

Neal:

The ranges within each grade make your question impossible to answer. The one extreme would be this:

Would you rather have:

A) 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle -- MINT corners, 50/50 from left to right, and 66/34 centering from Top to Bottom. Grade PSA 9 MINT O/C

1952 Topps Mickey Mantle -- "A very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection and slightly off-white borders" Plus, centering is 69/31 both ways. Grade PSA 8 NM/MT.

Easy choice, in the above example.


Now -- it has consistently been noted that there are significant price differentials within a PSA 8 grade for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. I believe that it is fair to estimate that the price can increase nearly 50% from a low-end PSA 8 (described in choice B above) to a perfectly-centered PSA 8 with great eye appeal.

Remember -- it is the card, not the holder that is most important. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Finally, there are a large number of straight PSA 9's out there that are approximately 65/35 on the front. Yes, there must be a cut-off, but to say that a PSA 9 with 65/35 centering is the equivalent of two grades better than a very similar example with 68/32 centering seems disingenuous, at best.

brucemo

Sometimes you will find OC cards that meet the requirements for the next lower grade. I called PSA a couple of years ago and asked them about OC. They told me to send a few of my better-centered OC cards back to them, and I converted four or five 8(OC)'s into 7's.

This is *not* the common case. Most of them will not convert -- PSA will not drop them a grade and take off the qualifier.

It seems obvious that qualifiers were supposed to allow someone to figure out what was wrong with a "distressed" card sight-unseen. An 8(OC) has NM/MT corners, but is too far off-center for an 8. This seems like a useful and logical distinction. The problem is that they do not tell you how far OC the card is. If the card is 70/30, that's a 7, no problem, but if the card is 90/10, that is a 5.

PSA wanted to let us know exactly what is wrong with the card, and they gave us all of the information that we need EXCEPT FOR THE FINAL GRADE. You don't know if it is a 5 or a 7, so you have no idea how much to pay, unless you look at the thing and grade it yourself. This is contrary to the point of professional grading.

The market seems to want to call an 8(OC) a weak 7. This is too generous in many cases, but that is life. But PSA must know this by now, and if they see a card that is a little too far OC for straight 8, but which meets the standard for a 7, they should give it a 7. In the beginning, when nobody knew were a 9(OC) might price, they may have preferred to give a card a 9(OC) rather than an 8. This is not the case now. Anyone who knows what they are doing would obviously rank the grades: 10, 9, 8, 9(OC), 7, 8(OC), 6, and so on. If you find cases where a 9(OC) is better than an 8, that card needs re-holdering.

Identifying such wrongly-graded cards and having them re-holdered is one of the ways to make money dealing in PSA-graded cards.

Having said all of that, PSA should subtract 1.5 grades in the registry for the OC qualifier. In almost every case an 8(OC) will out-sell a straight 6, and I think that in almost every case, an 8(OC) has more eye appeal than a straight 6. PSA should acknowledge this by giving 8(OC) a bit of a boost in the rating formula.

They should not treat all qualifiers the same, so the implication is that some of them should be worth more than a 2-grade subtraction. Someone who has a set that is all 8(OC) gets the same set rating as someone who has a set that is all 8(MC). MC should be a three-grade reduction at least.

bruce

JasP24

I think brucemo touched on the major point as it concerns the Registry. In MOST cases, the OC cards I have seen do not meet the grade just below it. And given a 9OC card, that could mean the OC is equal to a PSA 5 or a PSA 8. There is no way for the Registry to know if the card has PSA 5 centering or PSA 8 centering. That being said, they went ahead and assigned a 2 point deduction accross the board.

Although I could certainly deal with a 1.5 deduction, as it would boost my own OC cards a bit..lol

JasP24