Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment only and is not financial advice. See full legal disclaimers here.
Today PSA announced a new “Standard” grading tier at $59.99 per card. This is $20 cheaper than the previous lowest tier at $79.99 per card. The service will become available on September 14 and has an estimated turnaround time of 90-100 business days. It will insure cards valued up to $1,000.
This is not a replacement for the existing “Value” tiers. PSA stated in their announcement that the “Value” level of service will remain paused for the time being. The “Standard” tier is an intermediate grading service PSA is opening while it works through it’s current backlog. They indicated additional lower priced service levels will return in phases. These new “Standard” submissions will be processed after already existing “Value” and “Bulk” orders. That helps explain the long 90-100 business day turn around time despite the $60 per card price.
The $79.99 Regular Tier renamed “Priority”
PSA also indicated the $79.99 per card “Regular” tier has been renamed “Priority”. Turn around times for the “Priority” service level remains 70-80 business days and has a maximum insured value of $1,500. This is mostly a name change. Nothing else is materially different.
Express Gets Considerably More Expensive
Express pricing has been increased to $199 per card. The estimated turn around time is still 20-30 business days and maximum insured stays at $2,500. PSA states the price increase was necessary to keep demand from overwhelming the current capacity.
Walk-Through Is Renamed Premier
The newly named “Premier” service level will cost $599 per card. For those that want it fast, the turnaround time is 7-10 business days. The max insured value on cards is $10,000. To reiterate, this is purely a service name change.
Above is a table of the complete breakdown of PSA’s current service levels. The PSA backlog is improving, but its still enormous. The current active backlog is still approximately 10 million cards. The willingness to open a $60 tier suggests they feel things are improving, but they clearly aren’t comfortable enough to open up the bulk and value tiers. This is still a big improvement from 2021. I graded very few cards, but when I did I paid $150. And that was the cheapest service level for 12-15 months.
PSA Now Has A Grading Facility In Europe
Starting September 15, TCG collectors in the EU can submit their cards directly to PSA’s Frankfurt facility. Frankfurt will offer all service levels for cards, as well as packs and autographs. This is a big boost for European collectors because they no long have to deal with US international shipping and fees for PSA submissions.
My Take
It’s an encouraging sign PSA is already bringing back cheaper service levels. It suggests the backlog is moving in the right direction. In 2021, it took nearly a year and a half for prices to return to this level. But at this point I’m more concerned about the turn around time than the price.
A 90-100 business day turnaround is a long time to wait. Consider this scenario: You’re trying to land a PSA 10 of a card. You send it in, wait four to five months for it to come back and its a 9. You then have to sell it, buy another copy, resubmit, and start the clock all over again. That process could easily take a year or more. At some point it becomes far more attractive to buy the PSA 10 already graded.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, long turnaround times can hurt the market because collectors lose interest when they can’t turn over inventory quickly enough. I saw that dynamic play out in 2021. There are already some early signs of the market cooling. Certain sealed products are down 40% from their highs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some softening in modern graded Pokemon cards as well. It’s completely normal given the run up over the last couple of years. For now, with a $59.99 per card price and a 90-100 business day turnaround, I’ll probably continue targeting cards that are already graded. If either grading fees come down or turnaround time improve, I’ll reassess.