PSA Reveal! Lots of $ on the line. Stroud Checkerboard, Elly Rainbow, and more. Did I make money?

First PSA submission in a long time. Come check out how I did. Is it worth grading your cards with PSA? #hobby #sportscards #mlbb #nfl

[@Teabagonyou]

Calm down with the conspiracy theories. The Rice has a back bottom white corner you can see with the naked eye.

[@bdpsportscards109]

It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s reality. I’m not saying the Rice should’ve gotten a 10. It’s not a 10. An 8 is a fair grade for that card. What I’m saying is that you and I have no chance of ever getting a 10 on a card like that. Even if it were perfect, it would take an act of God to make that happen. If you don’t think PSA artificially controls the pop counts of older wax, you’re kidding yourself. They’ll throw some bones to the segment of the hobby that have a financial stake in PSA and they’ll do it sparingly to boost sales when they need an infusion of capital, but if you think graders have autonomy and that the quality of the card is the primary factor in the grade it receives, then you’re not paying attention. That’s not a conspiracy theory, that’s the game as it’s set up. How many 86 Jordan’s have gotten 10s in the last 4 years? You think that’s because all the packs of 86 Fleer opened in that time were inferior to the ones opened in the 40 years that proceeded it or do you think PSA made a business decision when card values exploded and competition increased to keep the pop count on that iconic card low to keep the value high? There are a thousand examples like that across the hobby.

[@Teabagonyou]

@@bdpsportscards109 Checkerboard Stroud was very lucky to Gem. So you win some and lose some. Grading is subjective. I only send cards that will gem and they still mint some but at 70% Gem rate I can’t complain.

[@bdpsportscards109]

@Teabagonyou At 70%, you’re doing very well! You have a good eye.

[@StrongCards88]

Came to say the same thing lol. Stroud should be a 9 with that corner too

[@Teabagonyou]

@@StrongCards88 well off centered as well. I will take wins on my biggest cards even if some smaller ones don’t Gem.

[@johndepoley3724]

I did pull last year a yellow Justin Crawford auto #/75 from target.

[@bdpsportscards109]

Out of a what kind of box? That’s a nice pull! Especially out of anything retail. Congrats!

[@johndepoley3724]

They are nice cards anyway. Wish I would pull a checkerboard let alone a downtown.

[@bdpsportscards109]

Appreciate it. The 2nd half of that sub has some fun stuff in it as well. Thanks for watching!

[@johndepoley3724]

Did you have trouble finding optic nfl 2023 in your area

[@bdpsportscards109]

@johndepoley3724 Yeah. That stuff has been really hot. Downtown value has exploded recently.

[@beliedat2457]

I just pulled a CJ Stroud Optic teal velocity from a mega box. I’ve been selling raw cards on eBay for 5 years now. I’ve never messed with a graded card in my life. I looked it over and cleaned it up. It’s headed to PSA next week. None have been graded yet and I’m pretty sure the print run is super low for the teal. Like /25 or /35

[@beliedat2457]

Also could you explain what an up charge is? Thanks!

[@bdpsportscards109]

I believe they’re /35 but I’m not certain. Panini messes with the colors of the velocity from sport to sport and it’s hard to keep them straight. I deal almost exclusively in raw cards these days when it comes to modern but there are times, like with your Stroud, that getting cards graded still makes sense.

[@bdpsportscards109]

@beliedat2457 Sure. What PSA does is ask you to select a value when submitting for “insurance” purposes, so if the card gets lost in transit or damaged during the grading process (happens but rarely) you’ve already set the replacement value. There’s no arguing. So, what most collectors do is submit at the lowest grading level and wait to see what PSA does. PSA charges a grading fee based on the value of the card, not solely the service they provide. Essentially, they take a percentage of your cards value in order to grade it. For instance, if you get a $5000 card graded, PSA charges you more than if you get a $500 card graded. Yes, before you ask, they are the only grading company that behaves this way. It is a very shady business practice but it’s baked into the cake because SGC and Beckett simply don’t have the market share to challenge PSA or force them to change their ways. In my sub, I sent all the cards in with an assumed valuation under $300. A lot of those cards raw or in a PSA slab exceed that value but I’m never going to do PSA’s dirty work for them and agree to pay more than I have to, up front, to grade the cards. You can usually get away with it if your cards are sub 1K but once they cross that threshold or if PSA needs an infusion of capital, they’ll hit you with an up charge. So, I paid $14 to grade that CJ Stroud Checkerboard. As soon as the grading team assigned it a 10, they flagged it and I was sent an email. The email informed me that the card required a grading fee of $74, not $14, and I needed to approve the change before they could proceed. That’s an up charge. Grading cards can get expensive if you’re grading big cards and they get good grades. I once got a $450 up charge to grade a Mahomes rookie auto that I submitted in the 2nd tier. It got a 10 and they hit me with the up charge. It’s unscrupulous but brilliant, if you think about it. They give no extra service, simply charge more money. But, in the end, you’re happy to get that email because it means the value of the card you submitted just went up significantly. I know this was a long answer. Hope that explains it.

[@beliedat2457]

@@bdpsportscards109perfectly! And thanks for taking the time to respond.

[@bdpsportscards109]

@beliedat2457 Anytime

[@joelkaplan2157]

The upcharge on new cards gets me upset 😡 I understand insurance and whatever but process they do to valuable card is same as they do to $1 card

[@bdpsportscards109]

I agree. It can be infuriating and it’s a shakedown, for sure, but part of the game if you grade with PSA. The PSA slab still adds so much value, when compared to SGC or BGS, that everyone just swallows it. Doesn’t make it right, but as long as the hobby treats their product that way, they can keep doing it.

[@user-mp9cd7sd4t]

Cracking a PSA 8 slab to resell raw to someone and not disclosing that seems beyond sleazy...

[@bdpsportscards109]

It’s not about keeping something a secret. This PSA grader gave the card an 8, the next might give it a 9 or a 10 or a 2 (I’ve seen it) What’s the difference between selling the card raw before or after it’s been in a slab? It happens every day in our hobby. Many of the raw cards up for sale or auction have gotten grades collectors were unhappy with/didn’t agree with, which were then cracked and listed. I’m sure I’ve purchased many cards that had been in slabs, previously. I always follow eBay’s rules and am fully transparent anytime I’m asked a question. I get where you’re coming from but grades on cards are opinions, not facts. We’ve all cracked and resubmitted subpar grades and gotten 10s in the past. It happens all the time. That Stroud may very well be a 10. Remember, PSA hired hundreds (if not thousands) of new graders a few years ago. Some are good, some are not. They barely trained them before sending them into action. Grading cards was never an exact science; now it’s a complete crap shoot.

[@johndepoley3724]

I've got a lot of great rookie cards and sp rookie cards of strouds wembys Richardson's and so on. I collect them. I don't get em graded. I collect. You can't go by just their rookie season you gotta wait till they have a long career to value their cards. You sell a year after their rookie season over hype you lose in the long run.

[@bdpsportscards109]

I hear ya. Collecting cards is different for everyone. I grade modern cards often times to sell them and capitalize on the hot new rookie or player of that moment. I’m a vintage collector at heart. Thats what I hold onto. That’s my passion.