The absolute worst thing is that they still accepted new orders up until at least October 20th, despite probably knowing they wouldn't be able to fulfil them, then suddenly ghosting everybody.
There is one big reason why middleman were used so much in Europe! At least for Germany its needed a lot! If you send cards yourself, the German customs will make you pay massive tax after grading! They will let you pay almost the difference in value after grading! With a middleman you dont have to pay it since they have a way to prevent this... Peace ✌️
copy i send up : one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
I got so lucky.. I sent tens of thousands worth to Ludkins in 8 shipments at the end of 2020 and got my last cards back only 2-3 months ago which must of been right before all of this blew up!
Definitely the end of middlemanning. But the PSA UK office was ran by ludkins that lasted a few months. They made a statement a few days ago as PSA uk saying any subs will be returned to sender. So now if you’re in the UK/EU the really only option now is to sub direct that is very complicated with importing and exporting. Why middlaning was so popular over here.
one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
Wow I was just considering FINALLY submitting cards for my first time. This video pops up in my subscriptions. This is why I stay subscribed to you bro, now I'm well informed of the things that go on from a casual like me.
I used a middleman service before (a well known one) and I would never ever use it again. It was like pulling teeth and felt like I was at the mercy of the middleman to get the status of my order. Only reason I sent it to the middleman in the first place was the hopes to get my cards back faster, but I actually got my own submission MONTHS faster than the return by the middleman. The communication is terrible/non-existent and that is not something I want to go through when I already paid thousands for grading fee and have hundreds of cards out there. Now I feel way more comfortable knowing I have control & whereabout my order is at.
Waiting on over 1700+ cards from Ludkins UK I submitted in Q1 2021. At this stage I just want my cards back, I'll pay however much shipping PSA ask for!
They ask for the PSA submission numbers on the Google form but I'm not sure where to find them from my correspondence with ludkins, have you got any idea?
Not defending ludkins, but didnt help that ludkins put all their eggs in one basket with psa when they could have submitted to cgc/bgs while psa was shut down, which would help keep money flowing.
Pokémon is filled with immature people acting like they are owners and business people. While they are just here to get some fast cash. And everyone knew 2020 would be a good exit point.
@@jakubkulakowski you dont pay VAT on return - you pay a £21 disbursement fee to FedEx to release your package, and thats it. You mark the initial shipment as Repair/Return on the customs forms, PSA do the same and then you pay no VAT on the card value, grading fee value etc.
I am still waiting for some cards that were sent through ludkins USA in March 2021. Is the USA branch affected too? Messaged them and just got a big long auto email saying this situation.
A few bad apples doesn't ruin the batch. Just because one or two that we have heard of recently mishandled it improperly doesn't mean EVERY single middleman does it the same. I would focus more on Local middleman services rather than sending it to a big middleman several states away. You got it right about it being a service. As a middleman myself and a LGS we use it as a service to bring people in. We do not allow others to send it in to us as it doesn't make sense in the long run.
Ludkins get paid at the beginning of 2021 when 1£ was 1$40 But PSA ask for the paiement in the middle of 2022 when 1£ was 1$25 (approximately) To be clearer, it's a loss of almost 900£ per $10.000 order for the middleman who asked for paiement at the order. Now imagine that ludkins had accumulated for $100k or $200k or more orders. This is where they fucked up
this is terrifying as someone who has cards with ludkins uk and they are ghosting me website is down, i dont know how to go about getting my cards back now
When I sent to Wata they had a problem with the parcel then even thinking about sending it back, then a few hours later they accepted the parcel. When it got back to the uk it stayed at customs for a week then I got a import charge. Sometimes the middleman can help you save time and money, not anymore now.
