Running PSA Order Tracker

[imbluestreak23]

When you submit two autographed cards in a set that have the following pop report (for the set):

PSA 10: 92
PSA 9: 16
PSA 8: 4
PSA 7: 3

And you get two 8s!! Means you're doin' it ryte?

[anusinha]

Psa has gotten even more super inconsistent. I've gotten ultramodern tcg subs coming back with 10% gem rates. Sports grading is more or less completely useless at the moment.

[mredsox89]

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #2
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/10/25

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/27/24
Grading: 12/5/24
Assembly: 12/6/24
Grades Ready: 12/11/24
QA: 12/11/24
Shipped: 12/12/24

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #3
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/4/25

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/20/24
Grading: 12/16/24
Assembly: 12/17/24
Grades Ready: 12/20/24
QA:
Shipped:

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #4
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/5/25

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/21/24
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #5
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/5/24

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/22/24
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #6
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/11/25

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/27/24
Grading: 12/18/24
Assembly: 12/19/24
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Type: October Value Bulk Special (1980-Present) #7
# of cards: 20
Estimated Completion Date: 2/10/24

Received per PSA: 11/4/24
Research & ID: 11/26/24
Grading: 12/16/24
Assembly: 12/17/24
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Type: October Value Bulk #8
# of cards: 28
Estimated Completion Date: 2/10/25

Received per PSA: 11/19/24
Research & ID: 12/4/24
Grading: 12/13/24
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Three days from Assembly to grades for a bulk order, but it wasn't pretty, 7/20 gems

[Tnooky]

Originally Posted by imbluestreak23

When you submit two autographed cards in a set that have the following pop report (for the set):

PSA 10: 92
PSA 9: 16
PSA 8: 4
PSA 7: 3

And you get two 8s!! Means you're doin' it ryte?

easy crack and send again. Thats probably half their high end business at this point.

[discodanman45]

Type: November 1-15 Value Bulk Holiday Special (1950-1979)
# of cards: 11
Estimated Completion Date: 2/14/2025

Received per PSA: 11/7/2024
Research & ID: 12/2/2024
Grading: 12/18/2024
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

Type: November 16-30 Value Bulk Holiday Special (1980-1999)
# of cards: 14
Estimated Completion Date: 2/24/2025

Received per PSA: 11/19/2024
Research & ID: 12/11/2024
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:

[messier2]

Originally Posted by messier2

Just received my latest results, one of my better submissions overall:


October 1980-Present Bulk Special Order

15/23 GEMS (15 ten's (key cards gemmed); 5 nine's, and 3 eight's).

Order Arrived: November 4

Order Prep: November 27

Grading: Early December

Assembly: December 11 (checkmark December 12)

Grades Ready: December 17

Just a side note. My last 2 subs before this one came from NJ and were one of the worst in my PSA submitting history! Maybe it's because the newbies are "under pressure" to take much, much closer look at cards and are reprimanded when they give out too many gems? Who knows! Take that for what it's worth.

All my previous subs (all coming from CA), were good to excellent in terms of gems!

[Seatown206]

Another 20% gem rate order that i got back..yippeeeeeeeeee
at this point it feels like they are just grading everything psa 9 and trying to get orders out before the year end.

Originally Posted by anusinha

Psa has gotten even more super inconsistent. I've gotten ultramodern tcg subs coming back with 10% gem rates. Sports grading is more or less completely useless at the moment.

[metsandweezer]

Originally Posted by Seatown206

Another 20% gem rate order that i got back..yippeeeeeeeeee
at this point it feels like they are just grading everything psa 9 and trying to get orders out before the year end.

What type of cards were they? Ultra modern?

[MavsRChamps]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this so just curious how people's returns have been on $10 - $50 raw card type of cards? Maybe for 2000 - Present specifically?

Asking because I've been putting away 50+ cards to grade in this value range, and I was leaning to send these to PSA for the $16.99 special right now but I'm looking at resale values and I just don't see much rational to send them in. These are cards you typically grade also - Lebron cards, refractor parallels, popular sets etc etc. I'm not seeing the value added for 10's and 9's are practically close to raw for these types of cards. A card doesn't just have to be worth "$17 more" with grading but it's really $21 if you consider Ebay fees (not even incl shipping to PSA and back).

