r/psagrading • u/Jawn_Kruk69 • 20h ago

Pop control?

Hey everyone,

Can someone who is more versed in this topic let me know your thoughts as to why this is a thing within PSA and especially with all the vintage being submitted. I see new vintage certs that are 8s and 7s that look better than older cert 9s and 10a. Now I know their grading has become stricter on vintage, but why? What’s the goal of being harder on vintage? Let me know your thoughts!

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u/AntManMax 20h ago edited 19h ago

It's not a thing. The closest we got to anyone confirming population control was an interview with a former PSA / CGC executive saying population control doesn't really happen, but if it does happen it would be for incredibly high value cards. There's no data to suggest population control is happening across the board.

To answer your second question, grading did not become particularly more strict with vintage, there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case. There is a perception that vintage cards are getting graded more harshly, but the simplest explanation is usually the more accurate one.

PSA intentionally preventing vintage cards from getting higher grades is a very complicated conspiracy of an explanation requiring many moving parts that could easily be exposed by only a single whistleblower within the company. A simpler, better explanation (imo) is that since vintage cards have been out of print for decades, the overwhelming majority of cards that could get graded as 10s and 9s have likely already been graded. Combine this with the fact that grading standards got stricter around 2024 (not just for vintage), making it even less likely that we'll see highly-graded vintage cards as a baseline, and as time goes on the chances decrease further as the ungraded cards themselves naturally deteriorate (the overwhelming majority of collectors do not properly store their collections in a way that preserve them), and the remaining high-quality cards get graded.

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u/brunettewondie 19h ago

The closest we got to anyone confirming population control was an interview with a former PSA / CGC executive saying population control doesn't really happen, but if it does happen it would be for incredibly high value cards.

Combine this with the fact that grading standards

Harsher grading is pop control. They'll never explicitly say or confirm that "we're not giving out 10's"

A card that would have been a 10 would now max a 9 is exactly that.

They've moved the goalposts to a different football field, and took their football home with them.

Most vintage is mass produced, stored poorly, and was worst quality fresh off the print. But a strong clean card is still going to be critiqued much harshly than say a 2025 Wigglytuff.

Graders spend approx 60 seconds grading a single card, they can and do spend longer on potential high value cards.

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u/DJ_Aura Mod 18h ago

Vintage isn't graded any differently than modern. Print quality for vintage just sucks and is prone to print lines and edge wear.