PSA's Unbelievable turnaround times are Horrible!
 

I just got off the phone with PSA regarding a submission which I mailed in over the summer July/August.. apparently they are no longer committing to any time frames for economy submissions... they informed me they are still working on cards received in May.. and possibly an indication that it could be 4-6 more months before my cards get graded..

is anyone else as frustrated with this lack of customer service.. lack of turnaround time? based on this experience why would anyone ever submit a $500 card for grading if the turnaround time is 10 months!? what a joke...

Hey PSA...... Hire some more people before you lose market share..... the phone call I just got off of would have me never submit a card again.... being delayed is one thing.. but telling people you cant even provide them with an estimate after having a card for 3 months... that is absurd.

I think economy is playing with fire at this point. It has been known for months that they are just so backed up on the economy side. And quite frankly it is causing people to move to express - which is great for business. They have been money in terms of express - no delays there. I wish I didn't have to pay $75 to get a card now but it almost feels like it has to be accepted at this point.

Also, it is very hard to hire graders! Imagine how much more we would hate grading companies if we had someone with 3 month's experience grading our nice cards? It just takes time and recruiting to build up a staff.

As a side note, anyone notice PSA removed their graded card count at the top left of their homepage? This used to be updated weekly.

It's very frustrating. I am glad I don't have much modern stuff, because the market fluctuates so wildly depending on how the player does that DAY, let alone a year down the road.

It doesn't affect the vintage collecting folks quite as much as long as they don't plan on selling right away.

Nah, not here. I either buy cards that are raw or buy cards that are already graded if desired, and let it go at that. I leave the frustration for others to handle, this hobby should bring joy not frustration. :)

The OP meant to use the term "unbelievably horrible."

Seems as though every grading company is insanely backlogged , I have a few cards I’d like to get slabbed at some point and a few I’d like reholdered but not many. I won’t even think of sending a submission anywhere now the way things are. Seems like all companies should be and should have been hiring and training many new people. The demand is certainly there!

The amount of cards being graded is astronomical. I just dont get it.

I've only submitted through Bobby's group subs..... the last one took 9 months. I wasn't in any hurry to get the cards back. So, now I know what to expect.... when he proposed the recent group sub, I just asked myself if I can live without my cards for 10 or 11 months. The answer was "sure why not" ...

That IS absurd.... I agree. It seems they should know how many cards they have at any given time, roughly how long each step of the process takes, do some math, and give an answer, even if it's 10 months +/- 1 week. I don't see why they can't estimate turn around time..... It is pretty ridiculous that they wont

Psa
 

I am in the same boat sent in July 8th, delivered on July 13th, they said they received it Aug 19th, it has been in the grading step since Oct 4th, called them a couple weeks ago they answered and was polite but said they were overwhelmed and could not give me any information on my submission.







Daryl Fraley

Psa
 

Frustrated yes but not going to change my habits or 99% of the rest of the people out there. I did send in a $50 per card sub in August and had it back in 15 days. That service is suspended for now unfortunately. I sent a BGS sub in early June. It just got entered into their system. I don't see much difference between any of them right now.

Get comfortable...
 

Yeah, it's not good.

I have 10 Subs out with them right now, but my 2 buddies and I knew what we were getting into by submitting in June and August. I expect the Bulk stuff to maybe appear around March/April 2021.

My only Sub that truly astounds me is a $20 level submission of 15 cards.
PSA marked Received July 1st, and it entered Grading status on July 25th.
It's still in Grading as of today... They were turning these around in 40-45 business days max even at the worst of it.

I called them 2 weeks ago and the estimate she gave me was Mid-January 2021. To me, that makes absolutely no sense.
They really should have given some priority to clearing out cards at that $20 level, especially after they discontinued that service level last month.

But there was blood in the water this Spring/Summer. Everyone was looking to make some quick money off junk-era and modern cards, and it straight-up broke the system.
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Has anyone followed CU's stock performance over the past year?

$50 service is not suspended but it is delayed to about 1 month turnaround according to PSA.
I send 4 cards in under this that were delivered to PSA today.

Will update if delay is longer than expected.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

I wonder if it's not as easy as you describe because I bet auction houses and other preferred large submitters are continually sending cards (large orders), and because these customers (understandably) rank higher on the food chain, their orders jump ahead of orders already on hand. I can understand this, because many of these customers (major dealers and auction houses) spend much more money with PSA on a regular basis than do once- or twice-a-year submitters. Plus, they *have* to have them back by a certain time in order to get them in their next auctions.

