White particles in half of PSA cases bought from eBay

General
1

Hi all, earlier this year I have transitioned from binder collecting into PSA graded cards. I bought some japanese PSA cards even before but never noticed anything wrong with the case, until recently.

Since I started working on my PSA collection, I have noticed that half of the cases contain weird white particles just below the PSA label in the middle (see pictures). Do any of you have a similar issue?

The cards are coming from several sellers accross USA and EU so it does not seem to be a matter of one seller who did not store the cards properly.

I have also checked a few ebay listings and a this seems to be a common issue. Even currently listed PSA 9 1st ed base Charizard has the same dirt when you take a closer look.

It’s a bit frustrating, since I wanted to display the cards. But if the dirt is present inside half of the PSA cases, I might just go back to the binder collections. Not sure if it’s fault of PSA or bad storage of the previous owners.

The goal was to have nice and clean sets of PSA cards but with this dirt in the case, it does not make sense to me anymore.

What do you think? Does any of your PSA cases contain the same stuff? And if so, do you even mind or do you just care about the card itself?

Thanks




Links to the images just in case they do not show in the post:

drive.google.com/file/d/1cCepBh5S30ZtljUHCWrao-PO0BJ8CZ9A/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1bsk17Fvn308dMHStAtXrs3w_XXWEEAl3/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1bshM-NDFMMPqsJ6LSQJSSCImpjbzfCot/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1bsSn-8fjAhpb6Kubqtld7ykBtq5Oe_8B/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/1boWiDhl2wUMcPk_iKvoyxZk_tuNsr9Fy/view?usp=sharing

1 Like
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Yessir! This is a serious, widespread problem that seems to have been ignored until now!

3

Thanks for posting first I’ve heard of this but it is now very concerning

4

Seems most cases seem to have those white plastice dots located exactly there. I have never heard of an official reason for this. It’s something that happens when PSA puts them together

1 Like
5

Interesting you brought this up. I hadn’t really run into this issue until about a month ago. I received a shipment back from PSA post COVID reopening. I noticed probably about half of the cards came back with this weird “white particle-like” stuff below the PSA label. It does not appear to be causing any issues or damage to the cards though, just a cosmetic issue for the case. In other words, the “particles” appear stationary and don’t move around in the case. As long as they don’t cause any damage, I don’t really mind it. I would prefer PSA fix this though.

6

Wonder if they are dipping into less than desirable stock since any plastic from China/India are difficult to get.

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7

I’m gonna calm this thread down. My forum community service of the day. I saw this on my gold star PSA 10 charizard the other day and similarly freaked out. Then I started noticing it everywhere. They are micro bubbles in the plastic itself. NOT loose particles or dirt. See this imgr link I just did this to demonstrate:

imgur.com/a/v9NjVOP

6 Likes
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I also noticed tiny clear squares in the plastic on a bunch of PSA cards. I similarly got worried Thinking it could be fungus then realized it is on the case not the cards

4 Likes
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The card I got today have a lot of them aswell :thinking:

10

Thanks for all the replies! I will not worry about the white particles then. They indeed seem to be plastic bubbles from sealing the case. But anyway, it would be great if PSA could figure it out because it would look much nicer without it.

2 Likes
11

The tiny white square particles also appear on the cards inside the case!

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12

the tiny squares that appear on a bunch of PSA cases are not on the cards. those are another, separate case flaw. shine the light from your iPhone on them and you can clearly see they are on the case.

unless you are talking about something else?

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13

I agree they can appear on the inside surface of the case. But they can also appear on the cards inside the case. After close examination to determine they were actually on the card, these were two examples I just found:

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You’re referring to those tiny white squares right? I assure you they’re on the case. Try shining a light from the side and you can see it.

These are from my gold star charizard.

imgur.com/a/zJsudr5

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I wish they were on the case! I did look very carefully with light from all angles and I’ve been pretty convinced they they’re on the cards.

I’ll look again. Hope you’re right! Haha

17

And…?

18

Just wondering, are those white squares inside the plastic or on the outer layer?

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I can’t tell what layer of the plastic they’re on, but they’re 100% on the case not the card. I have a bunch of other cards with this too

1 Like
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I am glad it is not just me noticing these tiny white squares, I have a few PSA cards with this on!! I couldn’t work out if they were on the case or card yet. I am not cracking one to check either haha If anyone does please post the results!

1 Like