Couple examples (of many):
1.Steph Curry 2016-17 Revolution Astro parallel ... This card has sold RAW for between $12 - $20 recently, a PSA 10 recently sold for $44. PSA 9 prob between $20 - $30. You do the math; I just don't see how it makes sense to grade especially when it's about 50/50 shot at best for a 9 or 10 for these type of cards. This is Steph Curry too ... Do some lesser known player for a card in this value range and premium for 10 is even less.

So basically I don't know what my plan is now. But I'm gonna hold off for now.

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Didn't want to start a new thread for this so just curious how people's returns have been on $10 - $50 raw card type of cards? Maybe for 2000 - Present specifically?

Asking because I've been putting away 50+ cards to grade in this value range, and I was leaning to send these to PSA for the $16.99 special right now but I'm looking at resale values and I just don't see much rational to send them in. These are cards you typically grade also - Lebron cards, refractor parallels, popular sets etc etc. I'm not seeing the value added for 10's and 9's are practically close to raw for these types of cards. A card doesn't just have to be worth "$17 more" with grading but it's really $21 if you consider Ebay fees (not even incl shipping to PSA and back).

Couple examples (of many):
1.Steph Curry 2016-17 Revolution Astro parallel ... This card has sold RAW for between $12 - $20 recently, a PSA 10 recently sold for $44. PSA 9 prob between $20 - $30. You do the math; I just don't see how it makes sense to grade especially when it's about 50/50 shot at best for a 9 or 10 for these type of cards. This is Steph Curry too ... Do some lesser known player for a card in this value range and premium for 10 is even less.

So basically I don't know what my plan is now. But I'm gonna hold off for now.

That's the joke with grading right now, it doesn't really make sense to send in cards under 50 bucks or so. The premiums for psa 10s are small and the grading is very inconsistent. I'm sure people are losing their ass on low end sports right now

[Skipscards]

Assembly stage is complete. Just waiting for Grades Ready to show up.

Originally Posted by Skipscards

I've submitted two small orders:

Order Type: September MLB Grading Special service
# of cards: 10
Order shipped: 9/13/22
Order delivered: 9/16/24
Order received per PSA: 9/16/24
Order Prep: 10/4/24
Research & ID: 10/18/24
Grading: 11/7/24
Assembly: 11/13/24
QA1: 11/13/24
QA2: 11/13/24
Grades: 11/13/24
Shipped: 11/13/24
Est Completed: 12/16/24

Order Type: September MLB Grading Special
# of cards: 11
Order shipped: 10/8/24
Order delivered: 10/10/24
Order received per PSA: 10/10/24
Order Prep: 10/29/24
Research & ID: 12/5/2024
Grading: 12/18/2024
Assembly: 12/19/2024
QA1:
QA2:
Grades:
Shipped:
Est Completed: 1/13/25

[Skipscards]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Didn't want to start a new thread for this so just curious how people's returns have been on $10 - $50 raw card type of cards? Maybe for 2000 - Present specifically?

Asking because I've been putting away 50+ cards to grade in this value range, and I was leaning to send these to PSA for the $16.99 special right now but I'm looking at resale values and I just don't see much rational to send them in. These are cards you typically grade also - Lebron cards, refractor parallels, popular sets etc etc. I'm not seeing the value added for 10's and 9's are practically close to raw for these types of cards. A card doesn't just have to be worth "$17 more" with grading but it's really $21 if you consider Ebay fees (not even incl shipping to PSA and back).

Couple examples (of many):
1.Steph Curry 2016-17 Revolution Astro parallel ... This card has sold RAW for between $12 - $20 recently, a PSA 10 recently sold for $44. PSA 9 prob between $20 - $30. You do the math; I just don't see how it makes sense to grade especially when it's about 50/50 shot at best for a 9 or 10 for these type of cards. This is Steph Curry too ... Do some lesser known player for a card in this value range and premium for 10 is even less.

So basically I don't know what my plan is now. But I'm gonna hold off for now.

I suspect the plan is people will start sending more stuff to CGC.

[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Didn't want to start a new thread for this so just curious how people's returns have been on $10 - $50 raw card type of cards? Maybe for 2000 - Present specifically?