Not saying this is the case, just throwing it out there.

The TPGs are making more profit than ever and don't even have to deliver against any commitments. Why would they hire more graders? They have more business than they can handle and little competition. They've trained their customers to spend 4x the standard price to get the same service as a year ago. Yes, there's a lot of frustration, but people will still send their cards to them. Prove me wrong.

Sorry, Jamie, that sucks.

I think the last time I submitted cards via mail to PSA was maybe like 2007. I just try to buy slabbed cards, or submit at a Nat'l. The lead times I've been hearing about are just horrific. No way I'd send anything in these days.

I have....I was this close to buying 100 shares at $15 around March.

I’m not renewing my PSA membership because of the suspension of the economy service and turnaround times. I’ll wait and hope things get better in the next 6 months.

People can't wait to go give their money to PSA. What a stand up, honest, and reputable company. Have at it folks!

Mystifies me as well. The worse they perform, the greater the demand. Interesting business model.

I'm so thankful my collecting interests are not contingent upon this company's "blessing".

PSA is drowing in modern cards. The case break industry is out of control. Many many people buy into these breaks looking for the next Kobe, Zion or Mahomes refractor or prizm card and rush it off for grading. A 10 on some of these cards is like hitting the lottery. Sure many of these guys break the card out over and over and keep submitting it. It's all about PSA 10 and Beckett Black label. It's not prewar that is overwhelming these guys but modern. A whole different game from what is being played here.

I'd suggest that it's more like, "the more money people make from grading their cards, the greater the demand."

When folks were making even more than usual by grading cards due to the increase in interest in the hobby this Spring, that led to an astronomical increase in submissions.

To each their own. 95% of my purchases are in the final form I want it -- either pre-graded or raw. But I also accumulate raw cards that will do well via TPG.
Tracking my own submissions, a historical return of 450% against costs is really hard to ignore. It allows me to increase value of my collection for those cards I hold, and generate funds for other purchases for those cards I don't want to keep. That is really valuable to those of us actively growing our collections. The wait times are what they are due to demand, as are the costs of grading.

There is no sense hating this game, even if the TPG players are typical greedy and intermittently unscrupulous corporations. Find me one that isn't :D
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+1
Well said

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PSA's turn times have been less than stellar for decades now, and only just passed the absurd threshold in this fabulous year 2020 and the $hitshow it's turned into. What's far sadder to me than PSA is the mess SGC found themselves in by being totally unprepared back early this summer, in saying "Send us your cards!" when in fact it should have been obvious much earlier that they were biting off way more then they could chew.

I like graded cards. More often that not, I buy graded and not raw vintage anymore online because of the peace of mind aspect, and they are of course much easier to move when / if it comes time to sell. But just for my PC, grading never has and never will be a hard requirement. I started collecting in the late 1980's. I know how to grade, and knew before TPG's were a thing. I have several upper midgrade Mantle cards and a few other odds and ends laying around that I envisioned sending off to SGC just for posterity's sake earlier in the year, but I can tell you now it just ain't happening for the foreseeable future. I know within a point or so what they would grade regardless, and I'd rather have the cards here in my PC (no plans to sell...) where I can enjoy them than off sitting in a box somewhere at a grader for a considerable portion of the year. Should I get in an unexpected bind where I truly do need to sell some bigger items, the $75 PSA or $100 SGC options will be there.

Not really. The only reasons to grade vintage cards with PSA despite all of the headaches and delays and high costs are to: (a) compete on their registry, or (b) make money on flipping the flip.

Like it or not, PSA sh**s money for submitters...that's the ballgame right there regardless of age of the cards. I sent in a raw beater Bill Russell RC worth about $600 and several months (and an upcharge) later I owned a PSA 1.5 worth $1100. Now worth $2000. And who is gonna pay top dollar for a 1952 Mantle or a 1958 Jim Brown if it isn't in one of those sacred plastic holders with the holy script numerical grade writ on the label?

I would agree it's about far more than modern PSA 10's.

This....and I can't get over how much it has EXPLODED!!! You are seeing cards that had a set price range FOREVER literally just BLOW UP!!! I would love to have some of my monsters back right about now.

PSA is like the abusive partner you can't seem to leave.

I didn't know anything and sent my first card to them over two months ago, and they are just now starting the grading and stuff. Maybe I will get it back next year.

Two months???? That's a drop in the bucket!!! Consider yourself lucky!

I was going to send a card in express. Wondering if I'll get it back in 15 days.

