Only a matter of time before CSG does the same thing.

The prices are super steep but unless people stop sending them in it is not going to get any better. Venture capitalists always ruin it as they do in other industries. Same thing occurred in the luxury watch industry.

So I wonder what I will be charged for my current express order currently in research and id since they haven’t charged me yet. A 200% price increase is ridiculous!


Who can develop some generic slabs that will interlock or stack with the PSA slabs??? I’ll make my own flip without a grade just the card info.

I don’t think the price increase will change anything.

It's my understanding you will be charged whatever the rate was when you're cards were shipped to PSA, like a date stamp.

You have 30 days after placing and order for PSA to receive it. Are they actually going to try to charge customers more than the price that is on the order form if its mailed today or after?

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No, you pay the per card fee that was on your order form as long as it was received by PSA before the 30 days expire. But, you can be up charged if your "after" grading card value is higher than the level you submitted your card at.

Doubtful. PSA's entire model is wishful thinking: almost anyone who submits a card, especially a pack-fresh modern card, is thinking of one thing only--freakish spontaneous wealth. If the TPGod labels my LeBron RC a 10 I make thousands of dollars, even after PSA reneges on my contract and holds it hostage for a higher fee than agreed. The few who aren't thinking of the money are thinking of their registry positions or their set compositions. Please sir, may I have a 10? Those people are the ones who will probably quit, but overall they are a pimple on the elephant's backside compared to the gamblers.


I've done it too, so I am not throwing rocks in glass houses. I paid an 'upcharge' a few years ago when my Russell RC came in a grade above what I thought it would. Happily, I might add, since the $25 fee increase bought me a $400 value increase.

This is where I am at. Maybe I'm nuts but I have quite a few high end cards in CS1's and even binders. I will sub if/when I sell but something has to give with the TPG's and have to believe there will be a down period for the hobby where I can get my cards in. If not so be it.

PSA now taking 20% of value of card, eBay takes 10-15%, owners cost of card, not much left for the owner. Getting so out of hand. Whenever the company goes public again, will be the end of the cash cow.

Thats only " normal" business!
 

PSA has defied all norms - reminds me of the movie Goodfellas- but your grading is inconsistent - FU - pay us! But there are altered cards in PSA holders - FU, pay us! But I have to wait 6-12x the estimated turnaround times ?! FU, pay us! You just doubled your prices with no change to the last 3 problems!? FU, pay us!

Utterly and absurdly ridiculous!

Sure, but the PSA grade adds 30 - 1000%+ and Ebay enables buyers you would never find at your mall show. I know it's popular to bag on both but without them values aren't near where they are today (which would be fine with me).

Lol

Ah, crap...I missed this news last week, only discovering it when I went to submit a value submission tonight. Ugh...

PSA has for sure taken some fun out of the hobby. Last few years my son & I collected raw - him Pokemon, me Sports cards. It was fun have this hobby together. The end point, my son wanted to fund a high end gaming computer so we sent in few submissions to then sell. Worked well for fun, profit, and his new gaming computer.

Now with these prices to grade - game over.

So It's basically a club with a $100 cover charge, lousy service and bartenders who can barely pour beer.... And it's still the most popular place in town?

My kneejerk takeaways from the price hikes.

1. Unremarkable PSA graded cards (think those worth say < $40) will be harder to find as fewer collectors will roll the dice on grading non-star cards given the higher cost. So the existing supply of unremarkable cards may slowly come off the market. That said, they may now fetch a premium as the grading, which is now pricier, is already done.

2. The priciest cards may experience pricing pressure but I am less sure of this. If someone is paying a lot to slab a card, they will save it for the best cards with the most upside, so money ordinarily earmarked for lesser cards may be redirected to top cards. If the higher price is not a deterrent for grading then more supply could pressure prices.

