So i have been wanting to get this card in my collection for a long time. Im a very big bulba, ivy, venu collector.
Found one that looked good from the pics on ebay, and was a fair price, 190$ shipped.
I received the card today and right away my heart sank. This has to be either a huge mistake by psa or the person who owned this card tossed it around and caused all this damaged (which i don’t think is the case considering the card is not sliding around at all in the case)
I checked the cert numbers and everything matches on psa’s site.
Card has 8 to 10 different surfaces scratches on it.
Both bottom corners have silvering, and the entire left edge is silvering and wear.
Right text border has smudge along with a deep 2-3 inch cut running along the border.
(sorry the pics are not the greatest, best i could do with my phone) in person this card looks awful. really bummed because i hate to have something i know is not a 9 in my personal collection that i worked to save up towards
Never once have has an issue this big with buying a psa card before, and when i went to contact the seller about it i noticed they will not take any returns. so i guess i’m stuck with this horrible card i don’t want in my collection now. :end rant:
Man that sucks, I am sorry for your disappointment.
However, there are still things you can do to remedy the situation .
Despite the seller saying no refunds, technically speaking you can still apply for an item not described to return the item back and get refunded. However, technically speaking the seller did sell you exactly what was listed; some members would tell you the classic homage “buy the card not the grade” while others would say that the seller should have described the imperfections.
Dispute with psa to get a chunk of your money back by stating you were misled by the cards grade, in which you would have to submit the card for review.
I do not have enough experience under my belt to determine the psa grade and if your venusaur merits the 9, but it does seem a very soft 9, in my personal opinion.
by no means do i want to be that guy on ebay who request a refund because i think the card does not deserve the grade it was given when i received it, but in this case the seller never disclosed any of the issues and from the lighting and pics he took it honestly looked fine. i have purchased 100s of psa cards and not once have i ever had an issue this bad where i think the card should be 2 grades or lower than what i paid for. i have gotten 10’s that look borderline 9 and 9’s that look like 10’s, but it was always just minor whitening on the back or some small scratch that you would have to search for. i literally took this out of the bubble mailer and within 5 seconds in normal light noticed 4 giant scratches and all the silvering. went into the other room and put it under some better light and i can see the imperfections across the room as i tried to see if it would “fly” just sitting in my display case.
i figured i was paying for a 9 by looking at the pics the seller posted. You could not see any of the silvering or scratches and the back looked really good (which it actually does). i assumed it was a 9 due to centering issues, the smudge on the right boarder, and prob some light scratches in the holo i could not see.
Hope you get a full refund from the seller. If not, it’s enough of a misgrade/error that PSA will surely take care if you.
It can be a time consuming process though and you’ll have to sell that PSA 6-7 back. You’re also not guaranteed to end up with your $190(IE they give you $100 and card is worth $50)
thanks. i’m leaning more towards this route, because honestly i don’t want this card on the market as a 9. i could never sell this card as a 9 and feel good with myself knowing i passed this along to a fellow collector in such horrible condition.
Damn - the first 2 pictures show some pretty deep scratches…
It is kind of a gray area for the seller to disclose this or not.
You would want the seller to be as descriptive as possible and list all the flaws. Then again, it’s a PSA graded card, so it is whatever PSA said it is. Before joining this forum, I never heard of ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ grades. People valuing the same card, same grade differently based on those factors was pretty surprising. The whole point of grading in the first place was to take that guesswork out (subjective EX, NM, LP, HP, etc).
Worst case if you can’t sell it or get your money back - I’ll take if off your hands for $100
buyer said he would do a refund. never have been thru the request refund option. he is asking me to mail the card back first. i already submitted the refund request. does he have to accept it and i get a shipping label, or how does this work? lol sorry for such the noob question. never had to do this before and i am trying to take as many precautions as possible.
Those are some deep scratches on the front I’m sorry that happened! It’s tough on the seller’s side because they did sell what was described, but they could/should have disclosed more about the condition. Best practice here is to always give as much information about your item as possible, and to then let the buyer make a well informed decision. Glad they’re taking care of you with the refund!
Good answers above. All I’ll add is the edge slivering will rarely affect the grade. Even 10s allow for front edge silvering. Now the surface scratches are a different story.
Pokemon collectors: PSA takes too long to process our orders! They need to hire more staff.
PSA: We need to hire more staff, the amount of orders we have coming in right now is more than we can handle.
Also PSA: But we don’t have the time to train anybody because we need graders right now.
PSA: Fuck it just hire a bunch of monkeys.
Also PSA: Great idea nobody will notice.
The ones that get me are the majority of people complaining about PSA’s quality and turnaround times yet wanting them to offer more cheap specials month after month.
I mean I think it is fairly well known I am one of their harshest critics, but at least I offer a solution by suggesting paying them more money for their services to help them get their shit together. When they raised their prices recently I didn’t think it was enough and when they came out with those Pokemon specials I called it irresponsible, which it objectively was.
Absolutely! I 100% agree. I don’t think they are making the right choices. They are obviously happy, and very accepting towards the growth of Pokémon, and TCG cards as a whole. You can tell they are trying to be supportive because of things such as their Instagram page, the fact that TCG now has its own widget on the PSA population page, and these specials they are throwing out just for Pokémon. The point I think they are missing though is that all most of us care about is the quality and consistency of the grading process. PSA has obviously been the go-to grading company for Pokémon. I’m sure new collectors and old collectors can agree on that. But as I push myself towards new goals in this hobby. Pushing my boundaries and seeing rewards. There’s one thing I cannot handle, and that is the uncertainty and distrust I feel towards PSA grades. It only takes one time of stretching yourself to the max, unloading psa 9’s and paying extra to finally have that PSA 10 in your hands. Only to realize that is weaker than multiple 9’s you just unloaded. Yes, I know, “buy the card and not the grade” is a valuable lesson that I’ve learnt undoubtedly. But somethings gotta change. Up the fees. I agree. I would pay $50-$100 dollars per card if it meant it was getting the grade it deserved. But when you start getting orders of cards by the 1000. Because you’re trying accommodate everybody and offer a half rate price for a half rate grading process. It doesn’t help the hobby at all.
Can’t agree with not running Pokémon specials. It’s much better than doing ALL post 1950s specials. Narrows it down a bit.
I DO agree that the rate increases weren’t enough though. Doing a 2 or 3.00 increase would have been better.
I’m sorry that happened! It’s tough on the seller’s side because they did sell what was described, but they could/should have disclosed more about the condition. Best practice here is to always give as much information about your item as possible, and to then let the buyer make a well informed decision. Glad they’re taking care of you with the refund!