PSA News - Prices going up and new locations through the world

[parkplace33]

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...rnaround-times

Grading giant PSA is increasing submission prices and turnaround times for select service levels due to high demand, the company announced Wednesday.

Effective Thursday, PSA will increase turnaround times for standard trading card services, including Value Plus from 20 to 25 business days, Value Max from 15 to 20 days, Regular from 10 to 15 business days and Express from five to 10 business days.

Prices will also increase for Value Bulk from $19.99 per item to $21.99, Value from $24.99 to $27.99 and Value Plus from $39.99 to $44.99.

“We’re seeing continued high demand for our authentication and grading services in 2025, and we’re grateful for your continued trust and patience,” the company wrote on the PSA website. “Submission volumes are at unprecedented levels, and we have made the difficult decision to increase estimated turnaround times and pricing for select service levels effective for orders placed on or after Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.

“We are actively working to improve estimated turnaround times, keep you informed, and set clear expectations.”

PSA is also increasing pricing and turnaround times for Dual Service as well as turnaround times for comics and magazines, which PSA added as a new grading category earlier this year.

Dual Service turnaround time changes:

Value Plus: 30 business days to 35 business days
Value Max: 25 business days to 30 business days
Regular: 20 business days to 25 business days
Express: 15 business days to 20 business days
Dual Service pricing changes:

Value Bulk: $25.99 to $27.99 per item
Value: $34.99 to $37.99 per item
Value Plus: $54.99 to $59.99 per item
Comics and Magazine turnaround changes:

Modern: 20 business days to 35 business days
Modern Plus: 12 business days to 15 busin​​ess days
Vintage: 30 business days to 45 business days
Vintage Plus: 15 business days to 20 business days
“We’re expanding our team and onboarding new graders to process more submissions while maintaining our trusted grading standards,” the company wrote on its website.

The most recent increase to pricing and turnaround times follows a bump for popular service levels in April due to high demand to begin 2025. PSA would eventually reduce turnaround times for Value submissions in July as it continues to expand its operating capacity.

Wednesday’s news closely follows PSA’s announcement of a full-scale grading facility it plans to open in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2026. A full-scale grading operation will also open in the greater Toronto area in October.

Earlier this year, PSA announced updates for two domestic facilities, with a dedicated ticket grading operation in Plano, Texas, and an expanded grading facility in Boca Raton, Florida, planned to open by 2026.

PSA began accepting submissions for comic and magazine grading in July, but was immediately forced to increase turnaround times for magazines when tariffs delayed the delivery of magazine holders.

Third-party grading tracker GemRate reported earlier this year that PSA had graded 8.89 million cards through the first six months of 2025. PSA graded more than 15.3 million items in 2024, according to GemRate’s database.

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...ity-in-germany

PSA will open its first full-scale authentication and grading operation in continental Europe next year with a new facility in Frankfurt, Germany.

Expected to open in summer 2026, the facility will grade trading cards onsite and facilitate shipping of other categories for grading in the United States.

The Frankfurt facility joins a number of international operations for PSA, including the full-scale facility in Tokyo and additional offices in Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

PSA’s Tokyo facility, which first opened in 2018, expanded into a full-scale operation in 2023. That operation moved into a space 250% larger in March and, according to Ryan Miller, head of international for PSA, is expected to reach 200 employees and 500% throughput (compared to its starting point) by the end of the year.

The success of PSA’s Tokyo operation served as a successful test for a potential European expansion, with PSA aiming to eliminate friction for its international collectors.

“One of the key things in our mission statement is to make collecting safe, easy and fun. And if you think about that, does that only apply to customers in the U.S., or do we mean customers around the world?” Miller told cllct. “If you take an honest assessment of that, and you look at the experience for collectors in different parts of the world, can you honestly say it’s safe, easy and fun? I think the answer is not yet.”

PSA Europe is expected to open with a workforce of more than 100, including a number of graders who will transition from the United States to help launch the Frankfurt facility.

According to Miller, Frankfurt offered a variety of appealing attributes for PSA’s international expansion. A central location that can serve all of Europe, not just Germany, was critical. PSA has also viewed Germany as a growing region for the hobby, with the authentication company closely monitoring where submissions are coming from, where card shops are opening and where card shows and events are being hosted.

