Latest card grading scam

[Bilko G]

I personally have received at least 5 cracked PSA cases thru the mail as well, it happens.

[iggyman]

Mr. Jeffrey Lichtman, sir...........I'm calling you out! This is your fault buddy! The 21th century baseball card collector is in a state of extreme agitation and is no thanks to you. Todays baseball card collector is disproportionately burdened with unseen threats of trimmed cards, shill bidding, FBI investigations, chemically botox cards, substandard grading companies, OM black overprint backs, poor eBay management, fake holders, fake cards, fake auctions, etc. etc. etc. How many more serious collectors will have to quit the hobby after being subject to your negativity??? Please, I'm begging you, put a stop to this madness and finally say something nice about what is supposed to be a pleasurable pastime. Come on man, you can do it!

Lovely Day...

[vintagetoppsguy]

The original post either makes no sense to me or perphaps I am just not understanding or missing something.

Is the card itself damaged or not?

If the card is not damaged, why wouldn't the buyer have finished removing it from the slab after he cracked it? What would be the point of cracking the case, just to send it back to you? If the card is not damaged, just send it back to PSA and they will re-holder it for $5.

If the card is damaged, then perhaps the buyer did try to crack it out, damaged the card in the process and just sent it back hoping you would refund his money. Not saying that is what happened, but your suspicion could be correct.

Either way, as Pat stated, any graded card should be shipped sandwiched between 2 pieces of heavy cardboard. If you're not doing that, you may was well be sending it in a PWE. Postal machines are brutal on bubble mailers. I have received a few graded cards that were cracked during shipping. Most just had pressure cracks, but I have received one like shown in the pics on page 1 where the case was cracked in 2 separate pieces and the card was damaged.

[chaddurbin]

the whole OP is very confusing and convoluted.

my take: try packing better instead of thinking you got scammed (over $35).

and "grading expert" is an oxymoron.

...and UPS is the absolute worst. GAI-level competency to put it in terms grading experts here can understand.

[FrankWakefield]

Upon reflection I'd think I've bought about 50 or so cards that were graded. Only once did the holder arrive cracked. So the OP's card could have broken that way.

On the card I got that was cracked, if it occurred during mailing, it did not seem to have affected the card. And it was no big deal to me because I was going to bust the card out anyway.

Folding corrugated cardboard around a slabbed card before putting it in bubble wrap would be a good way to ship. Like James just said. That is significantly more secure than just bubble wrap. And, if that's done then maybe the holder doesn't have a bunch of magic tape gobbed to it. I do not like magic tape, Sam I am.

[RobertGT]

Perhaps I should have been clearer. Yes I believe the card itself has been damaged, as there are now two pretty severe looking cracks pressing the plastic case directly onto the surface of the card.

I haven't broken the card out to determine exactly, but I'm fairly certain there would at least be a minor scratch on the surface - which is why the buyer returned the card to me. This means a card graded 8.5 is probably at best a 6 now.

Also, I did ship the card between two pieces of cardboard. They were not "heavy duty" as in plywood - but cardboard cut from a regular USPS shipping box. And I still got two major cracks.

So you tell me - scam or not?

[insidethewrapper]

I've had one card in a PSA holder damaged via USPS and it was in a bubble mailer. It was completely cracked from side to side. The dealer I bought it from took it back and replaced it with other cards on my wantlist. So it does happen on occasion.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by RobertGT

Perhaps I should have been clearer. Yes I believe the card itself has been damaged, as there are now two pretty severe looking cracks pressing the plastic case directly onto the surface of the card.

I haven't broken the card out to determine exactly, but I'm fairly certain there would at least be a minor scratch on the surface - which is why the buyer returned the card to me. This means a card graded 8.5 is probably at best a 6 now.

Also, I did ship the card between two pieces of cardboard. They were not "heavy duty" as in plywood - but cardboard cut from a regular USPS shipping box. And I still got two major cracks.

So you tell me - scam or not?

You’ll probably never know either way. At this point, you should just probably remove the card from the holder.

Examine the card closely and if it looks to be undamaged, send it in again for re-grading. Who knows, maybe this time it will come back a 9?

If it looks damaged, chalk it up as a loss, block the bidder and move on.