[JoeAdam]

Originally Posted by albatross7979

I actually think the problem is more that grading companies grade different cards in each set differently. All you need to do is look at the pop reports to see that PSA is purposefully keeping the PSA 10 pop down on certain cards to raise the prices and make people keep chasing the elusive 10s.

13,736 cards from 2018 Topps have been submitted for grading, and 9,582 have come back PSA 10, 70% PSA 10s. Acuna bat down has been submitted 962 times and has gotten a 10 just 369 times, or 38% of the time. Card #400, Altuve batting, has been submitted 39 times and has received a PSA 10 33 times, for a rate of 85%. Is there something drastically different about the card stock or the product of card #400 and #698? The difference is Acuna is a short print, there are fewer, and they know that by grading them tougher, it will keep people submitting them trying to get 10s to cash in.

This isn't rocket science. PSA is obviously manipulating their grading of certain cards, and it goes way back into the vintage years too.

Those Bat Down cards were damaged a lot coming out of the pack. Similar to how Mahomes has a surface bubble on his prizm cards