Is PSA 9 A Bad Grade?

Back in May, I pondered “the collector’s quandary,” which was buying a bunch of PSA 9s vs buying one PSA 10:

Look at that thumbnail! Remember when was I testing out professional thumbnails? Yeah, I barely do too. It feels so long ago.

For me, it’s an easy decision most of the time. I would rather have 7 killer PSA 9 cards than 1 PSA 10, for roughly the same price. That’s not to say that I don’t have any PSA 10s, but they are few and far between, and I got killer deals on them.

This debate started anew a few weeks ago, though, after someone posted that they had cracked all of their 9s to resubmit and get 10s.

For the purposes of this article, we should of course assume that we are talking about modern and ultra-modern sports cards, and not amazing cards like this:

I asked you, my brilliant readers, for your thoughts on PSA 9s vs 10s for modern cards. 152 of you voted (thank you!), and 71% of you said a 9 is fine:

Only 9% said “10 or bust,” which makes sense because my audience is vintage-heavy, collector-heavy, and budget-focused.

Here are some of the responses from those who said 9s were fine:

“Trying my best to be a buy the card not the label guy... Work in progress!” -gradyjm333

“Nines are completely fine! I can’t believe people won’t even look at an eight? If they did, they’d see it’s practically a nine most of the time anyway?” -grk10vq

“I'm trying to put a 90's insert together all PSA 9. There are other certain cards though that I wouldn't buy unless a 10.” -jakestoe

“Nowadays, one can often find 9s cheaper than, or equal to the cost of raw. It’s an economically sound way to obtain an authentic, protected copy of a card. Not to mention, the difference between a 9 and a 10 isn’t discernible to the naked eye in most cases.” -neohiosportscardoisseurs

“PSA 9 is usually the same price or less than a raw card. I personally could not care less about the grade, I just think they display better in a psa slab. I have bought some low number cards for less than a raw because it was PSA 8.” -rsangra

“We often discuss the indiscernible differences between 9's and 10's. But yet 10's often sell for 10x premiums. I think the premiums make the 9's attractive for collectors and who knows, maybe the price of the 9's will escalate over time.” -dlachey

“Usually 9s are way cheaper for a card which looks close to the same. Now i desire 10s when I grade but if i want a card ill take a 9 when buying” -mjfamilytimecards

“The entire hobby puts far too much emphasis on grading in general.” -downeygames

“9 is still a mint card so if you are buying it already graded, if it is a great price why not. If you are getting a raw card, graded, you want the 10 and are disappointed when it isn't but that's the game.” -tsedgar

A lot of these responses highlight similar things:

• PSA 9s look just like 10s, and no one — not even graders, oftentimes — can tell the difference

• PSA 9s are a great bargain

• PSA 9 is still mint! When did mint become bad?

• When grading a card yourself, you want a 10; when buying already graded, you want a 9

I agree with all of these sentiments. What is there to disagree with?

Not a single one of the 14 “10 or bust” respondents added their thoughts with their response.

This next tweet is really good, but the person who posted it as since set their tweets to private. I think it still comes through somehow:

Common Scam

I also wanted to bring this to your attention. People have been faking “coins” for online sales for years, but they’re getting better.

First of all, for the uninitiated, when someone is selling a card online, they are often asked to “coin” the photo, which includes a piece of paper with their name and the date, to prove that they really own it and they didn’t just steal someone else’s photo to try and “sell” a card they don’t have. You shouldn’t buy a card from an unknown or unreliable seller without a coin.

Now you need to contend with improved photoshops of coins:

Someone posted that to Facebook, and a surprising number of commenters didn’t see anything wrong.

First of all, if someone is offering you a standard-size (as opposed to the far less valuable oversized ones) — and this one looks like standard size — for $20, that’s the first red flag. These are pretty consistently going for $1,000 or more:

The problem with the name and date is that it’s a common Photoshop font. And it’s a little more blurry than the rest of the photo, if you zoom in. You can see how easily someone might get fooled by this, though.

If you are not sure about the coin, and the seller isn’t a well-known seller with plenty of legitimate vouches, move on. No matter how tempting the offer is.

I’ll cover other common online selling scams in upcoming newsletters.

Have you ever been scammed online by a sports card seller or buyer? If it’s an interesting story and you want to share it, I might publish it. Email me with details.