New pristine 10 error cards?? 1 1

[Poké-Oh! TCG]

What happens if an error card gets a pristine 10? Does the word Error still appear under the grade?

[KaileeS CS]

Hello @Poké-Oh! TCG, thank you for contacting us. Great question! I will need to check with my operations team to confirm if this is possible and how it would look on the label if it is. We thank you for your patience while I confirm with my team on your inquiry!

[KaileeS CS]

Hello @Poké-Oh! TCG, I have received an answer from my team! Currently, we will not give the Pristine grade to any card with an error. If any previous *blue label* pristine cards were to be resent in for a reholder, we would designate the error on the pedigree line of the label (typically on the back).

Please let us know if you need help with anything else. Thank you!

[Poké-Oh! TCG]

On 12/21/2023 at 10:48 AM, KaileeS CS said:

Hello @Poké-Oh! TCG, I have received an answer from my team! Currently, we will not give the Pristine grade to any card with an error. If any previous *blue label* pristine cards were to be resent in for a reholder, we would designate the error on the pedigree line of the label (typically on the back).

Please let us know if you need help with anything else. Thank you!

So what happens when an error card meets the standards for a pristine 10?

[KaileeS CS]

Hello @Poké-Oh! TCG, error cards cannot meet the standard for a pristine grade. This is because they inherently have a defect (usually manufacturing). Manufacturing defects can and do affect the grade. Hopefully, this makes sense!

Please let us know if you need help with anything else. Thank you!

[Poké-Oh! TCG]

Old pristine 10s qualified for error labels. And the new Gem Mint 10s also qualify. Sure some manufacturing errors cause a card to not be perfect, but the new pristine 10 grade is not saying a card is perfect, just that it is pristine. Miscuts, severe off-centers, etc I can see affecting the grade, if the error is now taken into consideration to grading. But if a card has a missing print layer, or a slight texture shift, I don't see how that would affect the grade. Based on CGC's standards for regular cards, some error cards meet the standard for the new Pristine 10, but it sounds like CGC is now downgrading all error cards by blocking them from Pristine 10. Because CGC is still grading errors as gem mint 10s without the error in mind, like they used to. So I wonder how many of the new label Gem Mint 10 errors graded, deserved to be Pristine 10s.

[Poké-Oh! TCG]

I'll follow up since I haven't received a response. I see if an old pristine error is crossed over, the error description is moved to the bottom line of the card info. This means that CGC believes the cards are still pristine 10s, if they were submitted before the change. Why not just put that on al the new pristine 10s that are errors?

Error grading is the biggest appeal of CGC, at least to a decent part of the community that still chooses to submit with CGC despite the fall of the CGC secondary market value and turnaround times.

Making errors ineligible for pristine 10 means we can bite the bullet and take a low grade, meaning a lower value for the cards. Or we can sneak the errors in a submission and hope you don't notice, to hope for a pristine 10, then just tell other people it's an error. Taking the latter option would be more viable for collectors to choose PSA or BGS which already carry a higher premium.

So again, why not just put the error description in the card info since I guess it would be too costly for the company to use extra gold lettering in the grade box.

[NickiO CS]

Hello @Poké-Oh! TCG, 

Thank you for your additional feedback. I understand you are passionate about this topic and you would like to see Pristine 10s include error cards. I am happy to provide your comments and concerns to our grading and management teams.

While I cannot provide any specific insight into the reasons for this decision, I can confirm that at the time of the merger and change to the grading scale, CGC Cards made the business decision to move forward with the standard of not giving a Pristine grade to error cards.

If you have any other questions, please let us know.