Hi there,
Just curious if anyone knows if psa returns your graded cards with full declared value?
Main issue for me is if it goes through customs at full declare price im assuming id get hammered with tax. even though i didnt buy anything they were my cards to begin with…
If anyone has experience or info on this topic id really appreciate the help.
Thank you
You dont get taxed on your cards being returned, im uk based and after multiple submissions they come back as graded own goods or something like that so they pass through customs without fee. Maybe someone in canada can confirm that its the same for you
@spitfire42, I’ve never had to pay tax on a shipment from PSA. They do ship it to you fully insured for the value you declared at the time of your submission but you aren’t taxed on that valuation.
This is old information (last time I graded was 2014), but I’ve had a mix of experiences with customs and grading cards as a Canadian. I once was charged customs on the full valuation of the cards I sent (and after going back and forth with Canadian Border Services, they refunded the customs charge I had to pay, because this makes no sense). Other times I have been charged a customs fee on the amount I paid in grading costs only (my most frequent experience), and a few times I was charged no customs at all as it was clearly marked *returned goods*.
Hope someone has more recent information.
I’m 2/2 for not being charged import. I dug into the tariff details before and my impression is that they do have the ability to tax you despite it being property returned to you.
you better ask this directly to your customs and no you won’t have to pay import fees on your own items, which is against the law, although you might have to fill a form. Import fees on the grading fees are regular.
Had tons of PSA shipments come back over the years and only got hit once. They can tax you if the declaration label is mislabeled basically. When it happened to me I had to go through CRA (I think) and speak with a rep, provide proof they were my own items, send documents of my grading form and they sent me a check back for the taxes they charged me. Happened again recently actually with graded video games and there’s just a form to fill out and the government refunds you if you can show it was from a grading/appraisal company basically.
In the end it comes down to a legal interpretation of which tariff code these items belong under which is why there is no straightforward answer. I’m absolutely no expert but I can provide my own interpretation of how it works:
www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d8/d8-2-26-eng.html
It comes down to whether or not the grading process is an “alteration” to the item or if it’s creating a new class of good (ie. wood to a table). The definiton of alteration:
Common sense would suggest grading is a type of alteration but again this is probably up to legal interpretation. In the case that it is simply an alteration:
Which in my understanding means you only really are required to pay the cost of the grading (and value of the plastic?). I think overall it’s a bit complicated since maybe one could argue that a graded card is fundamentally different from a raw card and the value difference factors into that but I think it’s really up to the courts to clarify something like this (which to my knowledge they haven’t) so it’s all a bit unclear. Again, I’m not an expert.
I think the practical advice is just to be prepared that you could get hit with customs and also try to reach out to the CRA/customs agency if you do because I have heard about people getting their money back as mentioned in this thread.
Thank you everyone for your input it has cleared up a lot of my questions. If I encounter any issues in the future I will post here and share my experience. The main point I got is it’s fine so ill give it a shot. Was mainly curious because a lot of the cards I’m sending would be well over 10k if a PSA 10 so that was my concern.
Or you could have PSA / ludkins ship it to a forwarding service like stackry in the US and then you ship it to yourself by declaring it at $5 or whatever. At max you pay for shipping 30-50$ but you avoid customs
Thanks for the input, I use 2 reshippers in the usa and 1 of them has fucked up my packages multiple times now and im tired of them ( Reshippers Oregan) Stackry has always been awesome but they charge min 60 usd for me to ship so adds up fast. Ive talked to afew other collectors tonight and they assure me that direct mail back will be fine so lets find out.
60 CAD is ok for me (to Toronto) when I combine like 6-10 packages. Especially when they provide you like 30-40 days whatever the free limit is. Also I choose I global mail option (which is cheaper) and dhl only when the items are expensive. Stackry has fucked up my order too once. Cards came in bent and without any protection. (Well can’t really say if they came to stackry already damaged or not) but the packaging was not upto the standards I usually expect from them. Unfortunately for me that card was $500. But what can you do. I reached out to stackry and sent pictures, they didn’t respond. After 3 emails and 15 days they responded asking for pictures. I’m like umm…I sent them already. Regardless they would only cover you for the value you declared which was like $5. But yeah apart from that one bad packaging, stackry has always been good and I have never been charged with customs so I’m still ok using them
Customs is not supposed to charge you on the value of the cards when PSA returns your cards. Doesn‘t matter where you live. The cards belonged to you already, all you did is use a service for refinement. Hence customs can only charge you for the price of that service. PSA only includes the grading fees as declared value.
Just another data point, I receive a submission back yesterday with a 5 figure declared value and no charges upon delivery.
Yes, I was reading more into the matter through the Canadian government website and for whatever reason you are charged on items that belong to you they just need proof that you owned the items beforehand and all charges will be refunded or dropped. It was a major concern for me because I’m sending 25 cards in and even if they only get 9s the total value will likely exceed 30-40k