It's crazy I was always so sceptical about sending my collection off and finally in 2019 I sent 50 of my best cards through ludkins and they are currently lost, I asked multiple times for my order number and updates and never received a straight answer, I've submitted photos of my cards to PSA currently as that all I can supply them with really regretting it all
i stuck with ludkins 2020 , 3000$ with them and i was patient but this now is really too much, im so frustrated, some ppl can die in mean time and still not get cards back
Ludkins took money in advance from customers, sent cards to PSA then paid when the cards were graded. They were "robbing Peter to pay Paul", like a Ponzi scheme they needed money from new customers to pay the bill for current customers. With PSA closing during the pandemic, Ludkins could no longer do this. Allegedly they used the money they'd received to keep the business running while there was no money coming in and now don't have the money to pay PSA (there could be 100,000 cards involved).
What about people in other countries like South Africa for example. The middleman companies fill a role or you as an individual will pay a fortune to grade 1 card.
Hi! Do you think the price of those Charizard Boxes are going to go down a little bit because Pokemon is going to add more inventory to the market soon? Or should we buy now at the inflated Prices? Thanks
Honestly surprised to see this happen I graded a bunch of cards through them in 2018-19 and it was a pretty nice process if not long. But things just aren’t the same in the grading world to the point where I have 10 or more cards i would like to grade but just don’t trust them in PSA or others hands. Truly sad to see what’s happening
I almost sent my cards to 'PSA UK' (which is Ludkins UK) last month but their submission process wasn't straight forward so I decided not to. PSA should open a UK based submission centre that can handle UK and the rest of Europe submissions.
@@BartAllen how would UK be a bigger market to Pokémon than the whole EU?oO Also more than half PSA subs from all Europe including UK are from Germany... Peace ✌️
Sorry for anyone experiencing this nightmare. On a related note, hopefully stuff like this doesn't make PSA start charging grading fees before they grade cards. Paying right when they send your cards back is my favorite thing about PSAs grading process.
Kinda weird that you chose to omit the perspective of collectors outside of the US and the obvious reasons why we still absolutely need middlemen services as long as the grading companies don't open their own offices. I would obviously also be sending directly if I was living in the US.
My guess this comes down to the value charges? since the value change came in I haven’t sent anything to PSA, you’ve got the initial cost of grading that is paid by the customer and then this extra charge that has to be covered by the middleman and then they need to get that money from the customer it’s just meh I agree the middleman service is silly now, educate me if I’m wrong
With regards to PSA , I got 1,000 cards back all at once in December 2021 somehow they got all 10 orders done and shipped, I like to stagger them to spread out the costs… but not that time haha
Unfortunately, in the UK you have to use a middleman if you want to use PSA or CGC. Shipping alone is just too expensive if you want a few cards graded every so often.
I used ludkins as a middle man, Charlie Hurlocker is a nice guy. It took a year and a half to get my cards back. I will be sending cards in myself now.
Speaking as a collector in Australia. We have a few big middlemans that have been in the game for years and are only getting stronger reps. I understand there are middlemans in the world that have tarnished the rep, but it seems wrong to ignore the middlemans that are well established businesses who genuinely want to make the process of grading easier
I “middleman” for people in a close community. I make no money, I donate my time and people know that. They send through me cause they don’t want to or can’t pay the cost for 1-2 cards plus the shipping fee and gst and they don’t want to send 100+ at a time to keep costs down. End of the day it works out to $35-40aud per card for us so I’m some peoples only option for grading
Please someone give me advice. I sent 100+ cards in with Ludkins in 2020, They kept telling me orders were coming in. Cards totaling more than $10,000 in value. Who the hell do I contact now? Advice is extremely appreciated please.
Ludkins was not just another customer. Ludkins was a partner featured on PSA's website as an authorized middleman who then became branded under the PSA UK name. I find it funny some can place total blame on Ludkins when Ludkins was in fact acting as an agent of PSA. There is so much info behind the scenes that we don't know what happened (and may never) but certainly the two public statements made show someone is lying/hiding things. Probably like PWCC x eBay we will never get the full story but how anyone looks at this and doesn't place most of the blame on PSA (given the little information we know is true without speculating or taking either of their words for it) is beyond me.
