So PSA totally damaged/ruined my card. Argh.

[inaka]

As I've shared here before, I primarily collect vintage. However, I do collect a few "modern" player cards like Ichiro and Rickey Henderson. I have completely stopped using PSA for all vintage card grading as their grading inconsistency on vintage just made grading with them pointless. So I cancelled my PSA membership, and grade only about 1 or 2 PC Cards a month with PSA as part of my player "sets" for my PC. Well, I sent PSA a really nice 1991 Donruss Elite Rickey Henderson card for grading, and I pre-graded it a PSA 9 with a really long shot at a PSA 10.

Here's the PSA pre-grading photo/URL of the card I submitted when it arrived at PSA, with an image link direct from PSA's on servers:
There's no damage to the top corners.



Well, my grades popped and this card graded a PSA 7.
I thought it was just another random PSA grade, but when I looked at the scans of the graded card, it's glaringly obvious that the top two corners of my card were totally damaged by PSA.

Here's my PSA 7 graded card.
PSA bent back and damaged both top corners, especially the top right corner:









It's as plain as day. PSA totally damaged and bent back these corners, didn't say a thing, graded/encapsulated them, and expected me not to notice? Wow. Classy. There's no way someone at PSA along the way damages these corners and doesn't notice.

I guess I need to abandon my PSA modern player "sets" and give up with grading with PSA completely. It sucks because I like consistency with my collection, and I never would have started this as a PSA graded "set" if I knew what PSA would become. Even scaling back to just 1 or 2 more modern cards a month graded by PSA doesn't make sense to me anymore since they can't grade cards properly, and clearly damage cards without saying anything. If I sent in another condition-sensitive card like this, I have no faith PSA can ever grade this without damaging it since they are just churning through cards like flipping burgers.

I wanted to share this (and rant a bit) because I had two takeaways from experiencing this that might help others:

1. Be sure to not only save the PSA pre-grading scans of your cards, but also save the PSA image URLs as well just in case. (Right-click, copy image address, and just paste them into a text document just in case.)

2. If I had submitted these orders via Gamestop, (instead of directly by me) it would likely be even more complicated to get this corrected AND I wouldn't have access to any PSA pre-scans of the cards to prove my case. There are no pre-grading scans supplied to GameStop customers. So If using GameStop, that's a risk if there's no PSA pre-grade images. PSA could also then claim that your own pre-grade photos are not accurate, even if you take them minutes before sealing up the package before shipping to PSA. Again, just a thing to keep in mind.

I have no idea how/if PSA will correct this, and it really sucks that I have to now deal with PSA's "customer service" and reach out to them, instead of them noticing the issue and contacting me first, when someone in their chain clearly knew they damaged it. So we'll see what happens I guess. I use the email form, and it says:

Due to an influx of interest, our turnaround time for resolving a request can fluctuate and is currently in excess of 5-10 business days.

"An influx of interest" in a very ChatGPT way of saying, "Due to a boatload of customer service complaints." LOL My guess? PSA will offer me compensation in the form of a $5 Chick-fil-A coupon valid only on Sundays. Argh. What a mess.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation where PSA damaged your card?

[SLGSports]

That is so, so bad... I've had very positive outcomes working with PSA on several damaged card cases, so good luck. Thankfully it hasn't happened to me for a rare PC card, then I'd be livid. PSA really needs to get their act together and stop feed them through machines (or whatever they're doing). This happens far too often.

FYI, they'll have you submit evidence (like your pre-scan pic), then they'll send you a shipping label to send it back to PSA. They'll analyze it, then tell you what the correct grade now is. Then they'll compensate you the difference between the current grade and the correct grade. In your case, it's very obvious they damaged it. Then they'll send you back your card (slabbed or unslabbed, your choice) and you can enjoy your cool PSA 4 Ricky Henderson.

Good luck!

[larry25]

I think it's because robots are handling the cards.

[Rpal1977]

Question:

Do you think PSA graded that card a "7" and then damaged it?
or
Do you think PSA damaged it and then graded it a "7"?

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by larry25

I think it's because robots are handling the cards.

100%.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by Rpal1977

Question:

Do you think PSA graded that card a "7" and then damaged it?
or
Do you think PSA damaged it and then graded it a "7"?

That looks like they graded it a 7 and then wrecked it. The 7 grade would have originally been reasonable given bottom edge issues. Much too high for trashed corners. Odds are, they will do exactly as the below post states. It's happened to me a couple times.

Originally Posted by SLGSports

FYI, they'll have you submit evidence (like your pre-scan pic), then they'll send you a shipping label to send it back to PSA. They'll analyze it, then tell you what the correct grade now is. Then they'll compensate you the difference between the current grade and the correct grade. In your case, it's very obvious they damaged it. Then they'll send you back your card (slabbed or unslabbed, your choice) and you can enjoy your cool PSA 4 Ricky Henderson.

[imbluestreak23]

Horrible, have had it happen a few times.

