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Previously, we scratched the surface of the card grading world with a rough overview of why grading matters, what to expect when you grade, and some of the major players involved.
Now, let’s take a deeper look at one of the biggest names in the industry, Professional Sports Authenticator — more commonly known as PSA.
Company History
PSA first arrived on the scene in 1991, long before trading card games like Magic The Gathering and Pokémon even existed. Founder David Hall already owned one of the biggest coin grading companies in America, PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service), and branched out into sports cards after the hobby exploded in the late ‘80s.
“I noticed in the early ’80s there were card dealers coming to the coin shows selling us coin dealers baseball cards,” he told Intelligent Collector in 2019. “And then grading, of course, became an issue and we were so successful with grading coins that we figured it would work for cards.”
It wasn’t long before the business gained success, partly due to the dot-com boom and companies like eBay, which started in 1995, and partly because of baseball’s 1998 Home Run Derby (“We used to get one or two Mark McGwire rookie cards a month. Then when it took off, one guy submitted 1,500 at one time,” said Hall).
Now, PSA claims to have certified over 65 million items in its 33-year history, including 2 million cards per year, and boasts offices in New Jersey, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, as well as their headquarters in Southern California.
PSA is such a big name in grading, in fact, that during the 2021 trading card frenzy (right around the time that Target temporarily stopped selling Pokémon cards after a few reported incidents of violent in-store disputes), the company had to stop services entirely to catch up to their 10 million card backlog. Thankfully, things appear to be mostly back to normal these days.
What PSA Offers
Each card grading service features its own unique selling points to entice buyers, sellers, and collectors alike. Here’s some of what PSA believes sets it apart from its competitors:
Prices start at $24.99 for cards that are valued at $500 or less, with a base turnaround time of 45 business days. Those prices go up based on speed and card value — for example, a “Regular” card valued at $1,500 costs $79.99, but reportedly only takes 10 business days to process. Cards worth more than $10,000 are considered “Premium” and start at $799.00, with an estimated turnaround time of 5 business days.
According to an internal study tracking over 7 million unique transactions of 8,213 different items, the PSA claims that their graded cards sell “for more than the named competitors 9 out of 10 times.” PSA 10 cards in particular are claimed to sell for twice as much in 68% of sales.
PSA offers an extensive online database that collectors, researchers and speculators can use to look up officially certified and graded items.
The service has access to its own PSA Vault, an additional service at a secure climate-controlled facility in New Castle, Delaware. Items stored in the vault can also be listed directly on certain auction sites.
You can download two distinct apps on both the Google Play and Apple app store marketplaces: one for submitting cards directly to PSA, and another “set registry” app that can be used to manage and track your collection.
There are also two types of Collectors Clubs, one for sports and another for “pop culture and TCG” enthusiasts. With an annual membership, both these clubs provides monthly grading specials, deals on bulk grading, subscription to PSA magazine, and up to $245 in store credit at “leading online platforms.”
Starting with sports card submission as of May 2024, the cases will be made from a brand new, weightier, “medical grade” plastic polymer that’s taken the company three years to design and produce. Said Mechanical Engineer Brian Alvey in a press release, “The overall dimensions of these new holders will be identical to what PSA used before the update, but the in-hand feel is significantly more premium.”
The PSA Grading Scale
Like all expertise-driven processes, grading is oftentimes more of an art than a science. It’s also gotten stricter over time, according to SGC grader Derek Grady, who told Sports Collector Digest in 2019 that “In the early days of PSA, cards that were graded an 8— for the most part now if you cracked them out and resubmitted, they would grade lower.”
Nowadays, PSA uses the half-point system that many other services in the card grading industry also favor, which can be broken down like this:
PSA 10 / Gem-Mint (GEM-MT): a “virtually perfect card,” according to PSA’s website. Very sight printing imperfections are allowed, but otherwise the image on the card must be free of any stains, creases, or touched corners, and must be centered almost perfectly. A card with an exactly centered print is considered a 50/50, for example, and any deviation from that is measured in terms of how much the proportion favors one side of the card over the other. So for a PSA 10, anything within a 55/45 to 60/40 allowance on the front and 75/25 on the back is acceptable.
