Why would you want to get your degree? card/s at PSA?

Introduction:
On this page we dive into the detail of why grading off card/s at PSA is SO attractive that we have several thousand customers a year who every month send us several 1000 shows of card/s we process and send for grading. Why is that really SO popular?

It can be an attractive form of investment:
Grading is incredibly popular, partly because it can greatly increase the value of your trading card. In other words, it can be a very attractive investment method, but grading is about more than just kroner and øre. Many collectors and investors in this hobby maximize the value of their collectibles by having them 3-party appraised. This concept is actually not new! There was a time when stamps were the big thing. At that time, they also checked whether the stamp was in good condition. Condition and price of collector's items are related! Whether it is your special Kahler vase, your beautiful designer sofa, your rare sneakers or whether it is trading cards, the principle is the same. The more "mint" or "gem-mint" your objects are, the more they are worth. Ask yourself if you would pay full price for the Kahler vase if there was a large chip in the vase? Would you pay full price for the couch if there was a big stain on it? The same applies with card/s! Within trading cards, the most popular and recognized place to get your objects is the 3-party valuation company PSA. 
LetsGradeCards is an official dealer with PSA, which means that PSA has approved LetsGradeCards to accept card/s on behalf of others and submit them to the PSA based on their strict guidelines. 

Agreement on the price:
When we get graded ours card/s at PSA, we are typically not the only ones who have had that thought about a given card/s. This means that in the vast majority of cases there is already a documented valuation on your property card/s to a certain degree. When you once in your life want to sell or exchange yours card/s, it is much easier to agree on the price as value versus condition is well documented. In contrast to card/s which has not been graded, cases can easily arise where the buyer and seller disagree about the condition and therefore also the real value of the card. Be careful not to end up in a situation where you pay the price for a "RAW" card/s corresponding to a PSA 8, 9 or 10 if yours card/s cannot achieve this degree at PSA. In this case, your investment will get yours card/s graded not have a positive effect for you. 

Your card/s is real!
Grading is about more than just adding value!
Grading by PSA is also a blue stamp on your card/s is real! - Especially for the elderly card/s or certain desirable card/s, can it be important knowledge to equal card/s is actually real. As part of the concept of getting yours card/s PSA graded, it is also covered to ens card/s is real. You simply cannot encapsulate yours card/s, if it is false. 

Protection:
We spend an incredible amount of money in the hobby to protect ours card/s. Everything from plastic pockets, simi-rigids holders to folders etc. By getting yours card/s encapsulated at PSA, it also helps to give your card/s the ultimate protection. It takes an extremely long time before a "slack" breaks in such a violent way that it affects the card itself. It can be done, and you should always protect your "slaps", but you can't get better protection card/s than a degree card/s from PSA. This means in practice that the condition your card/s is in when it is graded at PSA, also in theory, if you take care of your slips, it will be the same in 100 years. Your rare card/s can therefore go on for generations without the card's condition deteriorating. 

Your card/s becoming more rare in some cases. 
When you grade your card/s, it will also be possible to see a so-called "POP" report. A population report is a status from PSA that shows you how many of yours card/s are graded in each individual grade in their grading scale. This means that if you have a mass produced TCG card/s, where you do not know the exact origin of the card, that then you can see directly through PSA how many card/s they have graded in a given grade. When you as a collector have a popular one card/s between the fingers that one has been lucky to receive a good grade on, it is easier for us to see how rarely, ours card/s now has actually become. If, for example, you have a card/s in a 10 where you know that there are only 500 other copies in the world that have been awarded this grade, then make it yours card/s much more attractive, which is also the reason why there can be a large increase in value on certain card/s. The hobby and for that matter all kinds of collections are very much about supply and demand. So if you have something that many people want to get hold of, but there are not many copies, this has an incredible value advantage for you as a collector. Grading can help you to your card/s is more sought after than if you have not graded yours card/s. 

There is sport in it!
When you first experience the joy and sense of success of achieving a PSA 10, it can make you completely "high" and full of joy. It's not easy to get 10 on one card/s, and it shouldn't be either! However, spotting quickly becomes a sport card/s, who have a high chance of achieving a high grade. Grading is always a "sure thing", especially since PSA's X-Factor concerns "Eye-appeal" plays a bigger role than realises. That's why it's fun to test yourself and see how sharp you are in your own assessments. 

Tips and Tricks:
It may be useful for you to evaluate your own card/s and guess what grade it is card/s can achieve. In our "knowledge center" we have an in-depth guide on PSA's grading scale that you can use to familiarize yourself with it. Knowledge requires time and work, but there is only one person who can do this work for you - it is YOU! 

