PSA Price Increase

[88horsepower]

The price increase wouldn't be an issue for me if the quality of the service they provided increased along with it. Instead, we have a horribly anemic registry that has been all but abandoned, longer wait times, and more inconsistencies with grading.

I think it's more than fair to be bothered by the increase in price when the product quality is in decline.

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by FT35

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.

I am not a PSA fan by any means, but they have been investing in infrastructure a ton. The demand has just out paced it. New locations are popping up and from the interviews, they spent over 1.2 million on upgrading capacity and efficiency.

I do agree with your second point. I think PSA would love to have all of the ultra modern/TCG business at least go through Gamestop. Shipping to less locations, Gamestop can validate orders and handle customer issues.

I keep saying the same thing with pricing and demanding PSA changes. They are doing 1.5 million slabs a month. Three years ago, that would be unheard of. I don't know what the ceiling is, I was completely wrong thinking it would dip when the covid backlog cleared. 2 million PSA slabs in one month seems outrageous, but we may just end up getting there.

[raiderguy10]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

I am not a PSA fan by any means, but they have been investing in infrastructure a ton. The demand has just out paced it. New locations are popping up and from the interviews, they spent over 1.2 million on upgrading capacity and efficiency.

I do agree with your second point. I think PSA would love to have all of the ultra modern/TCG business at least go through Gamestop. Shipping to less locations, Gamestop can validate orders and handle customer issues.

I keep saying the same thing with pricing and demanding PSA changes. They are doing 1.5 million slabs a month. Three years ago, that would be unheard of. I don't know what the ceiling is, I was completely wrong thinking it would dip when the covid backlog cleared. 2 million PSA slabs in one month seems outrageous, but we may just end up getting there.

Just curious - but where do you guys pull information on like how many slabs a month they do? Do you have an DNA (autograph line of business) stats?

[waytoomanycards]

AFAIC, they mostly just need to improve TA times.

It's no mystery that newer releases offer some of the better returns in the modern market, but the longer the lag time, the less enthusiasm there is when slabs hit the market. For me, even paying $25 for a 4-6 week service would be preferable to a $19 12 week service. You can pay for a fast TA time, of course, but it's a pretty big jump in price that will exclude a high percentage of cards.

I'm guessing the new FL site will mostly grade pokemon (which is how NJ started), and that's why they didn't raise tcg. But if that stuff continues to flood the zone, then hopefully they'll bump it up as well.

[BlockShotStop]

Originally Posted by raiderguy10

Just curious - but where do you guys pull information on like how many slabs a month they do? Do you have an DNA (autograph line of business) stats?

They just visit www.gemrate.com. All the monthly data is free.

[raiderguy10]

Originally Posted by BlockShotStop

They just visit www.gemrate.com. All the monthly data is free.

Sweet thanks. I'm a DNA dealer so was hoping for stats on the DNA side

[raiderguy10]

Originally Posted by uminnesota

Will this help PSA and eBay saving a lot less?

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...e-own-platform

Wow - this is great news! I hadn't heard this, but I consign a lot with Rick and have no doubt I'll be netting more in the future vs. what I do today!

[FT35]

Originally Posted by Scottish Punk

I am not a PSA fan by any means, but they have been investing in infrastructure a ton. The demand has just out paced it. New locations are popping up and from the interviews, they spent over 1.2 million on upgrading capacity and efficiency.

I do agree with your second point. I think PSA would love to have all of the ultra modern/TCG business at least go through Gamestop. Shipping to less locations, Gamestop can validate orders and handle customer issues.

I keep saying the same thing with pricing and demanding PSA changes. They are doing 1.5 million slabs a month. Three years ago, that would be unheard of. I don't know what the ceiling is, I was completely wrong thinking it would dip when the covid backlog cleared. 2 million PSA slabs in one month seems outrageous, but we may just end up getting there.

Good post! If your numbers are accurate (assuming they are), $1.2 million is a gross underpay for a company their size/revenue. Nat probably spent more than that grading his cards last year! 1.5 million slabs/month @ around $20 per slab is around $30 million a month—$360 million/year just in card grading (not including premium services and other lines of revenue). They should be spending (3-5%) or $11-18 million PER YEAR on infrastructure-related projects, not $1.2M. (0.3%) Probably more since they are so far behind.

[Bosoxfan5990]

Originally Posted by FT35

Good post! If your numbers are accurate (assuming they are), $1.2 million is a gross underpay for a company their size/revenue. Nat probably spent more than that grading his cards last year! 1.5 million slabs/month @ around $20 per slab is around $30 million a month—$360 million/year just in card grading (not including premium services and other lines of revenue). They should be spending (3-5%) or $11-18 million PER YEAR on infrastructure-related projects, not $1.2M. (0.3%) Probably more since they are so far behind.

Why would they? People are going to submit regardless.

[MavsRChamps]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

Why would they? People are going to submit regardless.

You can ask that point to any company that wants to grow? Why did Apple choose to grow? Why did Amazon expand?

PSA has made the decision to not grow and meet demand, but rather maintain limited growth than they could get if they did want to grow.

The supply of cards only keeps on going up. Growth is always gonna be there & PSA must be prepared for that. They don’t seem to be.

[waytoomanycards]

I forgot the psa podcast existed, but if anyone's interested...

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7yQarB1TWK2w1s9kFzY9Nd

Not much there. Basically just said they prioritized keeping TA times in check over keeping prices the same. Talked about orders starting to ship out of the FL site, but didn't estimate how much that would add to their capacity.

