2023 PSA New Pricing and Declared Values

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by PLB9eight

Does PSA consider wrestling sports? Was thinking it was under non-sports for them.


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It is under Boxing/Wrestling/MMA, so it is considered sports.

[PLB9eight]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

It is under Boxing/Wrestling/MMA, so it is considered sports.

That’s good news. In that case I’ve got a decent amount of wrestling I may finally send in.


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[MavsRChamps]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

Good luck on getting $30 for a PSA 9 1987 Topps Bonds. I bought two of them for $14 each on COMC and they sat for a day. Just bought them to have one in my PC and send the other one to my nephew who is a huge Giants fan.

Very few cards that you can actually come out ahead on if you don't get a 9 before 1986 and a 10 after 1986. However, that won't stop people from losing money. They see the prices of PSA 10's and they over grade their cards. They will then come on here and complain when they all get 8's and PSA grades them correctly.

PSA and other grading companies have people hooked on another gambling facet of the "hobby." So many inexperienced people will send in 1987 Donruss Greg Maddux rookies with chipped black borders, bad corners, and bad centering. PSA makes $15 each card, people pay $20 each card with shipping, and then the end up with a PSA 7/8 that is worth the same as a raw card.

Yeah my #'s were even rounded up a bit, and the math still doesn't make sense to grade. I'm noticing this even with 90's basketball - People say often "nines are good" for these cards, but then when I look at completed auctions 9's sometimes sell for just a bit more than raw or it may barely cover the cost of grading for the VAST MAJORITY of star rookies, inserts, etc. from this time period. I sent in a lot of cards at the 90's $15 special (thinking it would take a while to go lower) but I have a hunch for PSA to remain blossoming as a business they'll have to lower the grading to $10 or so to get way more cards. They may do that within the next 6 months in my opinion.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Yeah my #'s were even rounded up a bit, and the math still doesn't make sense to grade. I'm noticing this even with 90's basketball - People say often "nines are good" for these cards, but then when I look at completed auctions 9's sometimes sell for just a bit more than raw or it may barely cover the cost of grading for the VAST MAJORITY of star rookies, inserts, etc. from this time period. I sent in a lot of cards at the 90's $15 special (thinking it would take a while to go lower) but I have a hunch for PSA to remain blossoming as a business they'll have to lower the grading to $10 or so to get way more cards. They may do that within the next 6 months in my opinion.

I thought they would already be at $10, but the truth is people are addicted to grading. In their mind it makes more sense to grade at $15 to sell at $20 and lose money with shipping and eBay fees, then to just sell the card raw at $5.

The demand is still high enough with $15 specials that we will not see anything under $15 grading for the rest of this year and well into 2024. People love to throw away money in this hobby. They grade cards to lose money, they buy mystery packs that aren't regulated and contain other people's crap, and they let guys in midriff shirts rip cards for them and may not even get the hit with the shenanigans that are not punished.

[MFaulkCollector]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

I thought they would already be at $10, but the truth is people are addicted to grading. In their mind it makes more sense to grade at $15 to sell at $20 and lose money with shipping and eBay fees, then to just sell the card raw at $5.

The demand is still high enough with $15 specials that we will not see anything under $15 grading for the rest of this year and well into 2024. People love to throw away money in this hobby. They grade cards to lose money, they buy mystery packs that aren't regulated and contain other people's crap, and they let guys in midriff shirts rip cards for them and may not even get the hit with the shenanigans that are not punished.

I'm not necessarily digging in on you personally...... but people on here are sickening just continuing to piss and moan about what others grade at each individual price point.

Like really.... what does it matter if someone grades 600 wander franco US rc's and loses 1500 bucks? The mechanical breakdown of profit and losses above and through the thread is actually very helpful to newbies and is more intelligent than I would expect this forum to provide.

However, to suggest or think that 70,80,90 percent of submitters are sending stuff in just getting blitzed OVER AND OVER AND OVER while bleeding essential cash to their daily lives..... that premise isn't true.

This is a hobby and it's supposed to be fun... people enjoy grading and maybe losing 2,3,8,10 dollars on most cards in an order just doesn't matter. to a lot of people. I doubt everyone grading cards is "addicted" to grading. Maybe people want to grade the stuff they have now and just tuck it away for potential gains later (even if marginal).. maybe people just want to show reveals and fill up their channel with content.... maybe people like the thrill of grading stuff on their own and are willing to take losses because it's more fun to do it that way than buy slabs..... maybe some people are stupid and don't know how to check ebay finished auctions, add in other thousands of reasons here...... but to think the majority of 1 million cards a month are being subbed by business type people who are pushing at best and losing a lot of money; that premise is naïve at best.

