Declared Value/damage on PSA order
lightningboy
Posts: 1,483 ✭✭✭
First of all, this has not happened to me. I am just curious about a couple things:
If you had $100 into a card that you were 95% sure would grade a 9 or 10, and the market on those grades were, say, $500 and $1500, what would you enter as a declared value, taking into account it could bump you to another service level?
Secondly, has anyone ever had a situation where PSA fessed up to damaging a card, where you had realistic expectations of the card grading a 9 or 10?
Thanks. Tom
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Card by card basis. I usually go for realistic replacement value. if I sub a card that cost me $15 and I could easily grab another one for $15, ill claim it as $25 or so to be realistic. I bought a 1997 Bowmans Best Tony Gwynn base auto on ebay for $40. I was pretty sure it was gonna be a 9 or 10. I claimed its value around $200, because they are more scarce and would not be able to replace again for $40. Depending on how scarce the card is, the higher I estimate its replacement value as. Just because you estimate every card in a sub as $499, doesnt mean you will get that. Im sure they will be able to estimate its current value vs your estimate.
I have never had them damage a card, but have read peoples stories explaining how they were contacted and compensated for damages.
myslabs.to/smzcards
Likely the 500 is sufficient for the level in this scenario. I believe if the card would be 99 or less in an 8, it would even be fine in a bulk order. If it is a premier card like a Jordan RC or something, the lowest level they would allow is the $500 level is my guess being that even a PSA 1-3 hits that mark.
More specific to my usual case are Wacky Packages (1973 - 1975). Other than about a dozen or so scarcities, typical wackies from series 1 - 15 would not normally sell for more than $15 - $20 in raw, "mint" condition. However as a 9 or 10, they can easily sell for $150 - $500+. So my argument gets a bit more exaggerated if I buy a lot for $2 a piece and yet cards that I believe would be at least a 9, could easily sell for 70 times that amount. Would you still put an easy replacement value of say $5/$10 or would you declare something closer to what you anticipate it selling for, in graded form?
If I had $100 into it, I’d declare $99 and bulk sub it.
This scenario leads me to agree with the above. Those cards should never be submitted above bulk price unless you personally are in a rush.
If you land a 10 and PSA wants to call out the service level, they will. And you will gladly pay. For now pay the $8 in bulk if you can get that low with quantity.
The best way to think about declared value/ service level is as an insurance limit and how much you would seek to recover from PSA should the card become damaged/lost through the process. The max amount one can ever recover from them will be based on the service/value level you submitted under. So really it's a question of how much of an insurance premium (the grading cost) you are willing to pay for the right to potentially collect damages should should something ever happen.
Let's say you submit a card at the $499 declared value service level, but if it comes back a 10 its worth $5000. Let's say life is good and Hooray and your grades pop and the card is a Gem Mint 10. It's now worth $5,000. The card gets shipped back to you but unfortunately after examining, a corner is damaged. Now you know that corner damage wasn't there when you submitted, and furthermore the card would never be a PSA 10 with that corner damage, so the damage must have occurred during holdering. You call PSA to submit a claim. But since you submitted under the $499 service level, this would be the max you could recoup even though comps show a PSA 10 is worth $5,000. So once again, the question on determining what service level to submit under is really more of a decision on your end for insurance.
People spend too much time scrutinizing this. It’s as simple as this - Taking all sentimental value out of the picture, if the card is lost or destroyed, what justifiable amount of money would you need from insurance to be ok with the loss? That’s the number you use.
If PSA’s grade makes it worth a ton, they’ll let you know, and you’ll be happy, or they won’t, and you’ll still be happy.
The problem with viewing declared value as an insurance amount, as opposed to 'what is the lowest i can declare and meet the cheaper service level is':
a) item has to be damaged - very, very rare
b) you have to be able to prove psa did it
c) you then get the difference between the declared values - so the 'savings' is not even the full amount - put another way, you would always receive some compensation, even if you declared $99 ... if you declared $499, you could get up to an additional $400 ...
Instead, I'd view it as "how much do I save by going the cheaper route per card?" and "given that, how often would a card have to be damaged and receive a valid claim to justify the higher price based on insurance costs?". It's a math equation that I think is pretty easy to solve.
You also have to factor in higher return shipping costs based on higher declared value subs.
JMHO - to each their own, of course.
I can share the following story...
Back when we were grading Ripken, Boggs, Gwynn and Sandberg rookies along with Bonds and McGwires out of the packs, myself and a few colleagues prepared a 100 card submission that was lost by the USPS on the way to california.
We were sure the vast majority would 9 or 10 so we placed current value (PSA slabbed value' ish) on the order an insured the shipment for full value.
When we tried to submit a claim, the post office did not give a hoot about what we "claimed" the value was - and since we pulled the cards from packs, we had no traceable purchase price - we were offered some representative value of $0.01, or $0.05 per card. We lost everything. We basically told the PO to "choke on it" and we moved on...
The point of the story is - for value - assume the PO will only replace the actual cost of the cards if you can prove that value by receipt or similar. They will not replace the "hopeful" value expectation after grading. Should the package get lost damaged on the return trip from california, at least we now have tools like the SMR, VCP and ebay auction results to substantiate our claims.... Still, I have no experience with that kind of claim, but I would hate to find out by my personal loss...
sjjs28@comcast.net
Collector of 1964 Topps Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game and 1969 Topps Decals
Registered Sets: 1964 Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game, 1969 Topps Decals
Totally understand and I’m not advocating one path versus another. My intent was to simply point out the rationale behind submitting at different service levels so that informed decisions can be made by an individual.
Back when I submitted cards I used PSA 8 values for any raw card that looked like an 8 or above. PSA will typically add an up charge if your card skyrockets in value due to the grade.
As for compensation for a damaged card, first you have to get PSA to admit they were responsible for the damage. Even having scans of the card before you sent it in for grading won't convince them. They have to review the damage and decide if it was possible they could have done it. Twice I had valuable cards damaged by PSA and both times PSA denied that they could have done the damage. Also, you are not going to get compensated for a PSA 10 value for a raw card you submit no matter what estimated value you assign to it. PSA is the grader not you and the vast majority of submitters grossly over estimate the grade their card will receive. That said, I think someone on this board was informed PSA had damaged a card while encapsulating it. Since PSA had finished the grading process I imagine they were able to use the grade PSA had assigned to calculate value.
In the end just hope your card isn't damaged.
Robb