When did you first see a PSA slabbed sport card?

electrode

I remember a seller at the Toronto's Hockey Card And Memorabilia Expo in the early nineties a dealer from the area named Harvey Goldfarb showed us some PSA graded cards they were so few that they were in a shoe box and it was a jaw dropping moment!

Huskies11

In 1996/1997. I was a kid and I stumbled into a NYC card shop and saw several graded 1993/1994 finest basketball refractors in the display case. I had no real understanding of what they were at that point,

Stone193

I picked up my first PSA graded card in 1992. I think it was Oscar Robertson?

I went to the National in Atlanta that year and met Mike Baker who gave me this "sample" PSA holder. On display that year was the PSA 8 graded Wagner card.

I also met Alan Hager - ASA grading company - who patented the Arrowhead holder that PSA adopted along with his 10 point grading system. He - also - gave me a sample holder.

gaspipe26

Not sure of the year, early 90's, East Coast National, 1971 Roberto Clemente in PSA 9, I asked how much and he said 4, i said $400? he said $4000, I laughed for an hour as I walked away

tigerdean

These PSA sample cards have to be pretty darn rare. I have a 1988 Gary Thurman in a sample holder. These sample cards are truly a piece of PSA history. I would be interested to know how many are floating out there besides mine and yours Stone.

LarkinCollector

I've got 3 Samples in my collection ...

bishop

Not sure but it may be when I tripped over a stack of them in Bob's basement.

divecchia

I believe it was in 1994 at the Shriner's Auditorium show in Wilmington, Massachusetts. It was a 1971 Nolan Ryan O-Pee-Chee card that was graded a PSA 7OC.

Donato

hyperchipper09

Late 1996. There was a fellow Mattingly fan near Charleston I used to trade with / buy from. He had the basic rookies, Topps, Fleer, Donruss all in psa 9. PSA 9's were a big deal at that time also because so few cards had been sent for grading at that time. That's certainly changed

ashabby

2012 when I started back into the hobby.

craig44

Would have been in the mid 90's. I scoffed at the time thinking "i don't need someone to tell me the grades of my cards" little did I know 20 years later how many psa cards i would own

LEHR73

I first saw a PSA card in SCD around 1995/96 I believe. In early 1997 I discovered eBay and bought my first PSA card, which was a T207 PSA 7 common. I was hooked after that.

kingnascar

@Stone193 said:
I picked up my first PSA graded card in 1992. I think it was Oscar Robertson?

I went to the National in Atlanta that year and met Mike Baker who gave me this "sample" PSA holder. On display that year was the PSA 8 graded Wagner card.

I also met Alan Hager - ASA grading company - who patented the Arrowhead holder that PSA adopted along with his 10 point grading system. He - also - gave me a sample holder.

Those samples are so cool

tigerdean

I believe the samples with the old font like the Dale Murphy card pictured are much more rare and were definitely some of the first examples from PSA. If anybody else has any of these with the old font I would sure enjoy seeing a pic of it.

ken61

I saw a picture of a PSA graded card in a Tuff Stuff article written by Tony Galovich in 1996. I bought my first PSA graded card from Teletrade in 1997.

I'll always remember the phone-service robotic voice from Teletrade announcing I'd won the card. "Con-grat-u-laaa-tions!!!!!"

Dhjacks

Great question. I saw them on ebay way back in the early years of grading. My first purchase was a 1970 Maravich psa 7. I still have that card.....and way too much other plastic now.

doubledragon

In the mid 90s at a card show. I'll never forget it. I remember thinking, this looks like something Marty McFly would carry with him in Back to the Future. It was just so cool looking.

1420sports

1999 - Sportsfest in Philadelphia.

erikthredd

I first saw and learned the intricacies of grading through this company's monthly mail catalog: http://allstarcardsinc.com/
IIRC they had an ad in the back of Beckett's monthly price guide to join their monthly mailing list so I did then my first few PSA graded card purchases were through them.
Now they have a digital monthly(or quarterly?) catalog if anyone wants to check it out:
http://allstarcardsinc.com/May_07.pdf

Bearkat21

I remember it was at a TriStar show in Houston about 1997. At first I thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever seen. By the end of the weekend I went home with this.