Is PSA ever bringing back value submissions for "set builders"?

262Runner

I have a few hundred cards ready from submission. Some star/key cards but mostly commons I need to complete or make progress on my registry sets. It makes no sense for me to submit cards today or even at the $20 level. What are the odds of PSA bringing back Registry level submits below $20 or even $10 per card? I have not submitted cards in several years. My last submission was about 150 cards at either $5 or $7 each.

1951WheatiesPremium

If you’re also waiting for Jesus to return, he might be back sooner, though Vegas has at it even money.

Jokes aside, the rumor was that when things get back to normal that via CC specials and/or bulk that there would be more collector friendly price points once again.

The caveat - mine, not from PSA - would be that as long as there are cards to grade for significantly more than those price points there seems no rush to lower rates. As a realist, I have a hard time believing that the average Joe will be able to get a reasonable turnaround time for $10 or less ever again - I’d guess more like $20 or more.

I sincerely hope I am wrong about this but with people lined up at the National and a dearth of valuable cards it just seems wise to keep cranking out the $200 per card orders for a while.

Honestly, why wouldn’t you?

Mickey71

It seems vintage set collectors will be left out. If $20 is a price point....then forget it. This all should be interesting and I wonder how this all plays out. 1950's, 1960's and 1970's set collectors who submit for grading...... I just do not know how this will return. These cards need to basically be submitted at like $6-$8 and many from those years are still not even remotely worth it. I'm wondering in the future will it be very specific monthly specials like $7 per card for 1967 baseball valued under $100. Then the next month 1968 baseball...etc. I got very lucky and kind of saw this coming and graded 95% of all the cards that needed grading. I have about 50 more; but only 10 that absolutely have to be graded. The other 40 or so would do ok sold raw.

1959

I totally agree with 1951 and Mickey. I think there will be specials for commons (set collectors) but there will be a long , long waiting time. Mabe a year or more because they figure that if you are putting a graded set together (say 1978) you are not in any hurry to sell the cards. Greg Morris will be doing great business and the value of a graded set will appreciate greatly if you already have one. low-pops will explode over the years. Perhaps , other grading companies will spring up and only grade commons? It will be interesting.

262Runner

I agree with all. As much as I hope to complete more sets, pricing to grade commons or super long wait times makes that unreasonable. This will likely drive up the pricing of graded commons which in turn will create more submissions from big sellers.... Paying $30 - $50 for mid '60's commons in 8 or 9 seems crazy.

JRR300

@1959 said:

value of a graded set will appreciate greatly if you already have one. low-pops will explode over the years. Perhaps , other grading companies will spring up and only grade commons? It will be interesting.

As a graded card collector, I wasn't doing it for the $$$$, but hoped that I'd be able to get most of my money back when I decided to sell. I was always leery about spending the big money because I wasn't sure who else would be willing to spend when I decided to sell. Now, with grading becoming so much more expensive, I do believe that vintage sets will become more of a collectors item. Older graded cards, if people do want them, will most likely become much more expensive as the supply will dry up due to the increased grading costs. JMO

jay0791

I collect Yankees team Topps sets. I certainly can't justify grading as if you hit a PSA 10 it is still not worth it.
I am referring to the commons that are 90+ % of the set. At current pricing for grading nobody will be grading 2010's & 2020's commons. If I can't work to complete a set I won't start it.

jradke4

My gut tells me that PSA doesn't care to bring back those prices. They are more than likely loss leaders for them while >$200 a card is lots of profit. I do not think that PSA will ever have a price point at any time in the future that is geared to the collector. Those days are past.

Not having submitted in over a year, having a nice supply of extra cash has been good. Some times a hard detox works!!!

prgsdw

This too shall pass. I can definitely see a time in the future with $10-12 grading again. Maybe it's 2 years away, maybe longer but things just don't go up forever without a correction. PSA will want to keep those new employees busy and one way to do that will be to drop prices and incentivize submissions.

DBesse27

I hope you’re right Steve, but I personally don’t expect it. Like somebody else said, I saw this coming and submitted almost 100 items early this year, right before the price hike, all items for my registries. So glad I did because I don’t think I’d ever be able to do so in the future.

bobsbbcards

I think the CC special mentioned above similar to "Fab 60's Baseball" (< $100) for $10 a card will almost certainly come to pass. Vegas odds on that are at 110%.

lharts77

Are there any tools or apps to estimate a grade? Similar to the original poster, I also want to send in a few cards but want to avoid the ones that will definitely get a low grade. I'm sort of new to collecting and don't have the best eye for it yet .

gemint

@lharts77 said:
Are there any tools or apps to estimate a grade? Similar to the original poster, I also want to send in a few cards but want to avoid the ones that will definitely get a low grade. I'm sort of new to collecting and don't have the best eye for it yet .

