PSA -- 50K packages per DAY?
 

According to a Blowout post, a guy whose cards were received Sept. 28 but were not logged in yet inquired and got this email back:


"Currently, at PSA, we are experiencing delays in all departments, particularly in receiving, as we receive around 50,000 packages daily. This is what is causing the delays in entering your order. The estimated processing times for an order do not start until the package has been opened and the submission is entered. For Value orders, we are currently opening packages that arrived on September 23 as of this morning. Submission #xxxxxxx was dropped off on September 28th, so you should definitely see it entered within the next week and half!"

The scammers whose first ever graded card was a KNOW TRIMMED CARD keep doing this kind of business. It's gross. People need to stop giving their business to this company, but they won't.

50,000 packages a day? That just doesn't sound possible does it?

Indeed. Gross and very sad.

:(

No matter.. PSA continues to thrive..

Well, they are now the authenticator for ebay so that probably adds a lot.

Pokemon is having a huge moment right now. Graded Pokemon is the latest card hobby version of printing money.

Got to imagine that adds a ton of extra mail, between the raw stuff and the graded stuff.

Plus they get to turn right back around and ship it out a few days later.

Probably makes this from Fed Ex look tame.

Great pic...

That explains a lot about why such a high percentage of my Fed Ex shipments arrive damaged.... and why they won't insure valuable memorabilia.

+ 1

[emoji106]


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Every thread needs a card...

Classic! :D

Organized chaos.

50000 packages a day is a lot of packages.

I think the bigger question is.........How many packages do they ship out a day?

A couple high dollar Graded cards listed on eBay I sold, were bought by authenticators, Held my funds until authenticated--??

Just be glad they didn’t reject the pieces and refuse to return them on a technicality.

I wonder if they’re getting The number of “packages” Confused with the number of items to be graded - A lot of those packages surely contain 10 or 20 or 100 items.

...and a package goes through several facilities like that, to get where it's going. Whether it's FedEx, UPS or USPS. It's amazing it works as well as it does.

I worked in a UPS warehouse in the 90's. A much smaller facility then the one pictured there, but that looks about right.

50K packages per day to PSA? I don't know...that seems like a lot. I used to load and fill up 40 Foot trailers for UPS, and didn't touch anywhere near that many packages in a day. I don't think our entire crew in our section touched near that amount of packages, and we'd fill (or come close to filling) 6-8 trailers in a non-stop 5-6 hour shift of totally busting our asses from beginning to end. This is just packing trucks...not unboxing and cataloging on top of that.

50K "Cards" per day, seems a bit more reasonable to believe.

How many cards that meet the very low limits for the authenticator would you esimate sell each day on ebay?

This. I wish there was a separate receiving or mailing location for Sports cards vs Trading game cards. I cannot immagine the graders handle both types, so why not pre-sort by giving us a different mailing location?

I dont grade much, just rare or items I intend to keep. I only send modern to PSA that I intend to sell, I like SGC for my older authentication items like autos.

PSA just has monopolized the money making portion of cards and IMO invited wayyyy too many poeple into the hobby that don't collect and it drives our costs up.

-Charlie Rutherford

It is cards per day, not packages per day. It is easy to do the math using their monthly grading report.:)

Great card! Honus Wagner was among the very best when the game was played as it should be played.

Did you get it at a local card shop or did you need to search for one on Ebay?

:confused:

If only their parent company had acquired another reputable TPG company that they could offload some of the volume to. Maybe said reputable TPG company already has a vintage/pre war niche carved out in the hobby that could continue to thrive as the vintage/pre war arm for Collector.

Or maybe their parent company could acquire another reputable TPG company with a vintage/pre-war niche already carved out in the space, and simply kill it off then have AI write generic emails apologizing to their customer base for slow turnaround times.

