Play Ball! *PSA Redefines Pre War

[boneheadandrube]

Don't buy this if you are looking for a 1941...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1941-Play-B...sAAOSw~BhbA4Nn

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

assuming someone managed to swap out an UD PB and that PSA didn't blow this.

[brianp-beme]

Perhaps someone's first day on the job?

Brian

[Leon]

I am not believing PSA would make that kind of mistake. It could happen but I would have to see some more proof. The holder has to have been compromised or something?
.

[Mark]

PSA may have heard that a 1941 Play Ball card is not a pre-war card and figured that it could have been issued by a new company like UD.

[bobbyw8469]

WOW!!! I'm half tempted to buy that to take advantage of the "Grade Guarantee"......what is SMR on a 1941 Dutch Leonard PSA 6? $55?

[boneheadandrube]

The Cert number is in sequence with the real 1941's the seller has listed...

Maybe someone just got done grading thousands of Pokemon cards during their 90 day training and got this.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

But we know that smart guys crack cards with the right cert for the replacement. I have no doubt that there was ONCE a real '41 Play Ball Leonard in there just like the Mexican Jordan certs were all correct also.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

But we know that smart guys crack cards with the right cert for the replacement. I have no doubt that there was ONCE a real '41 Play Ball Leonard in there just like the Mexican Jordan certs were all correct also.

Isn't that a new slab? Have people figured out how to crack them now without breaking them? I think I have only seen/heard of it happening once and the slab looked horrible.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I am of the jaded opinion that every system can be beat

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I am of the jaded opinion that every system can be beat

Me too, I just have not heard of this being common yet.

[T205 GB]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Isn't that a new slab? Have people figured out how to crack them now without breaking them? I think I have only seen/heard of it happening once and the slab looked horrible.

not if the card was returned with an empty case as was common practice before by SGC and PSA

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

could also be an old slab with a new flip.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by Leon

I am not believing PSA would make that kind of mistake. It could happen but I would have to see some more proof. The holder has to have been compromised or something?
.

I wouldn't put it past them. And that seems too low a value of a card to make cracking out a real card to insert the reprint worth the time and effort. My guess is someone wasn't paying attention that day at PSA.

[Peter_Spaeth]

PSA mistake obviously. Holder isn't compromised who the hell would bother.

[swarmee]

I agree it's probably a PSA error. They slabbed a 2002 Fleer Ripken reprint as the rookie before.

[chalupacollects]

And the seller didn't notice?

I emailed the seller and he got back to me saying that ebay had let him know about the issue and that this is the 3rd card PSA has mislabeled on him...he was taking down the listing...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

And the seller didn't notice?

I emailed the seller and he got back to me saying that ebay had let him know about the issue and that this is the 3rd card PSA has mislabeled on him...he was taking down the listing...

I was hopeful.

[CobbSpikedMe]

Wow PSA. Wow.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

And the seller didn't notice?

I emailed the seller and he got back to me saying that ebay had let him know about the issue and that this is the 3rd card PSA has mislabeled on him...he was taking down the listing...

Why on earth would he submit a 41 Play Ball reprint in the first place then.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

And the seller didn't notice?

I emailed the seller and he got back to me saying that ebay had let him know about the issue and that this is the 3rd card PSA has mislabeled on him...he was taking down the listing...

Still up there.

[cardsfan73]

This one might be real.. but what's up with the $495 for shipping?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Goudey...YAAOSwkkNbBh-a

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by cardsfan73

This one might be real.. but what's up with the $495 for shipping?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Goudey...YAAOSwkkNbBh-a

Typo I would guess.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Why on earth would he submit a 41 Play Ball reprint in the first place then.

yeah something is still screwy. and why would you submit one that was only going to get a 6???

[boneheadandrube]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

yeah something is still screwy. and why would you submit one that was only going to get a 6???

It looks harshly graded to me, should be a 6.5 maybe 7. The grader of this one definitely just got off of a Pokemon shift.

[luciobar1980]

I also find it way more likely that this is a PSA mistake more than anything else. Not like they're busy.. and slow... over there. I like SGC.

[the 'stache]

The real question here is....purple sticker candidate?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Still up there. Must be very difficult to take down.

[calvindog]

This mistake is really a stunner. So is CLCT's stock price this year:

https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/CLCT...FuZ2UiOm51bGx9

Only underperforming the S&P by 51% in five months. Sort of like the quality of their service.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by calvindog

This mistake is really a stunner. So is CLCT's stock price this year:

https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/CLCT...FuZ2UiOm51bGx9

Only underperforming the S&P by 51% in five months. Sort of like the quality of their service.

Maybe people are finally starting to wise up.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Maybe people are finally starting to wise up.

It's always stunned me that a public company like CLCT which is run so poorly could survive without the people in charge losing their heads. Huge backlogs in grading -- which only serve to lower revenue -- and crappy customer service, driving more revenue away. They have a virtual monopoly in card grading due to their set registry but they have no problem turning huge amounts of revenue away due to their inefficiency and incompetence. And what do you know? The stock price is in the shitter. How'd you like to be a large shareholder and find this information out?

[Peter_Spaeth]

According to this, discussing the latest quarter, any weakness is in coins, not cards.

Our primary division showed a decline of 16% in our coin business, but an increase of 23% in our trading card and autograph business from the previous year. The U.S. coin business continued to experience soft market conditions in Q3, which impacted the PCGS Vintage, show and bulk services once again.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/417...all-transcript

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

According to this, discussing the latest quarter, any weakness is in coins, not cards.

