PSA damaged my card, how do I navigate through this?

General
1

About two months ago I saw a PSA 9 Mysterious Mountains Zard for auction on PWCC. I ended up winning it for $400. I thought it had a shot at a 10 because the only thing that I could tell was that the centering was ever so slightly off, plus I wanted the new PSA case on it anyway so it was going in one way or another.

I understand there is a debate on cracking vs review, I picked cracking because I feel like the past grade would influence the grader. In the album I am going to link below I have attached a photo of the label that I kept. After cracking I examined the card and saw that there was no damage from the process of removing it from the holder.

I sent it in to PSA on in early January for a regular submission. It took 2.5 weeks to get entered into their system and another 2.5 weeks to get graded. The grade just came in yesterday, but the day before that I called and requested a voucher and me and one of the supervisors, Rene, went round and round a bit. Iā€™ve sent PSA about a dozen orders over the last year and multiple have went well outside of the turnaround time estimated. I still have not gotten communication on if I am approved for a voucher or not.

I receive the e-mail on my phone yesterday saying my grades are ready. I opened the order tab and click the order and boomā€¦ a 5. I just stood there and stared for about 30 seconds in disbelief. With PSA Iā€™ve prepared myself for anything ranging from an 8-10 when sending in a card I think is a Gem or Mint. A 5 is just simply not the condition in which the card was sent and received. I immediately called Rene and got the card pulled for review before it was sent back to me. We got in contact shortly after and the official word on why my card was graded a 5 was ā€œWell I thought the same thing, it looked mint, but then when I got one of my graders to take another look we found warping on one of the corners so small that it was almost not possible to seeā€.

I think that is bullshit. I believe this supervisor probably didnā€™t even look at my card, he most likely just has a copy pasta for things to say to pissed off customers that loosely fit the grading standard that the card was graded as. I immediately requested for his supervisor to call me. He said her name was Stephanie and that she would be calling me later yesterday, which she never did.

Now that the backstory is there I have a couple questions for some of you more experienced guys:

Is there a contact at PSA that you have that I could speak with to avoid having to go through this call center every time?

What type of timeline am I looking at to try to fight this?

What other tips do I need to know for getting this handled?

Album: imgur.com/a/qH89f

UPDATED: The card is home, PICS: imgur.com/a/njONu

3

Is there a possibility that you damaged the card when cracking it?

4

Whether or not this is what occurred this is the problem you will deal with OP. You took a risk and lost. There is no photo/video you can show nor any evidence you can possibly provide to prove PSA was at fault nor that the issue didnā€™t exist while it was in the 9 case to begin with.

You will also have no recourse for reimbursement of any kind since the card resides in a case with a 5 grade. The only thing you could do is crack it and send it back and hope PSA misses the corner issue (which they very well could have the first time) and gives it a 9 or 10 which it sounds like it doesnā€™t deserve. (I am not advising this route in the slightest).

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5

No, there was no damage on the card before or after the cracking. Cracking really isnā€™t that risky of a process if you do it correctly.

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Well, of course I canā€™t provide a video of PSA damaging my card, but is that really a realistic burden of proof when this is a service that is by mail? There was no corner issue when I sent the card in, the only thing was the card being slightly off center. I know theyā€™ll be the diehard people who think PSA does no wrong, but I know for a fact that card was a mint and am looking for whatever route I need to take to come to a resolution that fits the situation.

7

But you canā€™t. There is almost no possible way to prove the card was in a certain condition went sent in, everyone misses things from time to time as well. PSA has not claimed they damaged it, you cannot prove you sent a mint card. It is now a PSA 5 and that is that.

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8

@hammy to more directly address your questions:

I have mostly gone through the call center. I had an extension for someone specifically (forget the name) when I was dealing with a financial guarantee claim in the past. Next time you talk to someone try and get their extension for direct calling.

Unfortunately there is no fight.

To reiterate; the only provable facts that you present are these:

  1. You bought a PSA 9 card.
  2. You cracked it, we confirm this as you have shown the loose label.
  3. It then graded a PSA 5 (technically we donā€™t even know it was the same card, but I trust you here as most would)

The unknowns.
A. Did the original card have the corner damage and was it overlooked. (very hard to tell from scans/photos inside a case)
B. Did you damage the card upon cracking it.
C. Did PSA damage it upon grading/encapsulation.

