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PSA Mix-up Leads to 1952 Topps Willie Mays Rookie Card Purchase

Did PSA Send Incorrect Photos?

February 25, 2025

A PSA grading mix-up leads to a Willie Mays rookie card purchased by Just Collect. Julia tells us the story of how PSA may have sent her the WRONG images of her valuable card, and how she was able to sell her CORRECT card to Just Collect.

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PSA is one of the top card grading companies in the hobby. We use PSA to grade our personal cards daily! An owner of a 1952 Topps Willie Mays rookie card had a little mix-up with PSA grading, but ultimately sorted everything out and found us here at Just Collect to sell her valuable card to.

WILLIE MAYS ROOKIE + PSA MIX-UP

A tip given before sending your cards in to be professionally graded is to take photos, both front and back, of your cards. This way, when you receive your cards back, you know that the card in each graded holder is indeed the card you sent in for grading.

Julia is the owner of her dad's 1952 Topps Willie Mays card. The 1952 Topps baseball set is iconic. The set that started it all for Topps is VERY desirable. Home to one of, if not THE most famous card of all-time, the Mickey Mantle rookie is in the 1952 Topps baseball set. Willie Mays is perhaps the greatest all-round player. The Say Hey Kid could hit, run, and field like no other. Mays made 24 All-Star teams, won two MVP awards, 12 Gold Glove awards, a World Series championship, and is a member of both the 3,000 hit club and 500 home run club. Only seven players in baseball history have made into both of those clubs. Julia knew she wanted to grade her Willie Mays rookie card, and chose PSA to do so. Smartly, she took photos of the front and back of the card. What happened next caught Julia off guard!

PSA graded her card a 3 out of 10. For a Willie Mays rookie card, this is a good grade! To date, only 3,109 of these Willie Mays cards have been graded by PSA. In fact, only ONE card has been graded a Gem Mint, perfect 10. You can see the PSA 10 Willie Mays and the owner HERE. When PSA sent images to Julia, they were STOCK images, and not the actual images of her Willie Mays card. Julia began reaching out to perspective buyers of her Willie Mays rookie card, and used the stock images PSA provided without knowing this was NOT her card.

When you view the images in our slide show below, you can see Julia's 1952 Topps Willie Mays before it was graded, after it was graded, and the stock image PSA provided to her. Quite the difference! Julia's card is a little off-center when compared to the card in the stock image. The centering alters the value! The value of Julia's card is lower than the value of the centered card. Condition and centering is very important for the value of a card. Going up just one number on the grading scale from a 3 to a 4 adds about $3,000 to the value! Sometimes, a single number means tens of thousands of dollars for a card.

Here are the photos of Julia's card and the stock image:

APPRAISAL AND PURCHASE

Julia meant no harm or ill will when reaching out for an appraisal using the stock images. Our owner, Leighton, and Vice President, John, used their vast knowledge and experience in helping Julia understand the situation and providing her a FREE appraisal accurately with her true card. If you ever encounter a similar issue, come to Just Collect! The retail stores are focused on selling modern products and simply don't have the time or the knowledge to carefully evaluate vintage collections. This is where we are happy to help you. With decades of experience handling and purchasing collections, we take the time to treat your collection with the care it deserves. Just Collect has purchased MANY 1952 Topps cards. Recently, we purchased a collection that has 16 different Willie Mays cards including his 1952 Topps rookie that you can see HERE. We have purchased complete sets of 1952 Topps baseball cards that you can see in The Block Box Collection. We have travelled to purchase 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie cards and Jackie Robinson cards, too, such as the Tampa Collection.

After seeing Julia's true card and not the stock image, we made a fair offer to purchase the card, and Julia accepted. We then paid Julia how she wanted to be paid. When you choose to sell your collection to Just Collect, we can pay you with a company check, cash, or wire transfer!

WE ARE ALWAYS BUYING

Just Collect is always buying vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 1979 as well as select modern cards. If you have a collection that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. If you have a collection that you want appraised, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your collection and help you understand the real cash value of your collection in the current marketplace. Check out the Just Collect Buy List.

We always offer a FREE APPRAISAL for your collection here at the Just Collect site. Just click here:

We offer may ways to evaluate your cards other than or using our website, too.

Travel to Us

If you can make the trip here like the son from my hometown did for this collection- we can make a deal at the office. We once met a father-son duo that drove eight hours from Virginia to meet us to sell a Michael Jordan rookie card stored in Tupperware since 1986 - great read here.

Come to convention

We keep a LIST of card shows we'll be attending. Come stop by the Just Collect table and chat.

Meet in-person

If you have a valuable collection and want us to come to you, we'll hop on the next plane out.

Meet in New York City

If you're near New York City and would like to meet in a public place, our owner, Leighton, would be happy to meet you; read all the information here.

SHIP your collection

If you choose to mail your cards for an appraisal, we will evaluate your cards for FREE still. If you choose not to sell the cards, we'll ship them back shipping fees paid by us! We can offer our FedEx account with 2-day shipping, fully insured, all covered by us. Simply contact the office to set up this option.

OUR BUYING PHILOSOPHY

We've run into a wide range of people and collections over the last 25 years. Although Just Collect is known for buying vintage sports cards and especially vintage baseball cards, we are also extremely interested in buying non-sports cards, too!

Every collection and every collector is different and we treat EVERY collection with the respect and attention that we show for our own collections. We understand that many have put their heart and souls into building their collections. So when you're ready to sell, we understand the feelings that you're going through and will work with you to help you reach a decision that is a WIN/WIN, because if you're not happy, we're not happy.