PSA: PSA currently not grading Art Academy cards

[SeasidePokemon]

@qwachansey

It’s striking me how absurd it is for PSA to consider themselves the arbiter here. If Arita decides to grade a No 1 Trainer Pikachu, which he owns due to owning all cards he has illustrated (confirmed in an official interview published by Pokémon), would PSA decline it? Even if Pokémon’s “intended distribution” was "the winners, and also the original artist "?

woah… I didn’t know he owned every one of his own cards, that’s awesome!

[smpratte]

From my understanding, for a situation like Arita, it sounded like PSA would consider grading with provenance. Their ultimate fear with extras is pokemon coming after them for some reason. I don’t see the angle, but I understand the fear.

I personally think its better for collectors to just be aware they are buying an extra copy. Most don’t care. The kyogre is case and point.

[fourthstartcg]

@smpratte

From my understanding, for a situation like Arita, it sounded like PSA would consider grading with provenance. Their ultimate fear with extras is pokemon coming after them for some reason. I don’t see the angle, but I understand the fear.

I personally think its better for collectors to just be aware they are buying an extra copy. Most don’t care. The kyogre is case and point.

[qwachansey]

@smpratte

From my understanding, for a situation like Arita, it sounded like PSA would consider grading with provenance. Their ultimate fear with extras is pokemon coming after them for some reason. I don’t see the angle, but I understand the fear.

I personally think its better for collectors to just be aware they are buying an extra copy. Most don’t care. The kyogre is case and point.

It’s just odd since pkonno has been selling for four years, with plenty of highly publicized sales, one would think if anyone at Pokemon cared to put a stop to it, they would. It’s also frustrating that PSA might consider Arita to have provenance, even if it’s outside of the “awarded” copies, when clearly Pokemon had a policy in the early days of giving cards to employees and artists. The Kyogre I can see as a different scenario, I personally have no knowledge of the English print extras, but it’s not like pkonno or Arita or Nishida or heck the Game Freak binder were grabbing cards hot off the press and stuffing them into their pockets.

[qwachansey]

@SeasidePokemon

@qwachansey

It’s striking me how absurd it is for PSA to consider themselves the arbiter here. If Arita decides to grade a No 1 Trainer Pikachu, which he owns due to owning all cards he has illustrated (confirmed in an official interview published by Pokémon), would PSA decline it? Even if Pokémon’s “intended distribution” was "the winners, and also the original artist "?

woah.. I didn’t know he owned every one of his own cards, that’s awesome!

Here’s the article I was referring to

www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-creator-profile-mitsuhiro-arita/

[smpratte]

@qwachansey, I agree. I don’t see the legal angle whatsoever.

The AA cards were the lynch pin for everything. Pkonno dripping supply into the market + no one complaining was why it lasted so long. Where the AA cards were recklessly dumped, and the winners whining made PSA aware. The winners complaining was probably the biggest factor. Its like the classic case of a petulant kid who doesn’t like the game, so they take the ball and go home.

[SeasidePokemon]

Can anyone tell me where I can find out more about the mysterious Pkonno? I keep seeing the name pop up and from what I gather, they are a seller in Japan with extremely rare cards. But who are they, where did they come from, (Jerry Seinfeld voice) what’s the deal with pkonno?

[thymeee]

@SeasidePokemon

Can anyone tell me where I can find out more about the mysterious Pkonno? I keep seeing the name pop up and from what I gather, they are a seller in Japan with extremely rare cards. But who are they, where did they come from, (Jerry Seinfeld voice) what’s the deal with pkonno?

www.elitefourum.com/t/pkonno2002-the-sales-data-for-snap-cards-trophies-archive/28304/1 This is a start!

[gottaketchumall]

@qwachansey

PSA has recently started to deactivate the serial numbers of Pikachu Illustrators. It may just be a coincidence but I am concerned they will attempt to “verify” provenance with the owners given this phone call. For example the PSA 9 pkonno sold serial 45563351 has been recently deactivated, and also some non pkonno ones. So I’m concerned they’ll use such a conveniently compiled list as a way to select which serials of Art Academies to deactivate.

If I owned a card that they deactivated the cert of after I purchased it the only thing I’d need to verify with PSA would be the address on file for my financial guarantee check. PSA

[nish]

@SeasidePokemon

Can anyone tell me where I can find out more about the mysterious Pkonno? I keep seeing the name pop up and from what I gather, they are a seller in Japan with extremely rare cards. But who are they, where did they come from, (Jerry Seinfeld voice) what’s the deal with pkonno?

