Recent PSA Gem Rate

[nocontest]

Hey guys. I was just hoping to get some information on recent submissions and how you did. seems like gem rate has decreased across the board for PSA. In your last 10+ card submission how many 10s did you get ?

[tmoore_25]

I haven't submitted to PSA for a little while, but I know since my last submission, that they have become much more stringent with their grading. This means less 10's for all but I also think it means that moving forward from the current scandal, they are taking steps to fix what the company has been doing wrong.

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by tmoore_25

I haven't submitted to PSA for a little while, but I know since my last submission, that they have become much more stringent with their grading. This means less 10's for all but I also think it means that moving forward from the current scandal, they are taking steps to fix what the company has been doing wrong.

Yeah, now they're only giving fake, hacked up cards a 9 instead of a 10. Progress indeed.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1410494

[theravinela]

Submitted over 30 cards in my last batch and only 1 got a PSA 10. My previous batches have been hitting at ~80%. Definitely something has changed because my criteria of selecting what goes to PSA hasn't.

[nibrugnerotto]

I had an 85% 10 rate in my previous submissions, but had a 45% rate in the one I just got back from shabagel's group sub on here. Seems like all the better cards I submitted were graded much harsher than the lower end stuff too, but that just may be my bias lol.

[Dame]

I sent 10 items recently and 2/10 were Gem Mint. IMO the card has to be absolutely flawless nowadays to really get a 10.


For example, this Zion had sharp corners, no chipping in the edges and clean front surface. The back has a very faint horizontal print line which is not even noticeable under most light and it got a 9.




I’m not mad at all, I think PSA 9’s have been severely underpriced for years. Given the value for PSA 10’s, they should reserve gem mint for flawless cards unless it’s condition sensitive. Maybe they’re trying to be a lot more consistent to match BGS 10’s standards?

[nocontest]

Originally Posted by theravinela

Submitted over 30 cards in my last batch and only 1 got a PSA 10. My previous batches have been hitting at ~80%. Definitely something has changed because my criteria of selecting what goes to PSA hasn't.

Wow that is crazy. 3% -_-
May I ask what cards they were ? Like another person said... I am truly starting to believe they grade higher end cards tougher. so much for consistency!

[KepCards]

agreed...I think the more expensive cards are getting tougher treatment...and I think they are tired of expensive cards being on bulk subs (even tho a lot of the subs were rcv'd by PSA back in March before all of the cards shot up in value), so they are giving even less 10s on bulk subs (whereas they should just be grading the card accurately and doing an upcharge if need be)...gonna be a lot of people cracking and resubmitting with the current "atmosphere"

[dictoresno]

Originally Posted by KepCards

agreed...I think the more expensive cards are getting tougher treatment...and I think they are tired of expensive cards being on bulk subs (even tho a lot of the subs were rcv'd by PSA back in March before all of the cards shot up in value), so they are giving even less 10s on bulk subs (whereas they should just be grading the card accurately and doing an upcharge if need be)...gonna be a lot of people cracking and resubmitting with the current "atmosphere"

alot of our monthly bulk subs are getting murdered with 9's.

[nrm1977]

Originally Posted by nocontest

Hey guys. I was just hoping to get some information on recent submissions and how you did. seems like gem rate has decreased across the board for PSA. In your last 10+ card submission how many 10s did you get ?

This is the problem with PSA, controlling pop reports by not giving a 10 to a card. A card should be evaluated on the condition not pop controlling. We see so many of these threads.

[nrm1977]

Originally Posted by Dame

I sent 10 items recently and 2/10 were Gem Mint. IMO the card has to be absolutely flawless nowadays to really get a 10.


For example, this Zion had sharp corners, no chipping in the edges and clean front surface. The back has a very faint horizontal print line which is not even noticeable under most light and it got a 9.




I’m not mad at all, I think PSA 9’s have been severely underpriced for years. Given the value for PSA 10’s, they should reserve gem mint for flawless cards unless it’s condition sensitive. Maybe they’re trying to be a lot more consistent to match BGS 10’s standards?

Another problem relating to PSA, their grading standards change like the wind.

[Vagrant]

Originally Posted by dictoresno

alot of our monthly bulk subs are getting murdered with 9's.

this is because PSA doesn't want accounts grading cards for other people. they make more money if the people submitting through others for bulk rates make their own submissions, become comfortable with the process, and start sending their own cards. perhaps even join the collector's club. they don't want people subbing cards at $8 when they could be subbing at $20 to a higher tier service. when people start realizing that group subs are getting hammered, they're going to move on. that's what PSA wants. they're doing so much business now that the large bulk submissions put together by multiple people are just bad financially for them when their graders could be grading only higher tier submissions and still stay busy all day. it hurts the average grader's hourly to be doing bulk submissions.

if there's one thing in this current climate that I would never do, it's submit through someone else. they're trying to force people gaming their submission prices out of the business.

[Stackfan]

I guess if PSA did sub-grades you could tell where the flaw is at.


