Damaged cards are just a cost of doing business with PSA. Statistically, the rate of damaged cards is low so it shouldn’t be a major concern.
Turnaround times are a much more pressing issue at the moment. It’s currently a 2.5+ month turnaround minimum for a basic $10/bulk submission which is insane. That’s nearly 1/4th of an entire year just to grade 10 cards.
Damage during the grading process is so rare that the risk is almost negligible. It just so happens that when it does occur, the owner will shout it from the mountain tops (and rightfully so). This usually generates a lot of heated discussion and leaves an unrealistic impression of how likely such a scenario is.
~1,000,000 cards graded a year. Maybe around 4,000 per business day. Yes cards are still botched and will continue to be botched. The thing is that you hear about nearly every one that is botched. Same way you hear about every fatal car accident near you and every time a plane crashes anywhere in the world. 99%+ of the time (99.9?, 99.99?, 99.999? Not sure exactly how many 9’s to put…) there are no issues and everything goes smoothly.
Issues with PSA are rare and shouldn’t be something you worry about to the extent that you don’t submit. There really is unfortunately no way to predict when it will happen nor prevent it from happening. Maybe if you are handling any card that is beyond what you could stomach or afford losing then you can take a high quality thorough video of each card before submission but realistically that will only prove it to yourself and not to anyone here or likely at PSA. Though I did hear of “tapes being reviewed” for a relatively recent incident. Not sure what came of that. So yeah maybe a thorough video on anything really high dollar.
In a word? Nope.
I’m still sending off cards and getting them back fine, actually I’ve been doing pretty well with my returns recently.
I’d send off now if I were you. 
I am on the total opposite side here- as a pretty noob collector i just (aboutanhourago) joined this forum in need of help with this. Purchased a few skyridge boosters a few years ago and cracked some open in 2016- pulled me 4 holo’s out of 12packs, and they have been in a pennysleeve&toploader ever since.
I would love to get them graded, but to get a account@PSA and go trough all the register/sending/discovering stuff for just 4cards is a bit overdone- i’ve been lurking around here and think i saw a few post passing by about a member (smpratte?) functioning as a middle man- send 'm to them and they will get it graded…(?) could you guys help me with this? Would love to support this quality content/forum here, great stuff to read.
Bit more on topic: heard a lot about PSA taking wayyy longer to grade nowadays, but them damaging cards is not a subject i see floating around a lot…
…but then again, I am a big noob on this subject
i think some might tell you the sun shines from psa’s ass and a few others might tell you psa are the devil but for the average joe like myself i would say DON’T be afraid to send cards in. as long as you expect 1-2 questionable grades per submission and arent sending in bulk 1st ed base charizards you will be fine buddy 
also make sure you DO NOT mention xgav1337x in your submission in any way shape or form!!! not even that you have seen one of his vids or else you are going to have a bad time with ur cards thats a guarantee.
good luck
It seems the wait is still lagging behind what it was.
As far as PSA damaging cards, I wouldn’t concern myself with that. I’ve graded far more cards than anybody else here and have never had a card damaged.
Nope I just sent a bunch of cards recently
PSA are grading 2 million collectables per year currently. They are averaging 6,000 collectables per day, that includes weekends where they are regularly grading on Saturday now.
There is always going to be some error margin. It’s part of the risk associated with sending.
You can’t live your life being completely risk-averse, because you won’t experience all of the good things associated with it.
I’ve had a total of 3 cards damaged by PSA but I still send to them. They do allow you to declare values for a good reason. For example, when I sent off my 1st edition Charizard I declared him at around PSA 9 value… so if PSA damaged him I’d be fully compensated for that value or that value - the new grade the card would get. Kind of eases the tension and lifts that part of your worry. It is however disheartening to have your precious cards damaged, so… it’s just the risk you take.
How many cards has PSA graded for you in total?
I could’ve swore a couple weeks ago you said they pinched an $800 card of yours and you were fighting them over the value?
I’ve always kind of wondered about this. I know the onus is on them to do their job right and that there’s not really a consistent way to “game” them and make them damage your card, but… how legit is it to claim a grade for a card? I assume you would have to take several pictures of it before you send. But what if they ask you for a receipt? Say you won it on eBay for $3,000 and it looks 9 worthy. How can you be sure it’s a 9 and, therefore, write down the price of the graded card? I’m not saying what you did is wrong, I’m just wondering about how accurately you (as in an individual sending it to PSA) would use their standards to assign a value before it’s graded S such. I kind of do this as well (depending on the card) but it seems a little… off.
I’m lucky in that I live 30 minutes from them and can drop off cards, so it takes out USPS from the equation. I trust PSA 100x more than the postal service.
Actually, I didn’t grade that one. I traded for it already graded.
Here’s the pic
In my recent submission one of my card came back exactly like that but PSA said they would take care of it! 
I think it’s a bit off as well. This is the whole reason I was so upset when they emailed me to tell me they damaged my Evolutions Charizard and my Burning Shadows Acerola during the encasing process. They compensated me for the values I put down (around $15 and $30, respectively) on the submission form and subsequently did not encase the cards, but I personally believed that since they had already given it a grade and then damaged it, I deserved the value of the graded card minus its new grade (presumably a 6).
They would also never ask for a receipt so the onus is also on us to be honest. They state that the declared value should be a “realistic, educated guess based on your own research, keeping in mind that the Declared Value is also used for insurance purposes”, which seems entirely fair to me. I valued it at a 9’s value because that’s also what I personally would value the card at even it its raw form. This is also why there are so many service levels- it factors in the maximum declared insurance value and thus it makes it very hard for someone to really game the system by declaring false or inflated values.
@missingno Exactly 101 cards. Percentage wise… I’m not doing so well haha. 3% is kind of insane honestly. I’m about to send a 100-200 card bulk as well, so here’s hoping I will drive my personal incident rate down.
From memory, I’m pretty sure even if you put $X declared value and your card is damaged and PSA takes responsibility, you’re not guaranteed to be compensated $X, if PSA think your declared value is off they will offer what they think the card is worth.
That’s what I remember reading anyway
Regarding PSA taking a long time, its just the sheer number of cards that are being sent to PSA to get graded. I just submitted mine last week, was delivered but still isn’t registered into the system (65 day turnaround).
Thanks for the help guys! Just submitted a request @smpratte, really exicited to finally get a chance in grading with PSA without all the hassle- this forum rocks!