I recently purchased a PSA graded card (a gem mint 10 for what it’s worth). When I received the card, I noticed what may be a tiny particle within the holder itself… although I can’t tell for certain if this is a tiny particle or if it’s tiny damage on the card itself. I was wondering if someone could help me out from a photo.
You see that little white speck towards the upper-middle of the photo I’m talking about? From what I can tell, it does seem to pop up a bit from the plane of the card, which is what makes me think it might be a particle. But it’s so small that I can’t tell for sure.
I have a couple of questions in relation to it…
1 - From the photo, is there any chance that is in fact a particle as opposed to actual damage on the card? (Is this something that might be fairly common?)
2 - If it is just a particle, would it be easy to give PSA instructions to remove it from the card as they are re-holdering it?
They don’t seal them in a clean room AFAIK. It is likely dust/debris that they didn’t blow off. Confused? Go to 3 minutes. PSA Sports Trading Card Grading Process. - YouTube Old video but I am sure it is a similar process. If you really look into it, many cases have something somewhere along the card. I always have trouble trying to keep mine as dust free as possible in my house when I send out submissions as I have pets and a lot of carpeted rooms. Always try to do it in a hard floored room on a table that has been wiped down before hand. So many steps and stages a sticky bit of dust can get on the card or in the case and cling there.
I assume you could get it recased for the standard fee and would be randomly subjected to the same chances of getting dust in it again. No idea what % of cards have it, but this certainly isn’t the only one. I do not imagine they would do a free recasing over this.
Yeah I kind of figured this sort of thing may happen a lot, thanks for the clarification guys.
But in regards to it happening so often you don’t really care if it’s on the back of the card… and I might agree with you… but playing devil’s advocate - Would it matter to you if the card in question was worth 4 figures?
I’m already going to get a bunch of cards re-holdered anyway (to get the new cases). This just happens to be a brand new case, and I have to decide if I want to put it in the pile for a re-holdering submission.
Well now you’re just scaring me @darkrai ! I’m already committed to having 5 figures worth of Pokemon cards re-holdered in the near future. (Mainly to get old cards in new cases, and also to replace some cases with bad scratching).
At least it’s just a tiny dot. I had a PSA 10 Charizard ex come back with a piece of brown paper stuck on the back of the card inside the case… lol. Haven’t got around to sending it back in. I think I’ll just keep it until I have enough cards to send in for a reholder.
When I shake the case I can’t get it to move… but the same can be said for particles that cling to the outside of the case - stuff that’s clingy and can only be removed if brushed aside. Of course, I can’t brush away what’s inside the case. As I said, I can’t be 100% sure it’s not just damage on the card because it really is quite small (enough for me to be slightly bothered by it though), but when I look closely I think the white speck is protruding above the plane of the card, which makes me think it might be something small that’s clinging to the card, rather than chip damage. Also for what it’s worth, I know for a fact that this card was just pulled out of a booster box by someone who handled it with care and sent straight into PSA… if it really is chip damage, it seems like an odd place for it to happen on the card, no? (You would know better than me)
Is the risk really that great? I remember Scott saying that concerns about PSA damaging cards are overblown, that maybe twice or thrice in all of the hundreds and hundreds of PSA submissions he has made over the years has anything gone wrong with PSA making that sort of a mistake.
Its not likely that your card will be damaged, but minor mistakes can and have happened to members here.
The thing is u might get a reholder and wind up with another bit of dust somewhere else. You can request psa to reholder and be careful not to get any debris in the case but there’s no guarantee u wont find another issue when it comes back.
We all have our things that drive us nuts though so u gotta do wat u gotta do
