The hobby going to love you ... u sound like you know what your talking about and you.. you made the audience relax speaking as a first timer and it’s going to get real busy so just have your content in place and you will be one of the go to guys
Most pf the cards has printed lines. Some of the psa 10 has a obvious printed lines. So...for me printed lines may or may not affect the grade of the card. It always depend on the grader haha!
Very informative video...Thank you for all the information.I did exactly what you did before I sent my cards to GMA & pretty much got the grades I was expecting. I also purposely sent a card with a dinged corner to see what he would grade it at 8.5..GMA is legit. I guess the PSA BGS shills are ticked off that someone offering really good service is cutting into the buisness
For you ...do print lines on the backside of an oterwise perfect card cpmpletely disqualify it for you... I have a ja morant silver prizm rookie card with horizontal print lines thatbare hard to visualize but are noticeable once you see them
No, not at all….actually, I’ve seen plenty of cards with print lines grade very high. If your card is in otherwise perfect condition, it could still pull a 10. Some print lines are worse than others…the worse the lines, especially on the front of the card, the more likely they are to lower the overall grade.
Those rear print lines, unless they really make an indention I think pretty much get ignored unless they are excessive. You can’t hardly find a panini optichrome card without them on the rear of the card.
Really good feedback on the print lines on the back. I have the same problem and that was holding me back. Now I can check the ones that have less lines and send them in for grading. Do you know if you can submit to PSA with football and basketball cards on the same order or would I have to create 2 orders?
You can most certainly submit all types of sports at one time. The thing with PSA is submissions is how fast you want to get them back. If you wanted some cards at a faster service, you would want to separate them within your shipment. I would recommend using a bulk submission service which will save you money on your submission.
@@topchopsc1 Thank you for responding. Yes i am doing a 20 cards or more bulk submission. Comes out cheaper. Yeah the waiting time is pretty long I heard.
This is the best video I have found about what to look for when considering a card for grading, but most of my cards are from the late 70s-91. Any suggestions for non-modern cards?
Thanks for checking out the video! Many of the things to look for are similar between new and old cards (centering, creases, corners, etc.). The biggest things to look for in the older cards that may differ from newer cards is the surface and edges. Older cards have a greater tendency to be cut rough along the edges. The surfaces are not glossy like newer cards, but they were more likely to have put marks or print defects from the rollers they were printed on. Also, check the card sizes….older cards sometimes vary slightly in size, which can cause them to come back from the grader as a “miscut” rather than a numerical grade. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions topchopsportscards@gmail.com
Great video! Only thing I am confused about @11:18 the diagram says solid lines = odd #'s, dashed lines = even #'s...your alignment shows the arrows pointing to dashed lines but with odd #'s?
TM Ncott that’s a great catch! As I put the slide together, I misread the numbers as I typed. Luckily the ratio would still be similar. The numbers should have been listed as 4 and 2, which would give a 67/33 ratio, still outside the 60/40 requirement. Thanks for the feedback!
Do you have the size 3 or 5 diopter magnifier? And does it matter lol. Also I’m having trouble understanding what grade goes with your centering percentage. Let’s say you have a percentage of 60 40. What grade would go along with that versus a 63 37? Obviously a 50 50 would be a 10 but what is a 9 or 9.5 percentage wise is basically what I’m asking.
Addison Christian thanks for watching and for the questions. My magnifier is a 3 diopter, which works very well for me. I can see everything very clear, but if I need to get really close, I use the jewelers loop. For the 60/40 centering, this is what GMA has pre-established as their centering requirement to attain a Gem Mint 10 grade. A 63/37 would drop it down to a Mint 9 with GMA. Each company has their own standards that they publish. SGC for example requires 50/50 for their “gold label” 10, but will accept a 55/45 centering for the standard 10 grade. I recommend you check the grading standards of the company you are using...it can save you some money in the long run and help set expectations for what you will see once they are graded.
