No Minimum Grade at PSA?

[JackR]

I just learned that PSA no longer accepts Minimum Grades for crossovers. It’s all or nothing: either they’ll crack the slab (in this case, BGS) and grade the card in their sole discretion, or they’ll return the slab uncracked for another $50 in postage (I paid $100 in postage and insurance to get it to them).

With no Minimum Grade Guarantee, this turns into a pricey gamble.

Has anyone else bumped up against this new policy?

Any idea when it was first implemented?

BTW, the service level fee (Premium) for this card is $800.

[D. Bergin]

Seems to me this should have been the policy from the beginning. Don't know how you can properly authenticate and grade a card through a thick slab to begin with.

Also, at the risk of alienating people who insist they can do this with no problem, I don't see how you can guarantee not damaging a card in the crack-out process.

Especially when the minutest little flaw can be the difference between a 6 and a 7, a 7 and an 8, and 8 and a 9, and a 9 and a 10, etc. ....with theoretically thousands of dollars or more in the balance.

Best to leave the "crack-outs" to the collectors, flippers and investors.

[CardPadre]

Where do you do your learning? Still seems to be an option in the submission form for a crossover.

[JackR]

Thanks, CardPadre. You’re absolutely right. PSA’s webpage and online application form clearly state that Minimum Grades will be honored for Crossovers.

Nevertheless, this is what I received this morning from PSA’s Customer Service:

***

…I am contacting you on the behalf of the Customer Request Center Problem Order Team here at PSA.

Your order was brought to my attention for the following:

As part of the continued effort to streamline operations and process orders faster, PSA has removed the minimum grade option from the submission process.
We can process this order without the minimum grade, or we can send it back unprocessed with a $ 49.99 return shipping fee.

Please see under “Frequently Asked Questions” section on this link for the full update: https://www.psacard.com/support/faq
Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

PLEASE NOTE: If we do not receive a response by 8/12 we will be returning your order to you unprocessed and a shipping fee of $49.99 will be charged. However, we will attempt to contact you again before this date . Please respond and we will be happy to get your order to move forward.

[CardPadre]

Well that's absolutely dumb that you can select it on their submission page, really weird.

And they should comp you the return shipping charge since their site fully allows people to enter and expect a minimum grade service. You really have to dig beyond what a reasonable person could be expected to do to find that it is suspended (supposedly temporarily).




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[JollyElm]

And they're trying to stick you with a $50 postage fee for THEIR error??? WTF?

[ricktmd]

No shock to hear PSA acting in an unfair manner. I still prefer to buy PSA cards but hate submitting to them. Its awful. If it were me, I would call and say I submitted using the information from your website which accepted minimum grades on crossovers. Since you no longer accept minimum grades on crossovers and changed the rules after I submitted you need to send the card back insured at no cost to me. Their request for shipping fees due to their rule change is highly unethical and I would think they would cave to your request.
Does their site still allow submittals with minimum grades on crossovers, or did they at least fix the false information?

[JollyElm]

Apologies in advance if this post takes the thread a tad bit OT, but am I reading this right?

If I send in my 1973 Topps Al Kaline 'with bandage' cards in to PSA to have the variation noted on the slab* (for better ease of selling in the future), they could possibly crack them out and decide the grade or grades are wrong and send them back to me wearing lower numbers, even though the only thing I wanted was the added 'with bandage' verbiage??


*For years I tried to have them recognize the variation, but they rejected my requests every time.