I have not had good success with any positive outcome when this happens.

More so "tough sh*t, we didn't do it"

More reason to do pre-sub videos

[inaka]

Originally Posted by Rpal1977

Question:

Do you think PSA graded that card a "7" and then damaged it?
or
Do you think PSA damaged it and then graded it a "7"?

I'm hoping they concede it's the latter, but I doubt it. There's no way the card I submitted was a PSA 7. There are a couple of PSA 8s on eBay that are far more damaged than my original (pre-PSA-damaged) raw card that I submitted. But again, it's PSA. Using logic and reason to estimate a grade doesn't apply anymore at PSA. Who who knows.

Such a bummer.

[jtclockwork]

I've gotten money back when PSA damaged a card. They admitted it, so that helped. They gave me an initial lowball offer, but I argued my way to something fair. My scans definitely made my case. Yours should as well. Good luck.

[SLGSports]

Every time a customer takes the fight to PSA and gets their money back is a win for all of us. PSA won't change anything unless they're losing money from all the damage they're causing.

[discodanman45]

My last order had three cards with one bent corner and that was it for me. Turned 80's from a 9 to a 5. Last time I will ever trust them with my cards. No other company has done this with my cards, even HGA.

[90skid]

man that really sucks to see. I wish you luck with the battle.

I'd like to see the "QA" stage have part of their process reviewing the SCANNED in images and the actual card in the slab afterwords. If it was done properly, it would catch problems like these and handle them appropriately, instead of having the customer start the fight back.

[oddstuff]

Is the current card even the one you submitted?

[inaka]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

Is the current card even the one you submitted?

Yes, it's the exact same card I submitted.
It's actually serial numbered on the back.

It's the 1991 Donruss Elite series, which was (one of?) the first serial numbered baseball cards ever made. /10,000

[RKH916]

The original card scan is a 9. There is no way that is a 7. If Geoff Wilson sent that in, it'd be a 10. They're under grading everything for the buyback program.

A 7 for the original card, or the damaged card, makes no sense either way.

[Gary]

Originally Posted by RKH916

The original card scan is a 9. There is no way that is a 7. If Geoff Wilson sent that in, it'd be a 10. They're under grading everything for the buyback program.

A 7 for the original card, or the damaged card, makes no sense either way.

Agreed the damaged card would be a lower grade than 7......PSA is just a mess

[Snowcat]

Originally Posted by larry25

I think it's because robots are handling the cards.

Robots or minimum wage workers with minimal card collecting interest that's told they have to hit their absurd daily intake quota?

[ctgalloway21]

they damaged my Kobe EX rookie that was graded a 9 but had a huge fingernail impression in it. I wasn't offered anything or any help at all. Had to sell it as a 9 with damage. Lost out on a few thousand.

[prospectorgems]

I wonder how that even happens if not damaged by some automation tool. I mean if a person dropped it, it would be quite hard to damage both top corners like that unless they dropped it twice and reangled the card with the drop, but even then, the corners damage looks almost identical.

Looks like something tried to shove it in something that didn't fit thus damaging the top corners equally.

[Rpal1977]

Originally Posted by RKH916

The original card scan is a 9. There is no way that is a 7. If Geoff Wilson sent that in, it'd be a 10. They're under grading everything for the buyback program.

A 7 for the original card, or the damaged card, makes no sense either way.

Agree. That's why I asked. Didn't think the 7 fit in either scenario.

[FT35]

Top right corner damage to this extent was typical for the last 2 orders I sent them. I was shocked at the low grades, then when they came back to me, I saw the extensive damage to the top right corner on multiple cards. 7-8 cards in each 50(ish) card order were effected to somewhat of a bell curve degree. Started out small on a card, got worse, peaked on 1-2 cards, got better, stopped. I’ll post a pic of the worst if I can locate everything.

Could be a machine adjustment setting that needs changed after slabbing an order of curved-corner Pokémon cards where it wouldn’t be an issue. Looks like it’s still an issue—meaning there’s no attempt to fix it after a year or so.

[Bob Ross]

There needs to be more clarity to exactly what tf they are doing and what the process is for grading.

[FT35]

Here are some pics: same corner, same ding.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by FT35

Here are some pics: same corner, same ding.

Unacceptable.

[FT35]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Unacceptable.

Yep. I think grades being intentionally low is awful. But that comes down to an opinion/interpretation that is ultimately subjective/arguable.

This is objective. This is concrete evidence for those who just think we are “complainers.” They know this is happening. If this board has multiple reports on this exact issue, then their customer service is swamped with these reports. Their product IS their microscopic inspection of cards! Multiple people apparently “look things over.” Quality control steps take weeks for final inspection. Nothing was said to me. No one reached out with honesty, no transparency, nothing. No attempt to make things right, just sent the cards back and hoped I didn’t notice I guess.

Seeing the damage frozen inside the slab on so many cards (there are others to a lesser degree) from multiple $1100 orders—money invested to prevent this very thing—is just a deal breaker for me.