The whole communication thing and all the complaints against middlemen (which are totally valid) also apply directly upon PSA themselves. None of this would have happened had PSA not taken in a 10MM+ card backlog.
I also believe it was not malicious like many people seem to think it was. I released a video a few days ago talking about many of the things that went wrong that lead to this. Brexit, pound value dropping like a rock vs US dollar, covid, PSA backlog, and more.
Im glad atleast psa working hard on this. So bad that Ludkins even deleted theyr site. Now ppl cant get the key info they had to psa so they can get theyr cards.. Here in Norway we use trusted ppl in the community as middleman straight to psa . Only issue we got no service that can be used in Norway with insurance from Norway to psa just from psa and to us again. But so bad that Ludkins the most trusted international middleman is just gone rogue. Why tho..
To add insult to injury their Twitter (which is still linked on their wesbite) is gone and their Instagram posts have comments disabled. Virtually zero communication.
PSA used the middlemen because it saved them a lot of money. Having operations in europe would have additional costs with no additional income (unless you factor in bulk submissions vs single card prices). Middlemen saved psa money and helped them get customers who otherwise would not have got their cards graded. They may lose customers because of this. PSA operating in europe could benefit everyone who grades with them (including those who send to america because it would mean they have a lighter load to deal with). It should lead to shorter waiting times, be cheaper all around for customers as they avoid a lot of import fees, do not have to pay middlemen, and will have more staff to handle enquiries. Losing these middlemen may be a sign that PSA is expanding to other territories or just collateral damage from the pandemic/economic climate.
PSA turning ludkins into ‘PSA U.K.’ whilst knowing they had poor finances was very much PSAs fault. At that point they were no longer ‘customers’ and business partners. Collectibles was bought for $300million and yet they use a third party to open an official hub, PSA should have just opened their own hub.
smpratte youre wrong... ludkins arent just another customer, they were heavily involved with psa, affiliated with them and showcased on the psa website as a legitimate partnered middleman service that has direct ties to psa.
Before I used Ludkins (back in early 2021) I emailed PSA to check they were legit. They recommended using Ludkins to me! "Graded Gem and Ludkins are both PSA Authorized dealers, however they do not grade the cards at their facility - they are a third-party submitter and they will send your order to PSA on your behalf. I recommend using one of our authorized dealers, as they do abide by our customer bill of rights. If you have any other questions please let us know! Sincerely, Alyssa PCGS/PSA Customer Service"
@@Jakelol1980 PSA graded the cards already. Additionally PSA said that they will ship the cards without any further payment from Ludkins. PSA is in communication with PokeGeoDude for example. Everyone will get their cards back. Maybe it will take some more time.
And this is why people should do the sending yourself don't pay people money for easy things you can do yourself. Its increasing the amount of risk involved its not a good idea to lett someone else do it for you. You want to get work done a good way do it yourself
i would have to disagree, ive been using a uk middle man for 2 years with 0 issues and based on the person / the safety nets put in place i have no issues when it comes to trust
@smpratte you miss one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
I don't understand, Pratt didn't you offer something like this? I remember you mentioning in videos that for a price people could send you cards for PSA submissions and you would include them in one of your bulk orders. I feel like it's been a few years since you mentioned it, and idk if it was a Patreon thing or what, but it seems very similar
I agree but in this situation PSA are to blame. They endorsed Ludkins as their UK submission center and branded them PSA UK officially on their website - in my mind if you affiliate yourself to that extent with a business you should have credit checked beforehand. Bad business by PSA in my books. I’d have honestly never used a 3rd party and had been submitting directly from the UK to the US before that but when the PSA officially change the narrative publicly it n their website then backtrack a few months later with stories coming out highlighting there seems to have been a problem for a while, why was that not picked up sooner?
