A Fake???? Mantle

[Johnny T]

Looking for some advice. I bought this card at the National from a dealer. I don't remember the dealer and while I vaguely remember the location of his booth, I couldn't say for certain. Anyway, when I got home I went to add the card to PSA's registry. Came back as a bad certification. Sent an inquiry to PSA and after a month I finally spoke to someone who said it was a bad cert and that there is nothing they can do. For those who buy graded, you do so thinking there is some certainty that you can't get a fugazi or altered card. Who knows, maybe the dealer I bought the card from, didn't know it was a bad cert either. Maybe PSA typed in one number wrong? Or maybe someone out there is really good at creating labels and inputting a card that fits the grade of the 5 it represents, and input an altered card...and put it back in the slab with no evidence of tampering. PSA basically told me to check certs before purchase, but for anyone who attended the National, they know internet service is spotty at best. Any ideas on what you would do next??? Am I just beat? Thank you in advance for any direction you can provide. JT

[butchie_t]

So, you are not gonna like this.....but.

You had the ability to do the leg work on that card while you were there at the National before you bought it. You can scan the QR code (I just did just now and it came up with not found in the database) on the back and/or write down the serial number of the card, and then go to the PSA site and look it up.

Yeah the Internet access sucked but for that type of transaction, you could have found a location with more stable connectivity and then looked it up.

With the crap that is going on today with fake flips, you have to be wary on any transaction of a higher priced card. JMHO

Caveat Emptor.

Butch Turner

[LACardsGuy]

For future: have you ever tried the PSA phone app? Lets you scan the barcode in 2 seconds. I have found it very helpful

[53toppscollector]

In terms of your actual options now, I would say you really only have 2:

* Crack the card out and submit it to PSA or SGC and have it re-graded. If they made a mistake on their end in the database and the card is real, you'll get it re-graded/re-holdered and it will have a legit serial number (hopefully) and if they somehow screw up again, you'll be able to show them how they did. If it comes back a fake, well, at least you know for sure

* Leave it as is and not know if it is real or not

Here is your scan compared to another one that sold on ebay a few weeks ago. I don't see any real red flags other than the darkness of the black color on the back, but that could just be the way it was scanned. I would just re-submit it for grading and see what happens. It is always possible something nefarious happened here, but my guess is that the serial number was inputted incorrectly in the PSA database.

[jchcollins]

Card does not look fake in the least to me. The good news is it's probably a typo / transcription error on their end in the database. This kind of thing happens more than you would guess, probably.

The bad news is of course you can't really pass that off as a PSA graded card without a valid cert number. So I would follow the advice of others and get that taken care of. I'm not sure if you would have to bust that to get it regraded. You could send it in and PSA should be able to say "Yes, we made this slab" or "No, this is a fugazi slab and flip." But they may not do that. Even though it is in their slab, since the numbers don't match they might require you to start over. Sorry. Looks like a nice card.

[Vegas Cards]

Doesn't look fake to me. I hope it isn't. It's scary to think someone would fake a late-year Mantle name in yellow mid-grade.

I guess something uncommon, like a higher grade or name in white would get the buyer's radar up, so maybe that would be the point. You might not look too closely at what looks like a straightforward offering.

[luciobar1980]

Yeah, card looks fine to me.

Annoying but i guess I would just resubmit.. to SGC, personally.

[hockeyhockey]

looks legit and it's centered. crack and re-submit. grading fee is sunk cost and move on.

[NiceDocter]

I would start by submitting the card to PSA in the original holder and see if they can regrade/reslab the card. If its their error it may not cost you anything at all. Good luck..... I hope that card is real because I sure cant see anything wrong with it.

[111gecko]

I agree the card looks real and probably a mistake. If you do a quick check going forward and backwards you can sometimes get an indication if the cards all came in with one submission (eg. a run of 1969s in this case). There appears to be a block of about 15-20 cards in a row "not found in database". I'm not sure if they leave empty certs for future use or what purpose skipping numbers would provide; but it's possible it's an inputting error....
If you send it in as a review and the case hasn't been tampered with; they will need to address it (I would think they would just crack/regrade with new cert).
Good luck!! Give us a follow up when you find out. Thanks.

[1952boyntoncollector]

card looks real to me., i would buy it from someone that had it minus grading costs and shipping and handling etc.

[Johnny T]

Thank you all for your suggestions and counsel...I will keep you posted

[nwobhm]

I would be willing to take it off your hands.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by LACardsGuy

For future: have you ever tried the PSA phone app? Lets you scan the barcode in 2 seconds. I have found it very helpful

Glad it works for you. I just tried this app for ios and it's horrible. The scan comes up "not found" multiple times, and then will sometimes load 2 or 3 wrong certs before it finally finds your card. I think it's easier just to use the QR code outside of their app to go directly to the PSA website. Some of the older, barcode only slabs would not come up for me in this app at all, but will if you go to the PSA website and enter them manually.

For good measure, I was looking up some SGC certs today too and their site is equally terrible. They did themselves no favors with the various different serial numbering formats they have used over the last 20+ years. The older ones you have to input both that, then the grade and player name, and it takes forever.

The good news is I didn't come up with any true "missing / not in database" slabs in my collection. Whew.

[steveinphilly]

If you are stuck on a long boring conference call, it might be worth juxtaposing some of the numbers in the PSA search bar to see whether you can find the card. Maybe if they just got two numbers switched, they’d be willing to re-slab it for you for free.

[Bestdj777]

Did you pay cash or by credit card? I agree with the others that nothing looks suspect about the card. If you paid via credit card, you may be able to check your payment history, identify the seller, and see if they submitted it themselves and have anything that you can use in arguing with PSA. At the end of the day, it’s annoying but you probably own a legitimate PSA 5 card so it is what it is.

[Kutcher55]

It’s fine. It’s obviously a screw up by PSA - they recorded it wrong in their database. As usual the Collins guy with the correct take.

[Johnny T]

And it ain't good....cracked the case, sent to SGC who said it is Authentic...lesson learned...hopefully!

Thanks for all of your replies. JT

[Rad_Hazard]

Originally Posted by Johnny T

And it ain't good....cracked the case, sent to SGC who said it is Authentic...lesson learned...hopefully!

Thanks for all of your replies. JT

With their new Authentic grades did they state why it was only graded as Authentic?

[Bigdaddy]

So you have one company that says it's only 'Authentic', another that says it is a 5/10 and several collectors here with still different opinions.

Who's right??

Isn't that the real problem with all the TPGs? They are just giving you an opinion, which can (and does) change on a daily basis.

[ejstel]

I have a psa 10 2003 brady that is mislabeled by the card number...this is very rare....umm happy to sell it at a premium with the headline.. GOAT no psa 10 brady wrong card number graded higher....1 of 1!

Actually I'd sell it for list as I don't want to pay psa to fix their error...it should be free right?

I'll post the card tomorrow.

Ed

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

I would start by submitting the card to PSA in the original holder and see if they can regrade/reslab the card. If its their error it may not cost you anything at all. Good luck..... I hope that card is real because I sure cant see anything wrong with it.

+1 agree

[Johnny T]

Sorry...card came back as Authentic w/evidence of trimming.