I am from the UK and have built up a fair amount of fresh pulled cards 1999-2002 that Ive wanted to Grade for a while. I’ve been thinking for submitting to PSA and finally today created an account / Paid for a membership. Ive always been aware it will cost me more to do things as i’m from the UK but I believe the value I have to grade is worth it. Ive also not found a single other person with advice to help me that sends from the UK but as I see them on ebay I can only assume some people do.
Although somewhat complicated, I have managed to work my way through the process and submitted my cards and packaged them up. I’m not phased by a challenge
In printing off my confirmation/packing slip I have read under the ‘Shipping instruction’:
We accept USPS United States Postal Service and FEDEX Federal Express.
We do not accept UPS, DHL or Airborne packages.
Now my thoughts from the start was to send with Royal Mail to America but after reading this I am somewhat now confused.
I have had an ebay shop for a few years and is my sole business so postage and couriers I do regularly, never have I seen a company only accept certain couriers to deliver to them.
Am I being stupid or do PSA only accept USPS and FEDex? After all I am assuming these are the main couriers in America but not what I have access to in the UK. Its been so hard trying to find out any information doing this internationally. Ive heard USPS end up being delivered by royalmail or parcelforce in the UK so would this work in Reverse.
Looking for any help possible please, is there any here who Grade from the UK? I had irrational thoughts of them refusing my order If I dont send with the correct courier. Any youtube video Ive gone through use USPS as default but was thinking this was because it was the go to courier in America
Us in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean have hard times when wanting to grade the cards. I am from Portugal and what I do is go with a service that would send the cards for me, since they are way more knowledgable and have gather experience throughout their send offs. In Europe most of the services that I know off are based in the UK. I think here on the fourum, experienced sender from the UK that I know of, would be @cljdavis.
I think PSA would only accept either USPS or FEDex, as you say…what happens when you get a PSA delivery via Royamail is because the Royalmail, uk postal service, takes care of the mail coming from the USA, via usa postal service, after customs. But I might be wrong.
Definitely you will find people in here that can help you out!
Hi Many thanks for your response and the welcome, I have since been thinking should I have gone for using other peoples services. I did also before signing up but because I’m not a complete stranger to taking some risks and trying these things I wanted to have a go. To be honest most my concerns I passed during the order process and was quite surprised to see that message after about specific shipping couriers. I think its kind of known that PSA are not the most inviting to new people but I understand its a thorough service. I must say it is a bit wrong to find out things like I have after paying the various sign up fees rather than before. No where Did I see this and have been on and off looking into Psa for a year now.
Im hoping to find someone here that is willing to share or can advise to me about the first message. So far I’ve looked at Fedex but they need to call me back about making an account etc and I’m pretty sure It wont be straight forward or cheap compared to other couriers that I regularly use/have accounts with.
Another option Is to call psa after paying international calls etc
My only thought was If it was to be sent with royal mail from here. What courier deals with it once it gets into the USA
Hi Matt, I’m 99% sure that once the package will reach the United States, it will be handled by USPS so don,t worry about it.
When I ship from Canada it,s the same, and if I receive something from the UK, Canada Post handles the delivery once it passes customs. Hope that makes sense.
Just slap on their New Port CA address and ship it as an insured package. Nothing to worry about.
The package will be handled by USPS once it arrives in the US.
Thank you so much, It started to make sense in my head as the US doesn’t have the couriers we do here so it must be handled by someone else. I just couldn’t find out how likely it was to be handled by USPS. Ill update this with how things go / what my return is like
I personally use parcel2go when sending to PSA. It gives you a good rate for fedex.
Recently sent a package containing 400 cards to PSA through fedex which was ordered on parcel2go.
It only cost me £36, I sent them last Monday and they were delivered the next day but still havent been entered in the system but atleast the package is at PSA.
Thing with Royal Mail is it can take upto 10 days if not more and I just dont feel comfortable with my cards being in transit so long so paying extra £15-20 for a next day delivery is worth it.
Again as others have said if you post them through royal mail once they arrive in the US then USPS takes care of them. The process usually takes 2 weeks for PSA to receive them and then grade.
I recently sent off a 45 day 100 bulk submission myself, it only took 3 weeks though for them to grade. So 2 weeks going there, 3 weeks to grade and 1 week to arrive back.
I have to pay Import Fees though once I got them back as Parcelforce handled mine and charge. It was only £24 (Which is annoying but a must to pay).
You shouldn’t worry a bit. Just wait for an email from PSA which will state they have received your order and are processing it. After they will email you once they have graded and will ship out.
Thankyou for the further information/replies,Gratefully received. I too also use parcel2go a lot, I had a look but didn’t see fedex. In further looking now I see they are on there but called ‘world express’ or FX express
When using Parcel2go/Fedex, what address do you send too? Logic would let me the 2nd address below but I have seen others say just send to the newport beach address
(USPS)
PSA
P.O. Box 6180
Newport Beach, CA 92658
FedEx
PSA
7000 Barranca Pkwy
Irvine, CA 92618
FedEx (Ground Service only)
PSA
1921 E. Alton Ave.
Suite 100
Santa Ana, CA 92705
It sure sounds to me you’ve taken the hard (and most expensive route).
How come you didn’t just send off with the UK’s/Europe’s biggest grading company (which are authorized by PSA themselves to do so) Ludkins?
At £12.00 or so a card, that’s all you’re paying (oh and postage to ludkins).
How many did you send? You’re going to have to calculate customs charges on their return I’m afraid.
The more you’ve sent, the more you’ll pay.
I don’t know how PSA value the return cards ; either the value of the service you paid, or the actual value of the graded cards… Interested to know though!
Because doing it via Ludkins it can easily take 50-70 days before you see your cards coming back. It’s still is a 45 day bulk submission they do and including all the shipping back and forth which can take another 14-28 days… That was the primary deal breaker for me.
You can do it all yourself, you don’t need a middle man.
The only reason why you would go with a middle man is because you’re unsure about your cards and really need the pre-grading. Which will not teach you anything. If you send in cards you think are worth of a PSA9 and they come back a PSA6 you won’t learn anything if someone else does the pre-grade. That’s something you learn in the long run.
But… if you want to wait 2 months+ to get your 10 cards graded , sure go Ludkins.
Personally, I munched the extra few bucks it took me to do it myself and ever since I do it myself. Because nobody got time to wait 50 days to save 3 bucks.
Reasons for doing it myself is along the lines of above. I feel I learn nothing in doing it via someone else, I also worked in the costs to my profitability. I also have included the cost of custom charges, I dont know how they work this as you say whether its my valuation or theirs, however, my first submission is not huge and will allow me to find this out. I will report back when i get my return
PSA will send you back the package valued at the value you give the cards in the submission.
So if you submit 10 Base Charizards and you value them each at 20$, because that’s what you paid for and the 10 get a PSA9, the package will still be returned for the 200$ you gave it. Not for the 2000$ they worth if PSA9.
Customs are hit and miss, some people unlucky all the time and some are not.
Are you guys doing it for profit, or for personal collection?
My views are based purely upon personal collection, with no intent on selling any that come back…
I can see how it’d be more beneficial if it was to sell cards.
Care to explain how you don’t learn anything? Whenever I submit via Ludkins I thoroughly inspect my cards and claim to know exactly what is wrong with them, with the knowledge I have at that moment.
The only reason I use and advice Ludkins is so you don’t have to deal with all the import costs, and as far as I know it’s not even a lot cheaper if you are sending under a certain amount.
Yes, the waiting times are an issue, but I’d rather live with it then deal with customs again.
