First Experience with PSA & SGC

[Jobu]

I spent a good chunk of my half-day at the National submittting my first-ever cards to PSA and SGC for grading. The card to SGC was done in a few hours given the cost of grading a variation while the PSA cards had to be mailed back because I was only at the show for one afternoon. All of the people who helped me at the show were very nice, though the PSA line moved really slowly.

I have collector's insurance but still paid for insurance on the shipping back from PSA because I didn't know how to set things up so that my insurance could be used.* Wiith the note that follows below there is already too much writing in this post without any scans, so I wanted to share the results of my first submission. I am pretty happy. I thought the Ted Williams would get a little bit higher than a 5 but I can't complain too much because two cards actually came back as the highest graded by PSA/SGC (the CB Bush & Maloney).

*Note: I have since sent another card and have figured it out. Many of you probably know all of this but I figured I would tell the story in case not everyone is aware. You can use your own insurance and just pay the straight shipping rate if you provide PSA with a FedEx or USPS account number. With FedEx you can choose your shipping level while with USPS PSA only offers "USPS Express Mail Account" which they will tell you is a "USPS 3rd Party Express Mail Account" if you call them. 95% of USPS employees will have no idea what you are talking about if you request either of these (trust me, I talked to this 95% first - and it took a loooong time). What PSA actually means is that you have to have a Corporate Express Account, where every package must be sent using over night Express Mail (though apparently it comes with a discount if you have an account). You are able to open this type of account as an individual though the application is snail mail rather than online.

Anyway, I am excited to have finally broken the ice and submitted some cards so I just wanted to share.