PSA Stealthy Changes Grading Standards

[thenightman]

PSA 10's centering goes from being 55/45 and 60/40 to just 55/45.

How will this effect you moving forward? I'm already pretty strict on what I'm buying, when looking at centering. Now I'm doubting 99% of cards I'm looking at.

[FBallHobbies]

Im guessing it will help stop people from sending in anything that is "close". Lowers the backlog at PSA.

And being more strict, means less PSA 10's. Maybe higher sales prices, all depending on POP count

I may be the only one but I use a grading tool for stuff still just to be sure. 60/40 usually was pushing it for me and I would not add to my PSA stack

[mjohnatgt]

Interesting. No notice but a change to the https://www.psacard.com/gradingstandards page. Wonder if this will affect reholders?

Not sure it will change grading that much. Better centered cards always sold for a premium to the grade.

[Cracktoast]

POP Control 101 they realized they were handing out 10's like candy so they had to pull in the reigns.

[brev87]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

POP Control 101 they realized they were handing out 10's like candy so they had to pull in the reigns.

Yeah right, where's my candy then?!? lol

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

POP Control 101 they realized they were handing out 10's like candy so they had to pull in the reigns.

PSA Order Tracker page begs to differ.

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by mjohnatgt

Interesting. No notice but a change to the https://www.psacard.com/gradingstandards page. Wonder if this will affect reholders?

Not sure it will change grading that much. Better centered cards always sold for a premium to the grade.

That’s precisely what’s been making the rounds online; they stealthy edited the centering tool the page. Someone pointed out that they’ll spam you with a bunch of emails trying to sell you on stuff, but this doesn’t get mentioned. These are the simple errors that astound me. Who’s running this ship to allow something so “anti-consumer” to happen?

[NEOSportscards]

I was able to get a statement from PSA regarding the change.

https://youtu.be/1PkKBILk1pI

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by mjohnatgt

Interesting. No notice but a change to the https://www.psacard.com/gradingstandards page. Wonder if this will affect reholders?

Not sure it will change grading that much. Better centered cards always sold for a premium to the grade.

I would assume they would honor any 10s in current holders for a re-holder. It would have to have some other major flaw not to. Gem rate going forward on monthly reports will be interesting to track. If gems dip, than this means something. If they stay like they are, that likely means they have been applying this standard for quite awhile.

PSA has always gone through different eras with their grading standard application. It is pretty common knowledge that PSA cards in the "old" holders have a good chance of being one grade higher than what they would be today. Now you will have an era of "loose center 10's".

[f2tornado]

It's a good change aside from lack of communication on it. I would rarely send anything teetering on 60/40 to begin with. It might even help the sale price on some sets/cards that are more difficult to locate well centered cards.

[FT35]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

If gems dip, than this means something. If they stay like they are, that likely means they have been applying this standard for quite awhile.

Exactly right. This is class action lawsuit territory if they have been operating under a set of criteria that is different than the terms people agree to when they purchase a grading service.

This is a good step but only explains part of their problem that we’ve noticed. Now we need a public release that something in their process was/is damaging cards and their plan to fix it. AI tools/machines, scanners, etc.

We know something is up! We are hobbyists. We have meticulously looked these cards over before sending and no one knows them better than us. For parents—it’s like sending your kid to a friend’s house and having them come back with a bruise. We immediately notice it and say, “how’d you get that bruise?” Kid says, “oh, I don’t know.” We say “it wasn’t there the last time I saw you.” Kid says, “ohhhh, yeah I bumped my leg on the cabinet.” Right now—we are in the phase where we ask about the bruise and PSA has said “oh, I don’t know.”

[inaka]

They likely have implemented this change within the past year, and just quietly updated their web site to reflect this. Seems like many people have been posting much lower gem rates with modern cards in particular.

I also think this has to go heavily with the introduction of grader notes.

There was that one story I saw (here?) where someone received a PSA 9 on the card, and the grader notes said that the centering was the issue, and by using a a centering tool, they emailed PSA saying it was within the 60/40 guidelines and got them to change the grade to a PSA 10.

After that, PSA was probably like, "F this, let's quietly change the standards online without any announcement so we don't have to deal with that type of situation again."