Asking because I've been putting away 50+ cards to grade in this value range, and I was leaning to send these to PSA for the $16.99 special right now but I'm looking at resale values and I just don't see much rational to send them in. These are cards you typically grade also - Lebron cards, refractor parallels, popular sets etc etc. I'm not seeing the value added for 10's and 9's are practically close to raw for these types of cards. A card doesn't just have to be worth "$17 more" with grading but it's really $21 if you consider Ebay fees (not even incl shipping to PSA and back).

Couple examples (of many):
1.Steph Curry 2016-17 Revolution Astro parallel ... This card has sold RAW for between $12 - $20 recently, a PSA 10 recently sold for $44. PSA 9 prob between $20 - $30. You do the math; I just don't see how it makes sense to grade especially when it's about 50/50 shot at best for a 9 or 10 for these type of cards. This is Steph Curry too ... Do some lesser known player for a card in this value range and premium for 10 is even less.

So basically I don't know what my plan is now. But I'm gonna hold off for now.

PSA killed that market with their grading fee hike. Only time will tell if they will do something to get that market back..or perhaps they get enough business now without having to get that volume back into their fold (if/when the TCG market heads south, that might be the only thing that will cause PSA to possibly step back on their grading fees). For now, there is no point in submitting those kinds of cards given how much up front you are putting into PSA's pocket and the inconsistent grading makes it a big gamble...it's a loss waiting to happen...don't do it.

[Noble87]

Type: December 16-31 Value Bulk Holiday Special (2000-Present)
# of cards: 30
Estimated Completion Date: TBD

Shipped- 12/18/24
Delivered-
Received per PSA:
Research & ID:
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:


Type: December 1-15 Value Bulk Holiday Special (2020-Present)l
# of cards: 33
Estimated Completion Date: TBD

Shipped- 12/10/24
Delivered- 12/11/24
Received per PSA:
Research & ID:
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:


Type: December 1-15 Trading Card Game (TCG) and Non-Sports Bulk Special
# of cards: 33
Estimated Completion Date: TBD

Shipped- 12/10/24
Delivered- 12/11/24
Received per PSA:
Research & ID:
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:


Type: December 1-15 Trading Card Game (TCG) and Non-Sports Bulk Special
# of cards: 21
Estimated Completion Date: TBD

Shipped- 12/10/24
Delivered- 12/11/24
Received per PSA:
Research & ID:
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:



Type: Trading Card Game (TCG) and Non-Sports Bulk
# of cards: 23
Estimated Completion Date: TBD

Shipped- 12/10/24
Delivered- 12/11/24
Received per PSA:
Research & ID:
Grading:
Assembly:
Grades Ready:
QA:
Shipped:



Type: Dec 1-15 Regular Special
# of cards: 1
Estimated Completion Date: 12/30/24

Shipped- 12/10/24
Delivered- 12/11/24
Received per PSA: 12/11/24
Research & ID: 12/12/24
Grading: 12/12/24
Assembly:12/13/24
Grades Ready:12/17/24
QA:12/18/24
Shipped:

[imbluestreak23]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

Didn't want to start a new thread for this so just curious how people's returns have been on $10 - $50 raw card type of cards? Maybe for 2000 - Present specifically?

Asking because I've been putting away 50+ cards to grade in this value range, and I was leaning to send these to PSA for the $16.99 special right now but I'm looking at resale values and I just don't see much rational to send them in. These are cards you typically grade also - Lebron cards, refractor parallels, popular sets etc etc. I'm not seeing the value added for 10's and 9's are practically close to raw for these types of cards. A card doesn't just have to be worth "$17 more" with grading but it's really $21 if you consider Ebay fees (not even incl shipping to PSA and back).

Couple examples (of many):
1.Steph Curry 2016-17 Revolution Astro parallel ... This card has sold RAW for between $12 - $20 recently, a PSA 10 recently sold for $44. PSA 9 prob between $20 - $30. You do the math; I just don't see how it makes sense to grade especially when it's about 50/50 shot at best for a 9 or 10 for these type of cards. This is Steph Curry too ... Do some lesser known player for a card in this value range and premium for 10 is even less.

So basically I don't know what my plan is now. But I'm gonna hold off for now.