Great helpful video.Much appreciated! Would you ever send a card to be graded if it had multiple print lines? I noticed about 75% of the 2020 Mosaic Football has issues with the lines,especially on the back of the card.I’m thinking about sending some of my cards to BGS,but issues with the lines is holding me back. Thanks!
8MontaEllis I definitely send in cards for grading with print lines on them. All of the graders appear to be somewhat lenient on print lines this year, especially on the backs of cards. Mosaic has been horrible with print lines this year....if the graders stuck to absolute perfection, 10’s would be a rarity! Print lines on the front will be judged harder, especially if they are apparent without putting the card under light.
@@topchopsc1 Thank you for responding back and I appreciate your suggestions.I definitely will now send in a few of my Mosaic cards to BGS. I was really excited today when I pulled a Justin Herbert Pink Camo Mosaic Prizm👻and then I realize the card was in bad shape🤦🏻♂️Multiple printing lines and a long 1 inch scratch from the back.How disappointing☹️Oh well🤷🏽♂️ I’ll just sell the card on Ebay as 3 of the identical Herberts cards sold for $100-$170. tonight during MNF. Thank you again😊
I have the same problem haha I have my silver disco nba card and it has 2 print line at the front. Do you guys think its okay to send it to the graders?
Steven Washington black labels are extremely rare. You would have to pull pop report data from the BGS website, which takes a little data mining to do. You can’t just search black labels in their pop report, so you would need to find the card you’re looking for and sort the data in a spreadsheet for cards that have 10’s in all 4 of the grading criteria categories. If I had to put a number of black labels, I would say a small fraction of a percent of all cards graded through BGS receive that label. I don’t want to say winning the lottery odds, but it may not be too far off from that. All it takes is one of those sub categories to be 9.5, which in all seriousness could be the case on any card if the grader deems it so.
@@topchopsc1 I appreciate the info and insight sir. I submitted close to 200 cards to BGS over the last couple of years and have never had a black label. I only had like 7-8 cards grade less than a "9". About 40 or so came back as "9s", about 20 or so "10s" (no black) and the rest were gems. I've also noticed that certain cards are really easy at getting "10s" like Absolute Glass cards and acetate cards. I was at a card show conversing with one of the dealers and he said that his last shipment at the time contained 330 cards and he got (7) Black Labels back. I'm starting to think that the orders must have to be pretty large to score one of these, seeing as how I think I have a decent eye for grading based on my results so far. Again, kind thanks for the reply and will be sure to check out your vides and subscribe. P.S. I'm going to submit close to (50) of the same card in my next order. The 2019-20 Kawhi Leonard Silver Prizm in Raptors Jersey, most of these are in impeccable condition. BGS 10 alone can increase the value of raw 10x, but Black Label Prices are litereally INSANE based on what I've seen. :)
Steven Washington thanks for the feedback and the support for my channel! I have always wondered the same thing on black labels and whether or not the quantity of cards submitted would play into that. In a perfect world, it doesn’t....but at the same time it’s a business, and what better way to award the best customers with a few black labels in their large submissions. The value of black label cards is insane....no doubt about it! All of my orders to BGS have been much smaller than 330 cards, and I have yet to pull a black label. I’ll be honest....it would be difficult for most collectors to tell the difference between a BGS 10 and a Black Label....but collectors will pay the money for them. This is where artificial value comes in and where BGS has been able to carve out a new section of the market. At that point, a person’s not buying the card, they’re buying the label.
Question, does it matter if the card edges have residue from when the card was cut? Like little white pieces of the card, would you just scrape them off? Thanks Great video good info!
This one is a little tougher and depends on the company and how much edge material is present. I usually try to run a microfiber cloth gently down the edge to see if I can remove it. I have had cards still get a 10 grade with edge fibers present. The edge grade is supposed to represent the quality of the edge itself, and these paper fibers sticking out usually don’t impact the true “quality” of the edge. I do not recommend pulling them as you can create a small divot on the edge....and running any type of blade along the edge can chance cutting the card. Try the microfiber method to at least smooth them in one direction if they won’t come off.
