I can’t stand a scratched PSA holder. It makes a gem mint card look not so minty. Why own a graded card if you can’t see it for the condition it’s in due to an exterior obstruction? That’s why it bothers me when I receive a scratched, scuffed, or dirty PSA card in the mail. It costs a good chunk of change if you send in a bunch of cards under the reholder service; plus you’re producing a larger plastic footprint. Let’s not forget the risk involved with shipping as well as PSA handling the cards.
The solution is plastic polish!
There are many brands of plastic polish but I went down to the hardware store and picked up some PlastX for $10.
It’s made for polishing headlights primarily but the stuff works great on PSA slabs. I used a microfiber cloth made for camera lenses with just one drop of the polish per application. For the light scratches you’ll only need one or two applications but some of the deeper stuff may require several takes and may never totally disappear with this method alone. Once you’ve worked the polish in and it’s no longer visible for the most part you may notice slight streaking or what look like fine scratches. At that point just take a dry part of the cloth and give it another light scrub and it should look as good as new.
Post your experience with plastic polish or any other ideas/tips you have for cleaning up those slabs.
You are a God and I will most definitely try this out in the future and post my results. I have spent 100s on PSA re-casings, should have tried something like this first…
Idk how well it would work for an unsleeved slab, and it’s something I havnt tried on my personal cards. But when I used to race rc I would throw a coat of auto wax onto my body to hide the scratches and bring back it’s shine before races! May be a viable option for superficial scratches and scuffs without the need for buffing or multiple applications. Although I would prefer your way better and deal with scratches in a permanent fashion!
Ouch. I have mixed feelings now about having cards reholdered. Some cards would be nice to have the new label but at the same time, now that I’ve polished a few, the old cases aren’t so bad.
What’s the active ingredient in the plastic polisher?
I am getting flashbacks to the Retrobright* thing and YouTube channels shouting you need Baking Soda* to clean anything. But 9/10 of the products are not available in Europe and we have to look for the active ingredient to find the alternative.
*All able to be bought now, since product names has been found for European alternatives. But finding Hydroperoxide 3% and Isopropyl alcohol is still hard some times.
I have an even cheaper method. Take some toothpaste… yes toothpaste … and a microfiber cloth and buff away on the case. Takes the scratches right out with some dedicated buffing time, no need to spend extra money. I’ve used this method on my scratched cases and I can’t even tell that there was a scratch to begin with on any of them
What is super annoying I take my PSA cards straight from the box when they return and put them inside perfect fit sleeves. But right from PSA several cases will have scratches ALWAYS.
They use a machine to press and seal the case together. It could be because of that and or because they have to seal thousands of cards a day and rush through the machine press process.
It does not. If you have some screen cleaner or lens cleaner (the one you use on tv’s or sun glasses) finish it off with that. One it took the smell away from mine but it also makes the case pop and look really nice. Pretty sure the smell will go away naturally though, its just toothpaste.
I tried the toothpaste on a ultra pro magnetic one touch case, and a toploader as was intrigued. I’d never put toothpaste near a PSA case.
My results were - it just makes it shiny. The scratches still remain,
I was polishing some slabs tonight with PlastX and I had a good example of how well it works. This particular scratch was pretty deep so it took multiple applications. I figured I’d bump this thread for anyone who dislikes a scratchy PSA case
… and a microfiber cloth and buff away on the case. Takes the scratches right out with some dedicated buffing time, no need to spend extra money. I’ve used this method on my scratched cases and I can’t even tell that there was a scratch to begin with on any of them
