PSA To Grade Comics In 2025 8 8

[darkstar]

The son of the guy in charge plans to use PSA for submissions and sell graded books on the marketplace and auction website that he owns. I'm sure this will all be on the level.

[Stefan_W]

On 8/5/2024 at 8:50 PM, darkstar said:

The son of the guy in charge plans to use PSA for submissions and sell graded books on the marketplace and auction website that he owns. I'm sure this will all be on the level.

Did you watch the video you shared? Because he doesn't say any of the things you are attributing to him. Quite the opposite. 

[Changer]

  looks like hes been at ha.com, cbcs, was pgc , gets around.
 

heres is an older article. 

 

 

[pickycollector]

On 7/24/2024 at 8:38 PM, MrBedrock said:

PSA Grading Team

1. Head Grader - Mark Wilson
2. Grader - Jason Ewert
3. Restoration Expert - Daniel Dupcak

I thought at first that this was a joke..

After further reading, I realize now that head grader will really be him, I mean, seriously? 

[darkstar]

On 8/5/2024 at 7:58 PM, Stefan_W said:

Did you watch the video you shared? Because he doesn't say any of the things you are attributing to him. Quite the opposite. 

He says he'll use PSA if it is in his best interest to do so. He dismisses the gigantic conflict of interest by effectively putting the blame on the market. 

[Kevin76]

On 8/2/2024 at 10:11 AM, trademarkcomics said:

Late to the party but my  : The color red is death in professional comic book grading labels. If CGC (and CBCS) has proved anything over the years; color matters. At this point, I doubt CGC is worried about this much.

The death knell had been sounded for CBCS, however. First, CGC offers authenticated signatures, now this...

Red is fine, it's purple and green that is death  

[Kirby_Fan]

On 8/5/2024 at 8:50 PM, darkstar said:

The son of the guy in charge plans to use PSA for submissions and sell graded books on the marketplace and auction website that he owns. I'm sure this will all be on the level.

The Avengers #1 he's referring to is the one with the completely shifted, refolded spine, to reposition wear on the spine to the back of the book by creating a new spine due to refolding the entire book, a neat little trick that I believe CGC red-flagged. Unfortunately, this causes the second half of the book, from the centerfold to the back cover, to jut out markedly beyond the level of the right edge of the cover to the centerfold. 

It's no surprise that these weirdly folded books were all coming from the inventories of three dealers all bearing the same last name. I believe a member of this forum named "Master Chef" started a thread about that maybe a decade ago showing before and after images of the repositioned/shifted spines. 

How'd you like to be a major dealer and have your mom or dad grading your inventory for you, no conflict of interest of course, honor system and all. 

Edited August 6 by Kirby_Fan

[Kirby_Fan]

On 7/27/2024 at 1:14 PM, badback83 said:

I think they’re too late to the game.  

I agree. They're too late by about 24 years. Gutsy move though, expanding in a diminishing economy and contracting marketplace with a major competitor who has a 24-year lock on the grading game. 

Interesting to note that the first item that PSA ever graded, the T-206 PSA 8 Wagner......................................................................................................was trimmed (no mention of it being altered on the label), and most astute hobbyists were well aware of it long before it was graded, except for PSA. 

There's a book about it that exposes hobby corruption at the highest level. 

Edited August 6 by Kirby_Fan

[Kirby_Fan]

On 7/24/2024 at 9:45 PM, uncannyjames said:

One more label.

Does the owner of this one happen to have a last name with 6 letters, 2 of them vowels? 

[Kirby_Fan]

On 7/25/2024 at 6:07 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

there's maybe an informative 30 minutes imbedded in that 2 hours, but Dave (the son) interjects and interrupts too much and will throw in irrelevant tangents when he needs to just STFU and let dad finish a complete sentence. The 2 things that I took from this are:  After Spidey300tamper-gate they've designed a new case that is not a clamshell and is more tamper-evident, resistance, whatever. They would not give specifics.  The other big thing is that it seems that the comics they grade won't be in an inner-well inside the case? and the single biggest reveals is they will have 2 different case types: A citadel or fortress case that is the premium- better quality, durability, and larger size, approaching that of the magazine size CGC case. Then there will be the regular case that is a cheaper option.  So perhaps you can get grading done and not spend as much on the case? Or pay the same but be able to pay for a more premium case. 

Given how much they are promoting the PSA Vault, I could see them encouraging getting everything graded and just stored with the them, which makes the case, case design, label design, all that cosmetic stuff that others have nitpicked in this thread irrelevant.  It's all about the grade, not the case, the custom labels, registry sets, and that silly stuff that started to over-shadow the comic itself that collectors began to obsess over, and make into it's own collecting goal.   If it's sitting in a darkened, climate controlled vault somewhere in another state- there's no need for special boxes, special lighting, special bags to keep them from rubbing or getting scratched, reholdering  - all the added cost of owning a slab that's have nothing to do with the comic itself.  It may seem antithetical to older generations of collectors with a comic room or old-school dealers with massive display walls and boxes of slabs and comics, but like MCS, they just saved you space and time, eliminated the need to store, pay for transport, go to conventions. You can just go out and "buy" a share of an Action 1 with 500 of your buddies on the eBay app and maybe see a picture of it, and maybe it sends you an email with a proof-of-life photo on your birthday.  It all sounds soulless and logical and horrible and inevitable all at the same time. But CGC's business model is about to get upended as this giant asteroid hurtles there way. This thread gets locked before too long and a new "He who shall not be named" edict is probably on the horizon.

And the advantage of having someone else in possession of your collectibles is what? 

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:40 AM, Kirby_Fan said:

hobby corruption

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:46 AM, Kirby_Fan said:

Does the owner of this one happen to have a last name with 6 letters, 2 of them vowels? 

