PSA 8 in an old slab versus a newly graded PSA 7?

[jchcollins]

And herein lies one of the major problems with all professional grading. Standards are not supposed to change, um…but they do. PSA and SGC won’t necessarily update their language for each grade description when they change a standard, but make no mistake it happens. The subjectivity of the language has always allowed for this. What is / are “moderate” corner rounding or “slight” focus problems? Obviously these things can mean vastly different things in terms of eye appeal to different collectors. It is a reminder of the days before grading and Beckett’s condition guide with their “minor” and “micro” defects. Does this card have 2 minor defects or 1 minor defect and 1 micro defect? Silliness, really.

I digress. To answer the question from a collector perspective, ignoring price - I don’t care if the card in question is an old 8 or a new 7, as long as it’s in a nice slab that is not scratched up too badly. Really even if the standards are consistent, the notion that a card is an 8 one day and maybe a 7 the next is something that most reasonably knowledgeable collectors have accepted at this point. Card grading is subjective, not rocket science - and there will be variations in strictness even on the best of days. Personally I don’t care. No matter what the grade or the age of the slab, the card was at one point deemed deserving of the grade that is represented on the flip - even if it might not grade that high (or conversely that low…) again. That’s good enough for me. At the end of the day, I alone am the final boss / grader in terms of what cards that I own are or are not, lol.

I do think just me that it’s not a hard rule. Older grades on the whole might be more apt to be “lenient” by today’s standards or practice, but you can still find plenty of older PSA slabs from the early 2000’s or even the 90’s which appear to have properly graded cards in them. I often will look for deals like this on older slabs when buying online if I’m looking for something graded. But to me, affordability and just the eye appeal of the card I’m looking at - whether a PSA 8, 6, or 3 - is going to matter more than anything in terms of the slab and it’s history when I’m looking to buy.


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[raulus]

Confession:

While I know that the mantra here is "buy the card, not the holder"...

I'm a bit of a set registry goon. So often I'm more focused on trying to get the best deal I can on the highest graded cards that I can afford.

As a result, I'll take the older cert every day of the week if it means I can get a better deal.

[midmo]

no.

[Kutcher55]

The 75 mini set is a poster child for this debate because tightening grading standards have had a huge impact on this particular set. I probably have 50 graded cards from this set now and the old label 8s have become new label 7s and 6s. It’s really blatant. A few of my PSA 8 old labels are nearly miscut in the back. I’ll try to throw up a few pics when I get out of bed.

It is still possible to find nice old label 8s but there are a lot of dogs out there. As a collector who might sell the set some day those 8s help value but in so many ways it makes sense to just get a new label 7. Also I have so many raw commons in my set that in the old days would be a guaranteed 7+ but in the two recent subs I did I got 2 <7s out of ten cards and lots of 7.5s and 8s. This is a registry sensitive set so PSAs go for quite a premium over same grade SGCs. If I find nice SGC8s I try to grab them. Recently got a Hank Aaron 1 in SGC 8 got less than half the price of a PSA 8 so that was good. They aren’t easy to find though.

[Kutcher55]

Here's an illustration. #499 Marty Perez is a legit tough mini to find. There are 0 10s and only 5 PSA 9s. The below is one of 67 PSA 8s. I don't think it would get a 7 today. Definitely an example of me buying the slab not the card, but it was priced accordingly and it's tough enough finding this card not cut factory short, let alone in nice condition. Check out that o/c back; it's a whisker from miscut. Compare it to this new label Fisk I got recently which is super nice for a 7.

[bk400]

Originally Posted by Kutcher55

Here's an illustration. #499 Marty Perez is a legit tough mini to find. There are 0 10s and only 5 PSA 9s. The below is one of 67 PSA 8s. I don't think it would get a 7 today. Definitely an example of me buying the slab not the card, but it was priced accordingly and it's tough enough finding this card not cut factory short, let alone in nice condition. Check out that o/c back; it's a whisker from miscut. Compare it to this new label Fisk I got recently which is super nice for a 7.

Telling examples indeed. I suppose this illustrates well the power of the set registry.

[MichiganMan24]

What a thought-provoking debate. I think it comes down to what you're buying at the end of the day...

are you buying the card itself or the number on the sealed case. I don't think there's anything wrong with

buying a card for its grade rather than its true physical health -- at the end of the day when you buy memorabilia,

you're buying a story, and part of a card's story is its grade. But then again, I also see

how the OG card collecting community would argue to just care about the cardboard.

Either way, very interesting hypothetical you pose, thanks so much for sharing.

[Jenx34]

Originally Posted by Kutcher55

Here's an illustration. #499 Marty Perez is a legit tough mini to find. There are 0 10s and only 5 PSA 9s. The below is one of 67 PSA 8s. I don't think it would get a 7 today. Definitely an example of me buying the slab not the card, but it was priced accordingly and it's tough enough finding this card not cut factory short, let alone in nice condition. Check out that o/c back; it's a whisker from miscut. Compare it to this new label Fisk I got recently which is super nice for a 7.

I'm not sure I see the same thing. To me the Fisk doesn't look any better or possibly worse than the Perez. The Perez looks like it would fit the 8s I see today. The back merely needs to be 90/10 even for a 9. And the Fisk has a decent amount of white showing on the bottom corners. The Perez does have the spot on the edge, but that's not a chip in the paint, just a spot where the color didn't hit right. I see lots of those, just like fisheyes, which are common for the time.

Here is a pic of a Hank Aaron #660 PSA 8 that's newly graded. It's no different than what you commonly see in older slabs. (Note pic taken from Ebay, not my card).