Our primary division showed a decline of 16% in our coin business, but an increase of 23% in our trading card and autograph business from the previous year. The U.S. coin business continued to experience soft market conditions in Q3, which impacted the PCGS Vintage, show and bulk services once again.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/417...all-transcript

Which surely allows them all the cover they need to continue their crappy service with cards. Shareholders are fooled into thinking CLCT is maximizing the card part of their business when nothing could be further from the truth.

[Rookiemonster]

Just a bit outside .............

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Which surely allows them all the cover they need to continue their crappy service with cards. Shareholders are fooled into thinking CLCT is maximizing the card part of their business when nothing could be further from the truth.

So where are all these lost revenues you posit going to? The people I know who submit regularly to PSA -- not that it's a huge number -- are still doing so rather than giving their business to another TPG.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

So where are all these lost revenues you posit going to? The people I know who submit regularly to PSA -- not that it's a huge number -- are still doing so rather than giving their business to another TPG.

I would presume other TPG. I don't know many people at all who submit to PSA anymore -- you can't get your cards back for months. I was at one show recently and a very valuable football card in an SGC holder was sitting at an auction company's booth. Somehow we began talking about how he had gotten the card raw and needed to get it graded quickly for his auction. But because PSA can't return cards for weeks or months, he sent it into SGC instead. Whatever the numbers PSA is doing now they are doing significantly less than they could if they were competent.

I have entire sets of 50s near mint cards that I'd send in to PSA at some point to be graded but won't because it's not worth waiting six months for their return. I'm sure plenty of people feel the same.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

While I don't disagree with the thought that they'd be making more if they were doing things better, have you seen the lines at their booths at the major shows? If nobody is using them anymore someone should tell all those people!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I would presume other TPG. I don't know many people at all who submit to PSA anymore -- you can't get your cards back for months. I was at one show recently and a very valuable football card in an SGC holder was sitting at an auction company's booth. Somehow we began talking about how he had gotten the card raw and needed to get it graded quickly for his auction. But because PSA can't return cards for weeks or months, he sent it into SGC instead. Whatever the numbers PSA is doing now they are doing significantly less than they could if they were competent.

I have entire sets of 50s near mint PSA sets that I'd send in at some point to be graded but won't because it's not worth waiting six months for their return. I'm sure plenty of people feel the same.

Maybe people can chime in on what they are doing, it would still be anecdotal but interesting. The handful of folks I know have not switched.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Huge backlogs in grading -- which only serve to lower revenue -- and crappy customer service, driving more revenue away.

Just as an FYI, Beckett also has an huge backlog. Any non-guaranteed (more than 10 business days) service will take months to be completed. In other words, if you gave BGS an Ohtani card at the beginning of the season without an guarantee, you will not get it back till After the season concludes.

While aggravating for the service users, to me this is a sign that at least TPG is a very thriving business. I'm just curious if SGC has some advertising up their sleeve to get more business and I would wager they are not nearly as backlogged.

Rich

[Cozumeleno]

I just dropped off ten cards to SGC at the Pittsburgh show last weekend. Showed up as logged in their system this week with the submittal date of 5/19 on it. I had 10-day service on them so I'll see if that holds. But in talking to one of the reps, they were not experiencing any delays of consequence.

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Just as an FYI, Beckett also has an huge backlog. Any non-guaranteed (more than 10 business days) service will take months to be completed. In other words, if you gave BGS an Ohtani card at the beginning of the season without an guarantee, you will not get it back till After the season concludes.

While aggravating for the service users, to me this is a sign that at least TPG is a very thriving business. I'm just curious if SGC has some advertising up their sleeve to get more business and I would wager they are not nearly as backlogged.

Rich

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

While I don't disagree with the thought that they'd be making more if they were doing things better, have you seen the lines at their booths at the major shows? If nobody is using them anymore someone should tell all those people!

Yogi would have said, nobody submits to them any more, they have too many submissions.

[chalupacollects]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Still up there.

Sent him a reminder email...

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Maybe people can chime in on what they are doing, it would still be anecdotal but interesting. The handful of folks I know have not switched.

Well, probably not a very worthwhile datapoint but....

I only send stuff in very occasionally, and not many cards when I do. So far I'd only used SGC. I've never been keen on the whole "pay us money for the right to pay us more money" club thing.

I had thought I'd use PSA eventually for some more modern cards.

Over the past year or so, I've seen both do things that I just really have a problem with.

PSA- grading a card an 8, folding over the corner, then "fixing it by folding it back and reslabbing still as an 8. If the grading co is doctoring cards, what's the point?

SGC - Went with the "club" model.
And - Slabbed at least two cards that have faked features that would make them a lot more valuable if they were genuine. Wrote a whole explanation about why for someone who was having them reviewed. Total slam dunk on the fakeness. Their decision? Nope, forget the facts we're right.

So now while I'm still interested in getting some cards done somehow - mostly to make it easier for my family to sell them hopefully a few decades from now - I'm totally disillusioned with the entire thing.

I don't see any honesty from either company, nor do I see what I'd want for customer service. SGC can get it right when it's easy, but apparently not at any other time. That PSA can't even do customer service when it's easy is just bad.

I haven't considered Beckett in so long that I can't really say much about them.

Steve Birmingham

[Peter_Spaeth]

Could you elaborate on SGC's mistake that's pretty cryptic what you wrote.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

Sent him a reminder email...

He may have no intention of taking it down.