The absolute worst thing is that they still accepted new orders up until at least October 20th, despite probably knowing they wouldn't be able to fulfil them, then suddenly ghosting everybody.
which makes it obviously malicious. Once you start ghosting people zero benefit of the doubt.
While PSA had them featured as an official partner PSA UK
‘Live under a geodude’ 😂
Trusting a stranger with your money and property is a terrible idea in general.
The thumbnail is pure gold!
10/10
R.I.P. to the lost cards :'(
There is one big reason why middleman were used so much in Europe! At least for Germany its needed a lot! If you send cards yourself, the German customs will make you pay massive tax after grading! They will let you pay almost the difference in value after grading!
With a middleman you dont have to pay it since they have a way to prevent this...
Peace ✌️
That sucks, im sorry to hear that.
There are easy ways to prevent this. Middlemen in germany are not necessary anymore.
You send it out as Repair/Return, PSA return it as Repair/Return. You dont pay customs or tax, except a £21 package clearance fee to FedEx.
copy i send up : one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
@@haggiscollectibles is this actually a thing?
I got so lucky..
I sent tens of thousands worth to Ludkins in 8 shipments at the end of 2020 and got my last cards back only 2-3 months ago which must of been right before all of this blew up!
This is where the fun begins
Love the content. Keep it coming. :D Finally have downtime watch them all
Definitely the end of middlemanning. But the PSA UK office was ran by ludkins that lasted a few months. They made a statement a few days ago as PSA uk saying any subs will be returned to sender. So now if you’re in the UK/EU the really only option now is to sub direct that is very complicated with importing and exporting. Why middlaning was so popular over here.
one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
Wow I was just considering FINALLY submitting cards for my first time. This video pops up in my subscriptions. This is why I stay subscribed to you bro, now I'm well informed of the things that go on from a casual like me.
@@Based_Cortez super easy
@@NeroAngelo616 nobody asked
@@NeroAngelo616 its not that deep man
@@NeroAngelo616 must be a middle man 😂
It’s cheaper and easier to submit a card yourself
I used a middleman service before (a well known one) and I would never ever use it again. It was like pulling teeth and felt like I was at the mercy of the middleman to get the status of my order. Only reason I sent it to the middleman in the first place was the hopes to get my cards back faster, but I actually got my own submission MONTHS faster than the return by the middleman. The communication is terrible/non-existent and that is not something I want to go through when I already paid thousands for grading fee and have hundreds of cards out there. Now I feel way more comfortable knowing I have control & whereabout my order is at.
Waiting on over 1700+ cards from Ludkins UK I submitted in Q1 2021. At this stage I just want my cards back, I'll pay however much shipping PSA ask for!
Wow, Stephen that’s horrid. Really hope you get this sorted.
Get ready for the worst man 😢
i have like $5,000 worth of cards with ludkins im praying for sure because theres no chance we can get our card value back
They ask for the PSA submission numbers on the Google form but I'm not sure where to find them from my correspondence with ludkins, have you got any idea?
@@theo9743 I didn't have mine either - Just fill in the form as best as you can for now, still waiting for news.
I’m thankful my 75 card submission was without any issues… hopefully everyone gets their cards
Not defending ludkins, but didnt help that ludkins put all their eggs in one basket with psa when they could have submitted to cgc/bgs while psa was shut down, which would help keep money flowing.
Pokémon is filled with immature people acting like they are owners and business people. While they are just here to get some fast cash. And everyone knew 2020 would be a good exit point.
Ludkins was ‘PSA U.K.’ and was the official U.K. hub for PSA. They were not a middleman after July 2022, they were PSA 🤦♂️
upside was the elimination of VAT TAXES on the returned cards,
which is considerable.
The middlemen have fallen
FOR GOD'S SAKE: WE NEED PSA IN EUROPE. Shipping to US is an absolute nightmare
It’s not. You can ship a sub to PSA in California, within about 2-3 days for around $35-40. Its hardly a nightmare. It seems to be a bit of a myth.
