Why The PSA Slot Machine Is Problematic For The Card Grading Industry

The hobby was puzzled earlier this year when news emerged that PSA had put a vending machine at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since then, there has been much controversy over who is operating it and whether it is a legitimate enterprise. Then, it was shut down for a while, and folks thought this was a flash in the proverbial pan.

But now it is back, and there have been some crucial changes to its method of operation.

Is this a good or bad thing for the hobby? Should you use it? Our overview of the PSA slot machine has all the answers you seek.

The story of the PSA Slot Vending Machine

Back in June 2024, the Casino Kings on YouTube covered the existence of a vending machine in Sin City. You could reportedly pay $50 and receive a random PSA-graded card. The machine featured pictures of desirable cards, which they said anyone using it could win.

However, no odds or checklists were released for the machine’s contents. It also needs to be clarified what supervision this machine has, if any. Therefore, there is no reason for the operators of said machine to put valuable cards in it.

Since the machine featured a full-on PSA logo, everyone assumed it was affiliated with a massive grading company. But it is not. A PSA employee’s official email denied the connection. It read: “The vending machines are not something we are officially partnering on.

A dealer is pursuing this independently but is using cards for these mystery machines graded by PSA. So the slabs are legitimate and have been graded by us, but we are not involved in the distribution.”

So, is it a PSA slot machine?

They then issued a more complete denial on Twitter: “These vending machines are owned and operated by an external company who is a PSA dealer, submitting raw cards to PSA for authentication & grading, which are then being used for their repack business. This machine, however, is not owned, operated, or controlled by PSA in any capacity. Despite this, this third party’s test run of their machine has unfortunately created some confusion regarding PSA’s involvement. We are working with the vendor in real-time to adapt the look and feel of these machines to feature less-prominent PSA branding and make it clearer that they own and operate these machines, not PSA.”

The company that is operating the controversial machine is Cannon Rock LLC. Still, the branding on the machine is so PSA-oriented that they are involved.

The contraption was initially billed as a PSA vending machine. But a vending machine is predictable: You put in $2.50, press C6, and get a bag of Funyuns. The PSA machine is a whole different thing.

You put in money and hope to win the jackpot. So, we are talking about gambling here, not vending. There is a reason this machine is in Vegas rather than downtown Cincinnati.

What is Cannon Rock INC?

Justin Rumpf is the president of Cannon Rock Inc. The company describes itself as one that “specializes in automated retail solutions for the collectible industry.” He has been involved in selling shady repacks in the past.

Most notably, the Uptown Mystery Boxes company, which he co-owned with Will Jaimet. The latter once owned Heroes of Sport, an auction house in Oregon. But the company went under in 2013. Two years later, he returned the name for a new venture, sports card repacks.

The product was uniquely expensive. There were only 4 cards per box, which cost $500. The repack claimed to include highly valuable cards from Will’s private collection.

However, the product was not fully packed out on release day, as evidenced by a trail of eBay buys made after release day had long passed. When that had been revealed, suspicious hot boxes popped up and were sold to new buyers.

They had not been part of the original release and were designed to save the reputation of the flagging product. They also ran breaks, which proved to be rigged.

In 2016, Jaimet was arrested on charges of assault, harassment, and unlawful use of a weapon over a domestic abuse incident. Then, he had a meltdown in court.

Then, in 2019, Heroes of Sport returned with even more expensive boxes. However, he got embroiled in the extensive card-trimming scandal of 2019, which brought massive media exposure.

Indeed, he was one of the sellers of trimmed cards who benefitted most from the PWCC scandals. He was helped by former partner Jesse Craig, who is also close to Justin Rumpf and used to work for Justin’s mother.

Are Craig and Jaimet still tied to Rumpf?

Essentially, this is a reasonably shady operation with ties to problematic products in the past. However, what PSA knew or did not know is still being determined.

Rumpf emailed Sports Card Radio and denied any ties to Jaimet and Craig. He wrote, “I have no relationship with Will Jaimet and Jesse Craig. They have zero association with my business.” The email did not, however, refer to previous dealings with them, which are on record.  

Either way, PSA did not deny working with this company. According to a statement from the grading giant, “We are still working with this dealer. There was a miss on the branding of this machine that wasn’t in line with our brand guidelines for a partner company, so we are working with them to change it.”

PSA president Ryan Hoge said, “We aren’t investors in this company nor have any financial incentive beyond the dealer grading cards with us. We are lending branding to the project.”

PSA distances itself from the PSA Vending Machine

As the machine received publicity, PSA distanced itself from what it considered a controversial enterprise.

They Tweeted out:

“These vending machines are owned and operated by an external company that is a PSA dealer, submitting raw cards to PSA for authentication & grading, which are then being used for their repack business. This machine, however, is not owned, operated, or controlled by PSA in any capacity. Despite this, this third party’s test run of their machine has unfortunately created some confusion regarding PSA’s involvement. We are working with the vendor in real-time to adapt the look and feel of these machines to feature less-prominent PSA branding and make it clearer that they own and operate these machines, not PSA.”

