Buying a slab after a theft: what a deactivated cert means for you

Before and after

1. 01Look it up again, typed. From the label, on the grader’s own page. Most failed lookups are a typing slip. Save what the page says, with the date; PSA’s lookup shows a switched-off number as intentionally deactivated.
2. 02Ask the seller for the history, in writing. When the card was graded, who has held it since, how it reached the seller, and when. A gap is written down as a gap. A seller who can answer usually does so quickly.
3. 03Ask the grader. The grader is the only party that can say why its record changed and what it needs from you. Its customer service is the place; a forum post is not.
4. 04Hold the payment. No money and no shipping until the record and the history line up. A number that comes back live, with a history that holds, can go ahead; a number that stays off cannot be sold on its record.
5. 05If you already hold it: assemble your record. When you bought it, from whom, the listing, your payment record, your lookup at the time and your photographs. That record is what the seller, the grader, a marketplace and, where it comes to it, the police will ask for.
6. 06Keep the slab as it is. Do not open the holder, re-submit the card or send it anywhere until the questions are answered. The slab as it is, with its label and number, is part of the record.
7. 07Do not pass it on. A card whose number is off cannot be sold on its record, and PSA has said it told its marketplace partners which numbers it switched off. Listing it moves the question to the next buyer; it does not answer it.

What this check does not prove

• Why the number was switched off. Graders deactivate numbers for reasons they do not always state. SGC’s terms, for one, allow deactivation on a card or holder it believes has been altered or tampered with. A deactivated number is a fact about the record, not a statement about the card in front of you, its seller or you.
• Who owns the card. A record that is on or off says nothing about title. That is a question for the seller in writing and, where it comes to it, for a lawyer; this page is not legal advice.
• That a live number is in order. The reverse holds too: a number that looks up cleanly tells you only what the grader graded under it. The slab in hand still has to match the record.
• What the card is worth. A grade is not a price. The lookup says nothing about value, and neither does this guide.