Anyone ever need to use PSAs 'Buy-Back' Guarantee?

InMySock · July 1, 2006 12:05PM

If you would rather tell me the story over PM, that is fine too.

I need to know if anyone has had to use this, how it played out, and what the outcome of the whole situation was.

I only ask because I am concerned I need to venture down this path, and I would like some advice on the "Dos & Don'ts" of the process.

Thanks to anyone who replies!

~IMS

wick70 · July 1, 2006 12:13PM

They do compensate you if the card has been legitimately overgraded. If there is a sport show near you coming up and PSA is there grading, that's probably your best bet. That way you can talk to the people yourself and don't have to worry about shipping fees. I had a damaged card (PSA 8 1961 minoso that had been ruined while sealing) that I brought to them. I had talked to Carol and she had brought over one of the graders (I believe his name was Juan). He was very thorough in stating what they could do to reimburse me. Two of my choices were to
a) receive a check for the SMR value
b) receive 5 free submissions with a turnaround of 5 days and free return shipping/ins.

I opted for the submissions.

One of the options they might have for you is to regrade the card and cut you a check for the SMR difference. You would have to talk to them personally.
They are good with their guarantees of graded cards and will help you.

Cheers! Wick

montanafan · July 1, 2006 12:19PM

yes, they'll take care of it.. they stand behind their product.

InMySock · July 1, 2006 12:26PM

I should clarify my situation a little...

The card I have IS overgraded. That isn't my huge concern. The problem is that I bought a card that has a PSA label (and the cert number is good) that says it is a high dollar parallel card, when in fact, its NOT that card. It is the base card.

The card is not listed in the SMR. There is one (1) card that is graded PSA 10, out of a total 15 graded. This was the first card that was sold in this holder, so I basically set the market price for the card.

I guess there are two options here.

1.) PSA made a mistake with the card/label.
2.) The holder was tampered with, and the card was switched.

The holder looks to be fine. I don't see any clouding whatsoever. I will add a scan on Wednesday when I can.

Thanks Wick!

Any other advice would be helpful.

montanafan · July 1, 2006 5:01PM

i'll withhold any further comment until you post a scan

jimq112 · July 1, 2006 7:44PM

I recently saw a card where it was labeled "challenge collection" and it was a base card. I know it's their job but with the million inserts and parallels I think it's possible that if the submission form said it was the parallel version, and they haven't had many subs of that card, that the grader took the submitter's word for it. Then the submitter may or may not have known the difference. The one I saw the owner did not know the difference and he's a big collector.

It's possibly an honest mistake but I think it falls back on the grader who should have looked it up.

InMySock · July 1, 2006 8:54PM

<< <i>It's possibly an honest mistake but I think it falls back on the grader who should have looked it up. >>

I don't doubt this for a second. We are all human. We all make mistakes. In fact, I think I have convinced myself that the seller wasn't trying to pull a fast one on me. I say that because he has 100% feedback on 7000+ transactions. He's a very popular seller, in some regards.

It just so happens that this is a $2000.00 "Oops", and I don't plan on being the one who has to pay for the mistake.

I thought that there was a chance it was mixed up with another card in the same submission, but I checked the cert numbers, and for 20 cards before, and 20 cards after, there isn't another card like this one, base or parallel.

Thanks for the replies.

Here is a scan of the card that I currently have. I was going for an upgrade. Unfortunately, the upgrade doesn't have the embossed Super Bowl logo in the upper right hand corner.

Still working on a scan of the card in question. All I have is the auction image, and its relatively small and on a white background.

gregm13 · July 1, 2006 9:32PM

That sounds a little fishy. Are you telling me that the seller sold a $2000 card but didn't know it wasn't the correct parallel in the holder? If the seller had the card graded himself, I call him a liar. If he bought it from someone else, I'd still call him a liar unless he normally doesn't deal with Favre and/or rare parallels.

It seems fishy that he'd advertise a rare parallel card (knowing it will sell for a pretty penny) and then claim that he didn't know the card was mislabeled. I'm collecting the Dan Marino basic and master sets and have to deal wtih parallel's by the hundreds (if not thousands). I don't buy the seller's story for a second... I should have recourse through paypal and/or your credit card.

If the seller doesn't refund your money, I'd tell your credit card company you were defrauded, mail the card back to the seller (with delivery confrirmation and insurance) and then file a chargeback on your account. If you send documentation to prove that you returned the card to the seller, they will issue a credit to your account. I had to use this method before...

Regards,

Greg M.

onlyanumber · July 1, 2006 9:50PM

Just out of curiosity, when you purchased the card, did the seller provide a scan of the card?

InMySock · July 1, 2006 11:52PM

<< <i>It seems fishy that he'd advertise a rare parallel card (knowing it will sell for a pretty penny) and then claim that he didn't know the card was mislabeled. I'm collecting the Dan Marino basic and master sets and have to deal wtih parallel's by the hundreds (if not thousands). I don't buy the seller's story for a second... I should have recourse through paypal and/or your credit card. >>

I emailed the seller yesterday when I got the card in the mail, discussing my concerns and that I would like to return the card for a refund. So far, I haven't heard anything back as of yet. I don't expect to, considering the holiday weekend. I hope to hear something on Wednesday.

