Ultra-Modern Bulk Subs Price Increase
Kep13
Posts: 515 ✭✭✭
Just read it online in an article and have verified in PSA pricing chart...from $9 to $12 per card
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Kep13
Posts: 515 ✭✭✭
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That makes sense to me given it probably takes a good 30 minutes to verify if the card is the blue parallel, the blue chrome parallel, the blue chrome refractor parallel, the blue chrome shimmer refractor parallel, the blue chrome shimmer sepia refractor parallel, or the carolina blue ice parallel. Then it takes another 15 minutes to figure out how to abbreviate "blue chrome shimmer sepia refractor" and so that people can understand what it is yet still fit it on the PSA label.
There was another thread about this. It poofed after just a few hours. But in my opinion the $12 per card isn’t that bad, but the $15 per card for 50 card minimum is what really hurts for people that don’t have hundreds of cards to send in.
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
no reason this should go poof. I am just throwing the price change out there since I haven't seen a post or email about it..I am hoping this slows down the influx of modern cards that are being submitted...but, all of the Zions are going for mega-bucks, so people probably aren't going to hesitate to continue to submit them as $3 a card isn't much when the PSA 10 Zions are going for $300, $500, $1k, etc....
Yes, there was no reason for it to go poof. I was simply venting and maybe it was my tone.
$12-$15 is expensive if you're sending in cards between $1-$10
I just had to ship to my 244 cards off to SGC and they gave me the $8 per card rate which was great.
My plan now is to sell SGC cards and use the $ to purchase the PSA cards that I want/need.
I wish they woulda told us about the increase instead of the sneak attack method, I would sent in a few orders like everyone else too.
collecting 1977 topps baseball in psa 9 and psa 10
Probably why they didn't tell everyone lol. They would have gotten hammered for a few days more than normal.
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
Dear PSA,
I would like my cards graded for 3 dollars a piece. I demand this. thank you.
Does that work ?
.
As a Canadian these tiers make submitting a losing proposition. Our dollar is crap + shipping + cost per card means no subs for me for a while.
That said I don’t blame PSA. Demand is there, this is good business.
Unfortunately for the hobby this means subbing will only be for dealers, hard to justify the cost for a collector unless you have really interesting stuff.
It’s only on 2017 and newer cards.
The driving force behind this is all the new “collectors” subbing endless 17 and newer Prizm football and basketball cards and Update baseball cards. I set up at a show in Dallas last weekend. The guy next to me had 3 display cases loaded with such cards mainly base Zions and Lukas that are getting pumped like crazy. About 10 seconds into my first conversation with him I knew we were nothing a like. There were crowds of his followers always coming by to talk about money. He was giving advice on how to make money in the hobby to anyone who would listen as well. On the last day an older guy came by with some cards in his hand and asked what he thought about at them. One was a 1956 Topps Ted Williams. The guy picked it up looked and me with the card in his hand and asked me what it was. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. All that to be said there are a world of these guys out there flooding PSA with these products. I used to grade a lot of 17 and newer Heritage and Base sets for player collection. I am done with that for the most part. I will be focusing on 70s and 80s player runs now. And Key rcs up to 16.
I do not blame PSA for raising the price on the Ultra Modern one bit. I have more to say about the new breed of “collector” but do not feel like typing much more about it. Needless to say I saw his cell phone background of a bunch of 100s fanned out with a graded Prizm RC in a 10 holder on the front out of the corner of my eye, and that told me all I needed to know about the guy.
you realize that not only did they not go back down, but they actually went up AGAIN and even eliminated a huge mid tier declared value level?
Yep the price was only temporary. Once again I do not blame PSA one bit.
Yeah, the ultra modern space is a mystery to me and I understand why PSA would raise prices and try to slow down the influx of cards. I've always felt the difference between a 9 and a 10 is either a slight centering difference or merely in the "eye of the grader". That was for 70's and 80's cards. Now, with ultra modern I can see almost no difference between a 9 or a 10 other than centering. Every single Zion card is coming out of the pack and going into a holder. The prizm and other expensive cards are on good card stock too and printing today is almost perfect compared to pre 1990 when MANY, MANY cards had printing defects. So, unless the card gets scratched, if it is centered it should be a 10 IMO. So why would anyone pay 7x-10x more for a 10 than a 9 ? I have no idea, but it is happening all over the board. I have always been a buy the card, not the holder guy, but I think that is changing with ultra modern.
