Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Dave Hornish</b><p>OK-it was a 52 Topps Pafko (Graded a 2)so I won't get into details <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Actually, I used a pair of dikes to snip the top border and pried it open with a small screwdriver. Worked great! Not sure if I will crack any Tobacco cards, even though VG is my preferred grade but the 52's look great in a binder.<br /><br />Dave

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Steve f</b><p>heh, he said dikes.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Free at last...<br /><br />Great!! Congratulations. A great journey has commenced, with that first small step.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Steve- was that your Beavis and Butthead routine?

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Dave Hornish</b><p>I knew someone would notice "pair of dikes"!

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>mark</b><p>PSA is soooooo easy to crack open.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Guys,<br /><br />It can't be that easy to crack a PSA case, surely one of you must have accidently damaged a card while doing it. Okay, fess up.<br /><br />Peter

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>peter ullman</b><p>what...did he say he cracked open a pair of dikes?<br /><br />pete in mn

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Having tried it a variety of ways.... and almost messing up a card once...<br /><br />What works best for me is a hammer and a screwdriver. I use the screwdriver as a chisel. Lay the holder flat on concrete, then tap around the very outer edge of the holder. It fractures. Patiently work your way around the edges. Eventually you can just lift out a big center piece and the card is free. MUCH better than getting a crack started, then prying, which is how I almost once folded a card.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Ed McCollum</b><p>Following is a paragraph from the editorial page of my hometown newspaper printed two weeks ago. The editor is talking about how the town is half the size it was in 1970 and continues to shrink yearly.<br /><br />"Just think how much worse those numbers would be if the prison wasn't here. Many northern Missouri towns have lost more than Vandalia has; the prison has been Vandalia's finger in the dike."<br /><br />Funny thing...it's a womans prison.<br />

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>JK</b><p>cracking a psa case is simple. Ive cracked probably 50 psa slabs w/o any damage to any cards.<br /><br />sorry frank - all went straight to sgc.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>You have me laughing! I love it. Send 'em all to SGC.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Joe Pelaez</b><p>Frank nailed it. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14> (couldn't resist)<br /><br />A hammer, a light screw driver, and a couple of light Luv taps.<br /><br />.... you can touch them -- you can smell them -- they can breath, and there they are as God meant them to be. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Joe, you're a traitor to this board. Welcome to the Card Liberation Organization, the CLO!!!<br /><br />If some of us get another board going where jawing about slabbed cards is disallowed, I'll drag you over to us.<br /><br />Initially, I used a hacksaw. I'd saw off an end, then jam a screwdriver down in there. That was when I almost fouled a card. It looked strange seeing a hacksaw beside my black light and magnifying glass. The hammer and screwdriver sure does work well.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Tom Boblitt</b><p>for the flip in so the integrity of the Pop reports is maintained.......<br />

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>Tom said "integrity" ......

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Kevin</b><p>Yikes!!...you don't even want to know what can be done with those. Card doctoring doesn't always include cards.<br /><br />Kevin

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Tom, I like keeping my little slips in a pile, wouldn't dream of sending them in.<br /><br />Can't maintain something unless you have it to start with. Can't maintain integrity of the reports, maybe could minimize... (yikes, I couldn't think of an antonym for "integrity"... went here, <a href="http://www.synonym.com/antonym/integrity" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://www.synonym.com/antonym/integrity</a> , and they don't have one either. Maybe I should suggest to Antonym.com that they use "PSA Population Report" as an antonym.)<br /><br />Frank.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Joe Pelaez</b><p>Forget the hacksaw and hammer.<br />It's time for us to graduate to the Chainsaw. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Where do I sign up for the CLO?

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>S Gross</b><p>Hammer & screw drive man myself .... But, when you get the initial crack going, switch to an oyster knife, and pretend your at the annual Oyster Roast. Works like a charm. Yesterday I was "shucking" a SGC and on the third side, I must have had the perfect pressure and angle, because the card shot out like a pitching machine. One of those things you wish someone else saw .... <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Great, SG!!!<br /><br />Just occurred to me that I should chew up those little slips. They can't be any worse tasting than the gum that was in the Topps packs in the 60s, when I was a collecting kid.<br /><br />Anyone ever chewed one of those?<br /><br />Frank.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>I think I have cracked at least one of almost every case out here. You have to think the grading companies love it when we crack 'em. That means more business for them in the future.....(understanding not every one will be graded again...but many will)....regards

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Frank,<br /><br />I never chewed through one of those PSA holders. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Oh...you were referring to the gum. I'm wondering if PSA would grade a piece of gum from the '67 Topps wax pack. That would be interesting. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Peter

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Frank Wakefield</b><p>Peter,<br /><br />Not the holder... that little slip of paper at the top that has PSA on it, a grade, a number. They probably chew the same as that pink and powdery gum.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Frank,<br /><br />I knew you were referring to the slips of paper, I was kidding you. However, I have a great idea for a name for a grading company, how about PSAS, that's right a company called PSA Sucks. Considering the number of complaints about PSA we get on this board, the company should do well. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14><br /><br />Peter

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Anonymous</b><p>I am setting free my a graded card for the first time, a T206 Sovereign 460 PSA 5. Got a modern PSA basketball card to practice on first!

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>Bob</b><p>I don't know about you guys but between 1958-1962 when I was collecting Topps cards as a kid I used to love that pink gum:-) In fact your big choice was to either spend a nickle for a pack of 8 cards and 1 piece of gum or buy 5 single packages and get % cards and 5 pieces of that gum. Many times the 5 packages and 5 cards won out! I can't attest to how the gum changed and tasted in the 70's, 80's and 90's (?) or whenever they stopped including gum, though, because I wasn't buying cards then.

Just Cracked My First PSA Case
 

Posted By: <b>peter chao</b><p>Bob,<br /><br />In the late '60s I enjoyed the gum from the packs also. It seems like Topps gum changed a lot through the years. It got awfully sugary by the early '90s and I stopped chewing the stuff.<br /><br />Peter