PSA Grading question
 

Appreciate any assistance on this by board members.

I recently submitted a card to PSA period the card was glued to a Scrapbook. I have been told that PSA does not gRADE if they cannot see the back. I spoke with
a PSA representative who told me that It is up to the discretion of the grader whether or not it isgiven a grade. I have been following the grading steps and it is currently in Assembly stage, post grading.

Does this mean that I should be anticipating an authentic grade or do they at times push things through all of the steps before they mail it back to you as non gradeable? Thanks again.

I'm fairly certain that they wouldn't list your card as in "Assembly" unless there was an encapsulation going on.

That said, it's PSA were talking about, so you never know.

So true

You will definitely not get a number grade. The best that you can hope for is to get the grade Authentic/Altered. You will always get the Altered qualifier from PSA is there is anything external stuck to the card like tape or scrapbook (glue is the exception). The question is whether or not PSA will return the card to you unencapsulated/unholdered. If there is too much scrapbook attached to the card, they may not encapsulate it at all. However, as you were informed, "too much" is up to the discretion of the grader. Just because the card is Assembly stage, I don't think that is proven the card is holdered. That "Assembly" could just be putting the card back in a Card Saver I to ship back to you. so until you see the grade or get the card back, you won't know for sure.

I concur with this.

My experience is that an order of just one card will show as in assembly even though they declined to encapsulate it. Usually it moves through the rest of the process pretty quickly if that’s the case, so I guess that’s the silver lining.

PSA and SGC will both give you a numeric grade if there is tape on a card.

Typically, neither will grade a card if the entire back is covered by scrapbook paper (although I'm sure exceptions can be found).

Having your card currently sitting in the "Assembly" stage at PSA is not an indication that your card passed through grading. If they rejected your card, it would still go through each stage of the grading process.