Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Experience in PSA graded Pokemon cards

H

Hungry Snorlax

New Member
So anyone here regularly deal with PSA Pokemon cards? Particularly with PSA 10s. I'm wondering if they really are as flawless as some would praise them to be. I heard some say they could have a tiny flaw, but to a degree that they are ignorable. In that sense, they wouldn't really be gem mint right (Maybe for those that are OCD)? Wouldn't that just make it a 9 then?

If I could get some opinions, that would be awesome.

These are examples.
http://3.imgland.net/nLWEza.jpg
Around the left side of the bottom yellow border. You can see the black specks which would be the holofoil. Also a black speck on the bottom right corner.

http://3.imgland.net/GFt0_q.jpg
Here you can see the holofoil reflecting light. This is a PSA 10 card.

Are 10s truly perfect or did PSA get lazy on this one? Anyone else have PSA 10s that have this kind of wear?
 
That light reflection happens much more prominently in some Neo Destiny holos, and I've still seen them get psa 10. I do agree though, it is a bit odd.
 
PSA 10 doesn't necessarily mean perfect, they do allow for slight imperfections... Here's the definition from their website for a PSA 10:

GEM-MT 10: Gem Mint
A PSA Gem Mint 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss. A PSA Gem Mint 10 card must be free of staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it doesn't impair the overall appeal of the card. The image must be centered on the card within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 to 60/40 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse.
 
I don't really collect Neo Destiny cards other than the Shining Pokemon, so I haven't noticed. I mainly collect the Base Set cards and I notice it's on quite a few of them. I don't know if maybe it's because of older printing techniques, but I don't see them in later generations of cards.

And yeah, I guess the defining word here is "virtually" perfect.
 
That shiny edge appears most commonly on Base, Neo Destiny, and EX Deoxys cards.
Frankly, I don't think it's possible to have a "perfect" card. Gem Mint is probably as close as it gets. The Gem Mint cards I have show no surface scratches, no white specks on the corners, and no faded color. I suppose there are very minor imperfections that PSA would allow in a Gem Mint card like the definition says.
 
As has already been said, PSA 10 does allow very minor flaws.
I have owned 9 grades that look better than a similar 10 grade card.

Grading is done by humans after all.......
 
First, if you want someone to help show the cert number to confirm the card is a registered 10.

There are many factors you have to consider for why your card has perceived damage. One being that a card can still experience damage in a case. Unless you graded it yourself you do not know how it was handled. Even in the case of grading it yourself, you still have to deal with it being shipped.

No card grading company gives a perfect grade for a reason.
 
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