PSA Appraisal Values

[ahmanfan]

Nobody is forcing you to use PSA. If you use them it’s their rules I would suppose.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by ahmanfan

Nobody is forcing you to use PSA. If you use them it’s their rules I would suppose.

Being forced to enter a contract is not the standard for being able to challenge a provision as unenforceable.

[Smarti5051]

Seems like a pretty straightforward argument for PSA. PSA grading fees are based on the value of the card, because as the value of a card increases, PSA's risk is increased (insurance, damage liability and challenges to PSA's services/grades/authenticity). PSA does not charge for services until they ascertain the grade and value of a card, then the customer is submitted an invoice for any upcharges if there are discrepancies between the customer's assessed value and the company's assessment of the current value. If the customer disagrees, he can decline the upcharge and the card will be returned without the grading service. PSA does not force a customer to pay for a higher service.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Assuming that is how it works, still a pretty lousy result for the submitter especially given the wait times these days. Closing in on a year and a half on one sub speaking of which.

[MikeGarcia]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Assuming that is how it works, still a pretty lousy result for the submitter especially given the wait times these days. Closing in on a year and a half on one sub speaking of which.

..PSA might have done you a financial favor if the cards are to be sold when you finally get them back. It appears anything in a new PSA label/slab is pricier today than 18 months ago. I imagine now they will expect a cut of the higher sales value . That would be only fair. We know you'll do the right thing.

..

[Directly]

I assume one can use PSA's price guide to help determine some ideal on the value being their appraisal. So in turn one needs to guess the final grade to determine the grading fee scale range?
This can be confusing for submitters to determining the final fees to pay --

[Snowman]

One approach is to submit the cards at a much lower tier than you know they are worth and wait for the inevitable upcharge email. If they crucify your EX-MT card by sticking it in a PSA 1 holder, then tell you they are going to upcharge you, you can tell them to go pound sand. If the card comes back as "altered" (when you know it in fact has not been), then you don't waste a zillion dollars in grading fees after the recent high school graduate with 17 days of grading experience deems it to have been kept in a screw-down holder (which it was not).

Honestly, I'm absolutely baffled by the level of hubris that PSA puts on full display today. There are very few companies out there with worse customer service. I recognize that it surely gets old hearing from a million+ submitters that their cards are "undergraded". I get it for all those bulk and value submissions, but when we're paying $600 for "walk-through" or $1000+ for "premium" service, we should be able to get some actual f**cking customer service. I'm really getting sick of sending in VG to VG-EX cards with no creases and really strong eye-appeal and having them come back to me in PSA 1 holders because some completely incompentent noobie grader had never seen a vintage card prior to last month's training course. Then I crack them out after paying some ridiculous fee and send them off to SGC where they get fair and accurate grades every time. It's not that difficult to grade cards accurately. It's really not.

It'd be one thing if they were off by a half point, or if the card was pretty borderline and it's off by a full grade. But there should never be a situation where a card is off by 2 full grades, let alone 3 or more. But this is precisely what's happening right now at PSA. Not with every submission obviously, there are still some good experienced graders there, and if you happen to get one that day, lucky you. But it has become clear that they are now wildly inconsistent. But we still pay as though they are not. In any other industry, the customer could get their money back when the service they paid for was not provided. We pay for fair and accurate grades. I can't help but think we're going to be seeing a huge class-action lawsuit in the not-too-distant future regarding them not providing the service we paid for. And it wouldn't be a difficult task to prove. "See this PSA 2? See this PSA 5? Same card, but I had to pay for the grading fees twice to get a fair and accurate grade on it." Again, I'm not talking about a 4 that maybe should have been a 5. I'm talking about VG+ cards in PSA 1 holders. It's getting absurd. They need to get their $#!+ together.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Being forced to enter a contract is not the standard for being able to challenge a provision as unenforceable.

What Smarti said!

I didn't think there was anyone forcing someone to enter into a PSA grading service contract. Submitters are given a choice, and make the decision for themselves then. Not sure how someone, even in a California court, could consciously accept the terms and fees under those conditions where they know the cost in advance, and then be able to turn around at a later date and come back and argue they were somehow being overcharged/cheated. Last I looked, there are other TPG services to choose from as well.

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Assuming that is how it works, still a pretty lousy result for the submitter especially given the wait times these days. Closing in on a year and a half on one sub speaking of which.

Not sure what wait times have to do with the OP's question though. That is an entirely different topic that has already been addressed in multiple other threads.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BobC

What Smarti said!

I didn't think there was anyone forcing someone to enter into a PSA grading service contract. Submitters are given a choice, and make the decision for themselves then. Not sure how someone, even in a California court, could consciously accept the terms and fees under those conditions where they know the cost in advance, and then be able to turn around at a later date and come back and argue they were somehow being overcharged/cheated. Last I looked, there are other TPG services to choose from as well.




Not sure what wait times have to do with the OP's question though. That is an entirely different topic that has already been addressed in multiple other threads.

So any contract term I agree to is per se valid because I chose to agree to it? There goes a lot of contract law. NOT saying there is anything invalid about this particular contract term, just questioning your overarching principle.

[incugator]

A contract can say anything it wants to say, but it doesn't supersede the state and federal laws. PSA could say they are allowed to kill you if you submit a card with a crease, but that isn't holding up in court even if you signed it.