PSA Shutting Down?

[KPOD]

Originally Posted by anusinha

The grading companies will do anything except hire people to increase their throughput.

Don't want to increase labor expenses, or any expenses at all for that matter!

[thenightman]

I sent in a GameStop order, my first, this afternoon, so we'll see how that goes.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by tyrith

Math wise, if a 10 is a 2.5x value add and paying normal commission rates for ebay or whatever, on a 50% gem rate the math still works with cards in the $200 or so range. Chaos Rising has two cards for that - the SIR and gold Greninjas. Perfect Order zero. Ascended Heroes seven or eight.

The Meowth in PO?

[BoKnowsCards]

When they finally open back up after the shutdown, people will have millions and millions of cards waiting to send in. Plus, PSA said they will open back up once the backlog is down to 5 million, so it will be insanity.

There's no way they don't increase prices after coming out of the shutdown. The only way they get people to stop submitting is to raise the price of value bulk so high that it deters submissions. A couple of weeks ago I thought they would raise it to $30ish. Now I'm thinking it will be $40-$50 value bulk when they come out of the shutdown. Or we may even go back to a lottery system where you can "win" 5 bulk submissions at $100 a pop and slowly drop to $40-$50 a pop.

History is in fact repeating itself. In 2021 it was an unforeseen tidal wave. This time you could see it coming 100 miles away. Well we could, just not the idiots running PSA.

[DaBaddestHic]

This is fun. I sent in some cards to PSA at the start of the month that have been stuck in Little Rock since May 4th. I filed a missing mail request on Monday. Now I not only have to hope they actually find my package, but that they get to PSA in time for whatever the deadline was on my submission. Good times.

[Cracktoast]

I have a 1-card sub I sent in back in March that has been in assembly since early April, with an estimated completion of July. So yeah, this was a needed shutdown because there is no logical reason it should take almost 2 months to slab a card and send it to QA Checks. Especially when it was sent in at Value level so technically it should be ahead of all the Value Bulk garbage.

[waytoomanycards]

Originally Posted by BoKnowsCards

When they finally open back up after the shutdown, people will have millions and millions of cards waiting to send in. Plus, PSA said they will open back up once the backlog is down to 5 million, so it will be insanity.

There's no way they don't increase prices after coming out of the shutdown. The only way they get people to stop submitting is to raise the price of value bulk so high that it deters submissions. A couple of weeks ago I thought they would raise it to $30ish. Now I'm thinking it will be $40-$50 value bulk when they come out of the shutdown. Or we may even go back to a lottery system where you can "win" 5 bulk submissions at $100 a pop and slowly drop to $40-$50 a pop.

History is in fact repeating itself. In 2021 it was an unforeseen tidal wave. This time you could see it coming 100 miles away. Well we could, just not the idiots running PSA.

I'm thinking they'll start with just the $50 service open, and then progress to running monthly specials again so that tcg and sports "bulk" cards don't come in all at once. But I agree we're probably a long way away from seeing a sub-$35 service. Will be interesting to see how this affects box prices and lower end singles.

[tyrith]

For these companies, they can't just hire a bunch of people off the street and scale up their throughput in a month. It seems very likely that they're all capped out in terms of their physical plant currently.

A 10M card backlog means they likely have something like $200-$500M worth of cards in their physical facilities. The security requirements for that, particularly to make their insurance carrier willing to work with them, are significant.

They can't just lease some office down the street and have a secondary grading site - it has to be a facility set up to receive, process, and ship large amounts of valuable product, and be staffed with people that can follow procedures consistent with that. Doing it poorly, most likely by doing it too quickly, could create a company killing train wreck.

Originally Posted by bub838

The Meowth in PO?

PO Meowth is more like $175-$190.

Originally Posted by waytoomanycards

I'm thinking they'll start with just the $50 service open, and then progress to running monthly specials again so that tcg and sports "bulk" cards don't come in all at once. But I agree we're probably a long way away from seeing a sub-$35 service. Will be interesting to see how this affects box prices and lower end singles.

I think it's definitely going to suppress value on a bunch of $10-$100 in the short term, especially since CGC is going to immediately also get swamped out. That could have some potentially interesting knock on effects for sealed product, particular if we get more sets that are like Perfect Order in terms of demand.

[Wisztradamous]

Originally Posted by thenightman

I sent in a GameStop order, my first, this afternoon, so we'll see how that goes.

I am sending one in tomorrow, lets revisit this in February and compare.

[Dacubs2]

The National is in 2 months. I assume PSA won't be taking any Value submissions there to work through the backlog, but they would probably have taken in an insane amount of cards over those 5 days.

[MavsRChamps]

Originally Posted by tyrith

For these companies, they can't just hire a bunch of people off the street and scale up their throughput in a month. It seems very likely that they're all capped out in terms of their physical plant currently.

A 10M card backlog means they likely have something like $200-$500M worth of cards in their physical facilities. The security requirements for that, particularly to make their insurance carrier willing to work with them, are significant.

They can't just lease some office down the street and have a secondary grading site - it has to be a facility set up to receive, process, and ship large amounts of valuable product, and be staffed with people that can follow procedures consistent with that. Doing it poorly, most likely by doing it too quickly, could create a company killing train wreck.



PO Meowth is more like $175-$190.



I think it's definitely going to suppress value on a bunch of $10-$100 in the short term, especially since CGC is going to immediately also get swamped out. That could have some potentially interesting knock on effects for sealed product, particular if we get more sets that are like Perfect Order in terms of demand.