@@haggiscollectibles 40 dollars is not cheap for me :D But anyway, what about VAT for example?
@@jakubkulakowski you dont pay VAT on return - you pay a £21 disbursement fee to FedEx to release your package, and thats it. You mark the initial shipment as Repair/Return on the customs forms, PSA do the same and then you pay no VAT on the card value, grading fee value etc.
@@haggiscollectibles so where to commit tax fraud is what your saying instead bruh
@@Zretgul_timerunner no - this is the correct way to submit your cards.
Just as you said you needed to take a sponsored sip, an ad popped up 😂😂😂
An ad shouldn't have popped up. He doesn't run ads. I don't think I've ever gotten an ad on this channel.
*Literally praying PSA opens a centre in the UK after this ~ But super happy I didn't send in my boxing cards to "PSA UK" a few months ago ~* 😂😂
Or in the EU!
I am still waiting for some cards that were sent through ludkins USA in March 2021. Is the USA branch affected too? Messaged them and just got a big long auto email saying this situation.
A few bad apples doesn't ruin the batch. Just because one or two that we have heard of recently mishandled it improperly doesn't mean EVERY single middleman does it the same. I would focus more on Local middleman services rather than sending it to a big middleman several states away. You got it right about it being a service. As a middleman myself and a LGS we use it as a service to bring people in. We do not allow others to send it in to us as it doesn't make sense in the long run.
"I know all u guys got scammed but u can trust me.".😂😂😂
Ludkins get paid at the beginning of 2021 when 1£ was 1$40
But PSA ask for the paiement in the middle of 2022 when 1£ was 1$25 (approximately)
To be clearer, it's a loss of almost 900£ per $10.000 order for the middleman who asked for paiement at the order.
Now imagine that ludkins had accumulated for $100k or $200k or more orders. This is where they fucked up
great Thumbnail yet again
this is terrifying as someone who has cards with ludkins uk and they are ghosting me website is down, i dont know how to go about getting my cards back now
When did you send them? If they have gone to the US to be graded PSA has a form you can fill in to try and find and return your cards for you
@@fireftw_tcg1633 January 2021 issue is ludkins never gave an order number
I'm in a similar boat, I submitted through ludkins in March of 2021 and Im worried I won't get my cards back
When I sent to Wata they had a problem with the parcel then even thinking about sending it back, then a few hours later they accepted the parcel. When it got back to the uk it stayed at customs for a week then I got a import charge. Sometimes the middleman
can help you save time and money, not anymore now.
I waited 2 years for my 70 card submission. Nov 2020 and received two weeks ago. Had some big cards in there and it was nerve racking at times
This happened with GradedGem too
They were my favorite and I'm so sad they couldn't make it after the boom of grading
It's crazy I was always so sceptical about sending my collection off and finally in 2019 I sent 50 of my best cards through ludkins and they are currently lost, I asked multiple times for my order number and updates and never received a straight answer, I've submitted photos of my cards to PSA currently as that all I can supply them with really regretting it all
One day my PSA return will come back
Great video
So what happens if you have a ludkins submission sent in? It’s just gone?
i stuck with ludkins 2020 , 3000$ with them and i was patient but this now is really too much, im so frustrated, some ppl can die in mean time and still not get cards back
Im so happy i didnt send my 99 tropical wind. But still i wish i could grade that card but im too afraid of losing it
I wonder why Ludkins still has their PSA site up
Would you say reckless spending caused this also? How did Ludkins make profit? How weren't they able to pay up?
Ludkins took money in advance from customers, sent cards to PSA then paid when the cards were graded. They were "robbing Peter to pay Paul", like a Ponzi scheme they needed money from new customers to pay the bill for current customers. With PSA closing during the pandemic, Ludkins could no longer do this. Allegedly they used the money they'd received to keep the business running while there was no money coming in and now don't have the money to pay PSA (there could be 100,000 cards involved).
