Anybody else shun 0... PSA cert numbers?

dgbaseball

I've always assumed 0.. certs meant they were graded early on in PSA's lifecycle and (as popular opinion has suggested) might've been graded to somewhat lower standards than in use today. It's gotten to the point where I pretty much won't consider buying any expensive PSA cards on ebay with a 0 starting cert number. In person, sure, where I can see the card up close. But on ebay, no way.

I'm sure a lot of it is just my perception, but I think there is some truth, particularly with regards to earlier graded cards not getting qualifiers they deserve.

Am I the only snob in this regard? Any sellers notice trends where 0 certs generally sell for lower than expected?

Began thinking about this more after randomly noticing that every one of the T206s on the cover of the current SMR have cert #s starting with 0.

A761506

The beginning number of the cert, to my knowledge, represents a code for the grader who graded it. I do not believe it represents the period of time at which the card was graded.

Treetop

dgbaseball,

I agree and have said this for a while. I won't buy a PSA card with a cert numbering beginning in "0" unless I've held it in my hand and reviewed it closely.

Same goes with any GAI (Global) card I buy.

The "0" cert numbers were from a period when the same guys running GAI, were running PSA

Of course, this is my opinion and nothing more

Griffins

I've had cert numbers submitted during Rocchi and Baker and Charlie's era that do not begin with 0. I've cracked a fair amount of 0 certs and resubmitted and gotten higher grades. I find no relationship between cert numbers and grading standards in anything other than an anecdotal incidence.

MiniMaster

From my limited personal experience. I would want to be holding the slab and reviewing the card if dealing in high dollars with Cert#'s that begin with 'Zero'. I've seen many that were just fine. Perhaps in written terms there is no difference in the condition standards of cards with cert#'s starting with 'Zero' and those graded today. But you'd just be in denial if you actually believed this to be the physical truth. As I mentioned there are many cards graded right on the money with 'zero' cert.#'s. I personally have noticed that there is just a higher occurence of shall I say lenient grading standards with cards having cert#'s that start with 'Zero'. If owners of these cards believed there was no difference they'd be resubmitting them for new slabs and cert #'s to remove the stigma. What could be done to rid this problematic situation? Perhaps all cert#'s beginning with 'Zero' should be resubmitted and re-slabbed with new cert#'s that are random so there will no longer be this undesirable stigma? If the masses of these cards have been graded properly there should be no problem with PSA backing the grades and reslabing them for a nominal fee (perhaps less than current re-slab fee). The arguement of this witch hunt on cert #'s starting with 'Zero' is the misconception that the current cert #'s have been graded perfectly and are worth more money? This is obviously not exactly true. There is and will always be human error in grading. Some cards will receive grades that they should not (higher or lower). It will always be a market in which knowledge and awareness are rewarded and ignorance and disregard may lead to financial punishment.

I see this to be quite a touchy subject with graders and collectors. Somewhat of a "Catch 22"? With no one doing much to resolve the sticky question? Maybe there have been past threads discussing this issue at great length and this is just another opinion to drop in the endless archive on the topic?

Stingray

Is there an issue of owning a card with the old flips with the slash lines through the zeros. Does anyone think that those cards might stand up to today's grading standards.


Stingray

bobsbbcards

<< <i>The beginning number of the cert, to my knowledge, represents a code for the grader who graded it. I do not believe it represents the period of time at which the card was graded. >>


For years and years, all PSA cert numbers started with zero (check out old auction catalogs). Once the first number became non-zero, there were no more zero certs graded.

If I see a PSA card that I think has weak corners for the grade, 9 times out of 10 it'll have a zero cert. If I see a PSA card that is more off-center than I'd expect for the grade, 9 times out of 10 it'll have a non-zero cert.

mikeschmidt

buy the card, not the holder.

I've seen inconsistencies all across the certification number spectrum.

1420sports

If the card is nice I could care less. If the old label is on it, you can always have PSA reslab it for 5 bucks.

JasP24

PSA labels beginning with "0" were mostly graded prior to 2000...But if you want to find inconsistent graded, you can look no further than crads being graded today...

I hope everyone start shunning the high dollar cards on ebay with a "0" cert number...Will just mean cheaper cards for me...

I've popped PSA 6's with "0" cert numbers and got back PSA 8's within the last few months...If anything, the recent grading is the most lax I've seen based on cards that I personally have sent in for grading. I cracked and re-submitted quite a few with better than 50% being upgraded at least a grade.

Most recent example being my PSA 8 1952 Bowman Strydahar that used to be a PSA 6 in a "0" cert holder...See for yourself...

Jason

WinPitcher

Some of my nicest cards begin with the 0 cert. At one time I too thought that 0 cert cards had probs, more then later cards. I agree with Anthony (Griffins)

SD

dude

I don't. About half of my collection is "0" cert numbers, but I do shy away from the pre-1994 cards with slash through the zero font. Mistakes and overgrading can be found in the "0" era as well as the current "1-9" era. One thing that I have noticed. When the registry concept really took off in 1999 and 2000, there was a strong market for 1964-71 PSA 9 commons and virtually no market for PSA 8 cards. Most of the 8's from that era were submitted expecting to get 9's. A friend of mine once bought a 100+ count lot of 1967 PSA 8 cards in a Superior Auction about 4 years ago and a significant portion looked like 9's. He sold off a bunch of them (which he regrets now) but several years later he cracked out the remaining 50 or so and around half bumped up to 9.

Fletch1750

The standards have tightened substantially since the Baker Rocchi days. The 060 and 020 are among the weakest series Iv'e seen.

CollectorChris

Doesn't make a bit of difference.

By the way, have you ever seen a PSA card cert number without either a 0 or a 1 within the first two digits?

RayBShotz

Like the Dude, before I liquidated my 69' set last year most of it was 0 serial number slabs. The cards were gorgeous. I think Marc has is right as well, buy the card.
RayBShotz

bottoms2003

Since looking at the scan of the cracked Orr Rookie in another thread I went back to my cards to see if any were "frosted" around the flip area. What I did notice is that many of the older holders which all start in "0" seem to have half an inch to one inch frost areas in random spots. Perhaps this is because these holders are older and have been through the mail or handled more. Are these holders just more brittle? I just got the Memory Lane catalog in the mail today and I noticed some of cards have these frost lines, i.e. the line to the right on the Ruth in lot #6 and the small line on the Robinson rookie in lot #43. The newer holders seem to almost never have these frost marks. Am I the only one to notice this or are others seeing this as well?
It seems that this is of little signifigance but when buying things on the internet you can never be too carefull. If I was purchasing a high dollar card like the Ruth lot #6 I would prefer to have a holder that starts with a 1 and has no frost lines. I always remind myself that for resale (if ever) to buying the card and the holder. Does anyone else look at the high end stuff and think the same or is this an over-reaction?