Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking of picking up this Blastoise. The price is not an outrageous steal, and the providence from the slab is that it was a gift from their mom, who at the time was a big collector of dolls and other toys. They say it was purchased before/around the time they were born.
From the checks that I did, it looked fine, but when it comes to these bigger cards, I think the more eyes on it, the better.
Let me know what you think!
I think my best bet, just to be safe, is to ask them to get it re-slabbed. That would tell me for sure if it’s authentic rather than me re-slabbing to get the scratches fixed. I’m not sure if that would be viable, but I like the idea.
Ha, I think I remember this listing. The photos were awful and made the text/stamp quality looked super off to me, but might just because of bad photos…
It’s a thick stamp though so a good way imo to check is to see if it has a “-15 magenta” back. This is a good thread / post First editions or shadowless with stamps? - #11 by pikachutcg that goes through the finding that thick stamp cards should have -15 magenta dot alignment and the linked to post has helpful visual examples.
May be hard to get the seller to send you a clear enough pic/scan but worth a shot to see if they have a magnifiying glass or smth and can snap a photo of the back…
Since you’re spending some $$$ you’re probably better off not bothering trying to determine legitimacy and finding a cleaner copy as that one has some deep corner whitening on the bottom right back corner.
The slab has been through the Vietnam war too, but I doubt the seller would want to reslab is as there are upcharges for that at PSA.
Nothing worse than spending 30k on a PSA 8 card for it actually be a PSA 8. Sadly this is quite common with older certs like this.
As far as Im aware PSA’s “review” service, and “reholder” are different. Submitting through the reholder service puts it in the same slab, and authenticates it again with the same cert #, grade, and updated pictures. The review service is if you think its worthy of a higher (or lower) grade. I think OP would be fine doing the reholder.
This is correct. I’m not asking for a review, but a simple re-holder. The cost is about $190 pre-ship to PSA. That would verify the authenticity of the card and get all the new security features.
I would have the seller send it in for the reholder tbh, and buy it from them after it comes back if you really want that particular one. If they refuse I would trust my gut, and back out. There wouldnt be a reason to refuse that scenario imo. Im overly cautious though.
If you know them though it might be ok since you could track them down, and explain what happened. Its situational.
Essentially, here is the conversation so far with the seller.
We did agree yesterday on a price and came up with a date.
I then proposed the idea of getting it re-slabbed before the transaction happens (rather than me doing it right after purchase) in order to 100% verify authenticity and for peace of mind.
And I offered the option to continue the deal as planned, but I would want to take down their details like ID, create an invoice for sale, and have a small written contract that just states this is a sale for this card at X amount of cash. This is just to have some better holding in case I do send it for re-slab and it gets deemed fake or something like that.
The seller was not too keen on having these new constraints put on them, which I understand to a certain extent. But when it comes to this high-end, if anything even feels off, I think it’s wise to want the extra protection.
Another perhaps quicker option…maybe they could send it to the Fanatics Vault, where they will authenticate. You can pay them PayPal. Then they can vault transfer to your Fanatics vault. You can either send it from there to PSA for re holder or home…there would be a fulfilment fee though.
If I were a seller, I’d much prefer to do this than get involved in the buyer’s desire to have the card reholdered.
Personally for piece of mind. I wouldnt make a sale on it until it comes back from PSA. Im not saying it looks fake or anything, but I just feel better abiut the entire thing. I understand the other persons concerns with restrictions too, but more often then not just trust your gut. Keep in mind if they do ship it off remind them to get insurance for it just in case. You can add that into the reimbursement if you wanted. It might make them feel better about the deal too.
Fanatics Vault has had insane delays at the moment. It’s been taking a week+ to enter and 3 weeks to withdraw. PSA will have the card out within a week at the respective tier.
I offered to pay for the re-holdering fee as well.
I’m unsure where I saw this, but I am indeed wrong.
Although this almost completely gets rid of the “upcharge is for insurance” argument if they can insure a $30k card for $59,99. Another topic for another time.
Again, personally I would look for a cleaner copy unless you are getting a lot of $ off. Seems to be too much unknown + risk for a card that wouldn’t 10 today.
Do you live in the U.S.? If so, consider getting Authenticity Guarantee through eBay. On a card that is tens of thousands of dollars, it might be nice to have some protections in place. You can reholder once it’s in your possession. It might be more expensive if the guy wants you to cover the seller fees, but complete peace of mind is worth it in my opinion.
