PSA is out of control

SLGSports · 01-13-2025, 03:08 AM

It's been really sad to see PSA grading accuracy declining as of late. A great example is a Connor McDavid Young Guns currently selling on Goldin. This is easily the worst quality copy I've seen of this card. All the corners show damage and the centering is so bad it's clearly a result of a serious manufacturing mistake. The "Young Guns" foil is so high, it's almost entirely covering McDavid's name. Also edge issues and centering issues on the back... but the card got a PSA 10 (recent grade).

So what's going on at PSA? I have a hard time believing that any grader (no matter how much they're paid, or how much experience they have) would give this card a 10. My experience, like most, is a single slightly dinged corner gets you a 9. Based on all the corner damage alone, it would be a 7 by most graders. I can only conclude that (1) they have data entry issues (which PSA tooling should never allow), or (2) there's an overreliance on AI assistance that's failing to detect egregious outliers like this card (which would be under-represented in training data) -- then a lazy grader fails to apply common sense, perhaps being in too much of a hurry. Then, of course, it's also a failure in QC... if this step is even happening right now.

In any case, PSA needs to up its game. Raw, this card is worth about $400 in this condition. As a PSA 10, it's worth $2500. Imagine submitting this card to PSA then seeing you got a 10! No wonder they sent it off to Goldin where they can sell it anonymously. It'll be interesting to see whether Goldin customers will "buy card, not the grade" or "buy the grade, not the card". Current bid, with 3 days left, is $1950 (including buyer's premium) -- so I guess that answers the question.

PSA, if you're listening, please address this. I'm sure for every non-deserving card that gets knighted a 10, there's many other gem-mint cards that are getting some other random grade (like Geoff Wilson's gem-mint card that was graded Authentic). We're paying far too much for this service, and waiting far too long for the grades, to be a random number generator in some cases.

01-13-2025, 03:08 AM	#1
SLGSports Member Join Date: Mar 2023 Posts: 144	PSA is out of control It's been really sad to see PSA grading accuracy declining as of late. A great example is a Connor McDavid Young Guns currently selling on Goldin. This is easily the worst quality copy I've seen of this card. All the corners show damage and the centering is so bad it's clearly a result of a serious manufacturing mistake. The "Young Guns" foil is so high, it's almost entirely covering McDavid's name. Also edge issues and centering issues on the back... but the card got a PSA 10 (recent grade). So what's going on at PSA? I have a hard time believing that any grader (no matter how much they're paid, or how much experience they have) would give this card a 10. My experience, like most, is a single slightly dinged corner gets you a 9. Based on all the corner damage alone, it would be a 7 by most graders. I can only conclude that (1) they have data entry issues (which PSA tooling should never allow), or (2) there's an overreliance on AI assistance that's failing to detect egregious outliers like this card (which would be under-represented in training data) -- then a lazy grader fails to apply common sense, perhaps being in too much of a hurry. Then, of course, it's also a failure in QC... if this step is even happening right now. In any case, PSA needs to up its game. Raw, this card is worth about $400 in this condition. As a PSA 10, it's worth $2500. Imagine submitting this card to PSA then seeing you got a 10! No wonder they sent it off to Goldin where they can sell it anonymously. It'll be interesting to see whether Goldin customers will "buy card, not the grade" or "buy the grade, not the card". Current bid, with 3 days left, is $1950 (including buyer's premium) -- so I guess that answers the question. PSA, if you're listening, please address this. I'm sure for every non-deserving card that gets knighted a 10, there's many other gem-mint cards that are getting some other random grade (like Geoff Wilson's gem-mint card that was graded Authentic). We're paying far too much for this service, and waiting far too long for the grades, to be a random number generator in some cases. Attached Thumbnails