This topic was mentioned but I wanted to give it its own thread.
Basically a guy named Gary Mosser trims sports cards. Some were graded by PSA and sold with PWCC. Here is a rundown on the situation.
Here is PWCC’s statement. Apparently PWCC is working with PSA and the police to rectify the situation.
Do anyone think this has happened to any Pokemon cards they have auctioned, or is it only sports cards?
Useful information for people digging:
Here is the origin of this information: HERE
The accusations also affect BGS and SGC graded cards, though the majority of the vintage trimmed identified are in PSA cases.
At this time, there is no definitive information as to the breadth of the compromise in any one grading company. We do not know how many were submitted to each, how many made it through, or any other such information. We have only the collected evidence from the secondary market that was accessed by the sports card fans who produced the initial investigative report.
@scarecrowman88,There have been a handful of trimmed Pokemon cards, but nothing close to this situation.
IMO the rounded pokemon corners make trimming much easier to spot.
^ This.
This is especially true in cases of “square cuts”. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a ton of cards sold as “square cuts” that were very clearly cut by hand (you can tell by uneven edges or curved edges). Machine factory cuts are clean and exact.
Good to know there’s an active investigation.
I’ve been following this for a few years and net54 and blowout have been all over it. It’s very clear that PSA needs to hire more alteration experts but I’m happy at least pwcc is stepping up and helping those affected by the scammer Moser
You get what you pay for. PSA new hires for Pokemon grading are slightly above minimum wage, not exaggerating. Hopefully this wakes them up.
Thats insane, the sheer amount that have passed through and is still being passed through both psa and pwcc, scary shit.
I imagine the pattern wasnt difficult to find after the first couple.
I noticed its very recent but has either party PSA or PWCC responded ?
PWCC’s response: www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=269710
That is outrageous. For a company to be constantly backed up with submissions they should be getting paid significantly more.
This has been discussed before. If they raise their employees wage, then expect the price of card grading to increase (which I’m OK with).
I’m 100% cool with that. Especially if paying more means better quality and more consistent grading with less mishaps. A raise in grading cost would just raise the floor price for the lower tier graded cards anyways.
What is a cut and trimmed card? And why would someone do it?
Trimming a card helps to clean up the edges, especially of older sports cards that may have significant whitening or fraying. The better it looks after a trim, the higher the grade (if the trim is not being caught, which is sadly the point behind this post)
You get factory made ugly duckling.
You fix factory mistakes.
You send off to get graded.
You get 9/10 not a 6 you deserved.
You sell for increase of what it’s worth because Destiny gave you a shit card.
Pokemon Co. Mad, psa mad, buyer unknowing but would be mad.
You deserved to pimp out ugly duckling. Not prized swan.
If the copywriter is correct, they copywrited an “ugly duckling”, not your corrections.
So you ARE contributing to fraud.
They did not put their stamp of approval for your altered card.
This barely scratches the surface, cutting cuts is widespread. I’ve had PSA cards I’ve purchased (Pokémon) barely fit in the recess areas they’re so small and obviously been cut.
This confuses me… wouldn’t a “cut” card result in more space inside the case? Also, barely fitting implies cutting a sheet, which can’t be common anymore.
I don’t think it is nearly as widespread as implied. It’s not exactly an effortless job and pokemon has the rounded corners as mentioned.
I have hundreds of PSA cards from many different sources. Based on the slight variation in card size and/or PSA case size, I have some that move around a lot more than others. I dont think this is an indication of trimming unless I’m just super unlucky or half of all PSA cards are trimmed.
WoTC cuts are not consistent. They also changed their cases to be more roomy sometime around 284xxxxx. Japanese cards are also known to be rattlers.
Corners on WOTC might have some variance but the size of the cards from border to border are the same so theoretically you can open up images of the cards in a photo editing software and overlap them to see if the proportions are right. Even if they trimmed an equal portion on each side the yellow border would act a s a fail safe and it really stands out to the trained eye.