Am I a tougher grader than PSA???

yankeeno7

I dont know. I just dont get it. I send some BEAUTIFUL cards in and they come back a grade or two lower than expected. Now today, I received 3 nice cards in the mail. A 1960 Sandy Koufax PSA 7, 1960 Roger Maris PSA 8 ST, and a 1969 Pete Rose PSA 7. All three of these cards have been well overgraded.

If these were my cards before submission, I would have guessed the Koufax to be a 6, the Maris to be a 6 (not considering the qualifer), and the Rose a 6. Who are getting these grades??? I'll see if I can get scans up tomorrow but right now I need to hit the sack bcuz I work again tonight. The Maris I will definately keep because I got it near a PSA 5 price. The other two, Im just not sure yet.

It's very frustrating and disappointing to see this. I have come to this conclusion for my own collection. Im just going to save lots of cash and just buy PSA 6 cards. There are some that look like 8s and 9s. One card I did get lucky with is my PSA 6 1961 Mantle...the card looks like an easy 8, maybe even a 9. Corners are as sharp as any 9 out there.

but the three I got today...both the Maris and Rose look like they had bad corners that someone kept working out and made VERY fuzzy. Heck, I can do that but I wont be getting any 7s or 8s!

Im shaking my head with these...I just dont know....

Barry

SDavid

I've often thought the same thing. Not sure what to tell you, but I won't buy *any* cards on ebay without a quality scan unless the price is so cheap that I can flip it for a significant profit no matter how crappy it looks.

Everybody knows that most raw stuff on ebay is overgraded, but I think it's also become a dumping ground for peoples' low end slabbed stuff. Of course, ebay's default scan size pretty much hides any flaw except for centering and hideous print defects.

sagard

Seven seems to be the grade with the highest variety of conditions. The difference between nice and ugly sevens is sometimes absurd.

baseballfanatic

Never fails.

Most cards I send in with a shot at a 9 usually pull a seven.

Most 9's I buy are no better (or worse) than the 7's which I had graded.

Guess you have to hit the right grader on the right day....

jimq112

I think it's more likely that people sell the cards that are at the lower end of the grade, and keep the nicer ones with the same grade. They sell the holder, not the card, and so the ones you buy as 8s on ebay are lower end 8s. If it's a higher end 8 it either stays in the collection it was graded for, or it goes back in to PSA in hopes of a 9.

Everybody gets grades once in a while that are better than expected. We don't notice them as much as the ones that are worse than expected, and since they're our cards we always want them to be nicer than they maybe are. Unless it's a rare card, aren't you going to try to sell that card you thought was a 6 and psa said it's an 8?

GOODLIEU

Bottom line is that all graders are people just like us and they have their good days and bad days. Like most of us its about 90% good and we all learn to live with the 10% less than quality work that occasionaly occurs. Just the way it is in my opinion.

rube26105

depends on if humberto or rita had a good day,hes right, depends on who get it-goes thru 3 people? ,i aint buying that one,they get to many cards, good story though,if you can con yourself into believing it
randy

psafan

everyone here seems to know how to grade better than the graders, maybe you guys should be the graders instead. then again ... maybe the guys who think everything is graded wrong just dont know what they're talking about.

lawnmowerman

One thing that has not been mentioned is the fact that after the card is graded it gets put back in the cardsaver and sent off to the slabbing chimps. I would say that most cards are graded accurately by psa but by the time the cards are slabbed by some guy trying to do too many, too fast, damage occurs. Being too rough hitting corners on the slab, pinching the edges between the slab pieces or the worst thing to me, when they reach their fingers into the cardsaver. They damage the upper edge surface when their finger brushes the edge because the cardsaver was not opened enough.

That said, for themost part I believe the graders do a good job.

BunchOBull

I tend to believe my PSA slabs are over graded before under graded. Especially in terms of centering. It seems that PSA is leiniant on centering (up to 65/35) if all other aspects of the card are gem.

pleaseletmepost

Hello, I do not post much but read the boards quite a bit. Heres a topic that interests me so here goes... The consistency at PSA is atrocious. I understand that the industry is subjective and opinions will differ from card to card and year to year. But from my standpoint if you have something really nice that is considered vintage, good luck getting a PSA 9 or the unthinkable PSA 10. The card will just get over-looked. When I check my poppage am I the only one who feels like "I just got punched in the gut"? For example, when ever I see poppage from various members on the board I always click on it to check it out and with that being said for every one good poppage I see, I see 15 that are horrendous. I cannot believe that everyone's eyes are that bad. Again, I love the grading concept but just wish it was more consistent. Im not sure who this falls on, Joe or one of the stronger, veteran graders, but IMO someone is not working as hard as they could with consistency.

*Poof*

yankeeno7

<< <i>everyone here seems to know how to grade better than the graders, maybe you guys should be the graders instead. then again ... maybe the guys who think everything is graded wrong just dont know what they're talking about. >>



Obviously you are unable to understand a simple concept. I never said I was better. In fact, Im usually here the one saying that PSA is the best that we have and they often do a great job with the exception of recent turn around times.

Why is it a bad thing to question or be concerned with? Sounds like you want to do some higher ups a few "favors". Bend over!

And if you think its so consistant then maybe you should go out and buy yourself a few graded cards and see for yourself. Go buy 2 of the same grade and you tell me if they are equal. Im sure we all have examples of where they are NOT. As mentioned in my original post, there are often cards that appear undergraded as well as over graded. Now go troll somewhere else.