[Vintage Vern]

Originally Posted by raulus

Can’t speak for the other TPGs, but with PSA historically there was a way to contact an owner, but only if a lot of things were opted into by the owner.

You will obviously need to know the cert number. Without that, you would need to go questing to find it. But since you suggested that you already have the cert, let’s check that off our list.

First, the owner will need to be on the set registry with that specific card in a set.

Next, the owner will need to have checked the box to make their set details public.

Finally, the owner will need to check the box to allow people to contact them.

Let’s say you wanted my 53-54 Briggs Meats Erskine in PSA 7, which is cert 51135954. So you look up that PSA cert. At the bottom of the page, it shows that cert is in a public set. So you click the link.

Then over at the set, the top of the page shows the owner’s handle (in this case, my handle), and there is a “contact” button. You click that button, and it will let you send me an email using the PSA system. You don’t get my email address. You just type everything in online, and PSA sends me the email without you ever knowing my email.

When I get the email, I can ignore it, or respond over regular email. Naturally, once I respond, then you will have my direct email address, so I don’t respond very often. And if someone keeps bugging me using the PSA system, then I can always turn off the message function.

So in theory it’s sometimes possible with PSA slabs. But in practice it’s not all that common to actually find one that works.

Almost all of the emails that I get are for people trying to sell me stuff to upgrade my sets. There’s one eBay seller in particular “putgreeninmyjeans” who sends out emails whenever he’s selling something nice that fills a difficult slot on the registry, as he’s obviously trying to drum up more interest in his stuff.

Thanks this was very helpful. It's recorded in population, but no registry. So I'm SOL until it comes up on the open market. So I doubt I ever see it again. My luck to a T.