Collecting:
post world war II HOF rookie
76 topps gem mint 10 commons 9 stars
Arenado purple refractors(Rockies) Red (Cardinals)
successful deals with Keevan, Grote15, 1954, mbogoman
you may think that at first, but the zion 248 prizm is nowhere near a guaranteed 10 out the pack. and while stock is nice, the quality control isn't.
first off, you have notorious centering issues. both t/b and ltr. most cards are either pushed to the right and/or favor heavy top centering. then you get to the "rc" logo shield. they are frequently mistamped. then the backs always have heavy scratching. throw in the normal prizm surface scratches outta the pack and occasional gloss pools here and there and it's no cake walk.
but, when it comes to ultra modern, i am a buy the card, not the holder guy. of course i don't buy ANY modern holders. i sub them and let the guys fight for them.
2019 prizm wax is a no brainer busting and subbing. there are so many cards that are over $250 that dropping $750 on a box is a no brainer. pull a ja or zi card that grades a 9 and you made half your money back already. hell, second year luka and lebron laker base cards (easy 10s) were fetching $500 mid season. think they are down to $225ish now, but still. throw in the rest of the rc class w guys like rui, rj, coby, herro and it's very easy to double your money. land a good silver and easy triple.
best news is w covid and lack of college basketball season there is very little hype about this years draft class. 2020 prizm will obviously be hyped upon release but a ton of focus is gonna remain on this 2019 rookie class and this base card revolution that is happening. when the season starts back up and the flippers get back into basketball, the base zions, jas & now tyler herro will be at $750 a pop by themselves.
Still a ton of ultra modern cards that are 7s out of the pack in my opinion. For me to sub ultra modern now it has to have a value to me. (A card I want in a holder) or be a card with a high price tag either 9 or 10. If it is less than $50 in a 9 it is not worth subbing in my opinion.
see, i disagree. respectfully. if i am dropping $750 on a box, i'm gonna sub anything that's gonna be a $50 return, net $30 all day every day. those crumbs add up. and there are tons of easy $30 crumbs bc these guys these days want 30 of the same junk base card bc they are treating them more like day traded stocks. and they can have all of them from me. rather have a huge stack of thirty-dollar bills than a box of cards just collecting dust.
collectors are still the only ones going after the silvers and color...which are the only ones i'll be keeping, if they 10.
i've truly never seen anything like this. it's like buying a $5 cheeseburger meal and then someone offers you $3 for the leftover wrapper, $1.50 for the empty cup and $1 for the used napkin after you're done.
Oh I agree. The “investors” have paid for every pc card I have bought in the late 6-12 months. I enjoy their brand of stupidity but I do not buy new wax typically unless Heritage, but I have been through about 50 or so Acuna and Soto PSA 10s because I bought a ton of 2018 update when it came out. My point is from what I have seen on recent subs with my current gem rate the $15 price point does not have me wanting to send as many. I just plan on being more selective that is all.
I don’t see the Herro Zion or Moran getting that high but I could be wrong. There are just sooo many 10s. Every show I go to every dealer has a case full of them it seems
but psa 9 sotos are still at $60? $100 a month or so ago. in previous years, they woulda sat in my boxes too. of course no one woulda paid over the grading fee either. "sure. have at them fellas". 😉
I send those. Just not Austin Meadows
up to $15. good news is they lowered the minimum cards from 100 all the way down to 20.
then the next sub tier is only $50. well $75 if you're not a member.
but they sold out of platinum memberships though.
so. they didn't lie to you. the increase to $12 was "technically" only temporary and only lasted a few months. 😉😂😉
you could say they didn't give you ALL the information though. of course, they were never required to do so in the first place.
confusious say "he who hesitates, masterba..."
something tells me the riot gear is still being put on though?!?
whatever you do, don't read this thread:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1044743/welp-that-pricing-increase-happened-sorta-i-guess
but yes, there was a precursor to the last $15/ price increase. there were threads on every board, i believe.
Why are you disappointed?
It’s people abusing renewing their platinum membership every week to get a deal on graded cards.
They fall under economy, the most submitted category BY FAR. It makes complete sense to suspend them both temporarily to help get caught up! Think about it: do you really think PSA would suspend their most popular grading tier for submitting cards unless it were absolutely vital to get caught up on the backlog to get turnaround times back down? Come on.
Inventing a category?
You said PSA IS THE GOLD STANDARD. So why are you being surprised about establishing a new standard in grading?
PSA has stated that an overwhelming amount of cards submitted are “ultra-modern” for most likely the very thing you pointed out: getting 10’s.
Now people complain about the price of grading being too high so THEY can’t make a profit. PuhLEESE.
Look at all the upgrades PSA has made the past few months too to keep up with demand and chip away at the backlog. Clearly their backlog won’t disappear over night.
Don’t like the increase? Don’t submit the cards until the prices does go back to normal.