The truth is; people who continue to harp on what other people do... it's sour grapes that they are unable to make their own profits due to the current 15/19 whatever price points. It's people who made a living or a huge side hustle at 7/8 per card for years.. who are now bitter that money is out of play. Why else on God's green earth would people be so emotionally invested about how other people within this "hobby/business/sector/whatever we want to call it" spend their money?

I just don't understand why there is such an outcry about this..... one would think decent amounts of activity and traffic in the card space would be good... especially ones in the lower end (as that is where most collectors like to stay)

For those who cards as a business, they learned long ago the bass rc buying was replaced with rc parallels and base HOF was replaced by HTF parallels and the case hit inserts. There is still a lot of money to be made and smart ones adapted .... the practical and less knowledgeable ones stopped subbing... but 700k cards a month aren't bleeding business dry.... it's mostly people who enjoy cards for one reason or another

[CardGoonies]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

I'm not necessarily digging in on you personally...... but people on here are sickening just continuing to piss and moan about what others grade at each individual price point.

Like really.... what does it matter if someone grades 600 wander franco US rc's and loses 1500 bucks? The mechanical breakdown of profit and losses above and through the thread is actually very helpful to newbies and is more intelligent than I would expect this forum to provide.

However, to suggest or think that 70,80,90 percent of submitters are sending stuff in just getting blitzed OVER AND OVER AND OVER while bleeding essential cash to their daily lives..... that premise isn't true.

This is a hobby and it's supposed to be fun... people enjoy grading and maybe losing 2,3,8,10 dollars on most cards in an order just doesn't matter. to a lot of people. I doubt everyone grading cards is "addicted" to grading. Maybe people want to grade the stuff they have now and just tuck it away for potential gains later (even if marginal).. maybe people just want to show reveals and fill up their channel with content.... maybe people like the thrill of grading stuff on their own and are willing to take losses because it's more fun to do it that way than buy slabs..... maybe some people are stupid and don't know how to check ebay finished auctions, add in other thousands of reasons here...... but to think the majority of 1 million cards a month are being subbed by business type people who are pushing at best and losing a lot of money; that premise is naïve at best.

The truth is; people who continue to harp on what other people do... it's sour grapes that they are unable to make their own profits due to the current 15/19 whatever price points. It's people who made a living or a huge side hustle at 7/8 per card for years.. who are now bitter that money is out of play. Why else on God's green earth would people be so emotionally invested about how other people within this "hobby/business/sector/whatever we want to call it" spend their money?

I just don't understand why there is such an outcry about this..... one would think decent amounts of activity and traffic in the card space would be good... especially ones in the lower end (as that is where most collectors like to stay)

For those who cards as a business, they learned long ago the bass rc buying was replaced with rc parallels and base HOF was replaced by HTF parallels and the case hit inserts. There is still a lot of money to be made and smart ones adapted .... the practical and less knowledgeable ones stopped subbing... but 700k cards a month aren't bleeding business dry.... it's mostly people who enjoy cards for one reason or another

Here's my thing.... If a $5 bump in pricing... GIVEN THE INFLATION EVERYTHING HAS GONE THROUGH.... is going to screw up someone's ledger book, they are already in a horrific business model for themselves to begin with.

The $5 or whatever shouldn't make or break anyone sending in cards to grade and sell, keep, etc. Yet, people like the guy you quoted act as if $5 is some devastating $ amount.

I agree with you as well that people aren't losing their butts as others think. The market will adjust UP with higher grading fees. Or, PSA will adjust down. It just takes a little time & patience.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

I'm not necessarily digging in on you personally...... but people on here are sickening just continuing to piss and moan about what others grade at each individual price point.

People can grade where they want and what price they want. $15 seems to be the price people are willing to pay. The majority of people are losing money from raw value and I will argue that is absolutely true. Neo made a video of how much "profit" he made from grading cards and he lost money from the raw value of the cards. This is happening over and over, even from experienced graders.

