Beware of Beckett!

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

19 months is a long time but in Beckett's defense on charging cards earlier -- let me remind you of the Marx Card debacle earlier this year with PSA

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...or-bankruptcy/

I get the card should be charged closer to when the cards are, you know, graded. But the TPG's have to protect themselves as well and the Marx card story was a heck of a wake up call

Rich

The Marx card debacle was on them and NOT PSA. They were the ones accepting money up front and instead of putting it in escrow, they spent it like it was theirs!!! The money WAS NOT theirs!! It was earmarked to go to PSA.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

The Marx card debacle was on them and NOT PSA. They were the ones accepting money up front and instead of putting it in escrow, they spent it like it was theirs!!! The money WAS NOT theirs!! It was earmarked to go to PSA.

Bobby:

With all due respect, even Nat Turner said this was a wake up call for PSA about how to process payments and when to process payments. So it actually was on PSA but going forward a situation such as that would not be on PSA

This is the statement made by PSA after the fact

This is an unfortunate incident and our top priority is protecting the collectors who may have been impacted by the bankruptcy of Marx Cards. We are currently requesting detailed account information from Marx Cards for the impacted orders still at PSA with the expressed goal of returning cards to their rightful owners as soon as possible. We will not be charging customers for the return of their cards, other than shipping. As of yet we have not received payment from Marx Cards to grade the cards in our possession and as a result of this incident, we will be making changes to our group submitter requirements, including a new order upfront deposit and more robust policies around late payments. We will also be requiring all group submitters to bring their accounts current in order to continue service with us. We ask for patience while we sort through this expensive and labor intensive process with the end goal being the return of cards to their rightful owners.

If you have submitted cards to Marx Cards that you believe to be at PSA, please email curielj@collectors.com with “Marx Cards” in the subject line.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Bobby:

With all due respect, even Nat Turner said this was a wake up call for PSA about how to process payments and when to process payments. So it actually was on PSA but going forward a situation such as that would not be on PSA

This is the statement made by PSA after the fact

This is an unfortunate incident and our top priority is protecting the collectors who may have been impacted by the bankruptcy of Marx Cards. We are currently requesting detailed account information from Marx Cards for the impacted orders still at PSA with the expressed goal of returning cards to their rightful owners as soon as possible. We will not be charging customers for the return of their cards, other than shipping. As of yet we have not received payment from Marx Cards to grade the cards in our possession and as a result of this incident, we will be making changes to our group submitter requirements, including a new order upfront deposit and more robust policies around late payments. We will also be requiring all group submitters to bring their accounts current in order to continue service with us. We ask for patience while we sort through this expensive and labor intensive process with the end goal being the return of cards to their rightful owners.

If you have submitted cards to Marx Cards that you believe to be at PSA, please email curielj@collectors.com with “Marx Cards” in the subject line.

Rich, 19 months is too long to hold someone's money. There is no defense for that. It's just wrong.
.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Leon

Rich, 19 months is too long to hold someone's money. There is no defense for that. It's just wrong.
.

Leon:

I think I implied that 19 months was too long. Yes no argument from me on that. Just pointing out the danger of not charging a card or getting payment in advance. I think I even said, the payment should be closer to, you know, when the card gets graded. I think in today's world a good time frame is about6 months out and that should by the end of the year be a normal time frame.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Leon:

I think I implied that 19 months was too long. Yes no argument from me on that. Just pointing out the danger of not charging a card or getting payment in advance. I think I even said, the payment should be closer to, you know, when the card gets graded. I think in today's world a good time frame is about6 months out and that should by the end of the year be a normal time frame.

Holding someone's money for 6 months is wrong too. They should have to pay interest on it! How about 60 days? And to me that is being very lenient.
.

[55koufax]

Holding someone's money for 6 months is wrong too. They should have to pay interest on it! How about 60 days? And to me that is being very lenient.

Bingo! When I submitted, I was told that they were soon to be no longer accepting any bulk rate subs, and they would need about 12 months to complete. At no time was it disclosed they would charge me in full six months in advance of completion. 6 months is soon to be 7 months.

Prepaying for their services 30 days in advance of completion is reasonable. If I owned a service oriented business, I would never expect payment any sooner than that.