[thenightman]

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 want to do less work for the same amount of money.

[Cracktoast]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

You can ask that point to any company that wants to grow? Why did Apple choose to grow? Why did Amazon expand?

PSA has made the decision to not grow and meet demand, but rather maintain limited growth than they could get if they did want to grow.

The supply of cards only keeps on going up. Growth is always gonna be there & PSA must be prepared for that. They don’t seem to be.

Maybe but neither are any of the other grading companies. Everyone else combined hardly touches what PSA does alone. At this point it's not about can they do it but a matter of why should they ? They know the vast majority of sheep will continue to lap up whatever PSA does or doesn't do.

[BoKnowsCards]

There has been an increase of 348% in TCG submissions YOY from 2021 to 2025 - going from 189,178 in a month to 847,453. Meanwhile, non-TCG has only seen an 11% increase, basically flat. See my numbers below. These are for the months of September 2021, September 2022, September 2023, September 2024, September 2025.

It's clear what is causing PSA's backlog and the drain on their resources. Despite $18.99 bulk for TCG, TCG is not slowing down and subsmissions are only going up. So why is PSA not charging $25/card bulk for TCG? It seems like non-TCG is being punished for what is a TCG problem. TCG made up 22.77% of submissions in 2021 and is now at a staggering 54.36%.

It's time TCG not only pays the same amount, but pays more than non-TCG.

Total TCG Non-TCG TCG % of total
2021 830,883 189,178 641,705 22.77%
2022 1,083,928 247,324 836,604 22.82%
2023 1,208,865 556,861 652,004 46.06%
2024 1,181,880 417,876 764,004 35.36%
2025 1,558,952 847,453 711,499 54.36%

Can't get it to format, first column is year, second column is total subs, third clumn is TCG subs total, 4th column is non-TCG subs total, 5th column is TCG % of total

[TXRunner]

I am wondering if TCG is being graded mostly with AI, which is keeping labor costs down, and that’s why the price for TCG is lower? Or maybe that just don’t want to lose that cash cow and leave it alone as long as the numbers keep coming in.

[FT35]

Originally Posted by TXRunner

I am wondering if TCG is being graded mostly with AI, which is keeping labor costs down, and that’s why the price for TCG is lower? Or maybe that just don’t want to lose that cash cow and leave it alone as long as the numbers keep coming in.

I would assume PSA would convert every sports card submitter into a Pokemon submitter if they could. For one, it doesn’t require as much knowledge to grade Pokemon cards. The entire Pokémon production run covers what, 26 years and a single manufacturer? As opposed to over 100 years of sports cards and countless manufacturers? No game-used/relics/autographs. Only a handful are serial- numbered. For the most part, the borders are the same. Only half the card needs graded really, as AI can easily grade the backs. So many things.

Plus, it looks like TCG costs are at a point where when people get large, bulk orders of Pokemon cards that get totally trashed by a grader, they make videos about everything getting cracked out and re-subbed to the tune of high gem rates the 2nd time around. (You don’t see this in sports cards much). Older sports card people are likely more knowledgeable than the current graders. They are long-standing customers who have seen a very negative shift in how things are graded in recent years. They are more likely to complain and consume customer service resources tracking down answers about that. So essentially we get charged more to pay them to support all the problems that they cause.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Growth is always gonna be there & PSA must be prepared for that. They don’t seem to be.

This is not a given. The market cratered 80% in the 90s and took 25 years to recover. Then there was the post-covid reality check. Hard to fault these guys for being somewhat cautious. And I won't fault anyone for not seeing record submission growth this year after a relatively flat stretch for most of 2023-2024. All of a sudden, 50% of PSA grading capacity is chewed up by Pokemon. Funny, it was early 2023 when my graded Pokémon stopped selling well. As such, I stopped buying and grading it. Oops.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by TXRunner

I am wondering if TCG is being graded mostly with AI, which is keeping labor costs down, and that’s why the price for TCG is lower? Or maybe that just don’t want to lose that cash cow and leave it alone as long as the not doing full AI grading.

Due to PSA's volume of about 800k TCG cards a month, AI would be more expensive at this stage than just paying minimum wage workers. Also, PSA would have much better turnarounds most likely if they were. I do think for all cards, PSA has been using AI to pre-scan cards and kick them back out (before grading) due to min size. Since PSA doesn't charge for min size rejects, this would make sense that this is automated, and also why people get confusion min sized cards not slabbed, and then they just resub them and they get graded in the next batch. It's also explains why PSA even does the pre-scans before grading. They had to do it anyway for the AI precheck. Again, just my guess.

I also think that the only real threat to PSA in sports card grading was SGC. So after Collectors Universe bought SGC, now the only real threat overall to PSA overall is in TCG. CGC is definitely making inroads in this space. PSA graded 800k TCG cards last month, but CGC graded 400k. 50% of PSA's volume and on the uptick is impressive for CGC. And since TCG cards are modern and largely a uniformed size/shape, etc. they are the absolute easiest and simple to grade. It's just printing money. So PSA doesn't want to have CGC be a much cheaper alternative, and thus, PSA isn't raising prices on TCG. It's why competition is good for the hobby and collectors, and why Collector's buying SGC and then letting (wanting?) it to die on the vine is such a bad deal for the hobby and everyone, except PSA in the short term. I hope it comes back to hurt them in the long run. We'll see.