Card damaged during reholdering process

Grading
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Hi everyone,

Wanted to see if anyone could share any insight or had similar experiences.

On May 1st, 2026 I sent 4 PSA 10 Tyranitars that had different levels of damage to PSA to be reholdered.

On October 15th my order was complete. When checking my cards every card except one card remained the same. The card that changed was a PSA 10 M Tyranitar ex from ancient origins. It went from a PSA 10 to a PSA 5. This took me back a little bit and after examining the scans uploaded by PSA I noticed damage in a corner that wasn’t there.

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Here you notice the obvious damage in the scan. And here is the pre scan from when the items arrived provided by PSA.

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After reviewing the cards I reached out to PSA via email request it be looked into and I received this reply last week after about 10 days.

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From my understanding of PSA ‘s policies,

Section 10 about damages:

“If PSA determines, in its sole discretion, that your item submitted to PSA for PSA Services was lost, stolen, or damaged while in the possession or control of PSA … PSA will compensate you…”

“PSA will exercise reasonable and ordinary care in handling items submitted for authentication, grading, review, or reholdering.”

Section 2 about reholdering:

“PSA may not complete the Reholder service if, in its opinion: … (2) the PSA case is fractured over or near the item itself.”

“BY SUBMITTING AN ITEM FOR THE REHOLDER SERVICE, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTAND, AND AGREE THAT PSA MAY IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES EXAMINE THE ITEM RAW WITHOUT REGARD FOR ANY PRIOR GRADE OR FINDING OF AUTHENTICITY, WHICH MAY RESULT IN A LOWER GRADE.”

The card was clearly damaged by PSA during the reholdering process. I’m assuming they are arguing that the card sustained damage in the same area as the crack. But there is nothing in their policies stating that possibility. They could have refused my order all together if they felt that way. I would have just cracked it myself or sold as is.

The value difference between a PSA 5 and a PSA 10 is around $1000. Small potatoes to some but to me it’s also the principle.

I also want to state I never received any emails about the card being lowered in grade or damaged throughout the process. And I also want to say I sent in this card with a worst fracture and it sustained no damage.

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Where do I go from here? Thanks in advance for any insight and sorry for the long post.

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Efour Digest - Daily summary of activity
Elite Fourum Memes
Efour Digest - Daily summary of activity
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Any front pics? Maybe the crack on the front damaged the corner since it looks like it’s bent toward the back..

If not, wierd moove from PSA indeed

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I’m not denying that the crack would have caused the damage in my post. Sorry if it came off that way. I’m just stating there was no damage to the physical card prior to it being opened. The reholder service should have been denied, but instead they chose to move forward and ruined the card in the process which in my opinion, based on their policies, should make them responsible for any damage while the card is in their possession.

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Sucks to hear the result. I am very doubtful PSA will take responsibility of the damage, that slab was cracked pretty bad. I think their reslab guarantee goes away when the crack goes over the card

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I appreciate the reply. Although I’m mostly looking more for concrete answers or experiences. Nothing in their policy states that. If it did I would not have made this post and accepted my loss.

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6

Hello fellow ttar collector! A few years back I actually submitted a rainbow tag team ttar with a damaged slab for reholder.

From my understanding:

  1. You submit a normal condition slab for reholder and they damage the card removing it from the slab. They are liable for the damage.
  2. When you submit a damaged slab, they assess the card to see if it was damaged AFTER the card is removed. They are not liable for any damage to the card whether or not they caused the damage. I’m sure it’s in the fine print somewhere.

It’s too hard to see into a cracked slab to assess damage. Also, when you try to crack it, the risk of damaging the card is much higher when the slab is already splintered. They can’t guarantee they won’t damage the card when they remove it. They’re essentially saying, we’ll remove it, but at your risk. Also, if a slab has been subjected to impact or damage that has caused it to crack there’s a good chance the card might be damaged. Despite what Mike Baker thinks, it’s near impossible to accurately assess a card obfuscated by plastic.

I feel for you though. PSA CRC will do everything to avoid making you whole. If making you whole means paying you out $600, they will offer you $599 and an NDA. It’s truly sad there’s people at PSA whose entire employment is spending 8 hours a day trying to screw collectors out of money.

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Black and white. Case closed. Its crap but its in there.

