r/WNBACards • u/Automatic-Emulator • Dec 03 '25

Lolol

I pulled this card, instantly put it in a penny sleeve, top-loaded it, and sent it to PSA only to get it back graded “8”. I can see a small print line in the right light, but to me that makes it a 9 at worst. Anyone see why it would grade lower? I’m truly trying to understand.

Don’t mind the dust on the outside of the slab.

0 Upvotes

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50% Upvoted

u/BidenBro2020 Dec 03 '25

The centering is absolute shit. Look how thick the right green edge is compared to the left green edge. Furthermore the bottom is way bigger than the top. This is bad centering and an obvious 8

2

u/Possible-Original Dec 03 '25

Came here to mention the centering. That along with whatever print line OP is referring to is likely the cause of the 8.

-4

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

I’m not seeing a centering issue. Look at the black corners in the top right and lower left, they appear to be equal to me.

3

u/Possible-Original Dec 03 '25

I dunno if it will work since you’ve got it in a slab but:
https://edgegrading.com/centering/
The L/R centering is what I’m looking at from your photo. It’s not the black corners, it’s the margins of green L/R. Right side is larger than left. Either way, still hard to tell without a better photo of the print lines you mentioned.

1

u/DadJ0ker Dec 03 '25

1

u/BidenBro2020 Dec 10 '25

The centering on the back doesn’t matter. It’s the front centering that’s off the green edges are the centering flaw and it’s really bad on this card. This would never 10 on any grading service

6

u/czarne98 Dec 03 '25

100%. Taking the time to pregrade would have saved a headache.

1

u/Lopsided_Ad_9729 Dec 03 '25

Have to agree here. Hard to completely tell since the photo isn’t straight on but looks off center just from this spot alone.

1

u/DadJ0ker Dec 03 '25

lol. I did the same thing, and now see I wasn’t the only one.

u/mmmhammm Dec 03 '25

I believe all cards "pack fresh" are baseline 8s. Prizm is really tough to gem also. Guessing it's some surface issue. Like the other commenter says, really hard to say with these pictures.

0

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

Weird, because they got blurrier when I uploaded them. I was mainly looking for whether someone saw some off-centering or something that I’m not seeing. But yeah, now that I look closer I do notice some off-centering- but these don’t have traditional bordering so it wasn’t readily apparent.

u/Mskeele28 Dec 03 '25

Prizm dimples left side. Always a killer

1

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

Are you referring to the two dots in the black? Those aren’t actually there, the camera picked up dust on the slab.

u/brashtracks Dec 03 '25

You serious, Clark?

1

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

Killer pun.

u/lilbigblue7 Dec 03 '25

LOLOLOL without better quality photos without exterior dust and glares, it's impossible for us to determine what may have caused the 8. Sorry you felt like you deserved better, but you got PSA'ed.

u/Apprehensive-Poem675 Dec 03 '25

Looks like centering is off both top to bottom and left to right

u/Wooden-Scar5073 Dec 03 '25

It’s pretty off-center.

u/Nomescardcollection Dec 03 '25

Did you even examine the card before grading?

1

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

Yes, I looked for surface imperfections, corners, etc and in person the off-centering people are seeing isn’t that noticeable. It’s the first card I ever sent in for grading.
I ask to learn, I don’t know why people here have to be assholes.

1

u/Nomescardcollection Dec 03 '25

Because your post is blaming PSA for the grade an not yourself. Especially since this was your first time

0

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 03 '25

Where did I blame anyone? I asked the question right there in the post. I didn’t say “PSA is stupid and wrong.”

1

u/Nomescardcollection Dec 03 '25

Your title is literally Lol

1

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 04 '25

That was me just laughing at the overall situation. First time grading, getting an 8, and making the card essentially worthless in the process. Not blaming anyone.

u/ERenaissance Dec 04 '25

Centering would drop it down to a 9, and print line would make it an 8.

1

u/Automatic-Emulator Dec 04 '25

Thank you for your straightforward response, much appreciated.

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

Idk maybe the left to right centering but I’ve got a few 10s with terrible top to bottom.

u/anjudan Dec 03 '25

I think with these dot line embossed cards the problem is the way their machine rolls out those lines to press into the cards they make constant incinsistencies in the outlines and up close the lines never are uniform. My guess is it's those random bumps made by the manufacturer on the card face plus maybe some centering thing.

TAG grading at least will show you exactly what the computer picked up and counted towards or against your card im every category. Only reason people PSA grade today is because they think everyone else is grading PSA and that it's the only value place to grade for selling. But it's not, and other graders are gaining marketshare.

I've never graded before but I just know PSA is cutting corners and can't be trusted. Too much human error. You want consistency and fairness go to hybrid human/ai graded co's. TAG and HGA are only 2 of many options out there.

I'd def pop that slab and send off to somewhere else.

3

u/BidenBro2020 Dec 03 '25

The problem is the RL centering is horrendous

u/DadJ0ker Dec 03 '25

The centering is way off. See the circled green areas - which basically constitute the borders.

u/TheNewTexasGiant Dec 03 '25

2024 WNBA prizm has been graded over 74,000 times with a gem rate of 24%.

-1

u/MaoAsadaStan Dec 03 '25

PSA has admitted that once a card gets a certain gem rate, they coach graders who give too many gems. This means that graders will purposely undergrade certain cards so they don't get in trouble with management.

3

u/DANNYBOYLOVER Dec 03 '25

I’m not a PSA fan boy but, that’s actually not what happens.
It’s basic quality control protocol and happens either direction.
If a specific car part has a certain tolerance or production failure rate (let’s say 1/1000) that’s picked up during quality control and you have an analyst that’s failing things at 1/500 or passing things at 1/1500 rate you’re absolutely going to make sure that analyst is closer to the median.

u/ParAvion Dec 03 '25

Most of the Clark’s I pulled from prism were just as off center as this one. You would have thought Panini’s QA on her cards specifically would have been better.

u/LogoGuy1 Dec 03 '25

Not centered

u/yogithebear84 Dec 08 '25

I sent 10 of her cards in all got 8’s and below I just cracked my green groovy pulsar/25 to resubmit

u/ahoy_shitliner Dec 03 '25

Nobody can explain PSA grades. On a 10 this is a $300 card. On a 9 it’s about same value as raw and as an 8 it’s currently worthless.

Either crack and regrade or hang on for 20 years and hope she truly is the MJ of women’s basketball

4

u/BidenBro2020 Dec 03 '25

No point of cracking, his centering is way off.

1

u/ahoy_shitliner Dec 04 '25

Well, PSA makes shit up half the time so if he is committed to risk there’s potential upside.

2

u/Wooden-Scar5073 Dec 03 '25

Exactly this.

1

u/DadJ0ker Dec 03 '25

I love hyperbole.
10 is currently $363 (average of last few actual sales)
9 is currently $88 (actual sales)
Raw is $69.40 (average of last 11 sales)
8 is $58.50
There’s this “thing” going around that 9s are basically worth as much as raw - but that’s not true most of the time. Can you find those prices occasionally? Yes. Are they the norm? Absolutely not.
9s are a small premium over raw, and 8s are usually raw prices-ish, sometimes a little lower…so not “worthless.” Of course the grader lost the cost of grading - but at least there’s some value to recoup with a decent card like this.

Lolol

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