Escape Rope (Secret)

What moves the price of this card

The Escape Rope (Secret) on this page is the Holofoil printing from SM - Burning Shadows, and it trades at $17.01£12.80€14.98 in near mint condition. Only one printing of this card was produced, so there is no cheaper version to confuse it with.

Graded, it runs PSA 7 $25.56£19.24€22.51, PSA 8 $35.53£26.74€31.29, PSA 9 $43.29£32.58€38.12, CGC/BGS 9.5 $48£36.13€42.27, PSA 10 $82.47£62.07€72.63. PSA has graded 256 copies of it. 211 completed sales are on file.

What is a PSA 10 Escape Rope (Secret) worth?

A PSA 10 Escape Rope (Secret) from SM - Burning Shadows sells for $82.47. 18.8% of the copies PSA has graded came back a 10, so that price is the best case rather than the one a submission should expect.

Is Escape Rope (Secret) from SM - Burning Shadows worth grading?

On the numbers, no. The average submission is worth $46.16 with every grade weighted by how often this card comes back at it, against $15.59 for a raw copy plus $99.99 to send it through PSA Regular, so it loses $69.42.

Condition does most of the work below the surface. A copy with soft corners or a print line off centre trades well under the market price shown here, and a copy clean enough to grade trades well above it, which is why the PSA 10 sits at $82.47£62.07€72.63. Before you value your own copy, look at the corners under a light and check the centring on the back, where most cards give themselves away.