Issue with PSA

[natsturner]

Hi all -

As many know, I have over the years started to convert or send in much of my collection to PSA as I prefer the holder and such to BGS, but I've recently had some really frustrating experiences. For one, I just got my grades back on a bulk order and one of the cards I sent in was a 1998 Molten Metal Fusion /40 Tim Duncan. That card is certainly less than $2k raw, and the card got a 9 and they just came back and are trying to charge me $1k to keep it in the holder, lol! Feels like extortion honestly, they have my card and are dangling it in front of me to keep it in the grade it received. Granted I sent it in in the bulk service (as I didn't pay that much for it raw) at $8 each, and it probably should have been in the next level up ($20 for cards with Max Declared Value Per Item under $499) or at worst the $1999 and under $75 Max Declared Value Per Item level. It seems they've now made a habit of going through at least my orders and revising up cards they think are worth more and try to charge me more for those cards than the bulk rate.

On the Duncan specifically, the guy who emailed me from PSA referenced some obviously fake/shilled ebay auction from 2017 of a Duncan Fusion /40 at $19k which he found on Worthpoint I guess.

They also had some other ones wrong, like an Iverson 97-98 Autographics I sent in that they are trying to charge me $75 to grade (which would imply a Max Declared Value Per Item between $499 and $1999), as well as a 2003 LeBron Flair Final Edition Row 1 at $75. Both of which are under $499 raw I bet 95 out of 100 times on eBay.

Is it just me or this backwards? IMO it's really BS how they try and charge more to the collector depending on what grade the card gets vs. the true raw cost, and also how they're going about it (relying on shilled auctions, for example). I remember they first did this to me at the National a 5-6 years ago when I got my Kobe Green PMG graded. It got a 7. I originally paid $300 or $400 for the service which at the time was the appropriate level for the raw value at the time but then they came back to me and said "this card is now worth more in the PSA 7 holder, so you need to pay us $700 or we'll crack it out" (it may have been higher than $700 but that's how I remember it). I felt mad about that situation for months later, as the process isn't transparent and they just hold you up at the end.

On their website the service levels differ by "Max Declared Value Per Item", which to me means or should be defined as how much the card is worth raw before it's graded. Let's aside for a second the fact that their costs are the same for each card presumably, it's not like a $10k card costs more to grade than $100 card, it's the same service / holder / material / etc. Why are they trying to grab more money at the end before they ship cards to you depending on what grade they give the card?

I'm really struggling here as you can probably tell with this. It's not the money obviously, although anyone would be insane to pay those three prices for the three cards I mentioned above to have them in PSA holders. It's the process and integrity of the approach. I'm at the point where I'm not going to send in any more cards to them... . I want to like PSA as I like their product, I just don't like these recent examples. I certainly will pay more attention to making sure raw cards I include in bulk orders are under the Max Declared Value Per Item level for that level of service, but the vast majority of them I acquired years upon years ago. For example, that LeBron Final Edition Row 1, I looked it up and I paid $50 for it 10 years ago (it's not in great shape).

Anyone else feel this way / had similar experiences?

-Nat