Censoring a PSA Cert

[OhioLawyerF5]

I have seen several threads lately where people post pictures of their cards with the certification number on the slab blacked out. I am curious what the reasons people have for this. No judgment. Just genuinely interested in the rationale for it.

[JeremyNick]

NSFW.

[Mister2Bits]

I know some people used to do it so that the PSA flip couldnt be re-printed and put in a counterfeit case.

Other than that I have no idea.

[theshowandme]

One of those trends that doesn't make much sense.

Right up there with the Facebook groups wanting you to coin every card for sale

[Bcr]

I have no idea as well. Maybe they just don't want someone to counterfeit a PSA slab using their serial.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

I think there are several reasons for it, but I think a main reason is to be able to post here AND sell on eBay and not have people be able to connect the two accounts.

[OhioLawyerF5]

One thought I had was that people might be afraid someone would take the cert and report it stolen. But it just seems so easy to disprove such a claim about your card being stolen, that I thought maybe there was something else behind it.

I would like to hear from someone who actually blocks out their certs to hear their reasoning. Anyone?

[queonda]

Originally Posted by MiamiMarlinsFan

I think there are several reasons for it, but I think a main reason is to be able to post here AND sell on eBay and not have people be able to connect the two accounts.

This is me. I feel better having a little anonymity here. If I ever post the card here and later in eBay, they can link the two accounts. But I’m sure I’ve already slipped up somewhere, haha.

[StateEx]

Originally Posted by queonda

This is me. I feel better having a little anonymity here. If I ever post the card here and later in eBay, they can link the two accounts. But I’m sure I’ve already slipped up somewhere, haha.

But is that linkage bad? For example, I just bought a card off a BO member who's user name I recognized. Win-win.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by StateEx

But is that linkage bad? For example, I just bought a card off a BO member who's user name I recognized. Win-win.

I have ZERO problems with BO members who are upfront about their intentions, but a lot of members here want to pretend to be genuinely excited about a card in their collection just to pump and dump their eBay store/auctions. I’m less cool with that.

[towerymt]

The bar code is the cert number, too. I like when only the number is blurred or covered.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by Mister2Bits

I know some people used to do it so that the PSA flip couldnt be re-printed and put in a counterfeit case.

Other than that I have no idea.

This is what I always thought as well, but really only makes sense on cards that are commonly counterfeited.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by queonda

This is me. I feel better having a little anonymity here. If I ever post the card here and later in eBay, they can link the two accounts. But I’m sure I’ve already slipped up somewhere, haha.

Yeah, I think it’s an anonymity thing. Don’t want people screwing with your auction if you disagree with and get upset with another member about what the definition of a rookie card is.

[DynaEtch]

I recently ran into someone selling a PSA card on ebay with the cert # and bar code censored...that I dont get, as someone buying your card might want to crosscheck the cert # on PSA's database to make sure everything looks right.

As for some doing it on here just to show a card off...it's probably not for nefarious reasons, more so ones that other's have mentioned including not wanting the flip copied or being connected to an ebay account. Perhaps it is just not wanting to be matched to a card since there can be a somewhat anti-flipping sentiment on BO. Hard to say...Im not a grading person anyway.

Blocking out a serial number on a card would be similar, but I guess that doesnt come into play as much since it's usually on the reverse.

[towerymt]

If you're going to do it, do it all

[JimEd14]

Coming from a world of limited edition concert posters where items are also numbered, people often blocked out the number for several reasons.

1) As stated, because they don't want people connecting the dots that they are hyping up what they are showing off simultaneously while listing it on ebay / selling it on FB/IG etc.

2) Some folks also don't like people knowing how much they paid for an item. I've seen more than one post after someone shows off their new acquisition criticizing them for how much they paid.

The forging certs angle is new to me for sure.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by JimEd14

Coming from a world of limited edition concert posters where items are also numbered, people often blocked out the number for several reasons.

1) As stated, because they don't want people connecting the dots that they are hyping up what they are showing off simultaneously while listing it on ebay / selling it on FB/IG etc.

2) Some folks also don't like people knowing how much they paid for an item. I've seen more than one post after someone shows off their new acquisition criticizing them for how much they paid.

The forging certs angle is new to me for sure.

Lots of fake slabs out there, just check Etsy.

[RiceBondsMT2Yng]

Originally Posted by JimEd14

…2) Some folks also don't like people knowing how much they paid for an item. I've seen more than one post after someone shows off their new acquisition criticizing them for how much they paid…

This was my reason when I returned in 2018 to collect my player. I hadn’t bought a baseball card single in my entire life up to that point and I was spending over $1000 on my first card, and it was also the first graded card I’d ever bought. It was a scary amount of money and an intimidating decision overall to dive into this strange new universe of ultra high grade, ultra expensive cards.

So for privacy’s sake and without any training (obviously) I painstakingly photoshopped identifiers, front AND back, off of the first handful of purchases I made of PSA graded cards, trying to blend the colors and shades to make it look as natural as my skills would allow. All for my archives and what I expected to be my eventual Photobucket. It seemed prudent so people couldn’t track my purchases and know how much I paid, when I bought it, etc. It took hours and though I have the native scans of those cards somewhere and can re-crop, re-straighten and re-export without what I now consider an eyesore, I just use whatever scan is in my Flickr. I don’t have time even to add new scans to my archives. But I couldn’t keep that pointless photoshopping up past the first handful of pickups.

[dbackschamp2001]

The certification number is 80085

[Promethius88]

The tin foil hat crowd???

[badkarma318]

Cowards.

[queonda]

You’d really laugh if you saw my eBay store. I think I’ve sold a handful of slabbed cards, with the highest being $50. I’m mostly listing 99¢ junk nobody wants!

[jacksonjj]

Rarely an average person is obsessed enough to see the cert # on BO and go try to stalk down an ebay account.

However, if I see you blocking your cert# on BO, I'm going to assume there's an underlying reason and I AM obsessed enough to try to go track you down haha.

[asujbl]

The only reason is being lazy and/or trying to hide a defect

I have like ten Zion Williamson Prizm PSA 10’s at this point (don’t ask) and the only reason to block it out is so I can send you whichever one I want and you can’t complain

As someone that only collects PSA I’ve never understood

[Jazz Chisholm]

Originally Posted by dbackschamp2001

The certification number is 80085

8008135