PSA and Crossovers

taxijack

I am big Basketball collector and I recently just sent in about 9 cards in the were all BGS 8 or 8.5. When they all came back they were all at least two grades down. Anyone else have this problem. I sent more cards for crossover and always seem to be two grades down. I know that BGS seems to grade harder than PSA or at least with my dealing, so what is going on here? Yea I probally should crack them and resend them in raw to get graded but then I worry about messing up the POP reports. Because now BGS list the cards as graded and nthen PSA would those making my card probally not worth as much. Is this a wrong way to look at it. I am on the fence here.

ludedude

I'm also concerned about the POP report being fairly accurate, I read somewhere that you could send in the label from PSA and they would remove it from the POP report. I have a few that I cracked and as soon as I get enough labels will try to send to PSA.

MCMLVTopps

my 2 cents...

If you are seeking a crossover, you must crack. It is general knowledge that grading standards by companys other than PSA have lower grading standards. If you have an already graded PSA card and are seeking a half-point bump (or higher), then send in the slabbed PSA card. Believe it or not, I once got a PSA 8 returned in a PSA 9 slab...I never thought that would happen.

It is my opinion that when PSA went to the half-point system the POP report was then, and forever changed, and NOT for the better. Perhaps the most impacted are those within the PSA 6-8 range, but could permeate the entire POP report. My logic is this...if a person sends in a cracked PSA 7, (which he thinks should be at least a PSA 7.5 or higher), at that very moment, the POP for that card is inflated by a now non-existant PSA 7. The flip and slab are almost always tossed and the raw card is now in PSA limbo-land awaiting a new grade. So, now the card comes back a PSA 6...oops, not good enough. The owner recracks the card and sends it back in again. Now a PSA 6 is in the "system", that really doesn't exist. The card comes back a PSA 7. The owner is now back to square one and recracks the card. Now, yet another PSA 7 is in the "system" that doesn't exist. The card comes back a PSA 7. That ONE CARD has now two "ghost" PSA 7s and one "ghost" PSA 6. Once a card is cracked and the flip tossed, there is no way to remove the previous cert # from the "system". If PSA doesn't know the card is cracked, how could they possibly maintain the validity of the POP report? Credit to those who actually send the flip in...I suspect those people are VERY far and few between.

People crack cards over and over and over again, lots of them, from baseball, football, whatever. The only valid conclusion one can make is that the POP report is highly inaccurate and destined to get slowly, but steadily worse as time passes.

jradke4

i have always sent in my crossovers cracked out of their holders. in most cases the grades were the same or higher. not too often have they come back lower. as for the pop reports they will never be accurate. the only place where the pop reports really matter is at the highest end of the grading specturm for each card issue. no one cares how many PSA 8.5 or lower are out their for most modern cards. many "low pop" cards are that way as there havent been many cards submitted over all for that particular card. take a random common from any modern set, on average how many have been graded, not too many.

now if you are talking pre-war cards, inflating pop reports is a bigger issue as no one really knows how many of those cards really exist. as for post-war there are lots of cards out there for nearly every issue that has been produced. but again its really only going to matter for the top graded cards what that pop report really is. in the vast majority of those cases we are talking about 9s and 10's. when you look at the volume over all that PSA has graded.

the pop reports are also off due to the inability of PSA to correctly slab cards as well. when you have CO's like 4SC out there that just sells what they get back even if the card is labeled wrong, there are pop issues with that as well that might never get resolved.

bottom line is that pop reports will never be accurate. but i would guess they are probably 95% accurate.

Griffins

I just got back a couple of crossovers, both went from the SGC grade to the same PSA grade. In the past (before PSA had half grades) I probably sent in 40-50 SGC crossovers, probably 80% crossed to the same grade, the rest going slightly up or slightly down.
I've crossed over 3 BVG slabs- 2 dropped 2 grades, one dropped 3. In my experience, at least with cards from the '50's and before, Beckett grossly overgrades. I would not consider them the same level as SGC and PSA, but rather about equal to KSA and slightly below GAI.

leadoff4

I've sent in 2 BVG crackouts and both dropped a grade with PSA. I'm done with that...

ffishonn

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK. I've done great cracking case for crossovers. The odds are much better of matching the grade or getting a better grade when doing this the really scorefor me has been with the GAI cards which no one wants to touch anymore. Last year I cracked a 01 contenders auto brees gai 9 and it popped a psa 10 the same on a sp Terrell Owens Gai 9 popped a psa 10. Now these were Gai first grades if I remember right. Of coures look over the card carfully are compare size to other raw ones for size requirements. In some case you may not want to crack cause of the value of the card but if you can it's always the best way to go. I Haven't cracked any cards for reivew yet and honestly just had me first 6 reviews pop with a O J Simpson psa 8 popping as a 9 and a couple getting the half point grade. Their was one card of the lot the didn't get the half point bump that I feel strongly about and I might consider cracking in the future. CRACK them if you can. Good luck to all.

taxijack

OK I understand it is probally better to crack the case and send in from what I hear. But I worry about what it does to the value of my cards now with the inflated POP reports now for PSA and BGS or who ever. Am I hurting or helping myself. Because BGS my say there is 50 cards graded, but say I crack 15 of those cards and sent into PSA to get graded, well now BGS card prices changes because everyone thinks 50 cards have been graded, were it is actually now only 35. And say if PSA has does the same, that will greatly change the cards prices. Am I right or wrong?

ffishonn

I would think if you sent the cert slips into psa and or bgs they would adjust the pop #s. A quick call to beckett would get your answer and you could post the answer here to share with the rest of us.
It's to late in the day to call either now. But the listed # to beckett is (972) 991-6657 and you should know the psa #. Let us know what you find out.
Of course your concerns are valaid and we don't want the pop. # ascrew. Good luck

taxijack

I am overseas and 14 hours time difference, so way to hard for me to call. My nite time is your day time. So I will send an email and see if I get any back from them.

Farmkidd

I have never cracked or submitted any cards for crossover. I have about 25 that I want to sell and wonder if it is worth the money to cross them over from SGC to PSA or if that will be a waste of $5 per card (plus S&H).

Any thoughts or experience from people here?

1956 Topps baseball commons and minor stars in the SGC 7-8 range

ffishonn

Made the call to both Beckett and PSA. What I found out is PSA will remove the grades from population if you send in the slips. thus controlling the pop. count. Not the same results with Beckett they do not remove cards to adjust pop. #'s. I tried to explain why this is a issue and a topic of consern for collector's. I asked that it be considered. But as things stand right now they wont adjust the population #'s regardless. As for SGC I'll leave that to someone else to answer. I hope this help's answer question.

OK I understand it is probally better to crack the case and send in from what I hear. But I worry about what it does to the value of my cards now with the inflated POP reports now for PSA and BGS or who ever. Am I hurting or helping myself. Because BGS my say there is 50 cards graded, but say I crack 15 of those cards and sent into PSA to get graded, well now BGS card prices changes because everyone thinks 50 cards have been graded, were it is actually now only 35. And say if PSA has does the same, that will greatly change the cards prices. Am I right or wrong?

taxijack

Thanks, my fears are confirmed. PSA will do it if we the customer send them in, well how many ever send them in..... Beckett on the other hand, no way tell what cards are really out there. Thanks for the call. So we have no real tell what has been graded, which is who new topic. So both PSA and Beckett can say there POP report is a detail report of every card ever graded, yea to a point. But now I see ther eis no tell the real numbers. So the price guides could be greatly wrong also or am I way off track here?