New PSA prices
 

$150 for express vs. $75 previously.. Good grief!!

With private equity ownership and extreme demand, can't say this is surprising.

Psa/dna Autograph encapsulatation


No more economy $20

Standard $50 not available


Best pricing is $100 a card!

I can see Beckett auto service picking up some serious steam here

I can also see Beckett's wait time from going over a year to over two years. Is that REALLY what you want?

...
 

Grateful that word of this change was all over the entire hobby last week.

I felt pretty foolish spending a good part of the weekend fighting the PSA website to put in about 650 cards. I'm sure that was the case for a lot of us.

Not feeling so foolish anymore... Guess this was the last dance for me with PSA for a submission of any size.
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Not doubting you, but can you point me to where this is announced? I am sure with some diligence I can find it, but I am in the middle of a travel nightmare and my google-fu has broken down. I went to the PSA site and the Joe Medwick I was planning to send in is listed at $50. Thank you.

EDIT: So, despite wearing the same underwear for the second day, I managed to have a brief moment of clarity. I found the announcement, but I do have a question. The prices above seem to apply to card authentication, not autograph authentication. The only reference to autograph authentication is in the context of dual service. Is there additional information available somewhere on changes to autograph authentication?

That I dont know

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PSA also suspended their crossover service.

Glad I got my cards in when I did
 

$20 a card is too steep for my wallet. I will gladly shift to not grading cards and waiting on specials for the ones that I want to have graded (there is a benefit to have a set fully graded to maximize value). My guess is that they will also soon raise the cost of membership. This begs the question, is it time to try the new kids in town, or take a look at SGC?

Same here.

yes

I would think SGC is just as bad. I would see this benefiting the new kids on the block, CGC. I doubt they raise their prices since they JUST opened up!

CSG is looking better and better.

Yes..that is who I meant....I don't see any of their cards on Ebay yet....just trying to check out the comps.

https://www.psacard.com/pricing#cards

Looks like the premium pricing went up by quite a bit as well.

Psa turn around times
 

Ridiculous, I have a submission thats been there 3 months and still hasn't been checked in.

Has anyone tried HGA? Their slabs look killer and there quotes turn around time is quick. Just haven't seen anything stabbed other then moderns so far.

The problem with PSA is they will raise their prices, but the turn around will still
be the same. This company is ridiculous. I have already sent cards to CSG
using the economy package and looking forward to see how they come back.

is grading really a necessity? If not, be hapy with your raw cards. If so, then cards which are already graded, now have a bigger premium added.

Psa
 

Their membership prices are as follows:

Silver $99 does not include any free submissions

Gold $199 Sold Out

Platinum $299 Sold Out

Also if you look at their pricing chart, their Regular $100 tier and their Express $150 tier both have notes that turnaround times are impacted. Geez! $150 per card and you still don't get a guaranteed turnaround time.

Guys let’s face the facts this is a Business...this hobby is no longer for the blue collar it’s for white collar Investors, Gamblers and Speculators who want a hedge. Is it smart to cater to those two groups not the collector? Idk 🤷*♂️ I do know the average collector is being squeezed on all ends either pay up or step out.
Tough it’s kinda rough and sad but It’s business and business isn’t always touchy feelie lovey dovey it’s money.

Everything is going to be fine :-)

Hi rick your funny

Csg
 

I noticed this on the CSG website:

Walk Through
$50,000 $100 5 days

5 days for a Walk Through service. I wonder if they provide meals and a place to sleep while you are spending 5 days walking your card through the process?:)

Wow. Silver was $59 a few months ago. That’s quite the hike.

I’m kind of hoping this starts to create a divide leaves more cards raw. Not everything needs to be slabbed.

As anyone that sells it is all about incremental value to whatever grading company provides. I assume they have the data and know they produce a premium on value, so they can take more of a piece of the pie.

What the hell! I just did my very first card submission to PSA yesterday. 8 cards, Express rate. 8 cards that a few months ago, I doubt were even worth the price of the $75 grading fee + Insurance and Shipping both ways.

Left it out for the mailman today.

Is my $75 fee going to hold up, or are they going to double dip into my account for the $150 fee?

Don't even know what put it in my head to do my very first submission on a Sunday afternoon, the day before PSA doubled their rates.....other then the fact it seemed like a few cards I was holding onto, had become very volatile, almost overnight, and it would be borderline stupid not to capitalize on it.

Probably would have never pulled the trigger at $150 bucks a pop.

I never understood how they could determine authenticity in the holder anyhow.

They probably can't but no one cares anyway so WTF? Just send them more money, LOL...

.

