PSA Price Increase

[88horsepower]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

Agree. This was my concern during the covid shutdown when prices already were up to something like $15. Then the lottery prices were $30. Set builders and player collectors that the registry were largely based on remain left out.

I don't see why they couldn't rotate out limited specials on that stuff, say, 1970, 1980, and 1990 sets for two weeks, then 1971, 1981, and 1991... It wouldn't materially contribute to backlog while throwing a bone to set collectors.

Or just maybe it's now such a small part of the business model that they just don't care.

I emailed Cosetta at PSA, after considering emailing Nat Turner with some of my concerns. Nat exchanged his email address with me a couple of years ago when he and I were discussing a potential deal for my 1997 PMG collection. Cosetta had encouraged me to message him since he was very open to feedback. It’s been nearly a month since I sent an email to Nat Turner and have not heard back.

I have emails from 2024 that went unanswered by multiple people at PSA, including CEO Ryan Hoge. The impression I get is that PSA simply does not care. It’s contributed to my decision to leave PSA. Frankly, I just don’t think they care about anything outside of making money.

[TheOneRingKing]

Originally Posted by 88horsepower

I emailed Cosetta at PSA, after considering emailing Nat Turner with some of my concerns. Nat exchanged his email address with me a couple of years ago when he and I were discussing a potential deal for my 1997 PMG collection. Cosetta had encouraged me to message him since he was very open to feedback. It’s been nearly a month since I sent an email to Nat Turner and have not heard back.

I have emails from 2024 that went unanswered by multiple people at PSA, including CEO Ryan Hoge. The impression I get is that PSA simply does not care. It’s contributed to my decision to leave PSA. Frankly, I just don’t think they care about anything outside of making money.

Nat Turner is a liar, scammer and was just saying good #@#@#@#@ to keep the base in line. Now they just don't give a damn, the mask has come off.

[MFaulkCollector]

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

[Scottish Punk]

PSA doesn't care about drumming up sales for collectors or doing specials because they are still pulling in 1.6 million cards a month. There isn't any point thinking they will do any of this until that number drops under 1-1.2 million. Until then, they will keep expanding capacity and prices until the market peaks. Right now, collectors are telling PSA that $22 slabs are too cheap and we have millions of cards to get graded.

Vote with your wallet. Just don't buy PSA slabs or send them cards.

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

Bingo

Whole post summed up in bolded

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

TLDR...

[jkampis]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

TLDR...

Indeed, and while he makes some valid points in the drivel, one of his overarching themes relates to tier pricing. That is a nonstarter for many since many believe the cost of grading shouldn’t be affected by the value of the card (other than increased insurance costs).

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by jkampis

Indeed, and while he makes some valid points in the drivel, one of his overarching themes relates to tier pricing. That is a nonstarter for many since many believe the cost of grading shouldn’t be affected by the value of the card (other than increased insurance costs).

Tiered pricing is a direct conflict to being objective and a total scam.

[88horsepower]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

Tiered pricing is a direct conflict to being objective and a total scam.

So is grading cards and up charging for cards that receive better grades.

[88horsepower]

Maybe next time, don't start out by minimizing the impact of the changes PSA has made. People have every right to vent about how they are impacted by the changes. You actually make some good points in your post, but they get overshadowed by the smug attitude you start the post with.

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Fair point in that rant.

[oddstuff]

Perhaps that is another level of "bulk" service that PSA should consider bringing back...unless it's not profitable for them to have a ton of low end cards taking up space in their warehouse. Maybe a sub 200 DV, 6 months turnaround, at $12-15...just spitballing numbers here but you get the idea. Not for the flippers...more for low end collectors/set builders.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by 88horsepower

So is grading cards and up charging for cards that receive better grades.

Nobody is being forced to buy cards with better grades. Buyers decide to pay the premium. Not sure what your point is.

[FT35]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

Nobody is being forced to buy cards with better grades. Buyers decide to pay the premium. Not sure what your point is.

