Bulk is Back

[Hellcat]

Pass at $22 declared value has to be minimum $299 value. I will be waiting which would sounds like the consensus.

[BRob1]

Originally Posted by warderjack769

I was surprised yesterday when my $18 National special popped and shipped. I don't get it, I have a $30 value pre-special order in still at QA2. These guys can't do FIFO to save their lives.

interesting. I have one in QA2 maybe it will pop soon. also have a $30 in qa2, guess it’s a race.


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[eb12057]

I'm holding out at $22. It is not worth it to me for what I want slabbed for the PC currently. I also have 4 orders outstanding still so I guess I'll just wait for them to come back for now. I'm still not sure why my one $30 order has just been sitting in QA2 for so long. The list disappeared last Tuesday. Usually it is pretty quick after the list disappears.

[The_Reverend]

Originally Posted by eb12057

I'm holding out at $22. It is not worth it to me for what I want slabbed for the PC currently. I also have 4 orders outstanding still so I guess I'll just wait for them to come back for now. I'm still not sure why my one $30 order has just been sitting in QA2 for so long. The list disappeared last Tuesday. Usually it is pretty quick after the list disappears.

Because the PSA system is a mess and everyone knows it. They do not have a FIFO system and because of that they really cannot guarantee anything, especially that submissions will not jump the line.

[NatsSBR]

Originally Posted by tyrith

If that's true, they're hosed, because cards that are actually worth grading are maybe one per box at most, even before you filter for whether or not they have gradable centering. There were a LOT of junk UM slabs created - Hidden Fates baby shinies, base Charizard GXes, Champion's Path promo Charizards, random Full Arts.

The TCG volume was more than just Pokemon. They ran a Magic bulk special that took in quite a few cards at $9 each. That was an excellent value proposition with BGS in shambles, so I submitted 20 and was generally happy with the results (despite waiting a year and receiving a few tough grades, as expected from PSA's TCG graders). All my stuff was clearly worth grading, but a lot of people sent the expected $0.05 cards hunting gems and flooded the zone. Joke's on me, those nickel 9s were going for $20 as recently as a few months ago...

I got a survey a few months ago asking me what Magic cards would be important for registries that clearly showed they don't understand that market, but they are going to be trying to take some share from BGS.

[aggie4ever]

Not surprised that PSA is lowering their prices incrementally, although I really thought value would come back at $20, but sub-divided like it used to be with ultra-modern and TGC slightly more at $22-25.

But after thinking about it, it seems smart to start at $22, to see what the demand is at. More importantly, I think it will make it more likely we see quarterly specials come back next month. If they had value at $20, then the quarterly special would have to be something like $15-16 to be worth it. With value at $22, I expect some type of quarterly special at $18 like The National special.

[kyaa]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

They don't want another year plus turnaround time. At $12 a card, people will be cracking SGC/CSG and any slab they can get their hands on to submit to PSA. They have no financial advantage on offering $12 right now. They know people like you waiting for $12 grading, will wait another 6 months and not use another company. PSA is going to milk this to their advantage as long as possible. Financially, this makes sense for PSA. Adding $22 grading to their backlog is a win for them.

I don't doubt this makes short-term financial sense for PSA. But I think it's a bit of a d*%& move and I'd prefer it if they didn't try to milk their customers for every last possible dollar. I'm also skeptical that there is significant demand for a category of cards that people weren't willing to submit at the $30 or during the $18 special, that are now going to be submitted at $22--and could they really not come down to $18, where that special was priced?

I understand that if they opened up a $12 level right now, there would be a large influx and turnaround times would suffer initially, but it wouldn't take too long before things got much closer to pre-pandemic normal. The once-in-a-lifetime confluence of events that caused the massive backlog is mostly over. PSA needs to make it profitable for people to grade cards that sell for $40 to $60 as PSA 10s again or they will never have the demand to keep up with their capacity.

[KhalDrogo]

People acquire new cards. I have a couple dozen new PC cards I’ve purchased the last two months since I subbed at $18. I don’t like small batches because the overnight shipping is too much. So I’ll just wait until I have a few hundred and a reasonable ~$15-20 level comes along.

The people who subbed in AC probably have another 3 month wait before they get their cards back. It took them over a month to get all those logged. Now they need more volume for the check in people to have something to do.

[DetroitTN]

Originally Posted by kyaa

I don't doubt this makes short-term financial sense for PSA. But I think it's a bit of a d*%& move and I'd prefer it if they didn't try to milk their customers for every last possible dollar. I'm also skeptical that there is significant demand for a category of cards that people weren't willing to submit at the $30 or during the $18 special, that are now going to be submitted at $22--and could they really not come down to $18, where that special was priced?

I understand that if they opened up a $12 level right now, there would be a large influx and turnaround times would suffer initially, but it wouldn't take too long before things got much closer to pre-pandemic normal. The once-in-a-lifetime confluence of events that caused the massive backlog is mostly over. PSA needs to make it profitable for people to grade cards that sell for $40 to $60 as PSA 10s again or they will never have the demand to keep up with their capacity.

I'm not particularly waiting for PSA to drop their prices. I'll grade with pretty much anyone who is the first to be $5 or $6 per card. Most of what I have isn't valuable to anyone else, but I would like some graded copies of new versions of cards I grew up with. Several cards would be mint 10 copies of something I can recall being ecstatic over as a 7 year old (but I didn't know how to take proper care of cards at that age)

[bloodwings19]

$22, it depends on outcome of my grades. The last time I graded with PSA was in 2021 (all 10s- I'm picky). I sent my best cards for the July National prices, if they graded fairly (most should be 10s) then I would do $22. If outcome is lower than expected, I likely wait for in the low teens to submit again. I have heard horror stories of recent grading.