“It’s really well-connected, has great logistics as well,” Miller said. “Then we see different types of partners that continue to locate around the Frankfurt market — there’s some really popular TCG shops in the area. We started with all cities as a possibility, and then as we went through the review and looked at real estate, we ended up in the greater Frankfurt area.”

News of PSA’s expansion into Europe closely follows the company announcing its new PSA Canada facility, which will open in the greater Toronto area Oct. 20.

PSA also announced expansions for two domestic locations in May, with plans to open a dedicated ticket grading facility in Plano, Texas, and an expanded grading facility in Boca Raton, Florida, by 2026.

PSA’s Boca Raton facility is expected to operate out of the same complex as SGC, the former rival grading service that was acquired by PSA parent company Collectors in February 2024.

According to GemRate, PSA graded 8.89 million cards through the first six months of 2025, including more than 5.1 million TCG and non-sports cards. GemRate tracked more than 15.3 million graded items by PSA in 2024.

[Knightlax5]

From my understanding, the Bulk TCG rate did NOT increase. If this is true this is the most frustrating part. This is them saying the “Sports” part of Professional Sports Authenticator doesn’t matter nearly as much as the charlizards, peakaboos, and squirters. When this Pokemon bubble bursts, i hope PSA comes crawling back to sports collectors but i know better.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I can't wait for the new slabubu for Labubii.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

From my understanding, the Bulk TCG rate did NOT increase. If this is true this is the most frustrating part. This is them saying the “Sports” part of Professional Sports Authenticator doesn’t matter nearly as much as the charlizards, peakaboos, and squirters. When this Pokemon bubble bursts, i hope PSA comes crawling back to sports collectors but i know better.

]

Squirters?

[Lorewalker]

Awesome! Even less for more!

Makes the SGC buyout that much more impactful. Once, or if, for you sensitive folks, they do away with SGC I might have to look to CGC or MBA.

[Knightlax5]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

]

Squirters?

I was making fun of Pokemon characters. One of them is a “Squirtle”

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

I was making fun of Pokemon characters. One of them is a “Squirtle”

Ha I thought those were all real!

[gregndodgers]

I’m sure glad I don’t depend on PSA for my livelihood!

[raulus]

I’ll second the notion that it would be nice for PSA to not be so focused on Pokémon.

But I can’t really blame them for going where the market is. There’s only so much work with grading baseball cards, and even less work with grading vintage.

But I would certainly cheer for lower prices and better turnaround. I have a 1987 Topps set where the commons only makes sense to grade when prices are $10 per card, at the very most. And in the meantime, I just keep collecting them raw and trying to sift through those that will hopefully grade a 10.

I’m sure that many of us have cards that would be nice to grade, but don’t make sense with current prices. So maybe that pushes more of us to migrate back to raw cards. And many around here will definitely cheer that outcome.

[hammertime]

Originally Posted by Knightlax5

When this Pokemon bubble bursts

I worked at Target in high school when Pokemon cards first came out (in the US). I've been wondering "how long will this fad last" for almost 30 years now...and counting...

[jjbond]

What type of 10/10 sale do you expect? Since they just raised prices and increased delivery time, I can’t anticipate them wanting tons of new volume….

[bmattioli]

Originally Posted by hammertime

I worked at Target in high school when Pokemon cards first came out (in the US). I've been wondering "how long will this fad last" for almost 30 years now...and counting...

My two top regrets is not buying more 86 Fleer Basketball for $8.00 a box

Not buying Pokemon when it came out in the early 90's

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

My two top regrets is not buying more 86 Fleer Basketball for $8.00 a box

Not buying Pokemon when it came out in the early 90's

My father was a candy distributor they were ten a box sold one.returned all the others.i was tsking the 86 topps ,,,who knew

[bmattioli]

Originally Posted by rjackson44

My father was a candy distributor they were ten a box sold one.returned all the others.i was tsking the 86 topps ,,,who knew

Ha.. I can remember buying all the 1986 Topps I could on the Base I was stationed at Torrejon AB Spain..