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Help!!! What is the best way to crack open a PSA cases without damaging the card?

MrcardsniperMrcardsniper Posts: 185 ✭✭
in PSA Set Registry Forum
Hello Forum Members,
I have some holders I would like to remove the cards from? How have you cracked the PSA cases? What is the best way?

I also have some other grading holders from KSA, BVG, SGC, GAI... I would like to have crossed over to PSA. Sould I crack them out and send the card in raw. Or just send them into PSA and let them do the work?

Thanks Mrcardsniper

Comments

  • wildcat05wildcat05 Posts: 63 ✭
    edited May 11, 2017 5:10PM
    nice set
  • mrchris74mrchris74 Posts: 56
    SGC holders are simple to crack. Just work a small flathead screwdriver around the edges. Their holders are vulnerable to crack & re-glue, IMO. BGS holders work the same way but make much more of a mess. The holder will be completely destroyed. Never cracked a PSA holder, but expect it to be similar to BGS. Looks like it might be easiest with a dremel.

    CJ
  • ranger63ranger63 Posts: 328 ✭
    i usually just run over them with my truck. if you want send me your cards and ill do the same for you...free of charge.
  • MrcardsniperMrcardsniper Posts: 185 ✭✭
    I guess that just giving the holder to my Jack Russel Terrier would do just the same thing as driving over them. But you know I even thought about mailing them to myself...My post office has been great at cracking open some of my slabbed cards so far...LOL
    Thanks Mrcardsniper
  • onlychildonlychild Posts: 312 ✭
    Use a sharp knife on one of the top corners until it cracks open a bit. Stick your fingernail or small screwdriver in that small crack and run it across the top edge, it wil seperate . Do the same for the sides. Once the top half is opened gently slide the card out. Works evey time.
  • jimtbjimtb Posts: 704 ✭✭
    I saved this from a post on a similar question awhile back. I hope it helps:

    PSA
    There are two halves to a PSA slab -- the front half and the back half. These two halves are driven together by a process that I have never seen (I've heard that it uses sound waves), to create a tight seal. If you pick one up, you can feel the joint all the way around the outer edge.
    Sometimes the seal is extremely tight, and sometimes it is not. You can slide a knife blade (a big one that won't break, like a hunting knife), into the joint and pry the two halves apart.
    I have found that it is best to start in a corner and go all the way around, before trying to pop the two halves apart. You know you are making progress if you hear a crackling sound -- that is the sound of the seal breaking.
    Try to avoid cracking the case itself. If you do this, you can still take care to break the seal the rest of the way around, but everything becomes harder and more risky.
    I think it is a bad idea to try to get the card out before the two halves have popped apart.
    Sometimes it is very easy to open a PSA slab and sometimes it is a terrible ordeal.

    SGC
    SGC slabs are constructed the same as PSA slabs, only there is a plastic insert that you have to be careful of. Make sure it doesn't slip around.
    I've found that SGC slabs are usually easier to open than PSA slabs.

    BGS
    BGS slabs are not at all like PSA or SGC slabs. They work more like the top lid of a shoe box. You can try the knife blade technique if you like, but it's hard to get the knife into the joint, and it's quite likely that the knife will slip and stab whatever is underneath the slab. This is not usually a positive outcome.
    You can use pliers to try to break the lip off all the way around. This is effective, but it should be noted that sharp bits of plastic will fly everywhere at high velocity, and you should take appropriate precautions.
    BGS slabs are usually harder to open than PSA slabs, but sometimes you'll find one that opens pretty easily.
    Once you get the card out, you'll find that it's in a little bag. You can use scissors to carefully cut around the edges and get the card out.

    Collecting all graded Alan Trammell graded cards as well as graded 1984 Topps, Donruss, and Fleer Detroit Tigers
    image
  • minibeersminibeers Posts: 216 ✭
    I have a tool on my giant swiss army knife that looks like a mini-chisel. It isn't a blade but is thin enough to wedge between the two pieces of the slab above the flip. I stick that thing in there, give it a twist and - pop! I've cracked at least 2 dozen cards with no injury to myself or the cards.

    easy money

    mb
    1966T, 1971T, 1972T raw and in 8s
    1963T Dodgers in 8s
    Pre-war Brooklyn 5s or higher
  • EagleEyeKidEagleEyeKid Posts: 4,496 ✭✭
    Use a sharp knife on one of the top corners until it cracks open a bit.