What about people in other countries like South Africa for example. The middleman companies fill a role or you as an individual will pay a fortune to grade 1 card.
Hi! Do you think the price of those Charizard Boxes are going to go down a little bit because Pokemon is going to add more inventory to the market soon? Or should we buy now at the inflated Prices? Thanks
I personally think under $100 is a good price with $80 being a great price if u want to wait or search for deals.
Honestly surprised to see this happen I graded a bunch of cards through them in 2018-19 and it was a pretty nice process if not long. But things just aren’t the same in the grading world to the point where I have 10 or more cards i would like to grade but just don’t trust them in PSA or others hands. Truly sad to see what’s happening
Why don’t you trust psa? They are pretty reliable and trustworthy
I almost sent my cards to 'PSA UK' (which is Ludkins UK) last month but their submission process wasn't straight forward so I decided not to. PSA should open a UK based submission centre that can handle UK and the rest of Europe submissions.
@@Tyrese18 Word!
@@Tyrese18 *Nah, PSA UK -- bigger market to Pokémon ~*
@@Tyrese18 *Ah, so Nintendo opened a Pokémon Centre in Germany? When was this? :P*
@@Tyrese18 *Sure will - hence why PSA most probably wanted to end it -- but a lot higher chance than Germany but nice try though :)*
@@BartAllen how would UK be a bigger market to Pokémon than the whole EU?oO
Also more than half PSA subs from all Europe including UK are from Germany...
Peace ✌️
Sorry for anyone experiencing this nightmare. On a related note, hopefully stuff like this doesn't make PSA start charging grading fees before they grade cards. Paying right when they send your cards back is my favorite thing about PSAs grading process.
I’m not surprised. Had a somewhat bad/neutral experience with Ludkins via eBay. Got the feeling they were in a financial situation.
Kinda weird that you chose to omit the perspective of collectors outside of the US and the obvious reasons why we still absolutely need middlemen services as long as the grading companies don't open their own offices. I would obviously also be sending directly if I was living in the US.
Glad I escaped with just a 19 month sentence with my cards
I love how humble Pratt is.
My guess this comes down to the value charges? since the value change came in I haven’t sent anything to PSA, you’ve got the initial cost of grading that is paid by the customer and then this extra charge that has to be covered by the middleman and then they need to get that money from the customer it’s just meh I agree the middleman service is silly now, educate me if I’m wrong
With regards to PSA , I got 1,000 cards back all at once in December 2021 somehow they got all 10 orders done and shipped, I like to stagger them to spread out the costs… but not that time haha
bro probably graded 1st edition energies
@@nateahearn1133 all Unlimited weedles
Unfortunately, in the UK you have to use a middleman if you want to use PSA or CGC. Shipping alone is just too expensive if you want a few cards graded every so often.
Agree. In Europe, you will need a middleman as long as PSA doesn't have a local foothold.
They didn’t pay their bill/ PSA is 💯 correct Ludkins should be in jail.
I used ludkins as a middle man, Charlie Hurlocker is a nice guy. It took a year and a half to get my cards back. I will be sending cards in myself now.
Im the one of those who gave cards trought them and still waiting after 2 years. Who could now this will happen... 🥺
Speaking as a collector in Australia. We have a few big middlemans that have been in the game for years and are only getting stronger reps. I understand there are middlemans in the world that have tarnished the rep, but it seems wrong to ignore the middlemans that are well established businesses who genuinely want to make the process of grading easier
I “middleman” for people in a close community. I make no money, I donate my time and people know that. They send through me cause they don’t want to or can’t pay the cost for 1-2 cards plus the shipping fee and gst and they don’t want to send 100+ at a time to keep costs down. End of the day it works out to $35-40aud per card for us so I’m some peoples only option for grading
Please someone give me advice. I sent 100+ cards in with Ludkins in 2020, They kept telling me orders were coming in. Cards totaling more than $10,000 in value. Who the hell do I contact now? Advice is extremely appreciated please.
