this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Pokemon Cards

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Question: How does PSA grading work? (programming.dev)
submitted 7 months ago by notnotmike@programming.dev to c/pokemoncards@lemmy.world
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I'm not a Pokemon card collector - I used to play TCG when I was a kid, but didn't really continue and played a little bit of TCG Pocket recently. Safe to say I'm an amateur. The closest I get to collecting cards is Yu-Gi-Oh but I do that more for the love of the game and don't really care about grading.

So, my question are not necessarily what the PSA is and how they grade, but some more in-depth questions that are maybe not obvious at a glance

  • Does PSA publish a list of "criteria" that makes a 10?
  • Does PSA provide the end-user with a list of reasons why a card was not graded a 10?
    • In my mind, a picture of the defects with measurements would be expected but I've never seen something like that mentioned
  • Are the other measurement systems really gaining steam to replace PSA or is that mostly just wishing from those burned by PSA?
  • What's the barcode on the PSA case for? I would assume it relates to question (2)

I realize I could look up most of these questions, but I did just want to chat about what, as an outside, seems like a flawed system and see what people who are not streamers or public figures think about the system

Thank you in advance!

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[–] TheNokMachine@pawb.social 1 points 6 months ago

To determine the grade of your card, PSA use precise machinery that are capable of seeing details that can't be seen by the human eye and to manipulate the card with an almost perfect precision. To get a grade 10, you need your card to be perfect, as if it was just finished being made. They don't provide the reason why it's not a ten, but basically it's because of probable detail you can't see. If you are in Europe, the biggest competitor to PSA would be PCA (I've only known about PSA online). I don't have the answer to that, but my guess would to more easily know who sent the card for grading and which card it is.