These cards had a good run between 2019 and 2021. As others have pointed out, it just doesn't make financial sense to submit things like this given grading cost.

I have no idea how PSA gets as much volume as they get each month (I do know, rhetorical comment). These types of cards are dead if intending to submit to sell, and that's a lot of volume from different types of cards like this.

[MavsRChamps]

^^^ Appreciate the input.

Yeah it's baffling how they get so much cards graded. I agree w/ one of the posters above who said PSA raising the price is a huge reason the market is going downhill. The $1 - $50 cards are 90% of what drives the card market in my opinion. Yes PSA prices don't affect collectors that buy those cards, but driving out resellers hurts the market because they do contribute to higher prices for sure.

PSA profits regardless. The cost to make a PSA case AND even pay employees to grade is so miniscule - they could garner huge profits even at $10 - $14 a card in my opinion. Sure they would have to expand, hire more people, but businesses do that all the time to meet demand.

Instead, PSA chose to shrink demand by raising prices. Sounds harsh, but that's a selfish and very short-sighted decision in my eyes.

I also can't stand that they don't have just basic "best prices" for each level, but instead people have to wait for random specials to grade cards. There is no purpose to this other than hurting customers who can't plan out submissions - it's unnecessary in my opinion.

I digress.

[anusinha]

The problem is in the finding of people who are willing to grade cards. These guys are getting paid $25ish bucks an hour in so cal to stare at cards and pump out 90 grades an hour. The turnover for that job must be very high and training must be minimal. Hence the wide disparity in grades amongst individual graders.

[inaka]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

I also can't stand that they don't have just basic "best prices" for each level, but instead people have to wait for random specials to grade cards. There is no purpose to this other than hurting customers who can't plan out submissions - it's unnecessary in my opinion.

They never will. It's for PSA to make even more "free" money on Collectors Club memberships, even when doubling the membership cost from last time.

Since you need to be a member to take advantage of their grading specials, they get to extract an additional $149-$199 per person annually for volume graders.

So PSA needs the standard base cost to be higher to push memberships, and then they can also use these specials when they anticipate future down time to control the flow of orders and backlog.

[anusinha]

Ive noticed that tcg (pokemon specifically) grading has gotten a LOT tougher recently. Newer sets are only getting 40% gem rates on the pop report.

[MavsRChamps]

Originally Posted by inaka

They never will. It's for PSA to make even more "free" money on Collectors Club memberships, even when doubling the membership cost from last time.

Since you need to be a member to take advantage of their grading specials, they get to extract an additional $149-$199 per person annually for volume graders.

So PSA needs the standard base cost to be higher to push memberships, and then they can also use these specials when they anticipate future down time to control the flow of orders and backlog.

I understand all that. I'm just saying that they can simply use math to determine the exact price that would yield the consistent # of cards submitted that can meet what they can do ... It's simple supply/demand that any business can figure out instead of random specials. Even if your point is good enough reasoning, that still wouldn't explain the uniqueness of the specials (only 90's, only a certain time range, etc.). I don't see any point to the uniqueness of the specials again other than to limit their customers from planning out submissions.

It's just a money grab, like you said. They'd rather double their profit from each customer and have half as many customers than charge less but have more customers (as example). And I don't like that strategy and evident from this thread, many people don't. It's a short-sighted strategy that has already hurt them in my opinion. I mean PSA and the market exploded from 2020-2021, and PSA could have definitely rode that wave higher with some key decisions and moves. But they didn't. Not saying PSA is solely responsible for the market downturn, but they surely didn't do much to stop it by turning off customers like myself.

[waytoomanycards]

Originally Posted by anusinha

Ive noticed that tcg (pokemon specifically) grading has gotten a LOT tougher recently. Newer sets are only getting 40% gem rates on the pop report.

They've been getting a lot more of them lately so maybe the sports card enthusiast graders are trying to make them go away. 9, 9, 9, 9, 9...make it stop...

[inaka]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

I understand all that. I'm just saying that they can simply use math to determine the exact price that would yield the consistent # of cards submitted that can meet what they can do ... It's simple supply/demand that any business can figure out instead of random specials. Even if your point is good enough reasoning, that still wouldn't explain the uniqueness of the specials (only 90's, only a certain time range, etc.). I don't see any point to the uniqueness of the specials again other than to limit their customers from planning out submissions.