Why would they have to do it in a month? Volume has been increasing for years ... You can definitely hire/train people in 2-3 months pretty easily. I'd argue in a month even. Anyone can grade cards accurately with a detailed, well thought out 3 day / 20 hour onboarding training.

And why can't they buy a building near the headquarters exactly? This is a multi BILLION dollar company. It's not like an Amazon warehouse where you needs tons of space for storage with high ceilings. These are little pieces of cardboard. Buy or rent a 2 story, 5 story building etc etc. They can do whatever they want, frankly at the speed they want but they're incompetent and corrupt. That's the only explanation.

Don't fall for PSA's capacity excuse.

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by tyrith

Math wise, if a 10 is a 2.5x value add and paying normal commission rates for ebay or whatever, on a 50% gem rate the math still works with cards in the $200 or so range. Chaos Rising has two cards for that - the SIR and gold Greninjas. Perfect Order zero. Ascended Heroes seven or eight.

The math is different if you are putting these cards in vending machines/vaults/grab bags which can be sold and bought back multiple times.

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by Wisztradamous

I am sending one in tomorrow, lets revisit this in February and compare.

I think they'll be done sooner than that.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

And why can't they buy a building near the headquarters exactly?

Why they have not put a grading facility in the middle of the country somewhere where building and labor costs are lower than either coast escapes me. They should have no trouble finding some graders in Omaha or Kansas City for what they're paying in California or New Jersey.

I'd venture most card buyers are looking for raw to begin with so this may not impact sales that much. Well centered mint looking raw will still fetch a premium like it did in the old days. From my card show shopping experience, very few people are focused on low end for grading. The person buying and holding a bunch of dollar box cards doesn't have a ton of money locked up. The people dropping bigger numbers will have money locked up for a while. Maybe that $10-$50 raw segment gets dinged a bit. People dropping the Benjamins will keep doing so.

[KPOD]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

Why they have not put a grading facility in the middle of the country somewhere where building and labor costs are lower than either coast escapes me. They should have no trouble finding some graders in Omaha or Kansas City for what they're paying in California or New Jersey.

This is the real issue. F*** the west coast and all its high cost of doing business there. There is nothing about this business that in any way, shape, or form requires them to continue operating out of one of the most expensive areas in the country.

[seanrs1]

If the company was smart they would put a new HQ and grading facility in like Tennessee. I believe both Fedex and UPS have hubs there. Plus low cost of living.

[MJGOAT23]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

The online submission form need to be "submitted" by June 1st...then have 30 days to get it there but the line is building with each day one waits to ship the order there.

where are you seeing 6/1? I saw it needs to submitted online by 6/2 by 3PM PT

[sic698]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

I have a 1-card sub I sent in back in March that has been in assembly since early April, with an estimated completion of July. So yeah, this was a needed shutdown because there is no logical reason it should take almost 2 months to slab a card and send it to QA Checks. Especially when it was sent in at Value level so technically it should be ahead of all the Value Bulk garbage.

I sent in a 1 card order to my group submitter in early Feburary for Bulk Dual (Card ''AND'' autograph grade), It's been stuck in Research and ID process since the end of March, 2 Months with no updates with Est. Complete by July 21, 2026.

[dodgerfanjohn]

Whine & complain about mistakes, perceived poor grading, wait times, etc.

Company does something to address all of the above.

More whine and complain.

You all sound like the toxic people I’ve worked with in the past. Whine and complain about the situation. Whine and complain about the solution. Propose unfeasible solutions or none at all. Whine and complain more.

Easy solution. Don’t grade with a company you don’t like. Grade with someone else, or no one at all.

[towerymt]

Originally Posted by sic698

I sent in a 1 card order to my group submitter in early Feburary for Bulk Dual (Card ''AND'' autograph grade), It's been stuck in Research and ID process since the end of March, 2 Months with no updates with Est. Complete by July 21, 2026.

I pestered PSA help desk people about a voucher for an order that went a good bit over the estimated date and I got a $25 coupon code to apply to a future order. Hey, its something!

I suspect that using a group submitter prevents such a request from the end user (you) from even being considered by PSA. But the group submitter should have a rep they can talk to about expediting orders tracking towards missing estimated return dates.

[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by MJGOAT23

where are you seeing 6/1? I saw it needs to submitted online by 6/2 by 3PM PT

PSA's initial announcement did not specify a time...just 6/2. That typically would have meant at 12:00am of the day (6/2) would be the deadline. The 3pm PT was added in the email that went out later in the day.

https://www.psacard.com/articles/art...pdate-may-2026

[swerve]

Have 2 orders that have been in assembly since March. One has a date of 6/3, the other 6/16. Wonder if I even have a chance to get my 6/3 order back by 6/12...

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by dodgerfanjohn

Whine & complain about mistakes, perceived poor grading, wait times, etc.

Company does something to address all of the above.

More whine and complain.

You all sound like the toxic people I’ve worked with in the past. Whine and complain about the situation. Whine and complain about the solution. Propose unfeasible solutions or none at all. Whine and complain more.

Easy solution. Don’t grade with a company you don’t like. Grade with someone else, or no one at all.

I don’t get why these people don’t open up their own grading company since it all sounds so easy.

[Boostedwrx]

The optics of partnering with GameStop—having them redesign their website to support the initiative and implementing countless new store processes and procedures—only to offer bulk grading for 18 months looks pretty bad.

[MJGOAT23]

They also could have just curtailed TCG only. why penalize the sports folks