    I don't recommend this. The knife bit was my previous method.
    It was one of those Swiss army knives with all those gadgets.
    It usually sits next to my computer to open mail and cracking slabs.
    I held the card a little below chest area and I was working one
    of the corners. Gee, the knife slipped and came back towards me
    and cut the hell out of my left thumb. It was swift that I didn't feel
    it at first then the blood started to ooozzzeeee. Wouldn't stop
    bleeding for over 2 hours with pressure. Ended up at urgent care.
    It was a fairly deep cut, but no stitches were needed. They used
    the glue type instead. I've now gone back to flat head screwdrivers.
    If I can't get into the corners (some won't budge), I use pliers to
    crack the top and then slip the flathead in and work around the edges.
  • VirtualizardVirtualizard Posts: 1,936 ✭✭


    << <i>...Ended up at urgent care.
    It was a fairly deep cut, but no stitches were needed. They used
    the glue type instead... >>




    You might be a card geek if... image

    JEB.
  • EagleEyeKidEagleEyeKid Posts: 4,496 ✭✭
    What's funny is, the card I cracked out was a PSA 9 and it just looked
    undergraded. I looked it over again and again and could find nothing
    wrong with it. Sent it off again, and it came back a 9. Well, the damn
    card is now on Ebay so, I basically bled for nothing. image
  • boggs301012boggs301012 Posts: 1,135 ✭✭
    a how to website And Bruce is a very nice man. Wish he were around. Poke around his site you will learn a lot.


    James
    x
  • 1967topps1967topps Posts: 459 ✭✭
    Pliers, exacto knife, and small flat head screw driver seem to do the trick.

    But am I supposed to send back to PSA the insert about the formerly graded, encapsulated
    card that is now off the market?
    ebay:1967topps
    1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
    Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
  • purelyPSApurelyPSA Posts: 712 ✭✭
    There's no reason to crack a PSA case. They just don't make mistakes when grading cards. Shame on you.
  • 1967topps1967topps Posts: 459 ✭✭
    oh,and of course cut away from yourself. one midnight trip to the emergency room in the falling snow
    with family member not following this rule is enough. I don't want to have to take YOU
    my extended family image
    ebay:1967topps
    1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
    Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
  • 1967topps1967topps Posts: 459 ✭✭
    >>They just don't make mistakes when grading cards. Shame on you.


    Oh yeah, then how come a not perfectly focused not perfectly centered card
    that is 40ish years old back came back a GEM MINT 10.

    That's okay I knew you were being facetious.
    ebay:1967topps
    1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
    Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
  • SlangNRoxSlangNRox Posts: 774 ✭✭
    Who has the link to the video of opening up the slab using a dremmel and a vise and then using the dremmel on the card?

    the psa website has a video that shows the grading process and part of it shows the slabs being sealed.
  • ctsoxfanctsoxfan Posts: 6,246 ✭✭
    You mean this one?

    Dremel

    Props to Aknot - who was responsible for this!
    image
  • 1967topps1967topps Posts: 459 ✭✭
    >>Dremel

    not to be confused with Drilldo
    ebay:1967topps
    1967and 1973 Topps baseball wantlists (any condition) welcome. Once had the #14 ATF 1967 set. Yet another collector like skylaneflyer, gimel1 who made it to the completion of 1967 only to need the money more than the company of 609 close friends.
    Looking for oddball Norm Cash and Cleon Jones stuff, and 1956 team cards
  • hockeyp21hockeyp21 Posts: 5 ✭

    Reasons to break open a PSA slab: 1. You totally disagree with the grade and want to re-submit. 2. The card would be worth more money as a raw card (for me, that is a grade of 7 or below).

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