Complete Guide to Finding PSA 10 Candidates on eBay: 9 Best Practices

This is a strategy guide on how to find PSA 10 candidates on eBay. Obviously this is a bit tricky, as there’s only so much you can see from photos. Here are some best practices.

1. Prioritize Centering and Corners

Surface issues generally require the right lighting and angles to see. Edge issues generally require specific angles. Since centering and corners are the only things you can see well from pictures, we try to make sure everything we buy at least has good centering and sharp corners.

2. Get the Right Pictures

We will always ask for pictures of the card outside of both the top loader / mag and any penny sleeves. This helps us to see the surface as best we can. We try to avoid buying cards without these pictures.

3. Ask Questions

I’ll caution you to ask smart questions. Don’t ask a seller “do you think this is a 10?” But do ask about specific defects you’re unsure of, whether the seller pulled the card himself, or whatever else is relevant.

4. Read the Descriptions

The description sometimes will give you important context. Is the card pack fresh? Is there some issue you should know about? Always read descriptions before buying.

5. Sellers Who Grade Are a RED FLAG

It’s impossible to do this perfectly, but we try to avoid buying from anyone who grades. The reason is that if someone is an experienced card grader, there’s a good chance they are only selling ungraded cards that are unlikely to 10.

Pro Tip: If a seller’s profile features several cards with sequential PSA certification numbers (e.g., 13000000 through 13000004), they are almost certainly grading their best cards and selling their worsts.

You can find the cert number on a card here:

Beyond checking cert numbers, we generally avoid large sellers and consigners. We have gotten a lot of ungradable cards from sellers like this, probably because these are knowledgeable sellers who also grade themselves. The ideal seller is a smaller seller who opens packs and sells their hits, but really any smaller seller is fine. I’d say I start to get skeptical of any seller with more than 100 listings.

6. Calculating Gem Rates

Remember: Gem Rate = PSA 10 Population / Total Graded Population.

Here is an example of gem rate data for the 2024 Drake Maye Silver Prizm #329, from the PSA app.

You can also find this on gemrate.com.

Understand that if a card has a 20% gem rate, that means well centered copies without obvious defects are getting 10s about 20% of the time. Do not buy low gem rate cards and expect sure-fire 10s.

7. Use Expected Value Math

If you’re buying to make a profit, use math and expected gem rates to determine if you’re buying at a good price.

You can find a guide on finding the Expected Value of a card here.

8. Expect To Fail Sometimes

Most cards have at least minor issues that you can’t see in an eBay listing, which means it’s important to have a strict pre-grading process after the cards are delivered. You can find a guide on how to evaluate PSA 10 candidates here.

About 15% of the cards we buy are not PSA 10 candidates. We generally resell these cards raw at a small loss, but we do not waste money grading cards that will not 10. As long as you are making good money when you get 10s, you can afford to take these losses.

You DO NOT need to be perfect to be profitable.

9. Only Buy Cards Listed as Near Mint

Seller will often list cards as Excellent, Very Good, or worse. Remember, Near-Mint is already equivalent to a PSA 8 (but this is the best condition a card can be listed as on eBay). This means that anything worse than Near-Mint is most likely far from a PSA 10. It’s best to just avoid these.