[MyckKabongo]

The 60/40 part was awkwardly worded previously. Experienced subbers should already know 60/40 was somewhere between dicey and no 10 shot on modern and ultra modern. The older the card the more leeway there is on centering. Still works that way as they clarified in the statement that graders still have discretion to allow worse than 55/45 in some cases (read: vintage, borderless, or otherwise perfect). I think this was more of a clarification to customers than a change in practices.

It's a needed clarification too. There are a ton of new graders that are making rookie mistakes right now. I'm following the Jayden Daniels market. There's a huge volume of 9s popping that shouldn't have been subbed because centering was hopeless.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by MyckKabongo

The 60/40 part was awkwardly worded previously. Experienced subbers should already know 60/40 was somewhere between dicey and no 10 shot on modern and ultra modern. The older the card the more leeway there is on centering. Still works that way as they clarified in the statement that graders still have discretion to allow worse than 55/45 in some cases (read: vintage, borderless, or otherwise perfect). I think this was more of a clarification to customers than a change in practices.

It's a needed clarification too. There are a ton of new graders that are making rookie mistakes right now. I'm following the Jayden Daniels market. There's a huge volume of 9s popping that shouldn't have been subbed because centering was hopeless.

"But it was pack fresh, bro!"

[thenightman]

I appreciate some of the comments here. As I stated initially, I am very picky on what I pick up to grade. Based on everything, I don’t need to be pickier.

[MyckKabongo]

Originally Posted by inaka

They likely have implemented this change within the past year, and just quietly updated their web site to reflect this. Seems like many people have been posting much lower gem rates with modern cards in particular.

I also think this has to go heavily with the introduction of grader notes.

There was that one story I saw (here?) where someone received a PSA 9 on the card, and the grader notes said that the centering was the issue, and by using a a centering tool, they emailed PSA saying it was within the 60/40 guidelines and got them to change the grade to a PSA 10.

After that, PSA was probably like, "F this, let's quietly change the standards online without any announcement so we don't have to deal with that type of situation again."

They should not have caved to that guy. It was based on incorrect idea of how centering actually works in psa grading by the entitled rabble-rouser. Lo and behold, it spread a bad misconception among the masses so they had to clarify.

Again, I will state: this is more of a clarification of how centering gets graded by PSA than it is a change in how centering gets graded.

[rnocards]

It appears that PSA is trying to allign themselves with all the others on GM front centering. They were the odd one out on 60/40.

SGC - "55/45 or better centering,"

CGC - "Centering is not to exceed approximately 55/45,"

Beckett - "Centering: 50/50 one way, 55/45 the other on front."

[oddstuff]

Does not affect me at all...I rarely send in 60/40 cards unless I'm fine with a 9. I use a ruler to measure all of my cards L/R T/B front/back. If you can't to the math in your head, buy a centering tool.

[KGD54]

I agree that they were probably doing this before they actually posted the change online. The grades have been pretty clear to not line up with some of the posted standards.

[SLGSports]

Nothing to see here... same policy, just tightening up the language which made zero sense previously.

[Gem10collection]

realistically, i don't think they have adhered to the 60/40 guideline the last few years. now just making it official.

[The_Reverend]

Originally Posted by Gem10collection

realistically, i don't think they have adhered to the 60/40 guideline the last few years. now just making it official.

Yeah! In all actuality, 60/40 does not deserve a grade of 10. Centering is the easiest of the 4 to determine. Those sending 60/40 cards were just HOPING they got a lenient grader. 55/45 or better should be the standard.

[TKChicago]

Is there an effective date? I can understand making the change but not saying "As of ____... " seems off

[fabiani12333]

60/40 is an eyesore most of the time -- this is a smart move by PSA to keep PSA 10s from diluting the market.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

I would assume they would honor any 10s in current holders for a re-holder. It would have to have some other major flaw not to. Gem rate going forward on monthly reports will be interesting to track. If gems dip, than this means something. If they stay like they are, that likely means they have been applying this standard for quite awhile.

PSA has always gone through different eras with their grading standard application. It is pretty common knowledge that PSA cards in the "old" holders have a good chance of being one grade higher than what they would be today. Now you will have an era of "loose center 10's".

I can just tell from personal observation, PSA has still been pretty loose with centering standards for PSA 10s in recent years.

The PSA grading standards are just guidelines -- graders still have the flexibility to grade a card however they want, even if it doesn't satisfy the guidelines.

Centering is as objective as it gets with grading, yet it's still only a guideline.