PSA Research Submission Tool - A new Mickey Mantle spec - RESULTS ARE IN!

1951WheatiesPremium

First and foremost, I have authored this thread for the purpose of informing my fellow collectors - that’s it. I feel obligated to say this because I try to be honest on the baseball card forums that I frequent. I blame my parents.

Anyhow, I enjoy the process of getting a spec created. I have a few under my belt and as such, I feel like I could share some information to help others along. You see, this process used to be pretty arduous; I’ll go no further than that because I can’t speak from experience. My personal dealings with PSA’s Research Department have always been first rate; I haven’t had a bad experience - ever. Even when they’ve said no. Still, you read the boards and you listen to the veteran collectors and you’ll hear the stories of how hard it has been to get new cards and variations recognized in the past. Again, that’s never been my experience but it doesn’t really matter anyway because the times, they are a-changin...

https://www.psacard.com/myaccount/customerrequestcenter

If you are on the website, it’s even easier to use but I, like many (am a spoiled brat and), prefer to use my phone. So just recognize you’ve got to use the drop down menu to toggle what you’d like to do:

Now, once you’re on the page, it’s pretty simple:

1) Upload your scans of the item.
2) Provide valid links (or .pdf, or screenshots, etc) to credible websites that have the card check listed in official capacity (think beckett.com rather than Dr. Vinny Boombatz’s Sick Card Website brought to you by geocities, ok?)
3) Submit.

That’s it. Then, you get an email that tells you you hear back from research in 5-7 business days. Now, experiences will vary, I am sure, but it is my understanding that many of the new hires were in Research and boy does that seem to be the case.

Since I can’t go into graphic detail, as I am not sure how much I can share of this part of the process, I think this bit is ok:

I had an actual rep reach out and had an actual back and forth with a PSA Researcher within 24 hours of that email being sent. No bots, no ghosting, no nothing. An actual real life person told me what else I would need, I got it to her and she got it done. It was, in a word, sublime. Within 48 hours of reaching out, a new spec was created and within 72 hours it was mailed to Newport Beach on a Super Express ticket. It’s in Research and ID now and I started my request on 12/17 or 18.

Amazing?

Amazing.

I hope this is news you can use, my fellow collectors. The item in question (below) has been around for 55 years and he’s the backbone of my collection so it’s a pretty marvelous feeling to be able to have the first one in a PSA slab. With a little luck, that will be the case come January.

1965 Grand Slam Mattress Premium Photo - Mickey Mantle

Feel free to drop any questions or comments you have; I just like helping people and I’m getting started on one of my 2021 collecting goals early. Well, two, maybe... 😉

Lastly, a shout out to Jackie C and Beth D at PSA! You ladies are the cream of the crop.

That’s it; you can bet your bottom dollar scans in the slab will be up when I get this beauty home.

Happy Holidays, CU!

1951WheatiesPremium

Grading...

dictoresno

yea their research dept has always been quick and thorough when it comes to responding. ive had them add I think 3 specs ahead of time and the process was fast and seamless.

canyoubelieveit

As a new submitter, can you advise me a bit on this? I recently submitted (November) a bunch of cards for grading and a couple of them had no entry in the auto-populate field as I was adding them. I assumed this was because no one had bothered to submit them for grading before. Was I supposed to go through this process before submitting them or will they receive the cards and assign a spec if one does not already exist? In my case, the cards in question were 2017 Topps Now #66 Mookie Betts Chris Sale and 2018 Topps Now #62 Boston Red Sox. At the time, no spec existed.

1951WheatiesPremium

@canyoubelieveit said:
As a new submitter, can you advise me a bit on this? I recently submitted (November) a bunch of cards for grading and a couple of them had no entry in the auto-populate field as I was adding them. I assumed this was because no one had bothered to submit them for grading before. Was I supposed to go through this process before submitting them or will they receive the cards and assign a spec if one does not already exist? In my case, the cards in question were 2017 Topps Now #66 Mookie Betts Chris Sale and 2018 Topps Now #62 Boston Red Sox. At the time, no spec existed.

If it has since been created, it may take time but you’d probably be ok.

If not, sometimes they create them on the fly and others no.

I would say if they come back to you ungraded, familiarize yourself with this feature, submit the research and you should be good to go.

dictoresno

@canyoubelieveit said:
As a new submitter, can you advise me a bit on this? I recently submitted (November) a bunch of cards for grading and a couple of them had no entry in the auto-populate field as I was adding them. I assumed this was because no one had bothered to submit them for grading before. Was I supposed to go through this process before submitting them or will they receive the cards and assign a spec if one does not already exist? In my case, the cards in question were 2017 Topps Now #66 Mookie Betts Chris Sale and 2018 Topps Now #62 Boston Red Sox. At the time, no spec existed.

you are not required to do this before hand. its a new option where you can submit spec info to them ahead of time to make sure they know what it is and they will notify you of the newly generated spec ID for your submission. its great to use for tough or really obscure items, but for normal cards like the one you sent, they will just research it when they get it like they always have.

one of the items I sent them, they can't find any info on and neither can I, so it saved me the trouble of sending to them.

canyoubelieveit

Thanks, that's a relief!

1951WheatiesPremium

1951WheatiesPremium

Stone193

Hiya Tim

Thanx for the writeup.

I've never submitted anything that's out of the mainstream.

I do know that you submit a lot of photos - so my question is simple.

From the "pre-sub" scan, the photo looks pretty good.

Is that a "Z" shaped scratch or defect on Mantle's forehead?

Not sure why this is only a 3?

Also, what did it cost to get this size item graded?

Thanx buddy.

1951WheatiesPremium

@Stone193 said:
Hiya Tim

Thanx for the writeup.

I've never submitted anything that's out of the mainstream.

I do know that you submit a lot of photos - so my question is simple.

From the "pre-sub" scan, the photo looks pretty good.

Is that a "Z" shaped scratch or defect on Mantle's forehead?

No - just part of the original image.

Not sure why this is only a 3?

_This is a standard 5x7. So go about an inch in along the bottom border from the lower left corner and you’ll see a bend. Hard to call it a crease as it doesn’t break the surface of the card stock photograph but you can see it now that you know where to look. There’s a minor indent or two in other spots. PSA has been consistently tough on photos for a while. They’re prone to damage especially when on thinner stock and they’re harder to keep in good shape than baseball cards over the long haul for a wide variety of reasons.

Also, what did it cost to get this size item graded?

Mike, I am what is known as a schmuck. So, this was sent in Super Express because of my impatience and not necessarily it’s value. The holder is the classic T3 for 5x7s. Hard to find pieces can have hard to determine values and I’m not interested in selling it - at all. 😉

Thanx buddy.

Thank you for asking, Mike.