I keep noticing the print lines in damn near every card or at least new card I get. Everything else seems perfect but how much of a ding is the print lines? Can u rate the levels or and tiers all of this are? Like if one of these is a bit off does psa still give a 10 or if ANY of these appear u will never get a 10. Maybe it takes 2 imperfections or 3 to drop u down to a 9 or 8. Thanks
It depends which grader you use. You are correct....it’s damn near impossible to find this year’s cards without print lines of some sort. There isn’t really a number of print lines that constitutes a lower grade, but rather how visible they are. The rule of thumb is that graders take it easier on print lines that appear on the back of the card than the front. Companies have different standards and each grader within a company may vary slightly on their opinion. You can pull 10’s on cards with print lines, but a significant line on the front of the card will almost certainly affect your grade.
Appreciate the deep dive into this! Thank you
The hobby going to love you ... u sound like you know what your talking about and you.. you made the audience relax speaking as a first timer and it’s going to get real busy so just have your content in place and you will be one of the go to guys
Thanks for the feedback and for checking out my video!
Best video out there ive found regarding pre grading. Very Comprehensive!! Thank You
Most pf the cards has printed lines. Some of the psa 10 has a obvious printed lines. So...for me printed lines may or may not affect the grade of the card. It always depend on the grader haha!
I was wondering because a lot of prizm parallels sometimes have print scratches I was wondering if it is an automatic 8-9
Thank you for the info extremely helpful. I had no idea about the centering card.
Sent this to a friend who wants to get into the hobby, thanks for the video.
Very informative video...Thank you for all the information.I did exactly what you did before I sent my cards to GMA & pretty much got the grades I was expecting. I also purposely sent a card with a dinged corner to see what he would grade it at 8.5..GMA is legit. I guess the PSA BGS shills are ticked off that someone offering really good service is cutting into the buisness
For you ...do print lines on the backside of an oterwise perfect card cpmpletely disqualify it for you... I have a ja morant silver prizm rookie card with horizontal print lines thatbare hard to visualize but are noticeable once you see them
No, not at all….actually, I’ve seen plenty of cards with print lines grade very high. If your card is in otherwise perfect condition, it could still pull a 10. Some print lines are worse than others…the worse the lines, especially on the front of the card, the more likely they are to lower the overall grade.
Those rear print lines, unless they really make an indention I think pretty much get ignored unless they are excessive. You can’t hardly find a panini optichrome card without them on the rear of the card.
taylor5877 it is crazy how many have those lines....I have busted a lot of mosaic this year and rarely find a card without print lines!
@@topchopsc1 if print lines are the only imperfection, what kind of grade should i expect?
@@joshnichols6485 10
what about vintage cards from 70s and 80s. they arent shiny so do they need to be wiped down????
Great video sir! I felt like I learned a lot and saved a lot of money.
Really good feedback on the print lines on the back. I have the same problem and that was holding me back. Now I can check the ones that have less lines and send them in for grading. Do you know if you can submit to PSA with football and basketball cards on the same order or would I have to create 2 orders?
You can most certainly submit all types of sports at one time. The thing with PSA is submissions is how fast you want to get them back. If you wanted some cards at a faster service, you would want to separate them within your shipment. I would recommend using a bulk submission service which will save you money on your submission.
@@topchopsc1 Thank you for responding. Yes i am doing a 20 cards or more bulk submission. Comes out cheaper. Yeah the waiting time is pretty long I heard.
Took notes, very informative.
Wow, a man who is knowledgeable and informative! Well done my friend!
This is the best video I have found about what to look for when considering a card for grading, but most of my cards are from the late 70s-91. Any suggestions for non-modern cards?