My guess is if I contacted AMEX and advised that Beckett charged my card $7,500 6.5 months ago for services still not performed and delivered, they would contact Beckett and reverse the charges.

[Dead-Ball-Hitter]

Originally Posted by Leon

Rich, 19 months is too long to hold someone's money. There is no defense for that. It's just wrong.
.

Agreed, think of how much your collection/investment might be impacted. How could you run a little (or large) side business in collectables without having an inventory to churn? How can you pay for services two years ahead of when the service is actually performed, and not have a way to recover that expense in the meantime by selling, if that's your desire? Not to mention the many market fluctuations caused by economic upheaval, the fickle investing public, and potentially unrealized performance (of any newer players).

Folks might consider going to SGC. Right now they continue to be the only ones honoring the service level times.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Bobby:

With all due respect, even Nat Turner said this was a wake up call for PSA about how to process payments and when to process payments. So it actually was on PSA but going forward a situation such as that would not be on PSA

This is the statement made by PSA after the fact

This is an unfortunate incident and our top priority is protecting the collectors who may have been impacted by the bankruptcy of Marx Cards. We are currently requesting detailed account information from Marx Cards for the impacted orders still at PSA with the expressed goal of returning cards to their rightful owners as soon as possible. We will not be charging customers for the return of their cards, other than shipping. As of yet we have not received payment from Marx Cards to grade the cards in our possession and as a result of this incident, we will be making changes to our group submitter requirements, including a new order upfront deposit and more robust policies around late payments. We will also be requiring all group submitters to bring their accounts current in order to continue service with us. We ask for patience while we sort through this expensive and labor intensive process with the end goal being the return of cards to their rightful owners.

If you have submitted cards to Marx Cards that you believe to be at PSA, please email curielj@collectors.com with “Marx Cards” in the subject line.

Rich,

This PSA statement seems to indicate they are now looking to simply return ungraded cards to Marx customers, and only charge them a return shipping fee. However, in that Sports Collectors Daily article you earlier provided the link to, it pretty clearly stated in that article that, I quote, "PSA has pledged to complete the process of grading the thousands of cards collectors had sent to Marx at no cost". That reported statement doesn't seem to jive exactly with the PSA one you just posted. So, is the SCD article full of crap or am I misinterpreting something?

In an earlier post I was lauding the now privately owned PSA for doing such a great thing, based on that article, and wondering if the former publicly traded PSA would have been so benevolent. It seems my earlier post and question may now be mute. Hmmmm!

[Rich Klein]

I think one of the confusing aspects was one of the vendors who used Marx Cards as their group submitter flew out to PSA and on his own dime paid (for a second time) to get those cards graded by PSA.

I'm not sure what the conclusion of this saga was but I do feel comfortable in saying everyone goofed up in this but PSA by not processing a payment ended up with collectors in a precarious position not of their own choice.

[bobbyw8469]

I repeat....the fault lies with Marx cards collecting money and not escrowing it to pay PSA. They HAD to have known that bill was going to come due. Instead, they chose to treat the money as their own personal piggybank. That was 100% on them. I do group subs here. Granted, not on the scale that they do. But the money I collect, is NOT spent on fancy dinners out. It is earmarked for PSA. Marx Cards sounds like a hack operation.

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

I think one of the confusing aspects was one of the vendors who used Marx Cards as their group submitter flew out to PSA and on his own dime paid (for a second time) to get those cards graded by PSA.

I'm not sure what the conclusion of this saga was but I do feel comfortable in saying everyone goofed up in this but PSA by not processing a payment ended up with collectors in a precarious position not of their own choice.

[sreader3]

PSA recently charged me upon order login for a $1K fee autograph encapsulation order.

They somehow differentiated autograph authentication from card grading.

The distinction did not make much sense to me.

So it is not just Beckett.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

I repeat....the fault lies with Marx cards collecting money and not escrowing it to pay PSA. They HAD to have known that bill was going to come due. Instead, they chose to treat the money as their own personal piggybank. That was 100% on them. I do group subs here. Granted, not on the scale that they do. But the money I collect, is NOT spent on fancy dinners out. It is earmarked for PSA. Marx Cards sounds like a hack operation.

PSA has fault in this as well. They knew there were issues with Marx and continued to endorse them as a group submitter.