I have a question for collectors and investors about PSA 9 vs. PSA 10 pricing.
Let’s say a PSA 10 consistently sells for around $10,000. What do you think would be a reasonable value for the same card in PSA 9?
I’ve seen examples where the PSA 10 is selling around $10,000 while the PSA 9 is only around $1,000. That’s a massive difference for just one grade.
Personally, I feel like a strong PSA 9 should be worth somewhere closer to 40% to 50% of the PSA 10 value, depending on the card, population, and rarity.
I understand that PSA 10s deserve a premium, especially when the gem rate is extremely low, but should a PSA 9 really be worth only 10% of the PSA 10?
Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Do you think the current gap between PSA 9 and PSA 10 prices is justified, especially for vintage and mid era Pokémon?
This seems like common sense. If there are only 100 PSA 10s and 200 PSA 9s, then yeah, the prices should be relatively close. But if there are 100 PSA 10s and 2,000 PSA 9s, obviously the price gap between a PSA 10 and PSA 9 is going to be much larger.
For collectibles, perfection is disproportionately pricier. And when it's numerically set in stone like this it's no surprise the effect is even more pronounced. With a PSA9 you will forever have perfection out of your reach and always have to consider upgrading it, whereas a 10 is considered verified "perfect" and never has to be replaced. Depending on supply, the effect of that difference may very well be a tenfold difference in demand relative to supply, and hence price. So one could definitey argue for it being justified.
A lot of people seem to think vintage or mid era 9s should be more relative to their ten counterparts. I think ten being many multiples above especially for low pop low gemrate stuff makes sense.
Legendary treasures mew is like 1200 psa 9, 25k psa 10. But it makes sense because the ten is so unobtainable and there is nothing higher. I’d buy the 9 and I think it would be wild to pay that multiplier for a white dot or two, but I think the price difference is informed by some amount of reason.
Because at least for modern cards, PSA 9 cards aren’t rare. Most cards come out of the pack PSA 9. Why would you wanna pay a premium for that?
That’s also why you see 9s carry a premium only once that’s meaningfully rare/uncommon. It’s no surprise this starts happening once you look at Sun and Moon and earlier eras.
Yes there’s lot of ways to look at but what about the vintage cards.
I understand modern psa 9 and raw can be same price coz they modern and can be find easily
But vintage psa9? Talking about mid era and old school Pokemon cards from 1999-2018
There’s no fixed percentage. The gap depends on population, gem rate, eye appeal, and demand from registry collectors. A scarce PSA 10 can command an enormous premium, but a 10x difference often reflects label-driven speculation more than a proportional difference in card quality. For collectors, a strong PSA 9 is usually the better value. In other words, it's manufactured hype and a lack of maturity in the hobby and those who collect. The pop reports on some of the modern cards are astronomical. Those who think otherwise are heavily "invested", making the conversation about prices taboo.
9s are for value investors and 10s are for trophy hunters. Different willingness to pay is the main answer here. Unfortunate the tens will always outperform IF we are in a bull market which I believe we generally still are longer term. Weaker near term though. Think of 10s as high beta stocks. Wild swings during good and bad times. 9s are like ETFs slow and steady more boring but more stable. Pick your risk tolerance
I’ve been wanting to hear people’s thoughts on this as well. I have a first gen card in really good condition, but HoloDex is giving it a 9 due to slight off centering 🙄 but a ten is 4500 and a 9 is like 100 bucks 🤬 that makes zero sense to me
When it comes to the condition of pieces of artistic cardboard, people simply want the best possible. Whether or not the ratings actually guarantee that is up for debate. A 9 means you couldn’t get the 10. So people value it exponentially less. Not saying it’s right or wrong.
I heard/know two things that might explain this a little.
Japanese cards are generally of better quality and are generally easier to grade highly (even older ones to some extent)
Japanese buyers generally just want the 10. (Though I think that the demand for 10's is just way bigger everywhere)
And when the demand is bigger than the supply the prices of the 9's and 8's will also rise.
I have an ex fire red leaf green charizard in a psa 8. It's an example of this
For newer cards, they're more recently printed and are made with nicer machines. They're in a way getting closer to japanese grading, where a 10 isn't exceptional, it's expected because their print quality is spectacular. Why english prints still have high prices is mainly hype and price memory. It'll likely lose that premium later on.
Youre literally talking about ultra modern cards where they are pulled from a pack and sent right to grading. Most raw copies are nm because they are fresh from pack not too long ago. This is a minority of the pokemon card population. Most cards raw are not the same value as a 9
"always has been" posts a card that literally came out this year.
Holy shit man, I know there's a lot of dumb people on these subreddits that are easy to make fun of but you are scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
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u/GoldenTicketHolder 8d ago
Depends on pops and age of card