[KPOD]

This makes no sense, anyone who is going to send at $22 already sent for cheaper at $18....

[collecting001]

Word around the camp fire is they plan to eventually get down to $15 per card. If we don't bite on $22 per it will force them to drop their price faster.

[prospectorgems]

Originally Posted by KPOD

This makes no sense, anyone who is going to send at $22 already sent for cheaper at $18....

Not everyone. Sent in nearly 600 cards at the $18 rate and will have another 400ish cards now at the $22 level. I was hoping for at least $20, but $22 isn't so bad. Much better than at $30 per. I am sure there are many others that have stashed cards away waiting for another cheaper submission price to pop up.

[KPOD]

Originally Posted by prospectorgems

Not everyone. Sent in nearly 600 cards at the $18 rate and will have another 400ish cards now at the $22 level. I was hoping for at least $20, but $22 isn't so bad. Much better than at $30 per. I am sure there are many others that have stashed cards away waiting for another cheaper submission price to pop up.

Even though this is a new permanent price, and not a special, you're going to bite quick instead of waiting to see what their next true special is? This price will always be available pending PSA shuts down again, so why bite on anything for bulk that isn't a sale or special?

[prospectorgems]

Originally Posted by KPOD

Even though this is a new permanent price, and not a special, you're going to bite quick instead of waiting to see what their next true special is? This price will always be available pending PSA shuts down again, so why bite on anything for bulk that isn't a sale or special?

Why continue to wait? I was holding out for something cheaper than $30 per. If I am sending in 200 cards at $22 per that allows me to save an additional $1600 if I send in at $22 vs $30. I was holding out for at least $20 per, but adding on an additional $2 per card submitted is not going to hurt the bottom line for resale value. It could be many months yet before we see another decrease in submission prices, may as well send in what is available now and have a constant stream of graded cards coming back.

[epatmythes]

Originally Posted by prospectorgems

Why continue to wait? I was holding out for something cheaper than $30 per. If I am sending in 200 cards at $22 per that allows me to save an additional $1600 if I send in at $22 vs $30. I was holding out for at least $20 per, but adding on an additional $2 per card submitted is not going to hurt the bottom line for resale value. It could be many months yet before we see another decrease in submission prices, may as well send in what is available now and have a constant stream of graded cards coming back.

200 * $2 = $0.00

Genius

[TSonn]

Pass. Too long of a turnaround time, too low DV, too much money for the previous 2.

Very little incentive to send at $22 when you can send 2.5x higher value cards and get them back much sooner for just $8 more.

[JeremyNick]

Originally Posted by TSonn

Pass. Too long of a turnaround time, too low DV, too much money for the previous 2.

Very little incentive to send at $22 when you can send 2.5x higher value cards and get them back much sooner for just $8 more.

My exact thoughts.

Saw the email and it was an immediate “nope” from me.

If you are going to do bulk, it needs to be considerably better pricing than what you have currently available.

$22 per with a $199 DV is a no go.

[KPOD]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

My exact thoughts.

Saw the email and it was an immediate “nope” from me.

If you are going to do bulk, it needs to be considerably better pricing than what you have currently available.

$22 per with a $199 DV is a no go.

I think Economy was even better than this in January of 2021. Wasn't that $20 with a $499 DV?

[TSonn]

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

My exact thoughts.

Saw the email and it was an immediate “nope” from me.

If you are going to do bulk, it needs to be considerably better pricing than what you have currently available.

$22 per with a $199 DV is a no go.

At these inflated grading prices, it really only makes sense to send at the top of the DV - and a $199 card can easily become a $499 card if it comes back a PSA 10 and then you just wasted 2-3 months and saved 0 dollars with an upcharge. And, in my experience with PSA since they've opened up lower tiers again, they are quick to upcharge now.

[MyckKabongo]

Originally Posted by epatmythes

200 * $2 = $0.00

Genius

Time is money. More than $400 worth in many cases.

Inventory turns are how Walmart turns an annual 10% profit when it's only making 1% profit on the average sale.

[Marshall524]

These lower prices will get more of my attention when the DVs increase.

[imbluestreak23]

Yeah as I think about it more and more, I may send in ~half of what I expected.

Interestingly, might make a quick vid on this but I'm logging some purchases and just running some numbers/projections. For all of my cards in the queue, assuming I graded everything at $22/card, very conservative projections predict a 28.22% ROI. Not great, but heh, positive. Move that down to $18/card and that moves the ROI to 33.52%. Move prices down to $15 per and ROI moves to 37.80%, again, all semi conservative estimates. But the small difference in price from $22 to $18 in this random N of 1 order has a ROI implication of 15.8% meaning I am earning 15.8% less margin (and thus that's going into PSAs pockets) despite this $4 gap. 15.8% reduced margin is pretty big when margins have shrunk so considerably. So, I do hope that this doesn't trigger a flood of submissions.

And I'll be pressing the value limit slightly as PSA hasn't done me any favors as it relates to upcharges. Some I should have contested but didn't, so I'll squeeze in a $300 card here or there. The way they grade it's no guarantee it's a 10 anyway.

[Perfect JF]

My god people are always crying .....

22$ is a good number FOR NOW because they don't want #@#@#@#@ to happen like last year with MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of cards. They know that if their price is too low .... same #@#@#@#@ is going to happen because PSA is the best company to send card to grade.

[CaptSpaulding]

Nice to see that bulk is back but this is not enticing to me at all.