Thanks for checking out the video! Many of the things to look for are similar between new and old cards (centering, creases, corners, etc.). The biggest things to look for in the older cards that may differ from newer cards is the surface and edges. Older cards have a greater tendency to be cut rough along the edges. The surfaces are not glossy like newer cards, but they were more likely to have put marks or print defects from the rollers they were printed on. Also, check the card sizes….older cards sometimes vary slightly in size, which can cause them to come back from the grader as a “miscut” rather than a numerical grade. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions topchopsportscards@gmail.com
@@topchopsc1 Thank you!
Great video!!
All good advise! Appreciate it!
This was a great video and taught me some great tips!
Could you just use your iPhone flashlight as the light?
Great video! Only thing I am confused about @11:18 the diagram says solid lines = odd #'s, dashed lines = even #'s...your alignment shows the arrows pointing to dashed lines but with odd #'s?
TM Ncott that’s a great catch! As I put the slide together, I misread the numbers as I typed. Luckily the ratio would still be similar. The numbers should have been listed as 4 and 2, which would give a 67/33 ratio, still outside the 60/40 requirement. Thanks for the feedback!
Wow this is so cool
Super helpful video, thanks man
Do you have the size 3 or 5 diopter magnifier? And does it matter lol. Also I’m having trouble understanding what grade goes with your centering percentage. Let’s say you have a percentage of 60 40. What grade would go along with that versus a 63 37? Obviously a 50 50 would be a 10 but what is a 9 or 9.5 percentage wise is basically what I’m asking.
Addison Christian thanks for watching and for the questions. My magnifier is a 3 diopter, which works very well for me. I can see everything very clear, but if I need to get really close, I use the jewelers loop. For the 60/40 centering, this is what GMA has pre-established as their centering requirement to attain a Gem Mint 10 grade. A 63/37 would drop it down to a Mint 9 with GMA. Each company has their own standards that they publish. SGC for example requires 50/50 for their “gold label” 10, but will accept a 55/45 centering for the standard 10 grade. I recommend you check the grading standards of the company you are using...it can save you some money in the long run and help set expectations for what you will see once they are graded.
TopChop Sports Cards I appreciate the great response and excellent video! Thank you much friend 💯
This was an awesome informative video. Thank you so much for breaking it all down.
Great video, very informative! Thank you!
Great helpful video.Much appreciated!
Would you ever send a card to be graded if it had multiple print lines?
I noticed about 75% of the 2020 Mosaic Football has issues with the lines,especially on the back of the card.I’m thinking about sending some of my cards to BGS,but issues with the lines is holding me back.
Thanks!
8MontaEllis I definitely send in cards for grading with print lines on them. All of the graders appear to be somewhat lenient on print lines this year, especially on the backs of cards. Mosaic has been horrible with print lines this year....if the graders stuck to absolute perfection, 10’s would be a rarity! Print lines on the front will be judged harder, especially if they are apparent without putting the card under light.
@@topchopsc1 Thank you for responding back and I appreciate your suggestions.I definitely will now send in a few of my Mosaic cards to BGS.
I was really excited today when I pulled a Justin Herbert Pink Camo Mosaic Prizm👻and then I realize the card was in bad shape🤦🏻♂️Multiple printing lines and a long 1 inch scratch from the back.How disappointing☹️Oh well🤷🏽♂️
I’ll just sell the card on Ebay as 3 of the identical Herberts cards sold for $100-$170. tonight during MNF.
Thank you again😊
I have the same problem haha I have my silver disco nba card and it has 2 print line at the front. Do you guys think its okay to send it to the graders?
Great video! Very helpful information.
Nice info\video...thanks. Do you have any insight on the degree of difficulty for getting BGS Black Labels based on you experiences and submissions?
