Sent off a mint 1st edition base set charizard for grading with one hairline scratch and this is what I find on it when I get it back…
what the hell goes on over there?? I inspected this card for a long time under multiple lights and I ABSOLUTELY would have seen this! this was sent as a super express delivery you would think they would be more careful with valuable cards! what do they do drop them and slide them on the floor?? completely unacceptable.
Do you have any before pictures? Just curious.
see above
Unfortunetly that before pic needs to be at angles to show the holofoil. You can hide a lot with a straight on pic. Not saying I don’t believe you but the before pic doesn’t prove anything. But there have been enough examples of slip ups at PSA that I wouldn’t dpoubt it…that is very sad if true. i worry about my large bulk submission of 180 cards
I know I agree with you I am trying to look for other pics I might have taken.
Its a dangerous time to send in high value cards right now.
It shouldn’t be, but it is.
I don’t recommend anyone sending in high value cards like this until they are out of their backup slump.
Quick question, is the original hairline scratch there still? Sorry for my skepticism but with all the hassle I’d be worried that it was swapped especially for such a high value card.
Totally agree with you on this. I’m definitely waiting on getting cards graded that are even mid-high value cards due to the high demand right now.
yeah it is
Run your nail over the plastic to make sure the scratch is not on the case.
What grade did it get?
I can see this happening on a sub of a bulk order but one super express sub? come on you think they would know to be careful with it! oh well I really thought it had a shot at a 10 and when I found out it got a 9 I was going to send it again but now no way. literally this could have happened on any of my other cards but this one lol
I have done that its on the card. it got a 9 but before it was a card that if it got a 9 it would be worth re sending but now its obviously not worth it.
…worried it was swapped? I mean I can see mistakes being made but you think PSA is committing fraud/theft? That is a little out of line. I’d need proof of that happening before. I mean PSA doesn’t have PSA 9 zards sitting around to swap just in case there was a PSA 10 that came through.
no I can absolutely say that it was not swapped
Man, I absolutely feel for you. I’ve been here before as well. Looked over a card longingly for hours with an high-intensity light without any sign of imperfection and then it comes back to me with a scratch in the holo. It was also a big one - shadowless charizard that came back a 9 due to the scratch. Same thing happened with a shadowless blastoise - nothing visible presubmission and then it comes back a 9 with some weird holo smudgelines.
It makes me wonder who transitions the cards from card savers → naked for grader → encapsulation-ready. It is absolutely depressing to think that a careless employee making $16/hr can ostensibly cause $15k of damage to a card and the only person to blame is us for trusting PSA in the first place. You’d think with all of the cash PSA receives they would be re-investing that money into technologies that would make them world leaders in high-volume, low-weight delicate handling tech. But the sad truth is they probably hired a part-time contractor for $16/hr to take the cards out of the card savers, sandwich them between some plastic sheets that were manufactured or stored improperly and now contain roughness and/or dirt/dust which interacted with the holo on your card, and then the grader looked and saw an absolutely flawless card with a bunch of holo scratches and gave it a 9 [which, honestly, is no longer 9-worthy due to the amount of scratches].
So hypernova do you not send to PSA anymore after your bad experiences? Or do you just close your eyes and hope for the best?
I still use them and still plan on using them for a very long time to come. I don’t think they intentionally damage cards, but rather the damage is the result of an unrefined handling system being pushed far beyond its limits. Unfortunately, ‘waiting until it gets better’ is not really an option, we simply don’t know the extent of the problem [and to be honest, I’m not sure they do either] or whether there are any resources being committed to improving the problem.
“Was a card worth resending if it got a 9” you think cards with a scratch deserve a 10?
If you want authentication/grading, t’s not like you have a choice. PSA has a pretty solid monopoly on the market after BGS just decided to stop grading certain orders for a year, or whatever.
Just out of curiosity, how long did the order take?