If grading is a hobby for you and you want to spend the money, good for you. I am just warning people that your cards probably won't grade as high as you think and secondly you could get a better card already slabbed. I am all for having fun grading for your PC for entertainment. Go for it! However, I can tell you from eBay and COMC that people are losing huge amounts of money grading with PSA and other grading companies.

If you watch YouTube reveals for PSA grading, it is the same story every time. PSA is grading too rough, they gave me the grader of death, etc... All of the comments are based on ROI and not collecting.

Grading cards for PC's can be fun, even with 80's junk wax. If you have a nice 1989 Fleer Ken Griffey Jr lying around you can grade it for $15 and it would be a wash compared to what is available slabbed. I have done this quite a bit for my PC. I will be sending in a few $1-$2 cards I bought raw that are amazingly centered and in great shape for my PC.

My complaining is for new people in the hobby to not get frustrated and stick around. Knowing that your raw cards will not grade as high as you think and you could get a better card already slabbed for a better price. Grading depends on experience and it is a tough lesson to learn right now. I will help any new person with what to grade and what to expect from it. I think the 80's special would be educational for people to submit, but they need to be extremely picky to what to send in.

Edit: I will throw in this. The emphasis on grading everything is also hurting the hobby for young kids. The narrative that your cards or worthless unless in a slab makes collecting very confusing to a young kid in the hobby. Grading has its use in the hobby, but right now it is a hindrance on growth and is whackadoodles for ultra-modern.

[larry25]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

People can grade where they want and what price they want. $15 seems to be the price people are willing to pay. The majority of people are losing money from raw value and I will argue that is absolutely true. Neo made a video of how much "profit" he made from grading cards and he lost money from the raw value of the cards. This is happening over and over, even from experienced graders.

If grading is a hobby for you and you want to spend the money, good for you. I am just warning people that your cards probably won't grade as high as you think and secondly you could get a better card already slabbed. I am all for having fun grading for your PC for entertainment. Go for it! However, I can tell you from eBay and COMC that people are losing huge amounts of money grading with PSA and other grading companies.

If you watch YouTube reveals for PSA grading, it is the same story every time. PSA is grading too rough, they gave me the grader of death, etc... All of the comments are based on ROI and not collecting.

Grading cards for PC's can be fun, even with 80's junk wax. If you have a nice 1989 Fleer Ken Griffey Jr lying around you can grade it for $15 and it would be a wash compared to what is available slabbed. I have done this quite a bit for my PC. I will be sending in a few $1-$2 cards I bought raw that are amazingly centered and in great shape for my PC.

My complaining is for new people in the hobby to not get frustrated and stick around. Knowing that your raw cards will not grade as high as you think and you could get a better card already slabbed for a better price. Grading depends on experience and it is a tough lesson to learn right now. I will help any new person with what to grade and what to expect from it. I think the 80's special would be educational for people to submit, but they need to be extremely picky to what to send in.

Edit: I will throw in this. The emphasis on grading everything is also hurting the hobby for young kids. The narrative that your cards or worthless unless in a slab makes collecting very confusing to a young kid in the hobby. Grading has its use in the hobby, but right now it is a hindrance on growth and is whackadoodles for ultra-modern.

"I think the 80's special would be educational for people to submit, but they need to be extremely picky to what to send in."

Either that, or PSA stop grading 1980s and 90s cards as if they were Panini Prizm bought at Target last month.

[discodanman45]

Originally Posted by larry25

"I think the 80's special would be educational for people to submit, but they need to be extremely picky to what to send in."

Either that, or PSA stop grading 1980s and 90s cards as if they were Panini Prizm bought at Target last month.

Personally I haven't seen much of a change in PSA standards. The problem with PSA is they have certain groups of graders that just hammer a submission to either push it through, they don't care, or they are trying to be a tough grader. The majority of submissions and cards I see for sale with newer cert numbers are not that bad. You also see this with ultra-modern where the same person gets back a graded submission all 8/9's and then gets back 90% 10's on their next submission. These outliers bring more attention than properly graded cards. If I get one of these graders I will probably be on here complaining in 4 months when I get my cards back.

I haven't graded with PSA for awhile, but I still buy slabs. Some cards may be one grade harsher than in the past, but some of them are the same as when I graded in 2020. I am sending in 20 cards at the end of this month, some for purely educational purposes myself. I am grading some of my 1983-84 Star Lakers basketball set, some CSG slabs I am cracking to compare grades, and a few cards for my PC. Personally I would love a 70's grading special with PSA, but I am an 80 collector at heart.