Steven Washington black labels are extremely rare. You would have to pull pop report data from the BGS website, which takes a little data mining to do. You can’t just search black labels in their pop report, so you would need to find the card you’re looking for and sort the data in a spreadsheet for cards that have 10’s in all 4 of the grading criteria categories. If I had to put a number of black labels, I would say a small fraction of a percent of all cards graded through BGS receive that label. I don’t want to say winning the lottery odds, but it may not be too far off from that. All it takes is one of those sub categories to be 9.5, which in all seriousness could be the case on any card if the grader deems it so.
@@topchopsc1 I appreciate the info and insight sir. I submitted close to 200 cards to BGS over the last couple of years and have never had a black label. I only had like 7-8 cards grade less than a "9". About 40 or so came back as "9s", about 20 or so "10s" (no black) and the rest were gems.
I've also noticed that certain cards are really easy at getting "10s" like Absolute Glass cards and acetate cards.
I was at a card show conversing with one of the dealers and he said that his last shipment at the time contained 330 cards and he got (7) Black Labels back. I'm starting to think that the orders must have to be pretty large to score one of these, seeing as how I think I have a decent eye for grading based on my results so far. Again, kind thanks for the reply and will be sure to check out your vides and subscribe.
P.S. I'm going to submit close to (50) of the same card in my next order. The 2019-20 Kawhi Leonard Silver Prizm in Raptors Jersey, most of these are in impeccable condition. BGS 10 alone can increase the value of raw 10x, but Black Label Prices are litereally INSANE based on what I've seen. :)
Steven Washington thanks for the feedback and the support for my channel! I have always wondered the same thing on black labels and whether or not the quantity of cards submitted would play into that. In a perfect world, it doesn’t....but at the same time it’s a business, and what better way to award the best customers with a few black labels in their large submissions. The value of black label cards is insane....no doubt about it! All of my orders to BGS have been much smaller than 330 cards, and I have yet to pull a black label. I’ll be honest....it would be difficult for most collectors to tell the difference between a BGS 10 and a Black Label....but collectors will pay the money for them. This is where artificial value comes in and where BGS has been able to carve out a new section of the market. At that point, a person’s not buying the card, they’re buying the label.
Great video, thanks!
Question, does it matter if the card edges have residue from when the card was cut? Like little white pieces of the card, would you just scrape them off? Thanks Great video good info!
This one is a little tougher and depends on the company and how much edge material is present. I usually try to run a microfiber cloth gently down the edge to see if I can remove it. I have had cards still get a 10 grade with edge fibers present. The edge grade is supposed to represent the quality of the edge itself, and these paper fibers sticking out usually don’t impact the true “quality” of the edge. I do not recommend pulling them as you can create a small divot on the edge....and running any type of blade along the edge can chance cutting the card. Try the microfiber method to at least smooth them in one direction if they won’t come off.
@@topchopsc1 awesome thanks!
I keep noticing the print lines in damn near every card or at least new card I get. Everything else seems perfect but how much of a ding is the print lines? Can u rate the levels or and tiers all of this are? Like if one of these is a bit off does psa still give a 10 or if ANY of these appear u will never get a 10. Maybe it takes 2 imperfections or 3 to drop u down to a 9 or 8. Thanks
It depends which grader you use. You are correct....it’s damn near impossible to find this year’s cards without print lines of some sort. There isn’t really a number of print lines that constitutes a lower grade, but rather how visible they are. The rule of thumb is that graders take it easier on print lines that appear on the back of the card than the front. Companies have different standards and each grader within a company may vary slightly on their opinion. You can pull 10’s on cards with print lines, but a significant line on the front of the card will almost certainly affect your grade.
Great info! What magnification and brand is your light?
It is a 3 diopter magnifier. I put a link in the video info. It does a good job....when I need to get closer, I use my jewelers loupe.
Thank you!
nice video
The dimple.. all my pack fresh pulled Zion prizms have them lol what a joke.
Yeah, quality has not been the best this year for Panini. A lot of issues on most of their products.
also, for what it costs to buy these cards you would think the printing process would be better.....absolute sloppy joke by panini
Your fingernails are 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 - black pristine
james jowl 😂 thanks man!