Whether A, B, or C you have no way of proving any of it and it is all speculation. If it was A you could have been covered under the PSA guarantee up until the moment you cracked it out when you voided that and now you are SOL. If it was B you are SOL which is very possible when cracking a card. If it was C you have no way of proving it even with photos/scans of the card beforehand and you are also SOL. This is due to the unknowns of if you swapped it and the unknown of if the photo/scan just isnā€™t showing the damage.

Best thing to do is get the card back as a 5 and see what the extent of the damage is and learn from this. You can upload photos and provide whatever story youā€™d like. True or not youā€™ll have no way of proving it to convince the forum nor PSA. I have gone through this is the past and there is no way to win unless you get the card back in a high graded case with clear issues inside.

Iā€™m not trying to be mean or anything but you have no case. Just trying to save you some headache.

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I still donā€˜t understand why people crack cards out and send them in again instead of using the ā€šreviewā€˜ serviceā€¦ and no, PSA is not biased by the original grade as many members on here got their card upped in grade through the review service.

Could it be possible that the card got damaged while on the way to PSA? How exactly did you package the card?

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10

If the card was sent in for review, you will still have a case (no dad pun intended).

I have experienced every scenario and they all have the same end point: unprovable. I had a customer who cracked a 9 and the case split down the middle causing a subtle crease. There was a university magikarp I owned that never went above a 5 due to a subtle crease. It was near impossible to spot.

Basically the 5 grade implies a crease. Whether it was prior like the Karp or due to re-cracking, it is unprovable at this point. The moment the card left the case it eliminated all connection with PSA. This is a harsh lesson on the opportunity cost of cracking, even if the damage wasnā€™t due to the crack.

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11

I wasnā€™t saying it is impossible to get the grade upped on a review, just that I didnā€™t want the grader to be biased by the 9 it had previously received. I disagree, I think a previous grade with influence the review, not fully, but it has to have somewhat of an effect.

As far as my packaging I do the same thing for every order. pennysleeve into a card saver 1 into a teambag into two pieces of cardboard taped together, into a bubble mailer. Iā€™m certain my packaging was done well enough to keep the card in the condition it was when it left my hands.

12

So you sent the card inside a bubble mailer and not a cartoon box?..

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There is so much that can go wrong when cracking a case to resend a card in for review. I think the pros of sending it back in the case outweigh the cons which would just be ā€œpossible biasā€ on the grade. Iā€™ve seen many instances where people have gotten higher grades back on case reviews, even heard of a PSA 9 skyridge charizard holo getting a 10 in review more recently. Iā€™d just take the loss in this case and save myself the headaches and hours of calling and communicating back and forth to try and fight this case.

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14

Ehm, am I the only person who is concerned that he sent the card in a fucking bubble mailer??? (Excuse my language)

Never ever send a card in anything else than a sturdy cartoon/cardboard box!!

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15

Lmao it isnā€™t like I dropped the penny sleeve in there and said screw it. There is no issue with the way it was sent.

16

I mean he did put card board pieces around the card, and depending how thick the cardboard is, it should protect the card. ( I am assuming that is the only card you shipped in the bubble mailer.)

17

Cardboard boxes allow movement. Bubble mailers donā€™t. Heā€™s got cardboard inside the package, if you donā€™t allign the ridges youā€™ll have a very sturdy container, inside the mailer that has padding. Donā€™t believe me test it yourself, put an inexpensive card inside a bubble mailer with cardboard with unaligned ridges, throw it off a building, run it over with your car, and see if thereā€™s any damage.

Postal worker arenā€™t going around smashing packages, Iā€™ve used bubble mailers, with toploaders, bubble mailers with cardboard, bubble mailers with PSA cards and have yet to have a single person tell me thereā€™s damage.

Iā€™ve had people tell me they didnā€™t like my shipping method, at which point I tell them to remind me next time they order through me and Iā€™ll accommodate them, but Iā€™ve never had a message about damaged product. Perhaps, too many people have watched ace ventura.

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18

I would but I would like my card back this year.

19

Just break the case and send it to PSA in with a minimum gradeā€¦ and if that doesnā€™t work, resend it 12 times and I guarantee that one of those time it will grade high. :wink:

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Iā€˜d test it but I dont own any inexpensive cardsā€¦

On a serious note though: PSA clearly recommend using a box instead of bubble mailers to send cards and there is a reason for that. We have seen pictures some time ago from someone on the forum who got a PSA graded card destroyed in a bubble mailer.
It is pretty clear that a cartoon box protects a card better than a bubble mailer, thereā€˜s no discussion about that.

I would maybe use a bubble mailer for cheap cards but for any 4 figure card a box is the only way to ship.