The same seller has sold a SC Super Bowl XXVI PSA 9 before (maybe 3 or 4 months ago).

I am not putting the fault on the seller just yet. He may reply that he is willing to take the card back for a full refund, and I won't need to use other alternatives. I know I have the CC chargeback in my pocket, and I have successfully gone down that road before, but I would rather not if I don't have to.

Yes, there is a scan of the card in the auction, but like I said, it is relatively small.
Here is the scan from the auction.

Assuming that the holder wasn't tampered with, and I can't tell that it is, then this falls on PSA. If the holder was tampered with, then it's the sellers fault (although he may not have been the one to tamper with the card, he is the one who sold the card).

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Griffins · July 2, 2006 12:03AM

There have been cases of cards mislabeled- a T206 Heinie Wagner labeled as Honus Wagner (about a 300K difference in this case), a Leaf Hermanski labeled as the much rarer Hermansk error (1500. difference), and recently on this board a N162 Anson labeled as an N172 Anson (150K difference). At least in the case of the Wagner PSA didn't buy it back but instead removed the cert number from the data base.
You might have a tough road on this one. If you paid via credit card and the seller won't take it back (and any reputable seller should) you may have recourse thru your credit card. Best of luck.

montanafan · July 2, 2006 2:32AM

psa has done the same to me, but the other way around... i sent in the super bowl stamped card and got it back as just a regular.. i sent it back to psa to be corrected... they screw up tags at an alarming rate.

InMySock · July 2, 2006 4:28AM

<< <i>psa has done the same to me, but the other way around... i sent in the super bowl stamped card and got it back as just a regular.. i sent it back to psa to be corrected... they screw up tags at an alarming rate. >>

I had the same thing happen on another Favre card of mine. Instead of sending it back to fix the label, I just sent it in raw again.

shagrotn77 · July 2, 2006 7:36AM

As someone mentioned earlier, PSA will only pay SMR for the card. So if you paid significantly over SMR (which happens all the time because SMR is generally way off), then you might just be screwed.

InMySock · July 2, 2006 8:03AM

<< <i>As someone mentioned earlier, PSA will only pay SMR for the card. So if you paid significantly over SMR (which happens all the time because SMR is generally way off), then you might just be screwed. >>

So how does that work for a card not listed in the SMR? Is there fine print regarding short or limited print cards that I am missing?

I would understand that PSA could determine a price if the card in that specific grade is sold all the time.

This is first card in this grade ever sold.

Thank you.

Stone193 · July 2, 2006 8:21AM

IMS

I wish you luck!

And on the flip thing - here is my favorite all-time flip screw up:

Ya gotta love this one. If memory serves, the serial number has be revoked.

mike

montanafan · July 2, 2006 8:27AM

i'd be willing to bet there's someone in the favre competition who would take that card anyway just to fill in a tough spot..... not that that's ethical or right at all... just a thought.

in fact, there was a similar situation once where i noticed through someone's photograph of one of their cards that they had been mistakenly credited for a super expensive wild card 1000 stripe variant when their card was the dirt-cheap regular version.. of course, I contacted cosetta and had that taken care of pronto..

uh sorry if that was anyone here....

SlangNRox · July 2, 2006 4:09PM

Since I don't want the card taken out of my set registry I won't mention which card it is, but I have a rare Topps finest basketball test refractor that I think is the only 10 graded for the whole series, but I can't see it being a refractor. The seller said they submitted as a regular card and it came back from PSA as the test refractor. The seller at the time offerred me a refund, but I decided to keep it just in case I was missing something and it was a refractor. I did pay a lot for the card.

packCollector · July 2, 2006 10:43PM

if it was mislabeled , I highly doubt psa will buy it back. this is a mechanical error and the submitter took advantage of it and you. psa will relabel it and send it back and you will be out. I would work on the seller , that is the only way you will get your money back

InMySock · July 2, 2006 11:09PM

Wouldn't this qualify under the "Authenticity" portion of their guarantee, since PSA deemed it to be an authenitc Stadium Club Super Bowl XXVI parallel card, when in fact it's not?

Shouldn't it be the graders responsibility to verify that the card listed on the submission form is the card they are grading, and therefore verifing the authenticity of the card?

I am really not starting to get a good feeling about this whole situation. Hopefully it works out better than it is working out in my mind right now.

InMySock · July 3, 2006 5:04AM

Even if the seller refuses to take the card on a return, can I still send it back to him with DC, and do a chargeback with the cc company? I still haven't heard from the seller. I am just trying to prepare for the worst.

What steps do I need to take to increase my chances of a successful chargeback for the card?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Anyone ever need to use PSAs 'Buy-Back' Guarantee?

Comments