Wait time
magician45
Posts: 63 ✭
What's the average wait time to get cards back graded from PSA? Also, is it worth it to pay get a membership with them ? Thanks.
1
magician45
Posts: 63 ✭
Comments
Do you want to grade cards at the "Value" tier?
You'll see them by oh about....the next pandemic.
2022
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ignore list -Basebal21
This may help you:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1043831/grade-poppage-thread-through-date-estimation
Wow, that bad. Says you have to wait 12 weeks just to get them into processing. Maybe I should embark on a new career as a card grader. Sounds like an "in demand" service.
The thing is, this isn’t changing anytime soon. With zero competition in grading, PSA has no motivation to hire more folks.
My collecting blog: http://ctcard.wordpress.com
That is an improvement. Just a few weeks ago that same message said it would take 16 weeks. If you browse around on their site you will find where they claim to have invested in robotics to speed up the process of entering cards into the system. How hard can it really be to enter items into a computer? We have done all the work filling out the forms before we submit. Seems to me more A LOT MORE graders need to be hired. But as someone stated above, PSA is really the only place to send cards so from a business perspective why would you hire more people when you know you will continue to receive business regardless of customer satisfaction....
On another note, it would appear that you aren’t sending cards in bulk since you were asking about the membership. The only reason to have the membership is to have access to value/bulk submissions. Those are the ones that are taking 6-9 months. If you are looking at sending just a few cards you have to use the regular service or above, as economy is no longer available. Regular service and above are still reasonable about getting cards back fairly quickly. I have a regular submission that arrived at PSA on 1/11/21. It hit the assembly stage this past Friday, 2/12/21. I would imagine I will have it back sometime next week so round trip of about a month and a half. Express service is running at a little over a month. In my opinion unless the value of your card dictates that you use express, I would recommend using regular since there isn’t much difference in turnaround time.
If they have zero competition, then how come there is currently a 8 month turnaround at Beckett?
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ignore list -Basebal21
With the demand for PSA cards and the lower standard of quality at Beckett - my guess is it's way understaffed there and a simple uptick in demand.
Would you buy a PSA 8 Jordan that was Beckett or PSA graded? Buy the card, I know - but holder does matter in that case. So why bother doing Beckett if PSA is the same wait time - what's the benefit?
My collecting blog: http://ctcard.wordpress.com
Thanks, you all are a good source of information. Yes, I am new to the grading process (though not to collecting which I've done since the 1970's). Although I don't find it necessary to grade all my good cards, it would be nice to grade some of them, especially the ones I might sell. For I notice if you sell on Ebay the PSA grading commands a much better price and demand and tends to get a lot of bids. It says the 20 dollar economy level is not available ( why even print it then on the website?). Key question though, I do have a 1986 Jordan rookie Fleer and two rookie 1979 Topps Gretzky's which I prize. They look excellent to me, but I know the grading standards can be "funny" (for lack of a better word). I'm curious what I would declare value on them? Go lower or go higher? I'm assuming if you send them a bunch of money to grade the Jordan and it comes in at a lower grade they do not refund you, so maybe going in lower is better? Happy medium maybe? If my Jordan comes back 9 or 10 though I guess I am golden either way.
If you're on the fence between submission levels, this. You may get upcharged to the higher fee if it comes back higher, but there's no refund if it comes back lower (presumably since you still got a faster service).
Sometimes, it's still worth it to go higher if you need something back faster (in time for a HOF induction run up, hot rookie that you want back quickly, etc.)
Yes, I did know that sometimes they upcharge you. Of course if my Gretzky's or Jordan came back an 8 or above I suppose I would not mind. Torn of whether to keep those or sell those. They are the prize of my collection and I know I would never be able to afford to get another one of those if I sell, but damn they are valued high now, so it is tempting. Either way I need them graded.