[CardGoonies]

Originally Posted by discodanman45

Personally I haven't seen much of a change in PSA standards. The problem with PSA is they have certain groups of graders that just hammer a submission to either push it through, they don't care, or they are trying to be a tough grader. The majority of submissions and cards I see for sale with newer cert numbers are not that bad. You also see this with ultra-modern where the same person gets back a graded submission all 8/9's and then gets back 90% 10's on their next submission. These outliers bring more attention than properly graded cards. If I get one of these graders I will probably be on here complaining in 4 months when I get my cards back.

I haven't graded with PSA for awhile, but I still buy slabs. Some cards may be one grade harsher than in the past, but some of them are the same as when I graded in 2020. I am sending in 20 cards at the end of this month, some for purely educational purposes myself. I am grading some of my 1983-84 Star Lakers basketball set, some CSG slabs I am cracking to compare grades, and a few cards for my PC. Personally I would love a 70's grading special with PSA, but I am an 80 collector at heart.

I've experienced the opposite.

Whenever we have a lot of a specific card I've always brought in 2 or 3 PSA 10s of it to see how it's graded and compare them to the stock we have before sending any of them in. There is NO QUESTION that they are grading absurdly differen than Pre-Nat purchase. ABSURDLY. We've had PSA 10s come in where today it would 8 at best. We had a common MJ from a 90s set (Charlie Sheen was on the back of it) and ours caught 9s.... the 2 PSA 10 examples I brought in from that same line of cards were mutilated in comparison to what we sent.

We've also been hammered on centering for a ton of Marvel stuff where past 10s have the same centering... We use the centering tool on Front/Back of everything we send out. Print dots that were allowed before on examples of 10s are now dropping grades - Looking at YOU Marvel series 1.

We put EVERYTHING under an LED mag lamp and 75% of that stuff goes under electronic microscope. Just for fun I cracked & sent in a PSA 10 2002 MJ SP Authentic common wtih 2 minor surface flaws on his image that did NOT require any tools to see. It came back an 8.

I think the backs of cards and centering are being graded similarly to the fronts and that just wasn't the case previously. It's incredibly hard to tell what the running "standards" are.

[splitrockgamer]

Has PSA said how long the tcg bulk is going to date wise?

[KPOD]

Originally Posted by splitrockgamer

Has PSA said how long the tcg bulk is going to date wise?

$15 is their new standard price, not a special anymore. As far as TAT, I've been seeing people state 65-70 actual days on their returns.

[UCCF]

Originally Posted by KPOD

$15 is their new standard price, not a special anymore. As far as TAT, I've been seeing people state 65-70 actual days on their returns.

Mine was right at about 60 days, for 85 cards.

[robdrobd77]

Originally Posted by UCCF

Mine was right at about 60 days, for 85 cards.

My 50 card 90s submission hasn’t even been entered into the system yet. Still on Step 1. Arrived on June 13th.


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[skippy100]

Does anyone know if I can include say 2022 Topps Chrome autos in the 20 count minimum TCG Bulk (1992 to present) special?

Like does the dual grade still qualify for the $15 and count towards the 20 count minimum?

[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by skippy100

Does anyone know if I can include say 2022 Topps Chrome autos in the 20 count minimum TCG Bulk (1992 to present) special?

Like does the dual grade still qualify for the $15 and count towards the 20 count minimum?

Dual grading is a different service and has a higher fee ($25/20 card minimum for members or $35 and no minimum # of cards/no membership required) for cards with DV less than $499.

[skippy100]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

Dual grading is a different service and has a higher fee ($25/20 card minimum for members or $35 and no minimum # of cards) for cards with DV less than $499.

Thanks for the quick reply!

[jtclockwork]

Tough to find cards that make sense to grade in this special. Even though I have some cards that look like they should gem, if they come back a 9, it's a loss, so I'm not going to bother with those. I'd rather spend that money on real lottery tickets.

I have some older Scanlens Wrestling cards, my Ripken FF error, some SI Kids Cards like Agassi, some foreign issue stuff that will still be worth it in less than perfect grades (even though I think most are flawless or have a chance to gem or I wouldn't send them). That said, by the time I'm finished going through it all, I'll probably end up with 15-20 at most.