Maybe CGC should team up with JSA on the autograph end.

good for SGC, beckett, even new CGC,HGA

I will only send stuff to psa back for reholder , this is ridiculous

Somehow I missed the news until today. I just happened to sign up for a membership yesterday because I have some cards to submit later this month. Nice timing.

Doubling prices doesn't exactly seem a collector-friendly move?

The writing was on the wall the second the deal was announced.

Agreed. Why anyone thought with the involvement of at least two billionaire Wall Street types (Nat and Steve Cohen) that this was about anything more than money, is a mystery.

PS I wonder if any "competitors" will take advantage of the obvious opportunity. I doubt it.

I am shocked it didn't happen sooner. They are mostly likely doing this to help with the backlog.

LOL. No!

They're doing this to make more money.............full stop. ;)

Seems like this price move would turn away business. Gee, I own a small business and that's the last thing I would want to do - turn away business. If you don't take care of the customer (friendly, professional, quality service, charge reasonable) somebody else will.

All the data they need is to look at the number of submissions and realize that there is potential to charge more and still maintain their business.

Simple economics and we shouldn't be surprised. At all. That is the direction that the market (submitters) is pressuring them to go.

Agreed....if they weren't backed up a year, this never would have happened. Submitters will either suck it up and pay the new price or not.

The problem is, there is little/no competition. Or at least not enough to make a dent.

And as far as raising prices, I think it is more probable that other graders follow suit instead of taking advantage of the price differential.

JSA is going to slab soon (I assume only related to autographs).

The economics textbook has a separate section for third party grading.:eek:

That would be really dumb on their part, since this is their long-awaited chance to make a dent in PSA's market share. Especially for CSG, who just announced their pricing structure. I'm sure they don't want to alienate potential new customers before they've even gained a foothold in the market.

As far as making dumb decisions goes, nothing would surprise me with regard to SGC. They seem to somehow hang on in spite of themselves. When the market comes crashing back down to earth, it might be tougher for them to thrive (or even survive).

Did anyone honestly think a bunch of Wall Street assholes paid up for the company to do collectors any favors? These guys are pimps. Taking this company private, dramatically increasing the revenue without increasing costs, and leaving a giant backlog of revenue, that's the formula for selling it on the street corner with an IPO. I would bet that they take it public again after they have sufficient performance to show proof of concept. Central to the plan is one fact: PSA customers are sheep. They will line up to hand over their money as long as the PSA imprimatur makes money with unexpected high grades. The chance for freakish spontaneous wealth is too strong to mitigate against submissions. Only the poor set collectors--a very small group of the overall herd--will cry foul and walk away rather than spend $20 to slab a Sixto Lezcano card.

The silver lining is that everyone who has an inventory of PSA graded cards to sell can raise their prices because the submission cost for a collector to send in a raw card just jumped to the card price plus $20. I had been offering up graded cards for $10 MB. Now it is $15 going forward plus $5 to ship. Eventually, the PSA sheep will do the math and pay it. They always do.

It's amazing how many people still think Gordon Gecko is going to come in and save the company and make things right for the little guy.

:rolleyes:

Did they also suspend the crossover dribble? Nice to see the new ownership is making their investment pay off quickly and the dopeys eating it up.

I had no idea until today. Just shipped a pretty big order off a week ago. Looks like I saved some money and might beat the (increased) bottle neck by a few days. Maybe I’ll get my cards back before opening day... 2022.

I've used this many times before as well because it's so true. I almost never raise prices while my vendors constantly do.:D I rely on Raving Fans as customers and word of mouth. I'm not taking on anymore clients unless they are a "Brand" or own multiple brands" anyway. I'm down shifting but seem to set records month after month. Frankly, it's killing me. Maybe I should double prices and weed out the riff raff. Every time I have raised prices, nobody blinks and have never lost a customer in 21 years. Nah, They probably won't leave...:confused:;)

Also, use this line when it comes to relationships with our wives. "If you don't service the customer, someone else will."

You're not being fair to Sixto. I want all My Cesar Cedeno cards PSA slabbed 10, because I'm anal Eddie.

Perhaps the pricing news will disabuse some of that wishful thinking.

Assuming Nat Turner is going to be a hands-on owner, this will be (I believe) a different experience for Joe Orlando who I suspect did not have a great deal of interference or even input from his prior Board -- the same Board that was willing to sell a company riding a wave of smashing success for literally no premium over the market price.

Third party grading has been the most dramatic matrix shift in my long experience in the hobby; it has monetized card values in the extreme and given the graders immense power. TPG'ers were ill-prepared to meet the grading demands brought on by COVID and asset reallocation to cards, and they are clearly floundering with this massive backlog. That why I am watching closely the new grading company, CSG, and just sent them some nice '57 Topps football, including Johnny U. and Bart Starr. I just wish the name and logo didn't look like a rip-off of SGC.

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.