I did expess sgc recently took about a week door to door.

If only I could start the submission process for the cards I hope to buy soon. Kind of like enrolling your child in a private school before they're even born.

Meanwhile, I've been purchasing graded cards and then breaking them open when they arrive.


Raw cards RULE!!

Anyone have any higher end stuff reholdered using their expedited $100-500 fee service recently?

Curious about turn around time

Hello, I'm thinking of mailing a couple vintage ticket stubs to PSA for authentication. I've only ever sent a couple low $ cards a couple years ago via PSA stand at local memorabilia show. I have a couple Q's I hope someone could help guide me:

1. Express vs. Super Express - I believe I would have to pay for Super Express as the value of the stubs are over $1999 - I think (?) 1932 WS Ruth "Called Shot" and 1919 WS. Is there a guide anywhere for valuation estimates?

2. Turn around time/Delays - They have posted on website that Super Express turnaround is 20 days. I know PSA is way backed up! Does anyone know if Super Express is delayed much outside of the original timetable?

Thanks for your help.

I don't know about PSA but I sent 6 cards to SGC on their Express. They received them on January 8th, I got them back in hand on January 14th. And they cut my fee by $150. Pretty happy with their service.

Thanks for the feedback Phil. I noticed for the same equivalent to PSA "Express Service" - SGC charges $250 per/ticket though (1-2 Day turn around), PSA charges $125/per ticket (20 day turn around). Did you have to speak with anyone at SGC for the discount, or did they just comp. it off your final bill?

It depends on the value of the item. I only had one item that cost $250 (52 Jackie), the rest were $35-85 for an average total of $106 per card on a total value of $15,000. Plus $60 for next day Fedex. I was happy to pay that for high end items.

Are tickets or photos any faster turnaround vs cards?

Photos.....
 

As you probably know, photos are shipped to the NJ address.

I just got one back and this was the wait time:

Mailed to NJ on 12/04/20, entered into system on 12/11/20 and shipped back to me on 01/05/21. It was the standard rate, I believe it cost me about $104 round trip with shipping and slabbing etc....

Not bad in my opinion, good luck!

Mike

My recent experience: Submitted an order a little over a month ago that had cards in 3 different levels: Premium, Super Express, and Express. Other than taking a few days to get started in their system, the Premium and Super Express were completed in their stated time frames. The Express order (15 cards), took just over a month to get back to me.

A funny, yet infuriating, side note: When the cards were taking a few days to get into the system, I emailed to see if there was anything they needed or could do. When I specifically asked about the Premium card, the customer service rep told me that they didn’t have a Premium level and asked instead if I meant their $10 Value level. Now I know things are rough over there, but at least hire people that know the basics of the service they’re representing.

I sent a Clemente RC to PSA for "Express Service" on 12/19 and they show as having received it on 12/30

Currently status is still "Grading" Stage -So by the time this one gets back to me I will have just about $100 in getting it graded and turnaround at over 1 month.

Also Bobby's bulk submission that we sent to them at the end of May still shows in Assembly Stage (I think)

submissions
 

How many submissions is PSA receiving--possibly in the 500,000 range some weeks?--why? A card flipper told me he recently sold a PSA Graded Labron James Topps RC for $6,200--the buyer was extremely filled with happiness!
There you go, follow the money!

Assembly?? I wish....Still Research and ID!!!!!!:confused:

wtf!!!

I am willing to wager the wait times will get worse and worse....9 months will seem like express a year from now. I hope not....but just looking and how long it is taking simply to log items in.

Grading
 

It has to be extremely difficult to hire for such a specialized position. You can't just run someone through a training period for a couple weeks and hope to have it work.

I would guess it is a bit of a revolving door as well. How many people get hired as a grader either for a good job (and find out the pay for such tedious work isn't worth it) or specifically for a temporary education to "learn the ropes internally" for a few months and then start submitting on their own and make a pile of cash?

Agree wholeheartedly. "Grading" is really skewing the prices of cards and being "slabbed" takes away the beauty of the cards. The first thing your eye goes to is a number instead of the card itself.

I remember being at a show in the late 80's with my late father and there were some coin dealers at the show as well. I asked Dad what the numbers were on the coin cases and he told me about grading. He said, "They will never do that to baseball cards as it would ruin the hobby." He didn't live to see that his prediction was wrong...at least the first part of it.

I heard a ex-Beckett grader sold his two Pokémon Charizard cards for $10,000. was recently seen at a card show cherry picking ???