Fill out the psa form
Who’s “the ugly” Pokémon on the shirt?
Mewtwo
Was US effected or just UK?
Following. I have order with Ludkins US too.
Didn't Charlie leave awhile ago and start a new company?
If psa was in 10 different counties the industry will grow much rapidly and much more efficient. Hope Australia and UK will have psa grading services
Ludkins was not just another customer. Ludkins was a partner featured on PSA's website as an authorized middleman who then became branded under the PSA UK name. I find it funny some can place total blame on Ludkins when Ludkins was in fact acting as an agent of PSA. There is so much info behind the scenes that we don't know what happened (and may never) but certainly the two public statements made show someone is lying/hiding things. Probably like PWCC x eBay we will never get the full story but how anyone looks at this and doesn't place most of the blame on PSA (given the little information we know is true without speculating or taking either of their words for it) is beyond me.
The whole communication thing and all the complaints against middlemen (which are totally valid) also apply directly upon PSA themselves. None of this would have happened had PSA not taken in a 10MM+ card backlog.
I also believe it was not malicious like many people seem to think it was. I released a video a few days ago talking about many of the things that went wrong that lead to this. Brexit, pound value dropping like a rock vs US dollar, covid, PSA backlog, and more.
"Living under a geodude"
That a refence to the "card cleaners" PokeGeodude or whatever? Or am I reaching here?
Im glad atleast psa working hard on this. So bad that Ludkins even deleted theyr site. Now ppl cant get the key info they had to psa so they can get theyr cards..
Here in Norway we use trusted ppl in the community as middleman straight to psa . Only issue we got no service that can be used in Norway with insurance from Norway to psa just from psa and to us again. But so bad that Ludkins the most trusted international middleman is just gone rogue. Why tho..
marxcards , graded gem, ludkins who is next, psa need to change ppl pay to psa middleman sort pack and ship
PSA Australia PLEASEEEEE 🙏
To add insult to injury their Twitter (which is still linked on their wesbite) is gone and their Instagram posts have comments disabled. Virtually zero communication.
PSA switching to graded value for pricing is pretty bullshit though.
PSA used the middlemen because it saved them a lot of money.
Having operations in europe would have additional costs with no additional income (unless you factor in bulk submissions vs single card prices).
Middlemen saved psa money and helped them get customers who otherwise would not have got their cards graded. They may lose customers because of this.
PSA operating in europe could benefit everyone who grades with them (including those who send to america because it would mean they have a lighter load to deal with). It should lead to shorter waiting times, be cheaper all around for customers as they avoid a lot of import fees, do not have to pay middlemen, and will have more staff to handle enquiries.
Losing these middlemen may be a sign that PSA is expanding to other territories or just collateral damage from the pandemic/economic climate.
Profit margins for these middle men are so minor and I bet they had loans. Interest rates rising quickly cuts the fat.
PSA turning ludkins into ‘PSA U.K.’ whilst knowing they had poor finances was very much PSAs fault. At that point they were no longer ‘customers’ and business partners. Collectibles was bought for $300million and yet they use a third party to open an official hub, PSA should have just opened their own hub.
I’ve got to ask, what Pokémon is ugly on your tee as can’t quite catch it in the video? 🤣🤣
Was thinking out the whole time
Haha, it's Ditto.
Me just imagining the hoard of UK flippers waiting fir thiere psa 10 amazing rare zacians lol
Hahaha! Don't forget the Charizard ETB Champions path promo as well
smpratte youre wrong... ludkins arent just another customer, they were heavily involved with psa, affiliated with them and showcased on the psa website as a legitimate partnered middleman service that has direct ties to psa.
lol
at least that's what they wanted you to think lol. We all got duped, agreed?
