PSA Says My Wax Packs Were Tampered With – Here’s Why I Disagree
What I Learned After PSA Rejected My Vintage Wax Packs As Altered
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I’ve been in this hobby for a LONG time. I’ve bought and sold a lot of cards and wax packs.
I’ve examined many counterfeits, tampered cards, and resealed wax packs.
And so when I sent four 1980-81 Topps Basketball Wax Packs to PSA for grading, I had little reservation that these packs had been tampered with.
Quick backstory on these packs: I acquired them from a collector whose collection I helped consign. ‘Jack’ was among the best guys I have ever worked with. These packs were a gift as a way of saying thanks. I helped Jack sell many old cards, including dozens of old wax boxes, most from the 70’s and early 80’s. Jack had great stuff, including a complete 1963 Topps Baseball set and some great vintage DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Mickey Mantle autos.
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None of Jack’s stuff was ever in question regarding authenticity or tampering. Jack was very astute in purchasing second-hand stuff; however, most of his cards were purchased during the production year. I’m almost sure Jack acquired these packs in 1980 upon the issuance from Topps. Jack had also mentioned that he gave a few to his grandson who found a Bird/Magic rookie. One opened wrapped had a KB Toys (a defunct toy store selling sports cards) sticker.
Of course, I always have to be careful about what I receive from other collectors, especially with autographs or unopened wax. However, after reviewing these packs, I did not believe that the packs were tampered with. Yes, some wear was on the packs, and some had minor tears and slightly loose wrapping. However, these defects were consistent with packs that were 35+ years old.
I even wrote about tell-tale signs of detecting packs that are tampered with, with the help of a vintage wax pack expert. See here: https://allvintagecards.com/collecting-vintage-wax-packs/
Thus, you can only imagine my disgust when I got the grades back from PSA. The online submission form said “N5-Altered,”….meaning that PSA would not grade the packs, believing they were tampered with and resealed in some fashion.
Also, here’s the kicker. If PSA decides that your packs are ‘altered’ per their standards, they send you back your packs but keep the money. Thus, my submission to PSA cost me nearly $200, and six months of waiting I’ll never get back.
I should note that Steve Hart performs PSA’s pack grading at BBCE. For many years, he has been one of the hobby’s most highly respected and well-regarded pack graders. However, after this experience, I’m unsure what to think of Mr. Hart, as I’m certain he did not correctly assess these packs.
So, as frustrated as I was, I decided to rip open the packs. My hope, partially for my selfish reasons but for nearly 10000% proof that my opinion is correct, would have been to pull a Bird/Magic rookie card. However, I did not. Which, given the probability in just four packs, is not unexpected. However, I did pull two Magic Johnson cards and a few Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parrish, and Moses Malone cards.
Tell me, if you were someone who was tampering with 1980 Topps Basketball packs, would you leave any Magic Johnson cards in there? Or even Kareems, for that matter? In 99.999% of any altered packs I’ve come across, the packs are filled with commons.
Here’s the video of me opening the packs. Tell me your opinion in the comments. Have you had a similar pack grading experience with PSA and BBCE?
And this is a message to PSA and Steve Hart — you got this one wrong. I want an apology and my grading submission costs back. I doubt it will ever happen. But, I spend a lot of money grading with PSA, which left a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I’ll grade with SGC from now on….oh wait a minute, uggggh…never mind.
I share your frustration. I have purchased unopened wax packs from reliable collectors. I have now had 10 packs come back the same way. I KNOW that they were not tampered with. Are there ANY other ways to get them graded anymore? PSA is the devil we know and I am out a BUNCH of cash.
Thanks, Matt
Years ago Mark Murphy, aka the “Baseball Card Kid”, published a price guide that had information on how to identify sealed packs. It said to focus on the corners as they are a dead giveaway and one of the things to look for is cracked wax on the corners. You might need a jeweler’s loupe or at least a magnifying glass but if you see cracked wax on the corners, you know it’s a resealed pack because once you unfold the wrapper it causes the wax to crack and you can’t undo that. There are other things to look for but a close inspection of the corners will tell you if its been resealed or not. Steve Hart himself in an interview claimed that the majority of the packs sold on Ebay are resealed and I believe that to be true. There are a lot of buyers that are ignorant about what to look for when buying wax packs and I think it’s easy for unscrupulous sellers to take advantage of their ignorance. Nowadays, you really can’t trust anybody that is involved with selling unopened material. Hart has been implicated in a number of scandals and the fact that his company also sells unopened material is a blatant conflict of interest. The rule of thumb is that whenever there is money involved you have to be use extreme caution when buying anything or trusting anyone and that is so true when it comes to the market for unopened vintage packs. Buyer beware!!!!