Pkonno lives in the secret basement under TPC Japan and uses his 2004 laptop to print sheets of real trophies and extremely rare cards and then he sells them on auction sites but refuses to talk to any buyers or answer any questions or take additional photos. What he does with the money is unknown. He possibly runs the worlds largest ostrich farm.

[smpratte]

I was told they weren’t going to deactivate certs. Perhaps the Illustrators removed were confirmed regrades?

[eureko]

@nish

@SeasidePokemon

Can anyone tell me where I can find out more about the mysterious Pkonno? I keep seeing the name pop up and from what I gather, they are a seller in Japan with extremely rare cards. But who are they, where did they come from, (Jerry Seinfeld voice) what’s the deal with pkonno?

He possibly runs the worlds largest ostrich farm.

He buys scary dolls with the money: Yuichi Konno on Instagram: "高丘親王 鏡面に乗って天竺へ。"

[chrispy]

The fact that PSA is turning away the actual winners of the cards who illustrated them is a testament to how fucking bad PSA is these days. They can go gobble a 6 pack of old moldy cheese.

[augustdifirenze]

@smpratte

I was told they weren’t going to deactivate certs. Perhaps the Illustrators removed were confirmed regrades?

26183731, 25335281, 45563351, and 53535173 are all deactivated now, so there doesn’t seem to a strong pattern between the deactivated copies.

[pfm]

@augustdifirenze

@smpratte

I was told they weren’t going to deactivate certs. Perhaps the Illustrators removed were confirmed regrades?

26183731, 25335281, 45563351, and 53535173 are all deactivated now, so there doesn’t seem to a strong pattern between the deactivated copies.

they all have at least two "3"s in the cert, seems like a strong pattern to me.

[smpratte]

@augustdifirenze

@smpratte

I was told they weren’t going to deactivate certs. Perhaps the Illustrators removed were confirmed regrades?

26183731, 25335281, 45563351, and 53535173 are all deactivated now, so there doesn’t seem to a strong pattern between the deactivated copies.

Were all those pkonno copies?

[augustdifirenze]

@smpratte

@augustdifirenze

26183731, 25335281, 45563351, and 53535173 are all deactivated now, so there doesn’t seem to a strong pattern between the deactivated copies.

Were all those pkonno copies?

The last two are, but the first two are from Yahoo years before Pkonno made any sales, at least from the pkonno2002 and pkonno2017 accounts. I believe you are the one who originally graded them?

[smpratte]

@augustdifirenze

@smpratte

Were all those pkonno copies?

The last two are, but the first two are from Yahoo years before Pkonno made any sales, at least from the pkonno2002 and pkonno2017 accounts. I believe you are the one who originally graded them?

That moment when I don’t even remember all the certs I graded

[admiral]

@qwachansey

Thanks but no thanks, last I checked hackers can’t steal my entire collection if I accidentally click on the wrong fishing link.

You say that but you’ve been after my PWCC account for MONTHS!!!

[chrispy]

@smpratte

I just got off the phone with PSA. We spoke in length about their position on Art Academy. This was my interpretation/opinion on the call. Their current position is the procurement of the card matters in relation to authenticity. I explained the differences between extra copies of retail merchandise, extra copies of cards awarded for free, stolen vs gifted to employees. They still strongly consider how the card was released.

If it were possible to track the extra copies, that would potentially help ease the restriction. Perhaps compiling a thread similar to this one could help the situation. IMO a strong majority of the cards were sold from winners, and the extras are not the majority. Obviously the cases where winners haven’t sold are the easiest to track. Hopefully with more data PSA can ease the restriction.

Any word from them as to why they care how the card was released and when they decided to start caring about this?

I’m still lost as to why they’re trying to robocop how the card was released rather than if it’s simply authentic or not. Surely they’re aware that anything they don’t slab will just get slabbed elsewhere and that a real card is a real card. What risk are they trying to mitigate by not slabbing authentic cards simply because they aren’t positive how one of them or several of them were distributed? Has Pokemon/TCPI ever actually threatened PSA or any other slabbing company for grading something as authentic when it was authentic but perhaps not distributed a certain way?