PSA POP Report Question
bobbydigital731
Posts: 126 ✭
SO when I check under the POP report it says that there is only one 1989 Score Barry Sanders graded 10. But when I jump on Ebay there are several. There has got to be something I'm missing. Also, I posted this question under the wrong forum. How do you cancel your own post?
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<< <i>SO when I check under the POP report it says that there is only one 1989 Score Barry Sanders graded 10. But when I jump on Ebay there are several. There has got to be something I'm missing. Also, I posted this question under the wrong forum. How do you cancel your own post? >>
You're first 3 posts and they're the same question across several boards. Relax. You got an answer promptly...
First...unless a card is diamond cut, or has a blemish that still allows say a PSA 8 grade, do you think you can honestly discern the difference between a PSA 8 and a PSA 8.5 when held at arms length? I don't think so, or a PSA 7 or 6 for that matter? Point is, this became a cash cow for PSA, as the rush was on to upgrade non-half-point cards to garner higher value for owners exisiting 4s - 8s. There are no PSA 9.5s. Having once paid to have a raw card graded, the owner now must resubmit, for a grading fee, in hopes of the bump. I suspect pressure for cash flow from suits who don't collect, forced this decision...but that's just my 2 cents on the subject. Never was there a scintilla of polling or asking SMR collectors or solicitation made at annual meetings to seek input. Perhaps some behind the scenes, but certainly not an open topic. I simply caved in because I thought...well, play the game or miss opportunity. I did well.
Second...and WORST OF ALL, there was no process in place to figure out how to ensure the massive influx of cracked out cards would impact the POP report. Example...you have a PSA 7 that screams to you "I'm at least a PSA 7.5, or PSA 8". You crack it out, toss the flip, send in the raw and presto, the original PSA 7 N-E-V-E-R gets removed from the POP report. The card comes back without a bump, the POP report now has 2 PSA 7s of that card, one is a ghost. If the card comes back with a bump, the POP goes up by one in the new grade, but again, the ghost PSA 7 remains. Yes, I know owners are "supposed" to send in the flip so PSA can remove the original, but what % of people do you think really do that? I'd guess less than 10%.
Third...so, in the past 5 years, the submissions go rolling into Newport Beach. Many people are thrilled to get the bump, some are disappointed and think the graders have ripped them off. Unfortunately the harm is done, because the POP report is now full...and I do mean FULL of bogus cards. Owners do not submit just once, but over and over till the card comes back to their liking. If somebody cracks and submits a PSA 7 and resubmits over and over say six times, how many ghost PSA 7s do you think are in the POP report? At least six don't exist, yet the POp report goes up and up.
POP report cannot be fixed. This has forced prices down in some areas as the old "supply and demand", Econ 101 kicks in. Numbers of cards within certain grades have soared, primarily in the PSA 6,7,8 areas and market prices have declined on many cards because of this fallacy.
Just sayin'...it is what it is, and it ain't gonna get better.
The change to a .5 grade scheme did influence me to resubmit about a dozen cards for a grade bump. None got the bump but PSA got my $$. I reviewed about 200 card and sent in the most well centered 8's from a couple series from the 60's and all came back with white stickers on the card with arrows and notes about corners. I was pissed to say the least. Of course the corners aren't perfect - otherwise the cards would have been 9's. They were dead on centered but even though that was the criteria for the .5 bump it seemed that was not the measure used to assess the card.
The increase in value of just a couple cards would have made up for the grading fee of the dozen sent in. That's how powerful the Registry and POP reports are in influencing card values.
From PSA grading standards:
Cards that exhibit high-end qualities within each particular grade, between PSA Good 2 and PSA Mint 9, may achieve a half-point increase. While PSA graders will evaluate all of the attributes possessed by a card in order to determine if the card may be eligible, there will be a clear focus on centering.
Generally speaking, a card must exhibit centering that is 5-10% better, at minimum, than the lowest % allowed within a particular grade. It is important to note that there may be cases where the overall strength of the card, such as the quality of the corners and print, will give the card the edge it needs despite the fact that it may exhibit only marginal centering for the grade. This is especially true for cards that find themselves within the bottom half of the PSA 1-10 scale.
1975 mini's
1954 Wilson Franks