PSA 9 / Mint (MINT): A “superb” card 60/40 to 65/35 centering or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.
PSA 8 / Near-Mint-Mint (NM-MT): This card “appears PSA 9 on first glance,” but may have some stains, minor printing imperfections, or “the slightest fraying at one or two corners.” Centering must be 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.
PSA 7 / Near-Mint (NM): Some slight surface wear, including slight fraying on corners. Centering must be 70/30 to 75/25 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.
PSA 6 / Excellent-Mint (EX-MT): This card will display “visible surface wear or a printing defect which does not detract from its overall appeal,” including possible wax stains in the case of baseball cards. Centering must be 80/20 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.
PSA 5 / Excellent (EX): This grade accounts for “minor rounding of corners,” noticeable printing defects or surface wear. Some of the card’s original gloss may also be gone at this point. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back,
PSA 4 / Very-Good-Excellent (VG-EX): Here the corner damage, printing defects or surface wear may be more pronounced and can even include faint creases. More of the card’s original gloss may have worn away. Centering must be 90/10 or better on both the front and back.
PSA 3 / Very-Good (VG): Most of the card’s original gloss is gone on a Very Good card, along with even more evident surface wear and minor scuffs or scratches. Centering must be 90/10 or better on both the front and back.
PSA 2 / Good (GOOD): Here, “surface wear is starting to become obvious.” This card might feature scratching, scuffing, or creases, and all of its original floss may be gone. The centering must be 90/10 or better on both the front and back.
PSA 1.5 / Fair (FR): The only half-point with its own specific designation, this grade goes to cards showing extreme wear, to the point that it might affect how the card is framed. Only fully intact cards qualify for this rating — otherwise, they get downgraded to a PSA 1.
PSA 1 / Poor (POOR): Similar to PSA 1.5 cards, except these cards don’t necessarily have to still be intact. According to the PSA website, “the defects may have advanced to such a serious stage that the eye appeal of the card has nearly vanished in its entirety.”
PSA Authentic (NO): Given to cards solely to demonstrate their authenticity without a numerical grade. This may sometimes be given out to cards that have been altered or cut from sheets, or if the person submitting the card requests that a grade not be given.
PSA Authentic Altered (AA): Used on a case-by-case basis for cards that are genuine but altered in some way that make grading its quality impossible — for example, if the card has been recolored or if its edges have been trimmed.
What To Look For When Buying PSA Cards
While previously graded cards (called “flips” by some in the hobby) may differ, here’s what a modern PSA-graded card looks like today:
The front uses a red border around the label in the plastic case, as well as fugitive ink (which changes appearance over time and is often used to prevent tampering) across the label as an anti-counterfeiting measure. You should also be able to read the following:
The card’s official name among collectors on the top left, along with any other varietal or pedigree details (such as when and why it was given out, in the case of tournament prizes or promo cards) underneath
The card’s population number on the top right, which designates how many cards of this type PSA has graded up to this point
The grade and score on the right
A barcode on the bottom left with the certification number encoded in it
A certificate number on the bottom right, which can be used to research the card in PSA’s Cert Verification database
The PSA “lighthouse” logo with a holographic “illumination” effect at the very bottom
On the dark navy back of the card, keep an eye out for these details:
The PSA “lighthouse” logo on the top, with no illumination this time
A second PSA logo with a UV pattern on the left
A QR code on the right that leads to the card’s certification details
The same barcode again on the bottom left
The certificate number again on the bottom right
Make sure you look for these markers of authenticity when choosing whether or not to buy a card that’s supposedly been PSA-graded. The certificate number will also be your best friend, as you can use it to verify the card’s existence, when it was first graded and how many other similarly graded cards might currently be available.
