Luck with Resubs?

bens4778

Hello all.

So I have my 1972 Topps set, mostly PSA 9. Let’s say I pick out the best 50-100 cards, in my opinion, and resubmit them. A few questions.

1.) Do I have to crack the cards, or can I send them in the PSA holders?

2.) Given that I am an experienced collector, and that I own several PSA 10 (maybe 35), what percent of the cards (a range of course) could I expect to come back with a bump? Someone must have done something similar on the board.

3.) If I send the cards in the PSA holders, could they lower the grade upon re-inspection?

I apologize for any amateur questions, as I’ve only submitted raw cards myself once. I looked around the PSA website for a bit and couldn’t find this information.

Thanks for any responses.

-Ben

Odessafile

Cracking the cards can remove a perceived bias ...but its risky......... Ive never had a card lowered once in the PSA holder but that is just my experience. I cannot enlighten you on the percentage of cards to get the bump...thats card by card analysis and Id take a fine tooth comb and pick out the best of the best. Go in with not expecting bumps and you may get surprised. Good luck Ben!

miwlvrn

First thing I would recommend if you have a card in a holder where you disagree with the grade is determine which category it falls under:

1) Correct grade but you missed a flaw that PSA saw.

2) Mech error on the grade portion of the label, such that the grader assigned a higher grade but the label has the wrong/unintended grade on it. This absolutely happens! While relatively infrequent, it does happen much much more often than most collectors are aware of or believe.

3) Graded too harshly, as in, the grader made a mistake but it was sealed into the holder/flip with the grade that the grader assigned during the sub.

4) Borderline/cusp grade where it could have gone either way on a 0.5 grade bump depending on the day or luck of the draw.

On my most recent order I got back, I had included a pre-war card that I had cracked out that was holdered as PSA EX 5 because I disagreed so strongly with the grade and it came back right where I thought it should, as NM-MT 8. I don't know for certain if my example fell under the 2nd or 3rd category in my list above, but I knew I wanted to go for crackout. I was a bit apprehensive to send it in for a review instead of crack/resub since I thought the EX 5 label may play into the grader's mind and it may only bump 0.5 to 1.0. I recommend saving review subs for cards that you could objectively live with in the grade they've got and then hope for a small bump, since there is definitely risk of damaging the card when you crack it. But if you've got one like the one I'm referencing, where the grade seems completely wrong to you by several grades off, then I would crack it and resub.

As far as the first category on my list goes, I have cracked a couple cards before that I thought were definitely graded incorrectly, and then when I had them out of the holders, I was able to detect surface flaws that were basically invisible once in the holder but showed up with the right tilting and light when the raw cards were in hand.

tonylags

@miwlvrn said:
First thing I would recommend if you have a card in a holder where you disagree with the grade is determine which category it falls under:

1) Correct grade but you missed a flaw that PSA saw.

2) Mech error on the grade portion of the label, such that the grader assigned a higher grade but the label has the wrong/unintended grade on it. This absolutely happens! While relatively infrequent, it does happen much much more often than most collectors are aware of or believe.

3) Graded too harshly, as in, the grader made a mistake but it was sealed into the holder/flip with the grade that the grader assigned during the sub.

4) Borderline/cusp grade where it could have gone either way on a 0.5 grade bump depending on the day or luck of the draw.

On my most recent order I got back, I had included a pre-war card that I had cracked out that was holdered as PSA EX 5 because I disagreed so strongly with the grade and it came back right where I thought it should, as NM-MT 8.

Interesting.....Do you have a breakeven point {$ wise} in determining what to crack out vs resubmit. For example I have several 5-8's that seem better, but I am afraid I may damage when cracking out or worst case is this time they come back min zero. And I'm trying to figure ok; If it bumps 2 grades {mostly unlikely, but possible based on your example} , it's worth it, if not, it's not. However, is it more realistic; to hope for 1 grade higher; after careful scrutiny???

miwlvrn

The card I cracked that went from 5 to 8 carries a typical completed sales value of 8x as much in an 8 than in a 5, from approx. $50 to approx. $400. If it bumped only 1 grade, the value difference would have been only about $70 instead of $50. With raw acquisition plus grading fees the first time around, I had about $50 into it, and that would be before I would have had to account for fees associated with subsequent sale. I knew this particular one would not grade lower if I sent it in for another grading sub unless I damaged it cracking it out. If it only bumped one grade up, I'd still have been approx. even when including costs of grading for a 2nd time around, and anything higher then I would be ahead.

For a cusp card that may just as well grade lower than higher, you have to account for potential loss too. Quite a while ago I had a high dollar HOF RC that I subbed and it graded a 6, and I hoped for 6.5 to even a 7. I cracked that one out and it came back as a 5, so there was definitely a considerable loss on the gamble there for crack and resub vs. send in and review.

Point being, it will come down to case by case analysis, not only on the quality of the card and the grade's perceived accuracy, but also the total amount you already have invested and how much you can lose on it. If you get a great deal on a raw card that grades ok but you want to resub, it is a different situation than if you invested more heavily into raw acquisition if you really expected it to grade high or bust.