PSA Authenticity and Grade Guarantee - Anyone use it and do other companies offer it?

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Snowman

During the pandemic, when the trimming scandal was gaining a lot of steam and BODA were tirelessly posting thousands of trimmed cards with before and after photos, there were several instances of people sending in their trimmed cards back to PSA under the grade guarantee program. Many of those cards were sent back after review with PSA saying something along the lines of, "no evidence of alteration, this card looks good". That said, PSA does also honor their grade guarantee with at least some degree of regulatory, according to Nat Turner. What percentage of the time claims are honored vs rejected though is anyone's guess.

Understandably, those who sent in cards thinking that PSA would reimburse them were upset when PSA, in their view, did not honor their grade guarantee. After all, BODA had posted before AND after images of the same card with yellow and red highlights showing which edges were trimmed. This was quite predictable, however, as PSA does not grade cards from a scan. They must examine them physically. They couldn't possibly be expected to honor a grade guarantee based on images that someone dug up online. Otherwise, anyone with an axe to grind and twelve minutes of photoshop experience could bankrupt them in an afternoon. Also, if you read PSA's grading standards page, you'll find the intentional phrasing for a trimmed card receiving the "Authentic Altered" grade as "the card shows evidence of trimming." The "shows evidence of" part is important. Most of these cards, especially the modern ones, do not show any physical evidence of trimming. The edges are truly indistinguishable from factory cuts. I assume, if it were ever challenged in court, everything would hang on what it means for a card to "show evidence of" trimming.

Should PSA ever be forced to make good on all trimmed cards that they missed, they would be bankrupt before they even paid out on 10% of those claims. Their potential exposure is the sum total value of all trimmed cards in PSA holders, and that number is far, far greater than the value of PSA itself. Honestly, I'm amazed that PSA even attempts to keep up this facade. SGC realized it was futile. That's why they took down their guarantee. PSA is no better at detecting alterations than SGC. In fact, they're almost certainly worse at it. But they still want you to think that they can (until you file a claim that is).

I agree that PSA would never have the money to buy back the number of altered cards they have encapsulated. Sure that PSA has or will buy back some cards but more times than not, the graders double down on the review and the remains in the holder. I think the biggest factor in why there is a low number of buybacks is that a majority of the collectors either cannot tell their card is altered or they do not care if it is.

As far as being able to detect a trim job from a factory cut on vintage cards, unless someone is able to tone the edge of the edge to match the original edges and exactly replicate the cut, it is pretty easy to see if a vintage card has been trimmed. Harder once encapsulated. I do not look at modern so I could not comment as to ease of detection but I would imagine it is nearly impossible to detect a trim from a factory cut by looking at the edges.