I'm just stating what Nat said in interviews.

He said they use specials to throttle the backlog. They know, even before they run a special, how much that special will influence future orders. If they already have a backlog, they aren't going to run an all-sport $15/card special 1980-now, because they will get even more slammed. So instead they run a more unique 1950s football special (or whatever) that has far less broad appeal, and will help them catch up on the backlog, while also catering to club members.

Sometimes what we think is basic math is not so simple. After the pandemic, fast food companies realized they make way more money selling one $5 burger, than selling five $1 burgers, because their cost of goods drops dramatically and so does their need for workers, etc. Same thing with PSA, which essentially the fast food of grading. Lowering prices doesn't help them. It creates a backlog, requires far more resources, and they make less money. So they make way more money by charging a higher base fee and throttling demand via specials.

[Delta5]

Originally Posted by MavsRChamps

^^^ Appreciate the input.

Yeah it's baffling how they get so much cards graded. I agree w/ one of the posters above who said PSA raising the price is a huge reason the market is going downhill. The $1 - $50 cards are 90% of what drives the card market in my opinion. Yes PSA prices don't affect collectors that buy those cards, but driving out resellers hurts the market because they do contribute to higher prices for sure.

PSA profits regardless. The cost to make a PSA case AND even pay employees to grade is so miniscule - they could garner huge profits even at $10 - $14 a card in my opinion. Sure they would have to expand, hire more people, but businesses do that all the time to meet demand.

Instead, PSA chose to shrink demand by raising prices. Sounds harsh, but that's a selfish and very short-sighted decision in my eyes.

I also can't stand that they don't have just basic "best prices" for each level, but instead people have to wait for random specials to grade cards. There is no purpose to this other than hurting customers who can't plan out submissions - it's unnecessary in my opinion.

I digress.

How is it shrink demand when we break ATH almost every month? I'd say they are a bunch of geniuses who know people will still grade with them no matter what now that BGS is pretty much dead. Kudos to them

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by Delta5

How is it shrink demand when we break ATH almost every month? I'd say they are a bunch of geniuses who know people will still grade with them no matter what now that BGS is pretty much dead. Kudos to them

Just like fanatics, unlimited demand for crap products which cost little to produce but they can charge a crap ton for.

[MavsRChamps]

Originally Posted by inaka

I'm just stating what Nat said in interviews.

He said they use specials to throttle the backlog. They know, even before they run a special, how much that special will influence future orders. If they already have a backlog, they aren't going to run an all-sport $15/card special 1980-now, because they will get even more slammed. So instead they run a more unique 1950s football special (or whatever) that has far less broad appeal, and will help them catch up on the backlog, while also catering to club members.

Sometimes what we think is basic math is not so simple. After the pandemic, fast food companies realized they make way more money selling one $5 burger, than selling five $1 burgers, because their cost of goods drops dramatically and so does their need for workers, etc. Same thing with PSA, which essentially the fast food of grading. Lowering prices doesn't help them. It creates a backlog, requires far more resources, and they make less money. So they make way more money by charging a higher base fee and throttling demand via specials.

I get that. I'm not attacking you - I'm just saying the point Nat is making makes sense, but it's still not necessary because there's other ways to ensure you get enough cards coming in ... By simply analyzing specific price points over a certain time period, 6 months, and then from there accurately assessing the proper price. That makes way more sense than just pushing the price up or down arbitrarily for multiple years.

And I agree it is more complex math. I got a 800 on my math SAT; I know the complexity of #'s. I'm just saying it is possible to hire people who can solve this market problem PSA has without doing what they're doing. It's not easy for sure. But Nat or someone is gonna have trouble convincing me that the lowest charge they can provide to simply put a plastic casing over a card that an employee looks at for under a couple minutes is $17 - $21 per. Even restaurants typically have their "cost of food" (not even accounting for paying employees) about 1/3 of the price they charge. No way PSA case materials come anywhere close to $6 to make per. That's the point I'm making - Sure PSA will explain themselves the way you outlined; I can still disagree and say that their decision making has been misguided.