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Thoughts on CSG 9.5's?
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15 posts in this topic

I have been a collector for 41 years.  I recently began investing in sports cards and have been on line dealing and in person dealing since this past March.  I love CSG slabs and much prefer them over PSA, BGS, and/or SGC.  My question for the forum is this: how do people feel about 9.5 grades from CSG?  Like them, dislike them, neutral?  Thanks.

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I'm a big fan of the 9.5 grade.  I also think it is a largely 'modern'  phenomenon, as is modern cards.  I collect Panini Prizm, Opti-Chrome cards and the production values are quite high, so these brand new cards should be in premium condition, like Mint + and Gem.  So yes you are seeing alot of 9.5s on modern.  Not a bad thing.  Mint is almost a minimum grade. 

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I hate the 9.5 but its 100% nessacary!! Unfortunately i have a lot of 9.5's but with modern cards I think nuance is important or the market wil be flooded with a ton of pack fresh 10's or worse you have a bunch of really good 9's!! Even tho I get extremely dissapponted when i get a 9.5 I have to accept that my card had a flaw and its not a GEM! but its better then a 9!!  😃  🍻

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On 1/1/2023 at 7:29 PM, micky 8 said:

I hate the 9.5 but its 100% nessacary!! Unfortunately i have a lot of 9.5's but with modern cards I think nuance is important or the market wil be flooded with a ton of pack fresh 10's or worse you have a bunch of really good 9's!! Even tho I get extremely dissapponted when i get a 9.5 I have to accept that my card had a flaw and its not a GEM! but its better then a 9!!  😃  🍻

I also hate the 9.5's.  They are impossible to move.  They also drive down CSG's gem rate, which at a broader scale, does not do CSG nor it's supporters any favors whatsoever.  I mean, a 9.5 is great but in the grand scheme of things, it seems like a pretty meaningless grade if you're trying to resell, which I am.

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On 12/31/2022 at 11:58 AM, UncleTed said:

love 'em.    Agree that this is needed.   The either 9 or 10 thing at the others does indeed make it a guess, or depends on if the grader is hung over and in a bad mood or not.  

Yeah, I agree with the 9 or 10.  PSA's reliability sucks a dog's butt.  CSG is far more reliable and accurate with their grading.  It's just been nearly impossible to move cards in CSG slabs.  I appreciate the hung over part about PSA though and would add potentially stoned graders at PSA as well.

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IMO, the 9.5 is a double-edged sword.  It is good that it gives you some wiggle room between a 9 and a 10 and theoretically makes the 10 grade better.  Now, you stated correctly, it does drive down the gem rate.  I am more of a collector than a flipper/reseller so I am perfectly fine with a 9.5 or even a 9.  Those are all "mint" cards for me.  If you remove 9.5 like PSA, than you will get the thousands of cards that are PSA 10 which don't look gem.  It really comes down to, do you want less gem 10's or more "soft" gem 10's.  PSA has a ton of label collectors, so they get away with it.  I guess if you are looking at it from a CSG registry perspective, more 10's may drive that market a bit more.  CSG did the right thing (even though they took a hit on their reputation) and went from the BGS scale and moved into the SGC scale.  When CSG first started out, 10's were much more rare like they are in Beckett.

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On 1/5/2023 at 2:33 AM, Leiataua Dr. Jon said:

I also hate the 9.5's.  They are impossible to move.  They also drive down CSG's gem rate, which at a broader scale, does not do CSG nor it's supporters any favors whatsoever.  I mean, a 9.5 is great but in the grand scheme of things, it seems like a pretty meaningless grade if you're trying to resell, which I am.

Curious: How does driving down the gem rate hurt CSG? I would think that’s a good thing, since I started out using CSG with the understanding that they would be tough graders… then they inflated the scale with the green black transition. Are you saying that the green-black transition has somehow lowered the rate of gems (due to some low end green 9.5s deserving black 9.5s vs black 10s)?

 

Edit: For my personal submissions, I’ve found the rate of black 10s to be higher than my rate of green 9.5s, but I also seem to be getting more unexpected 7.5s. :D

Edited by northkorea
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