Originally Posted by slipk1068 (Post 2035614)

I have a pretty cool single signed baseball that I am considering getting graded, but I I know nothing about how the process works because I am mostly a card guy. I am slowly selling off a lot of my autographs, but I am hesitant to sell this one because I think it will bring more money if it is graded. I tried to figure out the PSA order form, but that didn't make too much sense to me and what I did understand, left me with a few unanswered questions.

1) It seems like grading and authentication are 2 different things?

Make sure you have the correct form for psa/dna autograph authentication. If you are using a form for psa card grading then it won’t make much sense- speaking from experience. Then on each line you will fill out the authentication fee and a separate grading fee. They are 2 different things - authentication is them telling you it’s real and grading tells you the strength of the signature.

2) Are they going to put a sticker, invisible mark, or deface my ball in any way and if so, is there somewhat respected company that wont deface my ball?

You can request to have the sticker put on the letter instead of the ball.

3) How do LOA's work? I have seen LOA's that are generic. They read something like "Clayton Kershaw single signed baseball in Blue Ballpoint pen" That seems to me to be easy for a scammer to swap out with a bogus ball, so maybe some kind of invisible marking is necessary. I just just hate the thought of defacing a ball, but maybe this is accepted in autographs more so than it would be in cards?

The letter is mostly generic. They fill in the name of the player who signed the item and a photo of it - so you can’t just put the letter with a different ball.

Thank you in advance for any help.