What I was thinking was if you captured evidence of the card being absolutely pristine at the moment you physically give it to PSA yourself, and afterwards pick it up to be damaged, then in my eyes that would be pretty damning evidence it was somewhere on their side that caused it 
So you’d want PSA to have somebody at the reception desk to pregrade cards prior to submission. Keep in mind 95% of submitters live outside California and all over the world.
The logistics of what you’re suggesting isn’t reasonable.
Not necessarily at the reception, but if I can demonstrate proof of handing it over in pristine and it comes back to pick it up damaged, then regardless of *how*, PSA is still liable no? I’m not a lawyer or anything but once it’s in their building I can’t imagine how it would not be.
And yes, definitely this is location-biased, but that’s why I said I would only do this for the extreme cards.
How would you be able to do that?
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There seems to be very little empathy here. Regardless of your choice on what you decided to declare the card at (even if you declared it at $30k how do you prove they damaged it?), it doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for PSA to damage a card.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe the card was virtually gem before sending it off. It’s possible it was damaged in shipping, but I’ve seen multiple cases of where PSA very obviously caused damage. I understand that mistakes happen especially with high throughput but that doesn’t mean you can’t be pissed when it happens. Especially if you have no recourse unless they admit their mistake.
Putting that all aside, it sounds like a very unfortunate situation to be in and I feel for you. On the bright side it still got a 9 and wasn’t damaged down to a 6 or something
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Video with very clear closeups of the card + you handing it over.
Question: Will they adjust down your fee if you thought your card was a PSA 10 value but ended up 9 value? I had a situation I paid for PSA 9 value of a $20 grading fee but after grading it a 10 they said they needed to adjust my fee to $125. Would it work in opposite direction too?
Did you pay it?
Has this happened to anybody else here?
Handing it over to who? The girls at the desk? Who’s going to verify? Pics and videos are easily manipulated to conceal damage.
I’ve graded cards worth $1,000+ that were declared at < $100 and submitted through bulk. Notable would be a 1st edition Yanma PSA 10 and a few base charizard 10’s. I had no way to be sure any of those weren’t going to be 9’s though and then you are talking a sub $100 card (most my charizards were submitted when 9’s were ~$100).
Anytime I am submitting a card like base set 1st edition, select gold stars and shinings where I know that even a PSA 8 will be $100+ I use the standard service and estimate them in the low hundreds.
I have never been contacted to pay more money for a higher service, but I feel it has been mentioned before. @garyis2000 didn’t you say that basically every submission you send is bulk with a total value of less than $1,000? Like even ones containing 1st edition high quality zards? I’ve never been nearly that brazen and don’t plan to be.
Yep, I had to pay it to get the card. The exact original message below:
"I am writing on behalf of PSA regarding submission # 10095458 (attached). This submission contains 1 card that do not qualify for the $18 fee due to its value. We understand that you had no way of knowing the grade; however, when the value does exceed the value limit for the fee you originally selected, we must make the proper adjustments.
Please see the attached printout of your submission with the correct fees noted in the right column.
In order to complete the process, I will need your approval to charge the correct amount of $143. Please reply to this email at your convenience.
Thanks,
PSA Customer Service
800-325-1121
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@jcincy101 what card was it? That’s surprising I’ve never had that happen to me and like I said I’ve gotten back $1,000+ cards in bulk even a small handful of $2k-$5k cards. I’ve had countless $100+ and even $500+ cards in bulk too.
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This seems like a very poor business decision on PSA’s part. They are supposed to be an independent, non-biased, 3rd party. By upcharging based on grade they open themselves up to an obvious conflict of interest. If a card is borderline 9/10 and they make more money by giving the 10 grade, well… hmmn. They should not put themselves in that position in the first place. It devalues the credibility of their brand.
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Was a PSA 10 1st Edition Hitmonchan Base…I thought it was either a 9 (which is worth a little under $500 so I paid the $18 fee) or possibly a 10 but I knew how hard it would be to get a 10 so I doubted it and paid $18. Low and behold it graded a 10 and I got this message. Happy to pay the fee but yeah that’s what the card was.
Raw recorded footage of their office, you holding the card in their office, and you handing it over to one of their employees does not sound like something that can easily be manipulated. What is/isn’t considered evidence isn’t a rabbit hole I want to go down especially considering I’m neither a judge or lawyer but at some point you have to consider something to be evidence, and to me that suffices.
There could be new enforcement due to their improved system. If so, I’d like to find out the easy way;)
Yes, I never submitted a bulk order that exceeded 1000.00…even though the order should have been 50k. Never had a problem with that.
Well said…
As someone mentioned, what if you initially put the PSA 10 valuation and pay the 120.00 but it comes back a 9. Refunded?
Plus, can’t you say that in Australia they go for 100.00 and it doesn’t matter what ebay USA charges.
This could be a can of worms and I’d bet if fought in court it would be an easy win for the customer.
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This is ridiculous. You know damn well if the card was a 10 and they somehow damaged it, they would only give you the raw value, yet want to increase your fee due to the grade the card received? Aren’t they too busy to be looking at the price of the card they graded to make sure it fits under their parameters?
The whole declared value needs more clarification imo. How can you know the value of something without knowing its final grade. Think of cards that are $40 in a 9, but $1000+ in a 10, its one thing I dislike with the PSA system.
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Thanks @nuttun and @pkmnflyingmaster
Ok yes I realise I made a mistake under declaring it. Although having countless PSA cards this was my first ever submission. I called up PSA and we had a long conversation that prty much went around and said that it would be hard to prove it was in PSA 10 condition as a raw card (I was prty much advised to go with PSA 9). I didn’t want to insure it for $1500 when they wouldn’t have paid out for a PSA 10 anyway. They would have simply argued that it was in Mint PSA 9 condition. If I insured for PSA 9 value then I wouldn’t have gotten anything back anyway as that is what it came back as.
I went with the free grading vouchers as I took the risk and being on the forum for awhile and listening to everyone talk here realised that the chances of something happening was very small.
If I insured for PSA 10 they could still say it was PSA 9 worthy and no compensation.
If I insured for PSA 9, well that is exactly what I got so no compensation.
I honestly don’t care about what grade it got or could have got now I just want to go back in time and have my card back 
it just all feels like a bad dream.
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I feel you. These type of experiences are what shape serious collectors. Sometimes there is no easy answer in life; this is one of those scenarios.
On the bright side you still have a PSA 9 1st Edition Charizard. I think sometimes we forget that most people will never own that card.
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