I just got this email from PSA saying that they had to change the service level fees on a bunch of my cards because the grade they received put them over the “max value” limit on my order. For example, I sent two gold star charizards, one got a 7 ($8 to $20 fee) and one got a 9 ($8 to $75 fee). I’ve sent this exact card with these exact grades before without having to pay extra not knowing what grade I would get.
I already emailed support back in regards to this but I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this before or if this is a new practice at PSA going forward…
I had a PSA 10 1st edition hitmonchan come back and they made the rate like $200 or something from the $20 I had given it or something like that, it was about a year ago
I don’t understand. If you under-insure a card, which I’m sure we’ve all done, what do they care? If it gets damaged in transit that’s less money they have to pay out.
I also thought insurance was based off of the cards raw condition rather than the potential value after it receives a grade?
Wait a sec, I could be totally wrong in my understanding as I’ve only sent a couple of times. I was under the impression that the “declared value” is what you deem the price of the card is. For example, if I declared the value of my 1st ed base holo as under $99 and something happens, I can only be reimbursed for that amount and not the actually value (assuming of course PSA accepts that damage was done in house).
Now what if I submit regular (max $499 @ 25 days) and it is marked express (max $2k @ 8 days), what about the 17day difference? Out of luck for the loss in rushing the order?
Or what if I declare a card higher but the grade bumps it lower than the declared value, will there be credit?
“It is our subjective opinion that you owe us more money.”
They shouldn’t be accepting certain cards in a bulk order in the first place. That’s the problem.
They always not accepted certain cards in bulk. Nothing over $99. People have just skirted or outright ignored the rules and they haven’t really enforced it too hard. They can’t just outright ban specific cards though because loads of them span well under $99 to the thousands.
This thread will be an interesting one. The policy too.
I’ve never run into it yet, but certain cards make major dilemmas. I have graded a handful of $1k+ value cards in bulk but I’ve never lied or intentionally skewed my valuation. One was a PSA 10 1st yanma that ended up selling for about $3k. Problem is as a 9 that was a $30 card. Many others were base unlimited zards back when PSA 8/9 were sub $100 and PSA 10 was >$1k.
@garyis2000 how will this affect your submissions? I recall you saying something along the lines of never having a subform value of over $1,000 and submitting many high dollar cards through bulk with low values.
I also wonder how/if it will affect forum submissions @funmonkey54 ?
This big time. One of the cards I sent was a Blue eyes white dragon BPT-003 that graded a PSA 9. They raised the charge on that one from $8 to $20. However, there is no PSA 9 graded sold under their own “auction prices realized” and the only sold listing I can find on Ebay is one that sold for $97 CAD (Under the $99 value limit)… So how they are even determining which cards are “over” the bulk value limit and which cards can stay under is completely beyond me…
Reply with this information to them and dispute their determination on that card and any other applicable.
Also I would be interested to know their answer if you ask them what happens if you decline to pay the additional? Will they return the other 7 cards ungraded and you forfeit the $8 each or what?
I’ll include all of it in my next email to Greg. My last response was just me asking where it says they can charge a different service level fee based on the grade the card receives. I may have just genuinely missed it on their site or the contract so I was curious. it’s also a bit annoying if they were just being inconsistent with it before and now all of a sudden are going to start applying these extra fees to every order without any warning or email or anything. They also didn’t apply the voucher I had to the order I sent and didn’t label a ST haunter I sent in when it was specified on the order sheet. This submission is growing to be a bit frustrating for sure lol.
Seems like this sets up an inherent conflict of interest on PSA’s part. Manager looks over sales numbers on 25th of month… Hmm, were a little low, let’s get the word out to the minimum wage graders to bump the grades on some cards to make up the difference. Even if this never happens, when your business model is based on trust, you can’t put yourself in a position where it could happen.
inb4 everyone submits hundreds of cards for the $7.50 special just to have PSA jack up their subs to $20 a piece after they’re graded.
A genius shakedown.
PSA is becoming more aware of TCG cards. A few years ago they were clueless. They do this in other hobbies for certain items. You can’t bulk a mint prominent rookie without getting this type of email.
I am torn, as I primarily think the submitter should be able to absorb the risk. But there are some ridiculous examples in Pokemon that make me sway the other way. I remember the thread about a mint 1st Ed zard being declared at $1, which was completely ridiculous. It’s all about reasonability.
What were the other cards in the order? Basically what is the degree of under-declaration?
Mint 1st Ed Zard is an interesting example. If you assume PSA 9 and declare the card value at 7k the cost to grade is $500. If the card comes back an 8 the cost to grade would have been $200 had you declared the value under 5K. Will they refund the difference? On the other hand, if the card comes back a 10 the cost to grade is 3K, and they can charge you an extra 2.5K.
I assume you’d be pretty ecstatic about the 10 so maybe you wouldn’t care
Like Scott, I’ve had this happen many times with sports cards…going back to the 90s. Never had an issue with any non sports. I figure it was because they didn’t know those values and it was too time consuming to look them all up.
Now they have that auction price finder so it could all be automated. Maybe this is the way of the future?
