My Phone Conversation with Joe Orlando

scottsusor

As you know, I had posted a question to Joe Orlando concerning the possibility of changing the composition of PSA holders. Several posters suggested that I email or phone Joe personally to ask my question. So I emailed. Joe emailed back almost immediately, asking me to call him personally to discuss the issue. I did, left a voice mail message, and he returned my call a few minutes later. Being new to to the PSA world, I was pleased to finally talk to the "guy in charge" and found him to be very pleasant, very down to earth, and very passionate and positive about the hobby, professional card grading, and PSA. Even though they are extraordinarily busy with an avalanche of submissions right now, I was impressed that Joe could take a few minutes to speak with me.

Anyway, concerning the question I had about PSA holders, Joe explained in great detail that PSA make their holders not to be tamper-proof but tamper-evident. In other words, in order to keep them cost-efficient to submitters, PSA chooses not to make them impossible to crack. By tamper-eveident, Joe explained that a sonically sealed holder, when cracked, shows clear evidence of being cracked by turning white-ish all around the cracked edges. If one were to substitute a "fake" card inside a cracked holder, then re-glue it, it would be easily identifiable by its disrupted white-ish edges. So, even though it doesn't disintegrate or shatter, if reused, it would be amply evident.

I'm looking forward to meeting Joe in person in Chicago at the Sun-Times show later this month, and I'm more confident that ever now that I made the right choice in selecting PSA as the company to do my professional card grading.

Scott

TexasHeatWave

I think that is a great response and I'm glad to see that Joe will take personal calls on such an issue. I think it would be very helpful if PSA would post on its website some examples of what a holder would look like if it had been tampered with, and may a list of things to look for when examining a holder to help ensure that it has not been tampered with.

I personally am not sure I would know for sure what one looks like.

WinPitcher

I too would like to know what a "tampered" with holder looks like. I have opened quite a few for my binder sets and can't see any difference unless I cracked it.

it is though, reassuring that Joe did in fact call you back as fast as he did.

grilloj39

Good to hear your call was returned...but I feel the PSA holder still needs to be improved. At the very minimum, I do not think it is tamper-evident to the untrained eye. I think there is still "room for improvement" as far as security of the holder is concerned, while still keeping the costs in check for PSA customers IMO.

CON40

This is window dressing only... the milky seal might be a tip-off when you can handle the slab, but since most graded cards are sold online where a scan of the card is the only means of judging its authenticity (and where image retouching runs rampant), a milky seal is not going to be readily visible. At least not to the point where it would deter bidders...

There must be a way to produce a holder that will shatter like safety glass when struck with measurable force... a material like that would be impossible to tamper with, yet easy enough for us to crack out cards if we choose to without damaging the card.

Just a thought.

sixdart

<< <i>... tamper-eveident ... >>



Didn't get WIWAG busted, it's customers didn't know any better and PSA didn't catch them? It was a serial numbered card to my knowledge - and a modern card at that.

I see that Joe would rather delete threads than answer the questions raised in them?! The WIWAG scandal is not going away.

onegaucho

Sounds like an experiment for BruceMo!

Aknot

Hell if anyone wants to they can send me a few slabbed cards. I have a workbench with a high speed dremel (should see what it does to CD's...but that is another story) and would love to "open" them. I have my own website and could post movies and pictures.

jaxxr

I have broke out many PSA and SGC cards, a few GAI also and some PGS, CSA, and GEM as well. I am a bit afraid to do my 3 BGS as I fear the actual card will get some plastic stabbing in the process. So no slab is probably "break-proof".
I must admit I never really paid attention to the potential "evidence" which might occur on PSA or any other brand's re-usable slab material. I do hope it is, in fact, easy to spot if re-used.

In today's "got to have it now" social climate, we may be too quick to trust card scans, however helpfull, which might not be very clear, and can be altered fairly easy. Whether you might be interested in a Cadillac, lake front property, a plasma TV, or a bargain priced graded/slabbed card, it is always prudent to know the seller and his reputation and return policy. Any tech. advances to improve "evidence' increase, might be copied by smart crook types, so how can one really place the majority of any blame on PSA ??

I feel it is very nice and quite professional of Joe O. to inform us of the current situation/policy regarding cracked and or re-sealed PSA slabs. Thanks much to Scott S. for sharing this information.


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