Has your PSA 10 Gem rate for modern bulk submissions changed dramatically this year?
 

Curious if anyone else is getting his butt kicked on modern bulk submission from 1990 to 2010 or so over the last 4-5-6 months. My gem rate used to be 50% or more on most orders. Some random orders would be 10-20%, but for most of those, I'd also get orders that were 70-80% or even more. This year, just about every one of my twenty or so 25-50 card bulk orders are averaging 5-10%. I even had a few that went 0% or had that one single gem.

I know that grading standards sort of wax and wane a little bit over time--I've been doing this since the 1990s--but what the serious heck is going on here?

Am I alone in this? Or are others that deal in modern (not ultra modern) seeing the same thing?

YES. Initially it was noticeably lower for orders sent to NJ for grading, to the point that I could tell from the grades which facility it would be shipping from. But now it's brutal from CA as well. And not just less 10s, but 8s and lower as well. Someone on IG said they heard PSA was testing out computerized grading in NJ which may account for the harsher grades. If that's the case I wonder if it's now been rolled out to CA as well.

[QUOTE=hammertime;19864074]YES. Initially it was noticeably lower for orders sent to NJ for grading, to the point that I could tell from the grades which facility it would be shipping from. But now it's brutal from CA as well. And not just less 10s, but 8s and lower as well. Someone on IG said they heard PSA was testing out computerized grading in NJ which may account for the harsher grades. If that's the case I wonder if it's now been rolled out to CA as well.[/QUOTE]

Wow, that doesn't sound good. It hasn't just been noticeable for me, it's totally night and day. I don't exaggerate my % rates. I used to say I was solid 50%, but I tamed that down in my OP to say 30-50%. Literally now it's 5% on like almost 1,000 cards already this year. Brutal. Just not worth it. Not remotely.

It has indeed. I was always in the 75-90% Gem range but I have been below 50% in every order this year. In related news…my PSA rate has exploded. I’ve had more through 3 submissions in 2025 than the previous 10 years combined. Throw in my first 2 PSA 6’s ever and a lack of bulk specials offered, it makes me not want to play any more.

I dont do a ton of 90s stuff but that stuff has been getting progressively tougher for me as well. 10-20% gems if lucky. The new stuff is what gets me, I used to be 70-80%, now its maybe 50-60 with the occasional 20%.

At the mercy of graders also...A couple years ago I bought (100) 2004 in the Game Ovechkin pre rookie cards knowing he was gonna break the record soon for about $1.50 each...PSA 10s are selling around $100-$150....I picked out the best 30 and sent two batches of 15 of them in to PSA..First batch I received 13 !0s and 2 9s...The second batch of 15 which I got back last week was all 15 PSA 9s....that is all you need to know...the first grader actually graded them and the second guy just slapped all 9's.....There is no way that one batch was any better or worse than the other.

This for me as well and why I am keeping more of my 10’s and selling my non-10’s, especially of hard to grade cards. Their change to a 55/45 standard killed lots of cards that were actually submitted under the 60/40 standard.

I am done with submitting cards to PSA and my last submission was 2 years. New graders and new standards, no thank you, PSA. If I want a PSA 10, I just buy it graded.

[QUOTE=hammertime;19864074]YES. Initially it was noticeably lower for orders sent to NJ for grading, to the point that I could tell from the grades which facility it would be shipping from. But now it's brutal from CA as well. And not just less 10s, but 8s and lower as well. Someone on IG said they heard PSA was testing out computerized grading in NJ which may account for the harsher grades. If that's the case I wonder if it's now been rolled out to CA as well.[/QUOTE]

The computerized grading is my assumption on how things were progressing. It is the only way for PSA to keep up and moving forward with 1.3 million cards per month. We all know a large chunk of that is ultra modern and pokemon. Cards that they can blast through the process the fastest and make the most return.

Forcing all cards to be put into card savers is a requirement for cards to be moved through the machine process. They probably have robots picking up and moving card along an assembly line. The new centering rule can be adhered to since that is easier to calculate with modern cards.

For everybody who is screaming for AI grading, it is possible that this is a taste of what that would look like. Super enhanced computer imaging will pick up and knock cards down for very small blemishes which weren't really calculated in before.

This is all speculation of course, PSA isn't likely to come out and state changing standards, procedures, etc.

Although not exactly in line with the original question, I can definitely weigh in with my recent returns.

I grade mostly 1970's vintage cards, and have been doing so in bulk for the past 6 years. I have a very strict and thorough process where I pre-grade, sleeve, and place the cards into Cardsavers noting a 2 grade spread with a sticky label (so 7~8 or 8~9 etc.). When I begin to put together a submission I then pull each card and look it over again for anything I may have missed the first time, which does happen. Once I have the submission all picked out I will wait a few days and then give every card a third look as I input everything into the PSA system, just to be sure of my grading. Over the course of many 150 card bulk submissions, my grading has been pretty much spot on for every order. I will normally miss no more than 1~2 cards out of 150.

Having said that, on my last two submissions from October 2024 and December 2024, I missed 150 out of 150, with every single card grading 1~2 grades below expected. I even had one card which I had graded 6~7 come back PSA 2 MC!

I put it down to either new graders grading 1970`s vintage cards like 2025 chrome cards, or some kind of computerised/a.i. grading. It is obvious that they are using completely different standards than they have previously. (Just as an aside, I emailed PSA customer service about this, and received an extremely condescending email basically insinuating I have no idea what I am doing, and I am free top resubmit and pay again if I think PSA is incorrect......)