Everyone complains about wait times and now a whopping 3$ price increase, and act like PSA is doing absolutely nothing about it, despite making SUBSTANTIAL improvements from the top to the bottom.
I for one believe the changes they’ve made are fantastic, and certainly work a lot better with what I’m planning on submitting.
There’s enough negativity in the hobby the way it is. Glad you’re taking yours elsewhere. 👋
bye felecia.
the funny thing is you weren't even taking advantage of the price break to begin w if you went 49/50. but good luck w that iron fist/must accommodate me thing.
do you even hear yourself? you want faster but don't wanna pay for it. so what are you going to do instead...you're gonna exit the hobby you supposedly love, claim you got good at over $150 when you weren't even subbing 100 cards to get the best price in the first place?
i pray the electric and water company doesn't raise their prices on your family. demanding, stinky, cold and unable to see your raw card collection at night would be a terrible way to go thru life.
ok, youve got to be trolling, william wallace. after this last battle cry, i dont know whether to take you seriously or not. but just in case, the “venom” you speak of has nothing to do w psa’s price increase. and youll be hard pressed to find one person, including myself that is throwing a celebratory party about it.
conversely, what youve been called out on is your rally cry for arms, your demands or ultimatums and the apparent delusions that whatever talks you plan to have w psa over losing your business of a 50 card sub every year or so is just a little pretentious.
again this isnt about psa, price increases or anything other than your unrealistic, how dare they or else, veruca salt expectations. and we all know what happened to her.
“dont care how, i want it now”
Ten points to @blurryface for working historical and literary references into his reply. Nicely done.
Most likely I will be leaving the hobby unless PSA accommodates me.
WOW
there's two types of friends in the world. the one that will sit there and act like you don't have a piece of lettuce stuck in your teeth and actually lets you walk around all night looking like an idiot and then there's the friend that will stop you mid sentence and say "hey, bud. go to the bathroom and check yourself. you got a head of lettuce stuck in between your teeth".
i'd rather have the latter wingman each and every time.
how about you?
all i'm trying to tell you is maybe rethink your strategy and perhaps adapt instead of expecting an entire company to adapt to you. darwin was a pretty smart dude. and remember, tough love is still love.
Well said!
Most industry price increases are nothing more than passed on costs associated with growth, ongoing operations, and trying to provide the services to which people are asking to be provided.
I could see the first 2020 price increases were designed to cope with the additional covid-19 related cost increases required. I saw this in my own work and saw they had to lay people off because of it as well.
I could see the second cost increase was designed to cope with the hiring, training, and continued operational development costs. This one no issues again- happened in my own industry.
I could also see the third cost increase ( ultra jacked way up) designed to deal with the additional business requirements associated with the growth of the ULTRA Modern card market and all these Breakers . This one I also again had no issues with. I could clearly see the explosion of the Ultra Modern 2017 plus stuff with Mahomes and the new NFL stars and all the new hoop Stars plus a next gen plethora of baseball and hockey stars emerging. Add in Industry related pimp groups of breakers of the "newest" stuff and voila- price increase to meet demand.
The ONLY Price increase that bothers me that I'd like an understanding of is what changed in the modern card market that required a nearly $3 price increase in 2020 ? This particular price increase is the only one that bothers me and it bothers me the most because it's a nearly 150% increase in price from 24 months ago.
Anyone want to make a guess- or Todd maybe you can provide some perspective to it ?
Jeff
good post, jeff! clearly you understand the explosions going on w/i the ultra modern market. not that i have any insight to answer your final question, but just from my personal experience of just ponying up $20 to grade a card w the hopes of getting it back w/i 3-4 months vs the bulk 6-7 months time frame coupled w the removal of the $20 economy level for single submitters all together, i'd venture to say that a lot of folks out there might have had the same mindset knowing how quickly things can move. perhaps, they thought the additional $8 per card was more important than having the cards tied up for 3 more months, too?
with all that being said, my simple guess is that psa just realized there was money being left on the table. not scientific or anything but maybe the answer is simply "because we could"?
after all, i think i read the last price increase resulted in MORE subs, not less? which is kinda mind blowing. or maybe it's as simple as they were just trying to slow the influx of subs last time and it back fired?
eta: knowing the previous explosion on top of a significant preexisting backlog, my mindset w this last price increase is that $15/ is not worth a probable 8 month time frame to get a modern card back. and $50 to get it back in 3 months knowing how hard they seem to be grading these days had all but curbed my subs. i did reach out to a group subber for a few subs on cards i hadn't had time to review and prep, but from here on out, i'll just be sitting on the sidelines waiting on everything i have to pop and then see what happens from there.