The best thing to do is pick a few at the top of your pile and post high resolution scans on here. We will be able to give you a good idea of what grades to expect. Of course not everything is visible in a scan. For example a light surface wrinkle will not show but will lead to a 6 at best. But we can let you know what we think they will grade based on what can be seen in the scan (corners, centering, print, etc).

JRR300

and you should be super critical of the corners; any flaw, no matter how minute, will knock it down to probably an 8 or less, no matter how perfect the rest of the card is....learned that the hard way.

JoeBanzai

As a "player collector" I would like to see something for us too.

I have several items I would like to add to my Harmon Killebrew Master set, but am not going to pay ridiculous prices to get them graded.

I just don't see PSA doing anything for either group of collectors with grading fees at $200.00 per card.

I was hoping at these prices NO ONE would be sending in anything for grading, PSA would quickly get caught up and prices would come down more and faster than they have.

Time will tell. Meanwhile, I care less and less about ever getting my cards graded.

DMasci

The trickle down issue of the high cost of grading is being able to find cards already graded at reasonable prices. The cost of having cards graded only makes sense if you have high dollar cards which leaves out the majority of cards. I collect NFL HOFers and while it makes sense to pay to grade the Namaths, Paytons, Starrs in the group it's much harder to justify for say a Gene Hickerson card or Jack Butler. Therefore, when you find one already graded the asking prices are high because there aren't many graded and likely won't be in the near future. Unless something changes I really don't see ever finishing this set but it's been fun so far.

PaulMaul

Yes, the supply of graded vintage cards on eBay has slowed to an absolute trickle. Virtually the only cards posted are the same recycled outrageously priced stuff from Probstein and the usual suspects. It has drastically affected my collecting, I grew used to being able to cherry pick cards I liked from the deluge of offerings from 4SC and various smaller sellers. At this point, in a given day, only a few cards if any are listed, and I usually hate all of them. Rough time for set collecting.

262Runner

@DMasci said:
The trickle down issue of the high cost of grading is being able to find cards already graded at reasonable prices. The cost of having cards graded only makes sense if you have high dollar cards which leaves out the majority of cards. I collect NFL HOFers and while it makes sense to pay to grade the Namaths, Paytons, Starrs in the group it's much harder to justify for say a Gene Hickerson card or Jack Butler. Therefore, when you find one already graded the asking prices are high because there aren't many graded and likely won't be in the near future. Unless something changes I really don't see ever finishing this set but it's been fun so far.

Sadly I agree. My set building days may be coming to an end. Paying $30+ for a '60's common in a PSA 8 slab is unreasonable. I do have a partial 72 set in PSA 8, maybe those commons will increase from $10 to $30+?

davin72

PSA is very proud of their set registry but if they don't find a way to get the prices back down close to where they were then a HUGE portion of the set registry will gone for good. All the vintage set/ team builders will leave cause it won't be economical for them to have most cards graded.

bobsbbcards

Baseball Card Exchange has a pricing model similar to the following:

Fee: 15% of the retail price of the item to pay for authentication and encapsulation with a maximum of $1,000 and a minimum of $8.

If PSA had enough graders/slabbers/researchers, etc., this would be a viable model for them as well. If the 15%, or the $1,000, or the $8 needed to change to maximize profits, so be it. None of the three numbers would need to change by much (the $1,000 would be the most likely to get bumped up).

If I want to get my entire 1971 OPC baseball set graded, it would cost me $8 a card for most of them and 15% of the retail price for the stars/scarce single prints. Being the optimist that I am and using current VCP for PSA 7's, there are 91 cards that retail for more than $53 (the cut-off point for 15% vs. $8). These 91 cards come to $13,742.

Grading fees = $13,742 x 15% + 661 x $8 = $7,349.30

Not cheap, but certainly doable if someone is intent on grading a complete (and huge) set. If some of the cards graded higher or lower, the "retail" price would change, but the submitter won't complain since (a) they end up with a PSA 8 worth a googol dollars or (b) they end up with a PSA 5 or 6 and save a few bucks on grading.

Those who say "Well, PSA will now grade everything a PSA 10 to increase their grading fees!" I'd counter with "Well, PSA would go out of business in about an hour if they're seen as grading cards incorrectly in order to increase their grading fees!" Businesses have every reason to STAY IN BUSINESS. Full stop.

davin72

I could live with the BBCE model. Doing team sets its not hard finding the stars....there are plenty of them...its the commons that are the hardest when doing a team set. Nobody will have those commons graded if the price stays to high and if that happens then a huge portion of the set registry will come to a halt.