But some things could be improved here. The boxes dispensed from the PSA machine resemble the “mystery boxes” the company distributed at the National Sports Card Convention in 2024. Indeed, they seem to be identical. Even more puzzling, PSA discussed the machine used there on their website: “unlock complimentary graded cards, PSA merch and so much more with PSA’s mystery box vending machine.”

Containing the fallout of the PSA branded vending machine

However, once there was some blowback regarding PSA’s participation in gambling and the somewhat shady Cannon Rock Inc. corporation, they removed that from their website. It could be a better look.

A PSA employee told the Rattle Pokemon channel, “You mentioned that the boxes are the same ones on the PSA site. Basically, for the Nationals show, we were giving away merch in those boxes, and the dealer got a peak at the boxes we used, and he copied them. He then designed the PSA vending machine without our authorization and placed the boxes in the machine.

We sent out a cease and desist letter, and the dealer took down the PSA branding on the machine afterward. Ultimately, we did not use those boxes for the National show because of that.”

Then, there is also a Michael Jordan Fleer 1986 Rookie card on the machine. Some digging from the Rattle Pokemon channel revealed that these cards appear on an old PSA banner. Therefore, the implication that they are available in the machine is erroneous.

The deactivated card

Things get more shady with this machine. In July, Dan the Card Man noticed that the PSA 10 Charizard listed on the side of the PSA machine as one of its main potential prizes had been deactivated.

If you look it up on their website, it says, “The certification number provided has been temporarily deactivated as a precaution due to its use on a known counterfeit in the market.” That is a crazy thing to happen to a card featured as the machine’s top prize.

The CGC machine

As this story broke, the CGC grading company announced it was also starting a card grading initiative. They boasted:

“Rippin’ Hot Summer promo extended! Get a guaranteed $25+ buyback offer with your first $25 Starter Pack purchase! Grow your CGC Pokémon collection with @Courtyard_io’s Vending Machine this summer. Every slab you pull is vaulted and insured at Brink’s and can be shipped to you anytime. Trade or redeem your cards from the vault anytime.

This was a different spin on the vending machine concept. Here, you would pull the cards virtually. It beats flying to Vegas to buy a mystery-graded card!

The disappearance of the PSA Slot Machine

There appear to have been two primary reasons for the machine’s disappearance for a few months. First, PSA was displeased with the publicity it had received and was embarrassed to be associated with it in its early format.

Second, the Nevada Gaming Control Board was concerned that the machine was a type of gambling device and did not have the proper license.

Therefore, the machine was removed from the Plaza and returned after a relatively quick process of obtaining a gaming license. At first, we got reports that it was not working and was out of stock. Then, it physically disappeared from the Plaza Casino.

The return of the PSA Slot Machine

After disappearing, the machine returned to the Plaza in Las Vegas and has undergone an upgrade. The bad news, if you are still inclined to use this thing, is that the price of a pull on it has doubled to $100. Talk about inflation!

Now, it has all sorts of LED boards instead of the cards that appeared on it before. The best thing about the old machine was those beautiful red PSA boxes.

But those are gone, probably because the grading company complained they were too closely associated with previous promotions and replaced them with an uglier, plainer black container. Now, the company name has been changed. It now no longer says Cannon Rock LLC on the box. Instead, the boxes are labeled Mints.

However, one thing stayed the same. It does not look like the cards are any better than they were before. People are pulling worthless cards from this machine. And I have to say it was surprising to see PSA put its name back on this machine. Sure, they removed those red boxes, but what does that solve?

Why is the PSA Slot Machine a problem?

PSA is a grading company. Their credibility depends on a certain amount of impartiality in the grades that they give. Their services create value. The higher the grade, the more money a card will go for.

At least, usually. For that reason, they should never be involved in selling cards. That creates a conflict of interest. They are motivated to give them higher grades if they sell the cards.

We have seen that the machine is completely loaded with low-value cards. There is reason to believe it is being used as a profit-laden way to dump low-value graded cards. There is no shortage of junk slabs out there, and if you can get people to pay $100 a pop to get one, that is a good deal.

The machine also brings much attention to the issue of gambling and the hobby. Many feel that breakers are a form of gambling, and that has raised questions about the oversight of that enterprise. But it remains a relatively unregulated space.

However, placing a slot machine in Vegas is almost begging for oversight and the wrong kind of attention. The host of Neo Cards & Comics opined that this is the equivalent of “putting a kick me sign on yourself and walking down the hall in high school.”

Then added, it’s like a sign saying, “Here I am. I am illegal gambling. Everybody knows it, but no one wants to recognize it.”

Final word on the PSA Slot Machine

At first glance, buying graded cards from a vending machine sounds like fun. But the more you think about it, the less it makes sense. Especially when there is no guarantee that anything good is even in the machine.

But at least you figure it’s PSA. It’s an honest company. But as we have seen, the ties of PSA to this machine are dubious. It raises questions about how the company allowed its name to be used on such a problematic enterprise.

I would be less concerned if there weren’t general trends toward gambling and blurred lines between sports, hobbies, and betting.

Fanatics is getting into the gambling space, and it appears PSA is unartfully doing the same thing. All this will create conflicts of interest and prey on people’s weaknesses.