Also... if they were grading 80% at Gem mint, now only 3% , that is a huge consistency problem. So that means there are tons of 10's that shouldn't be 10's and tons of 9's that shouldn't be 9's.


On my older BGS submissions (2014-15), i was about 80% GEM; my more recent larger submissions had about 67% GEM (2019). There was several years apart, and it was 100 cards vs. 50 cards. All in all; close in consistency.

[kobebeast2020]

I just submitted 30 cards straight from the pack.

8 Economy.
4 Express.
3 Express.
15 Economy.

My "optimistic" hope is I get 10 out of 30 to hit GEM I'll be happy if I get 5 since they are so harsh.

I also think if you pay 75 a card you have a slightly better shot at hitting gem. Anyway I think PSA is rigged just like everything else in life (:

[kobebeast2020]

I have submitted 17 cards in the past and hit 1 GEM funny enough the gem card was not even the cleanest card in the sub.

[dictoresno]

Originally Posted by Vagrant

this is because PSA doesn't want accounts grading cards for other people. they make more money if the people submitting through others for bulk rates make their own submissions, become comfortable with the process, and start sending their own cards. perhaps even join the collector's club. they don't want people subbing cards at $8 when they could be subbing at $20 to a higher tier service. when people start realizing that group subs are getting hammered, they're going to move on. that's what PSA wants. they're doing so much business now that the large bulk submissions put together by multiple people are just bad financially for them when their graders could be grading only higher tier submissions and still stay busy all day. it hurts the average grader's hourly to be doing bulk submissions.

if there's one thing in this current climate that I would never do, it's submit through someone else. they're trying to force people gaming their submission prices out of the business.

I think thats the silliest thing I've heard yet. PSA has no idea if the submitter is subbing their own cards or cards for others. some of the monthly subs have a higher number of 10's, and others have a much more reserved number. I would think it may have to do with newer crosstrained graders not seeing the fine line between a 9 and 10 vs maybe veteran graders. I would believe this before I would believe that PSA is "punishing us" with negative reinforcement by giving 9's because we are sending bulk to try to push us to a different tier.

[kobebeast2020]

How would that explain a vet grader going from 80% to less than 5 ??

[Vinny1984]

When PSA reads all of these forums and sees how many people are simply cracking their 9’s and resubmitting over and over again, all it takes is one Monday morning meeting to simply say “we make more money buy grading 9s”. Boom. Gem rate plummets. They want more submissions. They could care less about the turnaround times. People will still submit if it took a year.

[dkcardman]

I don't buy this forced 9s theory. There is no way that information doesnt leak out of it was a mandate by one of their MANY graders and employees. They were giving 10s out like candy for a while. Look at some of the luka prizm 10s that wouldn't get a 7 centering with BGS. I think a lot of people are sending in cards that are mint or borderline Gem, hoping they will squeeze a 10 and they just aren't letting any through now. I would expect that given the fact that they are growing exponentially, there is a fear that quality might suffer, so they are probably being hyper vigilant in instructing their graders what to look for and better QA. Smaller things get noticed and dinged because their graders are probably going more 'by the book now'. So it could be the reason 10s are going down is that they are getting better about giving more cards what they actually deserve.

[StlScott]

I watch alot of PSA reveals on Youtube. I have these conclusions...

I do think they are grading harder. This is not a bad thing as long as they are consistent with this. Flooding the market with 10's will kill the market. If you are a collector and have patience, this could be a good thing!

PSA graders are human. Since they are opinions of a card on a given day, there is a certain amount of variance.

I think you can sneak a few higher priced cards in bulk. However, I saw one video where a submitter sent in a larger percentage of cards that I thought (I could be wrong) were well over $100 raw and he got hammered badly. Obviously, I never saw the cards up closely.

Players go to rookies or first bowman seem to get less 10's than they used to.

"No name" players seem to get 10s more than go to cards.

Maybe submitters are missing a few more things. This includes seasoned submitters. There seem to be a few more 6s-8s. Of course, the submitters are shocked.

I have zero data to support the above.

Sure, people want great grades. I do think people will sooner rather than later collectors will catch on to the importance of population reports. Too many 10s will drive the price down for everything. Demand will go down. If all of the people hoarding 10s decide to sell, the race to bottom will be fast and furious.

[kobebeast2020]

You would think a fresh card from the pack would be a 10 but that is def not the case.

[DrewTheMan]

PSA has been a sham for some time.

[49erRCCollector]

I got twice as many 9’s as 10’s, having said that most of my sub was mid 90s stuff.

[The_Reverend]

Originally Posted by 49erRCCollector

I got twice as many 9’s as 10’s, having said that most of my sub was mid 90s stuff.

MINT 9 for pre-2010 stuff I am good with. MINT 9 for modern cards are solid, but not necessarily big money, save Mahomes and a few others. Ultra-Modern MINT 9 kills (2018/2019 )

[BBases31]

At some point the market will adjust and PSA 10s graded after a certain date(via serial #)will carry a premium. It won't be long until people start advertising "NEW PSA 10" in their listings.