[october]

On 8/6/2024 at 2:40 AM, Kirby_Fan said:

I agree. They're too late by about 24 years. Gutsy move though, expanding in a diminishing economy and contracting marketplace with a major competitor who has a 24-year lock on the grading game. 

Interesting to note that the first item that PSA ever graded, the T-206 PSA 8 Wagner......................................................................................................was trimmed (no mention of it being altered on the label), and most astute hobbyists were well aware of it long before it was graded, except for PSA. 

There's a book about it that exposes hobby corruption at the highest level. 

That Wagner is a weird one. It was supposedly sheet cut, then the right and left borders were cut again. To me, it's just sheet cut. Not sure how you can "trim" something that was never factory cut in the first place. It didn't have original borders to trim and error cards show there weren't cutting guidelines between the cards. Some tolerance in size is also allowed on that set due to printing anomalies. I know most people just refer to the card as trimmed, and maybe it is to some people, it just seems a little more nuanced than that to me. 

In any case, it's a sacrilege, considering Mastro would have destroyed the only known uncut sheet (I'm not counting the uncut proof strip, which amazingly also has a Wagner) to create that card.

Edited August 6 by october

[spidermanbeyond]

On 7/20/2024 at 9:14 PM, uncannyjames said:

Here ya go PSA. I'm not a graphic designer, and I threw this together in around 15-20 minutes. I think it looks better than your prototype and I created it in Paint.NET for gods sake! It allows you to keep your traditional red border with white background and black text and PSA hologram, but it also uses the industry standard blue color on the left, along with a watermark. You're welcome.

Fantastic label. Great job.  Unbelievable that a giant muilt-million dollar corporation can't get it right (talking to you PSA and CBCS).

[sagii]

On 8/6/2024 at 6:16 PM, spidermanbeyond said:

Fantastic label. Great job.  Unbelievable that a giant muilt-million dollar corporation can't get it right (talking to you PSA and CBCS).

I use both companies, though most of my collection is of course CGC, but I'd have to say, I think CBCS has finally got the label matter right with its latest iteration that was rolled out last Oct.. 

CGC will always be king with a fiercely loyal and 20+ years long fanbase (CBCS could not have survived CGC's recent past 'controversies), but I don't think it's hurtful , and in the name of healthy competition to give a compliment or credit where it is due to a competitor. 

Edited August 6 by sagii

[Kirby_Fan]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:42 PM, october said:

That Wagner is a weird one. It was supposedly sheet cut, then the right and left borders were cut again. To me, it's just sheet cut. Not sure how you can "trim" something that was never factory cut in the first place. It didn't have original borders to trim and error cards show there weren't cutting guidelines between the cards. Some tolerance in size is also allowed on that set due to printing anomalies. I know most people just refer to the card as trimmed, and maybe it is to some people, it just seems a little more nuanced than that to me. 

In any case, it's a sacrilege, considering Mastro would have destroyed the only known uncut sheet (I'm not counting the uncut proof strip, which amazingly also has a Wagner) to create that card.

Mastro did not cut and separate the card from a sheet or strip. The Wagner was already a single card, not one card on a strip or sheet, prior to Mastro's ownership. When the card was initially being shopped around among parties that one of the middle-man, a Mr. McAvoy, thought would have interest in purchasing it for $20,000, I'm not sure if the card itself was physically in the middleman's possession as he was using sending a very low resolution B&W Xerox of the card to prospective buyers not in his area. 

This Xerox showed that one margin, I believe it was the right side of the card, was both oversized, and not well cut with a wavy edge. Later on, the card was submitted to PSA with the wavy, oversized edge manipulated into a thing of beauty, enough so to get an 8 NM/MT. 

 

[joeypost]

I'll keep my wagon hitched to CGC's horse for the foreseeable future. 

[Tom789]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:31 AM, Kirby_Fan said:

The Avengers #1 he's referring to is the one with the completely shifted, refolded spine, to reposition wear on the spine to the back of the book by creating a new spine due to refolding the entire book, a neat little trick that I believe CGC red-flagged. Unfortunately, this causes the second half of the book, from the centerfold to the back cover, to jut out markedly beyond the level of the right edge of the cover to the centerfold. 

It's no surprise that these weirdly folded books were all coming from the inventories of three dealers all bearing the same last name. I believe a member of this forum named "Master Chef" started a thread about that maybe a decade ago showing before and after images of the repositioned/shifted spines. 

How'd you like to be a major dealer and have your mom or dad grading your inventory for you, no conflict of interest of course, honor system and all. 

Isn't that what "naturally" occurs with spine roll correction?  Here's my Avengers #4 after and before correction.  All the spine damage moved to the back.  It got a CGC 2.5 Universal.

[atomised]

On 8/5/2024 at 5:50 PM, darkstar said:

The son of the guy in charge plans to use PSA for submissions and sell graded books on the marketplace and auction website that he owns. I'm sure this will all be on the level.

His dad came over from CBCS.  When he was at CBCS, this guy put out a series of videos singing the praises of that grading company, picking the moment when CGC was going through a really rough patch.  He's also piled on and disparaged the founder of Heritage in older videos, he's got a bunch of personal axes to grind for whatever reason.  At least he's out in the open about the relationship, but I don't expect balanced future content from this guy down the line of this topic.

[buttock]

On 8/6/2024 at 6:34 PM, Tom789 said:

Isn't that what "naturally" occurs with spine roll correction?  Here's my Avengers #4 after and before correction.  All the spine damage moved to the back.  It got a CGC 2.5 Universal.

On your book the spine was repositioned to where it should be.  What was happening on the other books is that he was over correcting so that a part of the front cover would be on the back of the spine.  That would allow him to press out and disguise the existing wear on the natural spine.