I think the point was that it’s a conflict of interest if a grading company charges more for their service for cards that grade higher. Whatever the customer “chooses” to “accept” is irrelevant. The fact was that the card graded higher and the company wanted more $ because of it. You also didn’t get the full “premium” service value (which comes with a faster turnaround time)—meaning PSA can literally charge more for the service whenever they want—just by adjusting the assigned grade to make the math work.

Personally, when I was grading stuff, I’d rather have it that way than pay extra up front and have the card’s grade come up short of the value. As we all know, we don’t ever see this price adjustment go the other way, with PSA issuing refunds on all the cards that are worth less than the higher service level used because of the assigned grade.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by FT35

I think the point was that it’s a conflict of interest if a grading company charges more for their service for cards that grade higher. Whatever the customer “chooses” to “accept” is irrelevant. The fact was that the card graded higher and the company wanted more $ because of it. You also didn’t get the full “premium” service value (which comes with a faster turnaround time)—meaning PSA can literally charge more for the service whenever they want—just by adjusting the assigned grade to make the math work.

Personally, when I was grading stuff, I’d rather have it that way than pay extra up front and have the card’s grade come up short of the value. As we all know, we don’t ever see this price adjustment go the other way, with PSA issuing refunds on all the cards that are worth less than the higher service level used because of the assigned grade.

Gotcha I misinterpreted what Horsepower was saying. Yeah I agree with that as well.

[Dragonman]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

Congrats. The best and most accurate post in blowout history.

[SweetSlabsBro]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

Absolutely SPOT ON....The Old Men Yelling at the Clouds crowd always cracks me up here on Blowout about PSA.

[Dragonman]

That is the type of people that are hanging out and posting continuously on message boards....just looking for anything to whine, cry or complain about.

[LondonGames]

Originally Posted by 88horsepower

I emailed Cosetta at PSA, after considering emailing Nat Turner with some of my concerns. Nat exchanged his email address with me a couple of years ago when he and I were discussing a potential deal for my 1997 PMG collection. Cosetta had encouraged me to message him since he was very open to feedback. It’s been nearly a month since I sent an email to Nat Turner and have not heard back.

I have emails from 2024 that went unanswered by multiple people at PSA, including CEO Ryan Hoge. The impression I get is that PSA simply does not care. It’s contributed to my decision to leave PSA. Frankly, I just don’t think they care about anything outside of making money.

A business not caring about anything outside of making money?

Shocker.

[LondonGames]

Originally Posted by TheOneRingKing

Nat Turner is a liar, scammer and was just saying good #@#@#@#@ to keep the base in line. Now they just don't give a damn, the mask has come off.

Or a total buffoon. I find him hard to take serious as a person.

From his rant on here about PSA holding his cards hostage for up charges... and how unethical he saw it... only to double down and make up excuses for why it's okay for him to keep in place... to his firm stance on cracking slabs to resubmit being a dishonest practice, all because he has zero integrity to stand behind the ability to accurately grade cards in the first place...

Guy is a total joke. Not joking I have him #1 in the hobby of people who's opinion I respect the least. Ever.

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

People on here are absolutely ridiculous; literally sour grapes here, piss and moan there, whatever it may be because "THEIR" needs aren't being met...... meanwhile missing the entire forest and ways to actually succeed because they are focused on some tiny 8 ft tree they remember seeing years ago.

In 2014 when I started grading, it was 20 dollars for an item with a 499 declared value....... they raised prices recently to finally get that number to 22............ so in a span of 10 years with gross inflation around us, prices up on everything..... you could send in a 150,300, 400 dollar item to PSA for 15,16,18,17,20, now 22. That seems reasonable to me. Math is math.

