How does PSA decide what cards to grade?
 

Hi Guys:

I am not a graded collector, but am talking to a guy about a card he only wants if PSA will grade it.

I do not want to "out" the card at this point, but if a card set is listed in the SCD Standard Catalog could/would PSA reject grading it? It would seem to me the fact that it was in the catalog would be enough "evidence" for them to grade it.

Anyone have experience with anything like this? What "proof" do you have to give PSA for them to deign to recognize and grade them?

A listing in the SCD Standard Catalog should suffice. I also send them entries on Beckett.com and TCDB.com. PSA also has a great new feature wherein you can send them front and back scans along with info for a card they haven't graded yet and you'll get an answer in just a few days. Just click on your account and go to Customer Request Center.

Many times they want the set it's in to have a full checklist before grading any cards from the set. We've had this discussion in the Mascot Dog Food card thread.

My experience
 

Is they throw darts and grade when one hits ( of course it will automatically be graded a 1 with the dart hole!)

Seriously - the will grade Clemente Jay publishing issues from 1957 forward, but for some reason refuse to grade the rarest 1956.

They include bazooka singles, panels and boxes as 3 separate line items in registry sets, but refuse to differentiate Salada 180 and 200 variations as separate items. Similarly don't differentiate between 69 Nabiso Wide and Narrow border cards.

They have people cut up complete transogram boxes so they can "grade" the 1/2" X 1/2" "side panels"

They just started grading Coke bottle caps, but are apparently lumping all the different soda flavors and different years (1967 and 1968) into one generic "1967-68" heading

They recognize some variations and not others.

I have requested many items to be added over the years - many have been and some have not (I have had no luck pointing to the "Trading Card Data Base" as a reference source for them). One word comes to mind with my experience - inconsistency.

They "recognize" some Clemente team issues but not others (getting quite a few of them wrong I might ad).

Good luck getting your item added.

As others have said, if the card is listed in a standard baseball card reference book, that is usually good enough for PSA to grade it. However, there are some exceptions such as (1) too many reprints exist where PSA can't tell if a card is authentic or not, e.g., 1932 Fro Joy Babe Ruth, (2) card is too big for any holder and (3) odd shaped or too fragile cards/pennants/pins are hit and miss. If the item is cut down from a poster, game, notepad, PSA also will usually not grade it. Or cut down from a card with multiple players (e.g., 4-1 Exhibits with only one player like Ruth). Finally, I haven't seen PSA grade Real Photo postcards.

Also Star Basketball is a problematic group of sets for PSA to grade

And sometimes there are just unknown cards. A friend of mine sent me on LinkedIn a scan of an item I had never seen before. It's an early 1970's Johnny Bench produced for a personal appearance. Cards like that rarely made the catalogs and thus are not known to any of grading companies.

Take if from me as a cataloguer, if the grading companies don't know about a card -- it's hard for them to do the work sometimes.

That's why I was glad to see amongst the PSA posting of positions available was for researcher (or a few) to help with issues such as that.

Likely with a few exceptions, PSA would grade anything in the SCD or Beckett catalog. Being in the catalogs is about the definition of the card being "offically recognized."

Guys, thanks for your input.

However I recall PSA would not for the longest time "recognize" 1955 Exhibit Card Postcard backs with and without the words A MUTOSCOPE CARD on the back. Even though it was listed/mentioned in the SCD catalog. They do now.

Much like what Howard is talking about with Salada coins with 180 or 200 backs

This set in question is in the book but so rare no cards have been graded by them as yet that I can tell.

So, can I contact them as advised above and show them a scan of the card to see if they will grade/recognize it or do I have to actually submit it to them to get their answer?Sorry, I should have reread Andrew's post above about contacting PSA's Customer Request area to ask.

They ask for two WEBSITE references to authenticate the cards/set. Guess I'll have to look to see if the SCD catalog is online. I doubt it.

They would not grade my 1954 Weavers Wafers Lincoln Chiefs cards even though Bob Lemke cataloged them and a complete set was found and auctioned in a Mile High auction. Of course they gave no reason.

I was surprised to recently see a Mantle cutout from a Topps Poster box in a PSA slab.

They would allow you to pay for their opinion of a stick figure scribble if you told them it was Mantle...

It's been a number of years since I tried but never had any luck with real photo postcards that were possibly unique, most not catalogued anywhere. This is a big niche in the vintage card market that SGC has.

They refused the 1st Mascot Dog Food Mantle. Now that the whole set is known, it's possible they'll grade it.

There are many sets they continue to ignore the back variations. Even ones with huge price differences, like T205. I think T205 would benefit in a huge way if someone can convince PSA to break them out by backs like they finally did properly for T206 tobacco company, series, and factory number.

From my long and vast experiences with PSA
 

If it isn’t a heavily counterfeited issue, fits into one of their holders, and is cataloged in multiple catalogs they will most likely grade it.

Don't have to send it in
 

I recently sent a bunch of front and back scans - I forget the email address, waited about a month (maybe more) for them to respond they are unwilling to grade any of them!

Not true, they wouldn't grade Chuck's Mascot Dog Food Mantle, he had to go with Beckett.

If you can only find one website reference, list it twice. I've had success doing that. Just make sure one isn't eBay, which doesn't qualify.