3. I don't believe any other grader will meaningfully threaten PSA. Collectors are stuck in PSA's web.

4. If and when PSA ever can make grading as simple as having it done while you wait and lower the price, the hobby could become far more popular and dynamic. For long-term collectors, there is no pressing need to grade cards when they cost an arm and two legs to grade and take an eternity to receive.

5. I think one day, pricing, helped by technology, will come down. Over time, as volume rises, prices can come down. But for now, though the fees are confiscatory, the rationale for raising prices given a heavy backlog makes sense as a deterrent and to slow submissions. My hope is that if and when they get their act together that they can in tandem speed the turnaround process and lower prices.

Haha... Would you settle for one out of two? Their prices ain't coming down anytime remotely soon (if ever).

After I read this, first thing that came to mind was what would Maxwell Smart say, “ would you believe?”.

As long as they don't take me into the cornfield with the baseball bat...lol

Financially, they just did.

There had to be a higher barrier to entry. The number of otherwise worthless cards being sent to them in hopes of a 10 is staggering.

...because if you're lucky, it might give you access to the most beautiful women (or men, as the case may be). The metaphor totally works.

Come on, Bobby! You are mixing up your gangster films. Howard referenced Goodfellas, you are referencing Casino. :p

Ahhhh Casino..I was thinking some very dark off screen moments from Field of Dreams.

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I thought the TPGs were starting to charge fees based on the value of the card. Is that not correct? If so, it must cost quite a bit to get, what used to be a moderately priced card, graded based on today's pricing.

Does anybody know how much it cost to have a "4" green Cobb graded 2 years ago and how much it would cost today?

This touches on something that I was wondering. What is the stated value supposed to represent? The value of the card raw, the value it would get with a reasonably predicted grade, etc?

I'm not 100% sure on the grading side of things (as I haven't submitted cards strictly for grading), but on the PSA/DNA side of the business with autograph authentication/grading, the "stated value" is supposed to be "what the item would sell for AFTER PSA has done it's work." And here's the real beauty of this ridiculous (subjective, speculative) pricing model...they sometimes have your item in backlog for months, so in this volatile market the "value" can change drastically from the time you submitted until the time their work is done. And if it does, they can hold your item and come back and upcharge you for the new current "value." It's good to be the King! lol

Come on Leon I’ve seen you opine on authenticity from a scam many times. Stop the bs. Criticize what deserves it but shit like this is asinine.

And.....
 

If you submit a card and pay based on an expected grade of lets say a 6 - they will upcharge you if it happens to grade higher, but I have never heard of them reducing the charge if the grade came in lower - wouldn't that make the pricing model a whole lot more fair??!!

Unless it's an N403 Welch pitching, then they are in the KNOW!

LOL....touche.......They kinda all blend together to me. Especially since they all star Deniro and seem to share the same supporting cast.

New PSA Prices
 

Hi Team,

I have never sent in cards for PSA grading, but have thought about it. Sounds like you have the pricing down. Can you give me the lowdown on lets say I wanted to send in 10 cards for grading. What would be the rough estimate cost per each card? Thanks for the guidance. John

Field of dreams, only in the same field as Children of the Corn?

Has anyone got a connection at Sci-Fi? That could be as big as Sharknado
:D

Any opinions or what thread to look for on SGC VS PSA
 

I have 10 cards that are SGC 88, 92, 96 that I was going to send to PSA for crossover. With the recent change at PSA I can not do this, plus one school of thought is just to crack and send in. Any opinions out there? The one's that will qualify for Swinging 60's special of $9 I will crack that are <$100. NOt sure what to do with my SGC >'70 cards that are $100-500 in value?

Thanks for advice or where a thread might be.

I am a novice and just did my first submission in Jan..
 

I am a novice and just did my first submission in January. It appears the new cost would be $23+/- per card with shipping back and forth cost factored in; higher if the card value exceeds $499. Other's might add more to this comment. All the best,

I have had cards grade higher and not be up charged. For example, I sent in an OPC Lemieux RC and it came back a 9, no upcharge.