Instead of whining and complaining about the lowest tier being 22 dollars and trying to compare it to "bulk" in the 00s or 10s...... how about you just accept that "bulk" has been dissolved and likely won't ever be offered by PSA ever again. There is no tier for 99 DV and under on sports... so to compare 22 dollars to 7,8,10 from a decade or 5 years ago is stupid. The name might still say bulk but clearly the old school "bulk" tier is gone..... get over it. The 75 dollar tier for 1499 dv is the exact same as 2014 too if I'm remembering right. So again, is there really some drastic price increases here? I'll answer for everyone, NO there hasn't been. They just got rid of the 99 and under tier and forced people to either sack up if they wanted to send in 10,20,30 dollar items or scale up a bit.

Tons of stories about sending in 100 card orders at 8-12 per pop..... that's 1000 dollars spent on grading plus whatever you spent on the cards....... probably another 1000-1500 or more.... so we are 2500 in probably on an order like that

News flash......... if you send in 20 cards at 20 per you are in at 400, and can spend an extra 5-7 times as much per item on average to be in at the same number........ looking at trending sales over the past few years post covid boom and what is happening with certain rare parallels and some rarer case hit inserts.......... choosing the cards to spend 40,80,200,400, 25 dollars for to fulfill a thoughtful 20 card order isn't really all that difficult; assuming you have some intellect and care enough to actually know what you are doing.

People want to complain about PSA grades and standards.......... human graders suck, AI is needed.......... well folks PSA has basically told you directly they are doing AI on pokemon, period. So, we want accuracy but now since accuracy is tougher than the naked eye we are unhappy? Yawn.... people complaining to complain again... same ole' same ole'

Sports card people, your gem rates are down........ we can safely assume the grading department is not 100 percent turnover in 3 years when they have hundreds of graders..... so guess what? They are using AI on some modern and lots of ultra modern sets. In the past 2-3 years PSA has NOT missed a touched corner on ANY item I've sent in.... but you know what they miss a lot? Wave dents on prizm style cards. I believe the AI has trouble with dents on the back of prizm, optic, select, and spectra.. especially if it's on part of the design or a light dent over an area larger than a pin point. This tells me they are most certainly using AI on modern and newer sports. Again, people wanting accuracy and PSA actually trying to deliver it; nah just complain.

People been on the registry bandwagon for years... that's why PSA is worth more than the rest...... LMFAO... PSA hasn't given a F about the registry in at least 5-6 years. That's evident with their lack of concern with adding new sets or offering anything for registry people. Some stat showed that last month like 0.6 percent of items were baseball pre 1989. PSA doesn't care about those cards and given the volume and fact that it's an actual business.... they shouldn't.

People also fail to realize that times change and businesses develop. Customer service used to matter in retail, it used to matter with most big business, it used to matter for PSA. Now it doesn't matter at retail in most cases, it doesn't matter for most big businesses, and it has zero effects on PSA's financials as far as YOY growth.... so why would a business spend money on something most other businesses have cut out and isn't affecting growth? Another news flash, they shouldn't. Again, people want PSA to cater to them because now a "collector" is in charge. Another big yawn, people need to get over it.

But wait, another company or an existing one is going to steal market share, BGS can get new ownership and get back on track, a chinese start up will come in and take over, TAG will start grading various other items .... HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

PSA navigated what was potentially a 10 million card backlog by shutting down, re-starting, scaling up, providing similar priced services on normal tiers and ultimately realized at this particular time the DV under 99 category wasn't needed. They started taking scans of items, they updated the website to show stages in the grading, they take photos for cert verification, they are using AI on pokemon, they opened a no tax vault, they offer whatever cleaning service they do for people who don't know what they are doing, they just opened up the cash offers on completed items to make some early sales easy on liquid items........... but yea, PSA and Nat have done nothing at all to further PSA or add anything of value....................... mmmmmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm

GET OVER THE FACT the 99 DV and under category is gone, and stop trying to compare that to the 500 DV category now, they are not the same and it's foolish to try to make them the same.

Create a nice 20-25 card order instead of a 125 card order and end up spending the same amount of money...... it's not that hard.

