Posted By:
halleygatorSorry, but I don't think PSA will agree to grade a card WHILE IT IS STILL IN A HOLDER ... so I don't think you writing some "request" on your submission form is the equivalent of a contract.
I just don't think they have the ability to grade a card while it is still encapsulated ... so I think part of sending the cards in for grading is the assumption that they will be REMOVED from the slabs.
Again -- I am just playing Devil's advocate since that is what lawyers are trained to do.
Assume for a second that PSA is able to REMOVE your cards from the PSA slabs and give them back to you in the original condition (but unslabbed).
I think that BEFORE you can prove in court that you have suffered damages ... you will be REQUIRED to send them back to SGC for grading.
At that point, you will clearly have suffered damages to the extent that you paid PSA for "nothing" and you had to pay SGC again.
BUT ... if the cards come back to you with the ORIGINAL SGC grades on them again ... then you have NOT lost any "value" on your cards.
You will have had a miserable experience ... but you will be back to square one.
HOWEVER ... if they DID come back from SGC with lower grades on them ... THEN you will have proved your point and will have exhaused all opportunities to mitigate your damages.
Again, I have not read the PSA submission requirements, but I think that it probably says somewhere that they cannot grades cards while they are still slabbed. Heck, I'll bet it even says somewhere that PSA is IMMUNE for any damage done to your card while they are trying to unslab it.
Your logic about being a "big PSA customer" is not truly relevant, since it almost sounds like you think they will give you whatever grade YOU WANT just to keep you happy -- which in a nutshell is what you asked them to do: AGREE with SGC in every case.
After all ... what if you had sent in 8 cards that had received a 10 from "PRO" grading service and asked them to be slabbed by PSA? Would you really expect them to agree? That would be akin to "acknowledging" that the competition is on par with PSA.
GRANTED, I know your MAIN beef is that they removed your cards from the SGC holders -- but UNLESS the card PHYSICALLY CHANGED in some way -- I don't "legally" think that you can prevail in showing that the value of the card has diminished.
AFTER ALL -- it would only take someone about 10 minutes on this board to point out the 200 vintage card collectors who say:
"I don't pay attention to the grading companies -- I inspect them myself before I buy them."
I think sending the cards back to SGC "raw" will be the best solution ... and then if they "undergrade" them this time ... THEN you can rely on the experts on this board to assess your damages!