My neighbor's uncle found it in the family bible with a blue sharpie note that said "Don't smoke kids! - Johannes Wagner"

I'm waiting on the note to be returned from the opinion sellers, I paid for the rush service so expect to have it back early/mid 2027

Is this a picture of a Fed Ex depot or inmates working at a maximum security Federal prison? Is there a difference?
I won't bore everyone with my latest Fed Ex disaster: a missing package sent by Fanatics, with a signature requirement, gone into orbit or the black market; it was, yes, you guessed, it stuffed with nice pre-war cards with a value of $7,500.

A Fed Ex investigator called me, and I simply said I never received the cards, nor signed for them, and he admitted that no signatures were evident.

My Fanatics rep has been helpful, but as he admitted, it is way above his pay grade; hence, it has been kicked upstairs to, get this, The Logistics Committee. I suppose that prompted the Fed Ex call.

I certainly am no lawyer, but if I was Fanatics, here is what I would do: pay me my 7.5k, collect on corporate insurance and let the insurer subrogate against Fed Ex. Everybody is whole except the perp, Ed Ex, who is left with a bag of dog poop as reward for their pathetic service.

Sorry for reneging on the boredom bit. It's just so many here have regaled Fed Ex horror stories.

Date/Time Activity/Location
11/02/2025 4:47 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
11/01/2025 5:00 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/31/2025 4:53 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/30/2025 4:09 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/29/2025 5:45 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/28/2025 4:18 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN

The good news is, it's "on the way".

Keep it up, there are A few more clouds out there to yell at.

Christ it been 35 years

In another thread here looking at grading numbers, it indicates there are 1.97 million cards graded by PSA last month.

Divide that by, say, 30 days, and that is a touch over 65,000 per day.

So this is what card collecting has become. Very sad indeed.

So your neighbour was kind enough to give it to you since he knew you liked Baseball cards?

It takes a lot of research for them to come up with informed opinions I guess....

;)

Not sure where the sadness comes in.

Most of those cards aren’t even sports. Once you pull out the Pokémon nonsense and then filter out other sports and modern, you’re talking about a very small slice of that volume that is vintage baseball.

I suppose if your view of PSA is that anything north of zero is sad, then I guess you’re going to be very sad. But grading doesn’t have to be quite so depressing, particularly given the propensity around here to crack stuff out of the holders once people buy them.

Wow - this is just crazy! 50,000 is just a larger amount than expected - they just opened up shop in Japan some years back; I think Canada too - still must be all going to CA first or something - all the reason to open up more offices to take packages. Vintage to FL when they finalize office? All Autos and non-cards/everything else to NJ - whatever they need to do - make some changes please PSA! Thanks for the post!

Also, costing too much for one graded card to send off – almost 10.00 on avg now if you do not get discounts from any of the carriers and that includes USPS. This hobby is making it all about $ - what is happening to true collecting.

There's 340,000+ PSA graded Pokemon cards on ebay. They're NOT getting 50,000 packages per day. I find it even hard to believe they're even getting 50,000 Pokemon CARDS per day.

I believe most of the packages contain just a single card to be authenticated for an eBay sale.

Yup, they've been scammers for 35 years

I’ve seen this trend coming. Would it be wise to start investing in Pokémon? (Is Pokémon where the money is/will be at in the future?)

I'd say you're too late unless you actually care about the nuances of the game. Otherwise you'll be just chasing fads and will lose in the long run. Most sets have some cards that shoot to $100 and then drop to $20 months after the set releases. Unopened is usually a winner long term though.
Or you could invest in the early series graded cards, including base series 1st edition. Just like Magic Alpha cards, those will lead the way long term.

FeDex roulette
 

Date/Time Activity/Location
11/02/2025 4:47 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
11/01/2025 5:00 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/31/2025 4:53 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/30/2025 4:09 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/29/2025 5:45 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN
10/28/2025 4:18 pm On the way
MEMPHIS, TN

There are a lot of gates at the Memphis airport and after dark all the planes look alike.