Quote:
Originally Posted by imbluestreak23
Of course the other options don't provide the value, you won't find another person on this board who has championed that thought more than I. But PSA's value proposition in today's landscape is indeed at an all time low.
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In regards to the bold above, like everything, that depends. Sometimes that's not true at all.
I'm a collector for the most part, but since most people are talking about selling/flipping and focusing on PSA 10s, you have to also factor in that PSA's 3-4 month actual turnaround can make other grading companies a far better "value" for flippers or frequent sellers, especially for cheaper modern cards.
Napkin math, but if a raw $10 modern baseball card in a PSA 10 sells for $100, and the same card in an SGC 10 sells for $85, then most will think the PSA offers "more value". However, look at it this way, the PSA 10 actually doesn't offer more value since the flipper can sell the same SGC 10 3-4 times before you even get the single lone PSA 10 back from PSA.
Ignoring shipping costs to/from (and PSA’s return shipping is more expensive too):
PSA 10: $10 Raw + $22 grading - $100 Value - $32 costs = $68 value.
SGC 10: $10 Raw + $15 grading - $85 Value - $25 costs = $60 value.
Yes, the PSA 10 has +$8 in value above, but the PSA card takes 3-4 months to get back. In that same time, the SGC seller has sold that card and submitted another two or even three more times and gotten it back from SGC before PSA has even returned your original sub in the same time frame. (And that assumes PSA doesn't give you an inexplicable grade due to their ridiculous inconsistency, much more than the other companies, largely due to PSA's huge volume). So take the SGC 10
net value, and multiply it by 3 or 4 because you can flip it again and again, and have sold it three times before PSA even emails you that "estimates are just estimates" etc., because you reached out to customer service after 4 months.
And that's the best case scenario when you hit 10s on each submission.
The lack of a PSA 9.5 grade also means that you have one chance to make money, where PSA 9s often sell for
less than raw, and with SGC you still have an SGC 9.5 chance, which can hedge your risk a bit too, all with a cheaper grading fee. And even though PSA technically has an 8.5 grade, they almost never issue it. Making the step down from a PSA 9, an 8 in the vast majority of scenarios. Even more reason to gets screwed on a submission.
When PSA (far more than any other grading company) gives you inexplicable grades like 6s and 8s, you're toast, and you paid a higher grading fee and 3-4x longer turnaround time to even find out you're toast.
Cheap modern cards are the vast majority of most bulk flipper submissions, so "value" is completely relative, and varies based on quite a few things. PSA also announcing increased turnaround times along with a price increase,
and not fixing the huge issue of taking a full month in most cases to even enter your card into the system (and only
then the clock starts) makes other grading companies even more of a value over PSA, not less in this type of scenario.