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It’s not really black and white that’s the issue. The card was not damaged in its holder. The damage only occurred after it was opened by PSA. Which you can see in the scans PSA provides them selves which I posted.

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If the card was clearly damaged before the reholdering process then I would understand that but based on the scans provided by PSA them selves. Show damage that was not there prior to them reholdering it.

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When you submit a damaged slab, they assess the card to see if it was damaged AFTER the card is removed. They are not liable for any damage to the card whether or not they caused the damage. I’m sure it’s in the fine print somewhere.

It’s too hard to see into a cracked slab to assess damage. Also, when you try to crack it, the risk of damaging the card is much higher when the slab is already splintered. They can’t guarantee they won’t damage the card when they remove it. They’re essentially saying, we’ll remove it, but at your risk. Also, if a slab has been subjected to impact or damage that has caused it to crack there’s a good chance the card might be damaged. Despite what Mike Baker thinks, it’s near impossible to accurately assess a card obfuscated by plastic.

When the slab is splintered the card is more likely to be damaged when removed. Which looks like happened as the damage is near where the slab was cracked.

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Can you show me where it says that in any of their reholdering policies or grading policies? You said it’s in the fine print but I read the entire hard and fine prints and nothing is in there saying that. I’m not looking speculation, the important key points that are actually in their fine print are:

“PSA may not complete the Reholder service if, in its opinion: … (2) the PSA case is fractured over or near the item itself.”

^Which means they should have refused service to me all together. Instead they proceeded to open the card and damaged the actual card.

“BY SUBMITTING AN ITEM FOR THE REHOLDER SERVICE, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTAND, AND AGREE THAT PSA MAY IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES EXAMINE THE ITEM RAW WITHOUT REGARD FOR ANY PRIOR GRADE OR FINDING OF AUTHENTICITY, WHICH MAY RESULT IN A LOWER GRADE.”

^Doesn’t explicitly say what happens if they damage it when they open it. Not freeing them on any liability in that case.

“PSA will exercise reasonable and ordinary care in handling items submitted for authentication, grading, review, or reholdering."

^Self explanatory

“If PSA determines, in its sole discretion, that your item submitted to PSA for PSA Services was lost, stolen, or damaged while in the possession or control of PSA … PSA will compensate you…”

^Card was damaged in their possession. Card showed no physical damage until after they began the reholdering process.

Again if there was something stating, “hey we might damage your card during the reholdering process and we assume no liability for it”

Or

“If the slab is splintered and we do decide to open it instead of denying it we are not responsible for any damage that occurs”

I wouldn’t be arguing the point so much if there was a fine print like you stated.

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Firstly the ‘may’ is doing the heavy lifting. Its not ‘will not’ its ‘may not’

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So where is the part that says they “may” damage the card when they remove it from its holder? I thought it was black and white according to you.

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Right ill step you through it.
Firstly you failed this step.

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Firstly, you use firstly a lot to make a lot of first points but never follow up with additional points.

Second of all, thank you for sharing what I already know but ignoring the question I asked in my original post and my reply to you.

Third of all, I’ll repeat my previous statement again but I’ll try to reword it, is it within PSA’s right to damage my card when they reholder it? If so, where do they explicitly state they assume no liability if the damage happens during that process?

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Im giving up helping now because walking you through one step at a time is no good to you. You misunderstood the part where you think that the crack stops any further processes which is wrong.

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This is wrong . You say they should return it to you and not open it when infact they should open it and continue their process.

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At one point in time this was quoted from the policy. I’d imagine the policy only gets tighter over time, this was 4 years ago. Hate to say it, but that crack is clearly over the card. PSA won’t give you a dime after you put that slab in their hands. The damage to the corner of the card likely happened during removal of the card from the slab. They only guarantee a clean reholder on slabs that aren’t damamged

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Thank you for sharing this post. But the point I’m making is the card showed 0 damage before it was opened then after it was opened it was damaged. PSA has a policy when a card is damaged in their possession even during the reholdering process. They also don’t explicitly waive that protection in the case of a cracked slab.

So my question is why would them damaging the card not apply in this case?

To add to that, I shared in my original post a card that had an even more egregious crack and that one reholdered fine.

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i appreciate your helpful replies but I think your help will probably be appreciated more on another topic. Thanks for agreeing to stop helping me I genuinely appreciate that. :folded_hands:t3:

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@tyranitardaddy Just read this over and over again.

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