[robdrobd77]

Originally Posted by jtclockwork

Tough to find cards that make sense to grade in this special. Even though I have some cards that look like they should gem, if they come back a 9, it's a loss, so I'm not going to bother with those. I'd rather spend that money on real lottery tickets.

I have some older Scanlens Wrestling cards, my Ripken FF error, some SI Kids Cards like Agassi, some foreign issue stuff that will still be worth it in less than perfect grades (even though I think most are flawless or have a chance to gem or I wouldn't send them). That said, by the time I'm finished going through it all, I'll probably end up with 15-20 at most.

Same here, some 85 Topps Wrestling cards, maybe a Bo Jackson FB rook or two. Top it off with a few PC cards. Although SGC has the $15 FB special now too. Usually perfect centering I send to SGC, sharp corners, PSA. I was in process of converting my collection to SGC, but have decided on a combo collection of SGC/PSA.


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[Onepocketj]

Originally Posted by jtclockwork

Tough to find cards that make sense to grade in this special. Even though I have some cards that look like they should gem, if they come back a 9, it's a loss, so I'm not going to bother with those. I'd rather spend that money on real lottery tickets.

I have some older Scanlens Wrestling cards, my Ripken FF error, some SI Kids Cards like Agassi, some foreign issue stuff that will still be worth it in less than perfect grades (even though I think most are flawless or have a chance to gem or I wouldn't send them). That said, by the time I'm finished going through it all, I'll probably end up with 15-20 at most.

I was shocked at how much the Billy Ripkens are going for. I looked through my old boxes and found six of them a couple months ago. Only one got a 10 but even the low grades brought decent money.

[jtclockwork]

Originally Posted by Onepocketj

I was shocked at how much the Billy Ripkens are going for. I looked through my old boxes and found six of them a couple months ago. Only one got a 10 but even the low grades brought decent money.

Yeah. I'm keeping it for my PC, but they go for quite a bit. Just a cool, fun card. I never got the other rare corrections (other than the normal black box) when I was a kid. I should have. Some of those go for quite a bit as well.

[jtclockwork]

Originally Posted by robdrobd77

Same here, some 85 Topps Wrestling cards, maybe a Bo Jackson FB rook or two. Top it off with a few PC cards. Although SGC has the $15 FB special now too. Usually perfect centering I send to SGC, sharp corners, PSA. I was in process of converting my collection to SGC, but have decided on a combo collection of SGC/PSA.


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I have Bo Jackson FB rookies on my secondary list, but I don't think I'll send at this price as I don't think they will gem so they definitely won't given how tough PSA is on 1980s cards now. Probably just sell them raw if I ever do - or wait for a real price drop if that happens.

I also have to pick up my 1981 Sovjet cards from my dad's house. I may send them in too if they look good as they don't need to gem to be worth it. I remember them looking great, but that doesn't mean much anymore when you are dealing with minute flaws in a jewler's loupe. So, I have to inspect them first. Also, have to check on size, too. I don't remember if they are oversized.

I really need a vintage special. Got so much stuff laying around.

[jtclockwork]

Anyone ever send in oversized cards with a special? What happens?

I want to send in some Svijets and they are slightly bigger than the holder. If you go to the intake form for oversized cards, it gives you the option to submit oversized cards under the $15 special. I don't know why PSA would give you that option if it wasn't available for oversized cards.

However, on the front page, it says oversized cards are excluded. I'm assuming this means they are only excluded from a regular sized card order, but it's not really clear. So, which is it? I couldn't get an answer from emailing PSA. I don't have high hopes for figuring it out in a phone call either.

I have enough Svijets to do a full order by themselves (10 cards in total) under the special that I'll do by themselves if I can't combine them with the smaller cards. Does anyone have an answer to this? The next service level for oversized cards is $75 a card which is obnoxiously high for what these are worth, so I can't pay that.

[oddstuff]

Your oversize cards will get bumped up to the $75 service due to the larger holders that are needed to slab them in. There's no way of getting around the high cost of oversized cards unfortunately. I have not seen a special where they discount what they charge for jumbo holders.

[jtclockwork]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

Your oversize cards will get bumped up to the $75 service due to the larger holders that are needed to slab them in. There's no way of getting around the high cost of oversized cards unfortunately. I have not seen a special where they discount what they charge for jumbo holders.

Then why is there an option for the $15 special when you go to create an order specifically for oversized cards?