PSA Grading Review #5
These are the worst grades we've gotten from PSA in a long time.
Overall in 2026, we have graded 301 cards with 66.8% grading as PSA 10s. But in this recent submission, we received just 7/18 PSA 10s, which is just a 38.9% gem rate.
In our pregrade, we projected to get 11 PSA 10s, meaning that this was a big miss. Usually we’re pretty accurate on this and even when we miss, we usually get more 10s than we expect, not less.
I disagree with these grades overall, but we’ve certainly also gotten plenty of grades where we get more 10s than we expect, so it’s hard to be too frustrated because it generally balances out over time.
With that said, let’s see what we can learn from this submission. We’re going to mainly look at the cleanest cards in this submission to not receive PSA 10s, but I’ll end the post with one card that I could not believe got a PSA 10.
Let’s take a look.
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2024 Select Drake Maye Tri-Color #218
Defects:
Pregrade:
Notes: Print lines on both sides, back top edge has small issue.
Expected Gem Probability: 65%
Thoughts:
I think most likely this card got dinged because of the edge issue, since in our experience print lines usually have pretty minimal impact. That’s not shocking, PSA tends to be very strict on edges at times, and often will give PSA 8s or worse for edge defects. With that said, we’ve certainly seen worse cards get PSA 10s.
2024 Optic Downtown Bronny James Jr. #26
Defects:
Pregrade:
Notes: None.
Expected Gem Probability: 80%
Thoughts:
We left no notes on this card, which doesn’t mean the card is perfect, but usually that it has no major or unusual defects. Overall it looks really nice, the defect shown above is the only thing I see on this card that could explain the PSA 9 grade, although I’m unsure if that’s a scratch on the card, a piece of lint, or a scratch on the slab. Either way, I think this is a really tough grade.
I’ll also note, it’s very unusual for a card we pregrade at 80% probability of gemming to not get a PSA 10 (as it should be).
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2025 Mega Charizard X ex #125
Defects:
Notes: Top bottom centering slightly is roughly 56/44. Print line on back.
Expected Gem Probability: 60%
Thoughts:
We’ve been pushing the boundaries on centering more and more, and really before this submission, nearly every clean card we submitted with borderline centering had gemmed. I think this is a reasonable grade, but it’s disappointing because this card is worth nearly $3k as a PSA 10.
2025 Donruss Downtown Tyler Shough #19
Defects: None visible.
Notes: Small marks on front and light print lines.
Expected Gem Probability: 75%
Thoughts:
I don’t really see any issues here that justify a 9, although of course the grader can see more in person than we can through a slab. We only noted print lines and small marks as the main defects. Obviously cards with that profile will 9 from time to time, but this is a tough grade. We’re used to seeing stuff like this gem.
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2019 Mewtwo & Mew GX #SM191
Defects:
Pregrade:
Notes: Really nice except for massive ink mark on back and white dot on back border.
Expected Gem Probability: 30%
Thoughts:
Given that everything else in this submissions was graded very harshly in my opinion, this is a pretty shocking grade. There is a pretty large, lipstick colored defect on the back, and honestly I think it’s questionable that we even submitted this card. The fact that this is one of our 7 PSA 10s given the quality of some of the other cards is wild. Again, this just shows the human side of grading.