Maybe the gem rates are down and automation is coming heavy into sports...... but it's ok if you get 9's or 8's on rare/desirable items. A PSA 9 or 8 on a triple digit item is worth more than raw, especially if it's a few years old or even back to the 90s

The landscape has already changed, people either need to adapt and be more creative/intelligent......... or they will be or have already been passed by.

PSA slabs are home to billions of dollars worth of the highest scale items from multiple generations........and PSA has shown the willingness to add technology, add services, and adapt. They are too large to fail and people with money at the highest levels will MAKE 100 PERCENT SURE their investments and items stay desirable. If anyone thinks PSA will fail or something else will crop up overnight they need to rethink it.

I don't like a lot of what PSA does, I hate the outcome for some of my orders, but I love the hobby, I do enjoy grading, and I've adapted to submitting items that will be favorable to me. Complaining won't help though, it never does.

Spot on. 99 DV is dead, it was dead at $20 a card, it’s more dead now. Pivot and submit better cards for the same amount of money. I started doing that late last year and have seen stellar results. Also, pick a niche so you can focus deeper in it. If you’re submitting a little of this and a little of that you aren’t catching opportunities. Narrow the focus, find 20 to 25 cards, and thank me later.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by thenightman

Spot on. 99 DV is dead, it was dead at $20 a card, it’s more dead now. Pivot and submit better cards for the same amount of money. I started doing that late last year and have seen stellar results. Also, pick a niche so you can focus deeper in it. If you’re submitting a little of this and a little of that you aren’t catching opportunities. Narrow the focus, find 20 to 25 cards, and thank me later.

Accurate. I'm no longer looking too hard at cheaper stuff but will still grab it when I come across it. Those cards can just sit in CS1 holders until it's worth paying to slab the stuff. People who sat on stuff that once upon a time was easy to find in dime and quarter boxes (say, 2004 Topps Griffey and Pujols) were rewarded. Worst case, I send some to COMC in a few years.

The flip side is prices on lower end raw are coming down. I see it at card shows and online. Cheaper raw plus higher slab cost is a push. I'll presume that stuff will get subbed less these days so if someone does grade it, then there should be fewer competing copies. If the price increase does expedite the grading timeline, then most sellers will grudgingly be happy in the end. Kind of like COMC's big shipping bump; the extra $15 is not great but getting my cards back a month faster likely more than makes up for it when all is done. Time is money.

[salsdali]

speak to me like I'm a five year older (not far from the truth lol)

People are saying PSA wants to LIMIT submissions by raising submission prices.

Can someone explain to me how a company that only considers profit wants to reduce said profit by limiting submissions?

that would mean said company cares more about customer service (TAT) and less about profit.

make it make sense??

[FT35]

Originally Posted by salsdali

speak to me like I'm a five year older (not far from the truth lol)

People are saying PSA wants to LIMIT submissions by raising submission prices.

Can someone explain to me how a company that only considers profit wants to reduce said profit by limiting submissions?

that would mean said company cares more about customer service (TAT) and less about profit.

make it make sense??

They don’t want to invest in the added infrastructure needed to keep up with the demand.

IMO, they aren’t looking to limit “submissions” as much as they are people’s expectations on the service. I also think another reason for this shuffle is that they are pushing more individual members to use a group submission process like the one provided by GameStop. They can speak to fewer people that way.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by salsdali

speak to me like I'm a five year older (not far from the truth lol)

People are saying PSA wants to LIMIT submissions by raising submission prices.

Can someone explain to me how a company that only considers profit wants to reduce said profit by limiting submissions?

that would mean said company cares more about customer service (TAT) and less about profit.

make it make sense??

I don't think they want to limit submissions by raising the prices. They're just trying to squeeze a couple more dollars because it really adds up at the scale they're getting orders.

Things were worse during covid, they know people will wait over a year for their orders and that people will put up with a lot more then whats going on now.