I have put a complete stop to any type of submissions right now, especially without any type of discounted monthly special. What I am considering is a small, 10 card submission at a higher service level just to see if that makes any difference or not.

As someone else mentioned above, this may have a dramatic impact on values of cards already graded. If PSA 10's on modern (or PSA9's on vintage) are going to be next to impossible to receive going forward, then existing cards could see a large jump in value.

Those have been my observations.

I attribute it more to the size of their grading staff, and the constant influx of new graders, than ai grading.

There's too much variance between orders for it to be due to technology (which should increase consistency). I've had more multi-grade bumps in the last few years than in the prior decade.

It might just be anecdotal with my personal submissions, but it seems like whenever PSA gets backed up - there's a much higher chance of a lower gem rate. Then when they need people to submit more, the grades tend to be more lenient. Not 100% of the time, just in general. I don't know why that would be - if they are backed up they give bad grades to temporarily discourage submitting, lazy grading due to a massive workload, new people who don't know what they're doing (we know QA is trash at PSA)? I have no idea why but it seems to go this way. I think one thing we can agree on is PSA is completely incompetent.

I don't mind waiting a little extra longer while they work through this backlog, but if PSA's new tougher mystery standards are permanent, then I will be cutting back on submitting since it won't be worth it.

Yep. I stopped grading with PSA about 3 months ago. There's no ROI anymore... and they aggressively do upcharges as if there is.

65% 2024 down to 62% in 2025 but low sample size. PSA still has many cards hostage

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but my gem % has been noticeably lower in the last year. My membership was set to auto renew at the end of the month, but I'll hold off until they run a bulk modern sport special, as that is 99% of what I submit.

I am 90% TCG now, but throw in a few sports here and there. Who are you guys grading with having made the change? I am not concerned about the play set issue with CGC, since they handled it. I like the fact their slabs are much better and their Pristine slabs sell for more than PSA 10’s if you can get them. At shows, they are viewed negatively, but on eBay they sell very strong.

[QUOTE=The_Reverend;19864917]I am 90% TCG now, but throw in a few sports here and there. Who are you guys grading with having made the change? I am not concerned about the play set issue with CGC, since they handled it. I like the fact their slabs are much better and their Pristine slabs sell for more than PSA 10’s if you can get them. At shows, they are viewed negatively, but on eBay they sell very strong.[/QUOTE]

In that big show observation thread, someone mentioned that CGC TCG sells well at shows

I got a membership for no other reason than to take advantage of specials. Now there are no specials...

I'll be switching to KSA. Incredible CS (with my limited experience), much less expensive, much quicker turnaround times, more consistent grading, and just recently they switched their slabs to (IMO) the best innocent industry. And they've been around since 1996.

The only thing PSA has going for it, besides the registry which I personally don't care about, is resell value. However with all of the bad press recently, I can see that changing like it did with the old industry leader, BGS.

Just had a 21 card vintage order pop and it was crazy 8 city. The thing is, I sent similar cards in from 1st edition team Rocket before and got 21 10’s of 35 cards. Same quality sent. No way I all of a sudden stopped knowing how to look at cards. I have one more vintage order popping next week. I am done sending vintage to PSA. I WILL see how the 2 modern orders fair. I am holding off sending anything to them now.

[QUOTE=anusinha;19864927]In that big show observation thread, someone mentioned that CGC TCG sells well at shows[/QUOTE]

I did not see that. After the order that just popped with my vintage, posted above, I am done for a while with PSA.

I had a CGC modern soccer order pop tonight.

30 cards only 1 got an 8.5, a lot were 9.5 or 10 and took less than 3 weeks for $13/pop. Very happy with results and grades were as expected.


CGC has taken over the TCG market and if PSA wants to keep messing around with their grading standards they will continue to lose business.

The only reason anybody sends cards to PSA is for their insane resell value, but that doesn’t matter one bit if your order gets slapped with a bunch of PSA 8’s which seems to be happening a lot recently.

I just purchased a lot of about 300 Pokemon cards that had a bunch of cards that I am going to send in for grading. I was going to send the bigger value cards to PSA and the mid tier cards to CGC, but now thinking that maybe CGC is the better play. I may still take a handful to Gamestop and see how that turns out. My recent GS submission went very well, 5 week turnaround and 11/14 came back as PSA 10. So may still test those waters, but still thank that CGC may be the best play based on what is going on with PSA right now.

I've never stuck to this, but the safest way to approach grading is to only target cards where the potential margin is worth 2 trips. If you're experienced, then that process should win out pretty well in the long run. For lower margin stuff, you probably need a contract/price break.

[QUOTE=waytoomanycards;19865457]I've never stuck to this, but the safest way to approach grading is to only target cards where the potential margin is worth 2 trips. If you're experienced, then that process should win out pretty well in the long run. For lower margin stuff, you probably need a contract/price break.[/QUOTE]

If you can find raw cards that will break even at 8 and profit nicely at 9, then youve found a true winner. That way even if you get all 9s youve come out way ahead.

I usually get 30-50 % gem but once did only get one 10 out of about 15 cards. That was a rough sub.

[QUOTE=mc1;19865493]If you can find raw cards that will break even at 8 and profit nicely at 9, then youve found a true winner. That way even if you get all 9s youve come out way ahead.

I usually get 30-50 % gem but once did only get one 10 out of about 15 cards. That was a rough sub.[/QUOTE]

All the 8’s are first edition team Rocket of popular characters and should break even on those. The 9’s should profit as a couple are 1st edition Alakazam, but it is obvious there is something going on with PSA and giving them more money to grade a card again is ludicrous. We shall see what happens with the next order.