PSA and relic/jersey cards

dtkk49a

What has been your experience with PSA as far as them grading jersey and relic cards? Are they tough on these cards?

CollectorAtWork

I think that they are as tough on these as regular cards. However, I don't know why you would want to slab relic cards. First the resale value of a graded relic card is about the same as an ungraded one, so you lose out on the grading fees. Relic collectors tend to care more about the actual relic than the card (unless the card has been damaged, creased, etc). That is, anything that would grade a PSA 7 or above is fine for most of them. What's more important for the relic is whether it has multi-tones (for a jersey), the size of the relic and so forth. Short prints also matter somewhat. The other reason to slab is usually to protect the card from further damage. However, one of the things people like about relic cards is touching the actual relic. So, if you slab it, you can't touch it anymore. One more thing about PSA slabbing relic cards is that many times, very thick relic cards will go into pack holders rather than the regular PSA holder. This doesn't look that great. When I first started collecting relic cards, I slabbed a bunch of them, not exactly knowing what I was doing, and then when they came back to me, I realized I probably shouldn't have wasted my money there. One of the things that I did want was to have a HOF relic Registry. That is, in one of the PSA HOF registries, have a relic card for each Hall of Famer. That's something someone can still try to do, but I've come to think it's better to just use regular cards for this kind of registry, and then because you can use multiple images for a card slot, put a image of the relic card that you have beside your regular PSA graded card image in that registry.

bighurt2000

I would say they grade the card the same as a non relic cards. I have had about (5) relic/jersey cards
graded by them and they put them in waxs pack holders.

I have about (200) Frank Thomas relic/jersey cards and refuse to get them graded because of how stupid
the cards looks in the giant sized holders also the holders allow some cards to move in them and damage
the cards. One of the relic/jersey cards that I sent in for grading has been damaged over the years
just by handling the card. Also I have received cards from Ebay sellers were the card was damaged because
the card moved freely in the holder and have had to send them back.

James