@@vince7024 lol great call back
Before I used Ludkins (back in early 2021) I emailed PSA to check they were legit. They recommended using Ludkins to me!
"Graded Gem and Ludkins are both PSA Authorized dealers, however they do not grade the cards at their facility - they are a third-party submitter and they will send your order to PSA on your behalf.
I recommend using one of our authorized dealers, as they do abide by our customer bill of rights.
If you have any other questions please let us know!
Sincerely,
Alyssa
PCGS/PSA Customer Service"
@@benwillis5840 exactly.. psa and ludkins were directly affiliated with each other
Where were the contracts. 🤷🏻♂️
I would never use a middle man, I don't want my cards touching any more hands then they need to be.
I don’t understand this, what is even the point of sending cards to a middle man when you can just send to psa directly?
It was a UK based company, it makes it simpler for us international submitters
Im kind of happy that this has happened because this will likely cut the waiting in half if not even more.
The good thing is everone will get his cards back.
No Ludkins wont tell PSA whos cards is whos so it looks like all cards will stay at PSA unless Ludkins will pay for the graded cards.
@@Jakelol1980 PSA graded the cards already. Additionally PSA said that they will ship the cards without any further payment from Ludkins. PSA is in communication with PokeGeoDude for example. Everyone will get their cards back. Maybe it will take some more time.
@@Fab1LouS Wow thats great im so happy for all who sent there cards in :)
Blumpkins
And this is why people should do the sending yourself don't pay people money for easy things you can do yourself. Its increasing the amount of risk involved its not a good idea to lett someone else do it for you. You want to get work done a good way do it yourself
@@UrAveragePlayer0 who cares. the turnaround time is substantially longer too. You get what you pay for
i would have to disagree, ive been using a uk middle man for 2 years with 0 issues and based on the person / the safety nets put in place i have no issues when it comes to trust
I’m a uk collector as well, who do you use? I heard we were close to psa uk opening, will you just transfer over when that happens?
Lmao el chapo
@smpratte you miss one thing im in EU and they promise they will ship from Paris office as import taxes was his part of they job, reason i take them in first place, after two years they shock me saying no Paris anymore you need to pay taxes , and just say sorrry , thats all, imagine situation they late more then year and ppl from EU getting cards from paris but because they late that much in mean time they close paris office and we all from EU who wait more then others now we are punished and we need to pay taxes because they late , haha insaine just broke our deal and thats it, they say brexit is reason and its not , after brexit paris office still works they made that office because of brexit in first place , i ship one sub in UK when UK was in EU and second sub to paris it means i ship both time to eu now i will not get back cards from eu and i need to pay taxes and deal with customs
I don't understand, Pratt didn't you offer something like this? I remember you mentioning in videos that for a price people could send you cards for PSA submissions and you would include them in one of your bulk orders. I feel like it's been a few years since you mentioned it, and idk if it was a Patreon thing or what, but it seems very similar
Not suprising sadly.
And good riddance those who knows, knows this is not news to me or suprising.
Noonie Milk
I agree but in this situation PSA are to blame. They endorsed Ludkins as their UK submission center and branded them PSA UK officially on their website - in my mind if you affiliate yourself to that extent with a business you should have credit checked beforehand. Bad business by PSA in my books. I’d have honestly never used a 3rd party and had been submitting directly from the UK to the US before that but when the PSA officially change the narrative publicly it n their website then backtrack a few months later with stories coming out highlighting there seems to have been a problem for a while, why was that not picked up sooner?
Middleman grading is for middleman people.
These Ludkins jerks still have two of my damn cards I sent in Oct. 2020. Livid
Hey pratte I got a winning from you but I'm not sure if it's a scam from somebody else or not. Do you use telegram is how they are reaching out to me
No, it’s a scam. He does not use telegram and there were a bunch of similar comments on his video before they all got removed.