PSA never ceases to amaze me

[bobbyw8469]

Very odd. If you open it, post scans!

[Cardboard Junkie]

I feel your pain. I would like to see scans please front and back? And if you open, it would be cool to make a bust out video? Please. Dave.

[tbob]

Snapped a couple of pics with my cell phone, hope they show up ok.

[sbfinley]

I'm not a pack guy, but from what I understand Steve Hart from BBCE does all of the pack grading for PSA now. They will hold every pack sub they receive for a month or two then ship them to Steve to grade out in one quick blast. If that is the case he probably keeps remarks to a minimum due to volume. The guys over on the CU forums are pretty knowledgeable when it comes to vintage packs and could probably help you out more.

[conor912]

I would think that by PSA keeping the submission fee that the sumittor would be entitled to at least a one sentance description as to why their item was rejected.

[CaramelMan]

Talk about a conflict of interest....

The guy Steve is the head pack grader, but he sells the most wax in the country through his own store..

How can PSA allow this? I thought when they become a grader, they have to sell their entire collections (or not be an auction house) which he essentially is..

Never liked this set up and it seems like a MAJOR conflict of interest...

[bobbyw8469]

Never liked this set up and it seems like a MAJOR conflict of interest...

+1

[cincyredlegs]

Originally Posted by CaramelMan

Talk about a conflict of interest....

The guy Steve is the head pack grader, but he sells the most wax in the country through his own store..

How can PSA allow this? I thought when they become a grader, they have to sell their entire collections (or not be an auction house) which he essentially is..

Never liked this set up and it seems like a MAJOR conflict of interest...

Just to make everyone aware, Steve DOES NOT grade any packs. PSA ships the packs to Steve and Steve ONLY authenticates them. He ships back to PSA and PSA assigns a grade to them.

I agree the logistics is not great but Steve and his team are the foremost experts on un-opened material.

Mark

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by CaramelMan

Talk about a conflict of interest....

The guy Steve is the head pack grader, but he sells the most wax in the country through his own store..

How can PSA allow this? I thought when they become a grader, they have to sell their entire collections (or not be an auction house) which he essentially is..

Never liked this set up and it seems like a MAJOR conflict of interest...

While this certainly can be a conflict of interest, I believe you really need to look at the specifics of Steve's involvement. I seriously doubt Steve would even consider giving up his business just to authentic packs for PSA. Also, I believe Steve does not actually grade the packs, rather he only states whether the pack is authentic/unaltered or bad. In addition, Steve is widely considered to be one of the most knowledgable people in the hobby regarding unopened material. Without Steve doing the authenticating, I doubt many would support PSA's grading of the packs and there would be even more questions on what is/is not good that has been graded. Steve has a huge following of collectors that belief him to have extremely high morals. Simply looking at the number of raw packs, that are easily sequenced like 86 fleer basketball, that people have reported pulling superstar from speaks to his integrity. This is not to say that Steve has not made mistakes, but I know I would trust his judgement over most other people without hesitation regardless of any possible conflict of interest.

For full disclosure, I don't have any graded packs in my collection and I don't think I have ever bought something from Steve.

DJ

[tbob]

Originally Posted by conor912

I would think that by PSA keeping the submission fee that the sumittor would be entitled to at least a one sentance description as to why their item was rejected.

Exactly. Thanks Conor, that is my point. I'm not a pack guy so I do not possess the greatest ability to understand exactly what "altered" means so it would have been the right thing to do to tell how it is supposed to be altered.

[pepis]

Originally Posted by tbob

Snapped a couple of pics with my cell phone, hope they show up ok.

Well tbob,
the tear in the upper right corner of the pack is clear indication that at some
point the pack that this wrapper belonged to originally was opened! judging
by the little bit i can see of the 2 bottom corners, both have been refolded,
my take on this pack is not a resealed job, BUT a reconstruction job meaning,
somebody obtained a loose wrapper some cards and a piece of gum put it
together with enough appearance to convince a naive buyer,
happens every week now a days.

[1880nonsports]

Originally Posted by pepis

Well tbob,
the tear in the upper right corner of the pack is clear indication that at some
point the pack that this wrapper belonged to originally was opened! judging
by the little bit i can see of the 2 bottom corners, both have been refolded,
my take on this pack is not a resealed job, BUT a reconstruction job meaning,
somebody obtained a loose wrapper some cards and a piece of gum put it
together with enough appearance to convince a naive buyer,
happens every week now a days.

seems pretty obvious once you mention it..........

[RobertGT]

Sorry that it appears you bought a resealed pack. I agree you should just open it and see what condition those cards are in. If they are below EXMT then you definitely have a homemade pack. Out the seller's name if that is the case?

In one case I read about on the CU forums a while back, a guy posted scans of the cards he pulled from a 1978 topps pack. One card had writing on the back! Hopefully you will fare better. Good luck.

[tbob]

Originally Posted by pepis

Well tbob,
the tear in the upper right corner of the pack is clear indication that at some
point the pack that this wrapper belonged to originally was opened! judging
by the little bit i can see of the 2 bottom corners, both have been refolded,
my take on this pack is not a resealed job, BUT a reconstruction job meaning,
somebody obtained a loose wrapper some cards and a piece of gum put it
together with enough appearance to convince a naive buyer,
happens every week now a days.

Pepis- you may be right but the tear you describe is actually a very, very tiny scuff at the very tip of the card edge rather than a tear, it looks like a friction scuff, not a tiny tear, and to be honest I do not remember it being there when it was submitted at National. I don't have your expertise on wrappers and packs but I can't see any refolding on the bottom corners when I examine it. When the pack was submitted at National, the slab of gum was solid and you could feel it was intact. When the pack arrived, the gum was shattered in to a million pieces.
I know the gum is 50+ years old but it is odd it could have been mailed to me (yes I bought it on ebay many years ago) and I could have had it for 15 years after that and the gum was solid but upon receipt from PSA it is hammered. Kind of odd...