How would you value a card with no sales history? I just purchased two rare cards (one uncatalogued) and have no idea what to input for the stated values.

Value
 

I’m not sure this is the correct answer, but I would value them as what I would want to receive from an insurance claim if they were lost or damaged during the PSA submission process.

A Pokémon collector told me he sends cards bought in PSA holders to Beckett grading due their slabs being studier, and clearer. He claims CSG holders are better in those respects too.

So are PSA slabs really 100 percent better slab product for the money ?

I can't see how some PSA cards are graded 9's not being a 10's or visa versa, can you?==PSA doesn't break down the grades for corners, surface, edges or centering??

IS there some sort of monetary increase if you have the "#1 psa set" over and above the total value of the cards?

I've always thought yes, but I could be wrong, I been once or twice!

New PSA prices
 

Thanks Reed that helps.

I’m just spitballing here, but my guess would be no, and that anyone buying the #1 set would break it for resale. There would only be a premium over the sum if someone wanted to buy it to keep it/upgrade it, and I’ve never seen it happen. Not to say it doesn’t, but this would be my inclination.

I understand PSA's decision. They are a business trying to maximize their profits. Their reputation is also being harmed because they have been grading altered cards and not meeting expectations with respect to turnaround times, in large part due to a massive backlog.

This price increase will ensure profitability while almost certainly reducing backlog. I have accumulated about 20-30 lower value cards over the past 2-3 years that I was planning on sending in this year (likely through the Memberships, which are currently sold out). Clearly, I cannot do that now. I can't be the only one in that boat.

I expect (and hope) that, once the current backlog subsides, they have implemented the investments in people and technology needed to meet current demand.

Of course, SGC or the new company could use this as an opportunity to take away some of their business. For example, they could offer to crossover PSA Set Registry cards (assuming they pass muster) that would allow customers like me to switch over. I'm not holding my breath however.

Meanwhile, across the street, SGC just raised their prices as well.

https://gosgc.com/

Pretty soon the price of the slab will be worth more than the actual card it encapsulates.

Sellers will be selling PSA slabs. Who's gonna care about the card? :p

If I owned SCG I would he offering free crossover for cards above a certain $ amount. If you want to seriously compete, you need to do whatever it takes to get notable cards into your slabs and then use that as a leveraged talking point to draw in more clients, starting from the top down.

Unfortunately, they chose a different path.

PSA is the "gold" standard for collectors and registry collecting. People will gladly pay for the label/slab than the card.

If we took a poll, I'm going to guess that at least 80% of the people on this board would say that PSA encapsulated cards will sell for more than most other TPG graded cards.

It's like people have pointed out, PSA has people throwing money at them. Until/unless that stops, they'll keep following the supply/demand principle of jacking up prices until it's no longer viable to jack up prices.

Imagine the prices at shows. Same day $200? We’ll have something new to complain about.

I am not sure many set collectors are going to buy a complete set and keep it. Set collectors typically want to cull the set together themselves, the journey itself is the attraction.

Obviously what I’m about to write is utter nonsense and will never happen - nor am I being truly serious, but there’s one simple step that’d alleviate all this nonsense if PSA really put collectors/“the hobby” first.

Stop all modern/ultra modern submissions. No grading any cards manufactured in say the past seven years. As of 1/01/21 collectors can submit their 2014 stuff. Lol. How many “quick flip” submissions does that kill? All of them. Plus so many less junk slabs down the line. It would return this whole space to a finer time in my opinion.

Then return everything to the same price. A card is a card is a card. This whole pay more to grade a more expensive card nonsense is laughable. One of the greatest money making artificial pretenses of all time.

P.S. I actually have no problem with people flipping and the current evolution of the hobby. The flippers, speculators and investors have been an interesting dynamic and always existed at some level. It’s just on steroids now. Everyone has the right to play the game the way they see fit. PSA included. They have long since become a golden goose that’s too big to fail.