When you want to send card/s for grading, guess your future grades and write them down on a piece of paper. When your card/s comes back from PSA, you compare your original notes against the purely actual scores. Can you see why your card/s got 8 and not 9? examine your slabs and familiarize yourself with the difference between 2 grades. In the long run you will become a true grading master, but you must be prepared that, like everything else, there is a certain kind of learning curve in becoming a master in the field. 

The right things in your toolbox:
The absolute must-have tool in your toolbox when you want to guess your future grade is a "magnifying lamp". A magnifying lamp is a lamp with powerful light that contains a magnifying glass. When you CAREFULLY inspect your card/s with the help of a magnifying lamp, you have the opportunity (especially on the surface) to be able to see things that we tend to overlook with the naked eye. You can Google your way to a magnifying lamp according to your taste. A lamp can be bought for less than DKK 500 and is therefore an incredibly good investment. When you have opted out of 3 card/s which you do not want to send in anyway because the condition cannot be justified, you have saved more than what your lamp has cost you in grading fees. 

It is possible to purchase a "centering tool" that can help you see/measure the exact centering on a card/s. These tools can be purchased in several places on the Internet. It must be said for this tool that with experience and an eye for detail you can easily see centering with the naked eye. However, the tool is useful in situations where you have one card/s which is right on the border between a PSA 9 and a PSA 10, to measure whether there is a mathematical chance of a PSA 10. However, remember to take "eye appeal" into consideration. If you can see with the naked eye that the map is not visually perfect, the chance of PSA 9 is greater than PSA 10, even if your centering is within the accepted limit. 

Research, research and more research!
In our knowledge centre, we have a complete guide on how to get started more easily and become an expert in your research card/s, so here are just a few highlights. 

Research the value of your card/s without it being graded! - You can do this, for example, on market platforms such as Cardmarked, eBay, etc. Once you have guessed which grade your card/s can achieve, you do the same exercise again, only where you search for the value in the specific PSA graded condition you think is yours card/s will achieve. What is the difference between the value the card has NOW (RAW) and in a PSA graded version in the grade you have guessed? - Is the difference greater or less than it costs you to send yours card/s for grading? - This is an ultimate answer to "does it make sense". You can therefore not give a concrete answer to this question and it is therefore our opinion that you yourself as a collector should do your preparatory work. LetsGradeCards ApS does not "guess" about the customers card/s! - We can say that we think it is a good candidate, but we will never come up with a concrete assessment. In fact, this is heralded as an official PSA dealer. Our function in the market is to be as informative in all grading related areas as possible, and when we treat the customers' card/s, that we do this with enormous precision and love for the individual card/s, so that one does not happen card/s something in our custody. That is why we at LetsGradeCards place your card/s in a secured room and safe when we are not processing yours card/s. Our "no food, no drink" policy for our internal staff states that we must not eat or drink anything near the customers card/s in order to ensure that we do not waste your property. Last but not least, it is our position that we never touch yours directly card/s when it can be avoided and if we absolutely must touch yours card/s, for example because we have to change the sleeve on yours card/s, that we do this based on a method that continues to protect yours card/s.   

Flow and economy for the more serious collector:
Last but not least, we will come up with some good advice and tips to get the finances together. For the vast majority of people, grading is expensive. Not just a little expensive, but VERY expensive. Since it costs anywhere from DKK 180 to DKK 650 per card/s to get it graded, one's costs can be unmanageably high in getting one's graded card/s and therefore we will offer a small tip in the area, so that it does not feel quite so violent. The method we reveal here is a method that several of the internal employees use with great success. However, it must be said that there is a "start-up phase" and that the method requires time and patience for it to be effective. 

Basically, it is about firstly sending regularly for grading. When you choose to send 10 card/s for grading, it may be wise for you to send 1-3 card/s with which you actually think you will sell when they come back from PSA. In many cases, once you've become a master at picking your card/s, can there be such a large increase in value on yours card/s, that these 1-3 card/s sponsors costs on the others card/s, and puts you in a position to send more card/s in for grading. Since there can be a long waiting time at PSA (also known as turn around time), you may be exposed to having to wait a long time for your card/s comes back and therefore it can be a slow process to build up a solid flow, especially for collectors who do not have the opportunity to send card/s in for grading every single month. Slowly as time goes by, however, this becomes easier and easier and your "hobby economy" and flow in your own collection can reach heights where you hardly notice that you are spending money on grading. This naturally assumes that you are here "for the long run" and that you can reflect yourself in this strategy. 

Finally, we want to remind everyone why we are here! - We are here because it is fun to collect, and the vast majority of people started this hobby as children and as adults have rediscovered the joy in card/s. Remember that collecting is first and foremost about having fun, meeting others you can geek out with and watching your collection grow, and although grading is great, you can get a few "hits" once in a while. Take it for what it is. Enjoy your successes when they are there and learn from the times when things didn't go quite as planned. But remember to have fun, it's alpha-omega!