I had an email from PSA with a link to take a survey about new product ideas. Most of them were about integrating more “value tracking” and market optimization things, but there were some interesting ideas and developments to come from the survey!
This sounded like a great idea, you can put in a card/grade and a price and if the card is ever graded or vaulted by PSA, they will send your offer to the person who graded the card. Looks to be helpful for getting direct offers to people who grade hard-to-find cards.
The other thing I found interesting was that PSA was considering offering a card cleaning service. I wonder what people’s thoughts are on this, would you consider paying $3 extra to have PSA wipe down your cards beforehand? Is this somewhat of a capitulation to the growing prevalence of card altering?
I love the idea of grader notes, dislike the idea of card cleaning, the only exception I can give for that is maybe it’ll stop people from doing it themselves and that it will be very minor polishing to the point where it’s just removing dirt
Card Alerts would be such a game changer. Nat Turner had talked about it in an interview recently. IIRC, he kind of advertised it as being able to make bounties to incentivize people to throw in a card they might’ve not consider grading because then they’d be guaranteed to get money back. I would 1000% utilize this feature but I’m wary with how the Set Registry feels neglected.
I’m very surprised to see PSA wanting feedback on a card cleaning service. I don’t see them going through with it but it’s interesting to see them gaging interest nonetheless.
I like the wishlist/card alert idea, but as far as card cleaning goes It worries me thinking that someone could potentially accidentally damage the card before the grading. If they took detailed pictures BEFORE cleaning then it sounds decent if youre into it. There should be no premium for pictures if someone gets the card cleaning service imo.
The ‘offer’ idea is interesting in theory but I wonder how it would work in practice. Specifically if submitters can opt out of receiving offers. Imagine grading an illustrator that you never intend to sell and receiving automated non-binding low ball offers 24/7.
Grader notes: Am I nuts or didn’t they offer this last year? Report card or something like that?
Premium 3d Images: Would have to see what that looks like.
PSA Branded Fitted Sleeve:
Card Cleaning: I don’t like grading companies offering any sort of pre-grade services. Feels too much like grading your own test to me. I’ve always thought it was odd that it’s accepted in the comic book world.
These are all very interesting options though I do have some concerns
Grader Notes:
I can see this being a very popular option, but I have a feeling this would slow down the grading process. Pretty sure they already do this for very expensive tiers. If anything, if this were to be successful, PSA would have to tell the grader to give a quick summary and move on. I don’t see how this wouldn’t slow things down unless it’s just a few words. Especially if someone is sending stacks of cards and someone is willing to pay for each card to be authenticated with notes.
Card Cleaning:
This shouldn’t be a thing at all. Even if it’s just minor. You’re sending your card to them for them to give you their unbiased opinion on why it got the grade it got. I can already see the complaints with “my card didn’t look like this before you touched it” which is already a thing.
These are some interesting ideas but also hilarious to me in concept:
Grader notes: They’ll give you grader notes for 8 bucks a card. Something they should offer for free ideally, but realistically at a much lower price (2 to 3 a card max)
and if people complain they can go in the survey xxxxxx amount of ppl are fine with it, we are giving you what you wanted -_-
Premium images: should already be a thing, be better from the competition/new kids on the block of your own drive to beat them, and also don’t charge for it lmfao
PSA Sleeve: a $0.001 cent piece of plastic for 2 bucks, pass
Card cleaning: not only can they mess up a card during the longer handling and cleaning process as stated above but you get into the same objectively issue that I have with CGC with their comic cleaning/pressing services. This is a big can of worms and just feels like they are trying to get market share on the crazy growing card cleaning service industry, TAG offers cleaning as well, no one will be cleaning my cards lol
The buy alert is dope though. Simple and makes sense, great for niche and high dollar collectors
I think it would put people’s minds at ease if there were a demo video showing how their card cleaning process works, along with some before and after examples. The slope from cleaning to altering is a slippery one.
“cleaning and light buffing service to remove fingerprints, smudges, dust, and reduce minor surface scratches prior to grading”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where I would draw the line personally. Cleaning to remove fingerprints, smudges, and dust seems fine to me. Don’t people usually give their cards a quick wipe for dust and such before sending them off for grading anyway?
I’m curious about the buffing and light scratch removal, though. How light are we talking? This is where it starts to feel like card altering to me.
Overall, if this does become a thing, I think I’d pay the extra for the service.
This sounds like the potential end of an era. It reads like they are basically going to be altering cards. Hope I’m wrong, but like you stated, idk how they wouldn’t be with the wording they’ve used.
I mean it’s just a survey so we don’t know the exact motivation for this question. Maybe they are just interested in surveying how people feel about it generally. I get oils and dust but to “remove scratches” is wild to me.
if it’s implemented, will be interesting to watch for increase in 10 grades for vintage sets, especially ones known for having lots of holo scratching issues. not sure how they’d determine what constitutes a minor scratch
“Pay us more to do what you can already do yourself and pay us to give you stuff you can(probably already have) yourself.”
Took the survey as well and this also something they are looking at possibly doing
