PSA grading, how slow is it?

Dgilbert

So being very new to trading card grading. I have never submitted cards for grading before, but am procrastinating on sending 5 cards to PSA for grading at $100/card.
Could someone comment on how long the whole process might take?
(Is the market for marvel universe cards going to crash before my cards are returned lol!!!)

Chicago1976

How slow? My last PSA order, a 20 card special, took over a year (August 2020 - September 2021).

parthur1607

@Dgilbert said:
yup they will be for sale after grading. Seems people are holding on to there cards and waiting. So "IF" there is some sort of price reduction they will again get overwhelmed with submissions and it will go full circle again. I personally don't have the kind of time to wait around for something that may never happen.

You say you don’t have time to sit around and wait for something that may never happen, yet you also said if these cards came back a PSA 9 you would break even. Out of 5 cards you would do well to get 3 PSA 10. That would be 60%. Most people don’t get a 30% gem rate, especially not first time submitters. I would strongly advise waiting. Sure the prices may go down while you wait but if your cards aren’t PSA 10 then you could end up only breaking even or losing money. A few things to consider before deciding to submit. 1) The card needs to be worth at least $500 to submit at the $100 level and there are probably plenty of people that would say it should be worth more to justify sending at $100. 2) Where did the cards come from? Did you get them out of packs or buy them as singles? If they came out of packs your chances are better that they grade a 10. If you bought them as singles from someone else there is a high probability that the seller already determined that card wasn’t worth grading and sold it raw. 3) Look those cards over multiple times TRYING to find flaws. Most people can tell you that their first submission didn’t turn out very well and most of us were fortunate enough to use submission vouchers to send in a few free cards to get the sense of what grading standards were like.

I’m not trying to knock your cards or discourage you. Just offering a realistic perspective on what grading can be like.

Cakes

For the 5 for $100/card I would say do you like to gamble? They have started to introduce $50 a card but you have to get in a lottery.

Are you planning on selling after grading? If not you could always wait.

The Marvel Universe cards will continue to do well.

Dgilbert

yup they will be for sale after grading. Seems people are holding on to there cards and waiting. So "IF" there is some sort of price reduction they will again get overwhelmed with submissions and it will go full circle again. I personally don't have the kind of time to wait around for something that may never happen.

MisterTim1962

PSA grading is so slow, they measure progress in years, not days!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rFPRJTvcx_c

80sOPC

If you’ve never graded before expect to be disappointed. You will want the grading to be worth it in am 8,9 and 10 because you should expect 8s

@Dgilbert said:
yup they will be for sale after grading. Seems people are holding on to there cards and waiting. So "IF" there is some sort of price reduction they will again get overwhelmed with submissions and it will go full circle again. I personally don't have the kind of time to wait around for something that may never happen.

ArtVandelay

Lebron's grandson will be in the NBA before you get your cards back from PSA if submitted today.

Dgilbert

@80sOPC said:
If you’ve never graded before expect to be disappointed. You will want the grading to be worth it in am 8,9 and 10 because you should expect 8s

Yes PSA 10 would be profitable, but the $$ difference between psa 9 and psa 10 cards drops very significantly. If the cards came back from grading at a 9 any sales at todays market would be to break even lol. I'm hoping all the upcoming marvel superhero movie releases, and TV shows will further up the market value. In the past year or two most planed superhero movie releases were postponed. So 2022 - 2023 movie releases have been a long awaited item. Got my fingers crossed that these cards will still climb higher in value.

Dgilbert

@parthur1607 said:

@Dgilbert said:

Where did the cards come from? Did you get them out of packs or buy them as singles? If they came out of packs your chances are better that they grade a 10. If you bought them as singles from someone else there is a high probability that the seller already determined that card wasn’t worth grading and sold it raw.

I’m not trying to knock your cards or discourage you. Just offering a realistic perspective on what grading can be like.

Thanks, The history of these cards is that I bought 2.5 boxes of them brand new in 1990, first series marvel universe. I opened them put them in card protectors, then into storage. So the cards today are just as they were 32 yrs ago. recently I took them from storage as I noticed the value of these cards when graded was quite good. I researched what cards from the series were of high value and focused my attention on them. Example card #18 Thor, has recent sales of $545 on ebay. I took all my #18 cards (I have 7 of them) and chose what I thought to be the best one. I measured the border and determined it to be 50/50, I used a 10X magnification to look at the surface area and looked for manufacturing flaws, printing flaws. The cards have not been damaged in any way since I purchased them. The corners seem perfect as well as the edges. I did this process to all 5 of the cards I hope to get graded. I have reviewed the population reports and auction prices realized on the PSA site. Looked at #10s and #9 graded cards to see if I could find the differences between grades, I find that centering issues seem to be the main issue from what my untrained newbie eye could see.
Suggestions on anything else I could be doing would be greatly appreciated.

Dgilbert

DotStore

I hope your prediction comes true and the new Marvel movies do something to give a bump in the 1990 Impel Marvel Universe cards. I missed my chance selling some during the peak period last year.

Since the boxes you opened were brand new -- did you happen to pull any of the holograms? Those holograms in a PSA 10 would be amazing (they are condition sensitive and prone to surface scratches and being off-centered).

parthur1607

Ok I can see you have done plenty of research. Most people just jump right in and start subbing. From the look of the card you posted I would have to agree that is most likely a 10. Make sure to check the back for centering and blemishes as well. I’ve seen a few 10s get dropped to a 9 because of issues on the back. If you have 5 that look that good I would definitely say go ahead and send them. Follow PSA on some of the social media apps and try to get an allocation for an economy level sub for $50. That’s $50 more for you when you sell it! Good luck

Dgilbert

@parthur1607 said:

If you have 5 that look that good I would definitely say go ahead and send them.

@DotStore said:

I missed my chance selling some during the peak period last year.

Those holograms in a PSA 10 would be amazing (they are condition sensitive and prone to surface scratches and being off-centered).

Yup I have more than 5 in that condition. I have 600 or so cards to choose from. Sry I should have put the card history and my homework research in the original post...

Yes I pulled all 5 holograms, got very lucky with that. Unfortunately as you say they have major centering issues and sadly mine are as such. I did see a hologram magneto card either at auction or sold ( I don't recall exactly) with a price tag of $9999.00. Wow I had to look at mine again...lol.

My prediction for these cards is that they will be on the rise towards the end of 2022 and into 2023. I have done some market research as to what drives the demand for these cards up. I can share my research in private if interested...😉

ccmorgan

I just submitted 3 cards. Mailed them 1-18-22, two of the cards were the $100 variety and they're supposed to be delivered today according to tracking.
So about 22 days door to door not years. lol

threeofsix

@ccmorgan said:
I just submitted 3 cards. Mailed them 1-18-22, two of the cards were the $100 variety and they're supposed to be delivered today according to tracking.
So about 22 days door to door not years. lol

Good luck!!!

Dgilbert

@parthur1607 said:

@DotStore said:

Since the boxes you opened were brand new -- did you happen to pull any of the holograms? Those holograms in a PSA 10 would be amazing (they are condition sensitive and prone to surface scratches and being off-centered).

here is one of my hologram card, It's obviously off centered. with some laser/printing issues. Still a nice card to have in my own personal collection. I have one complete set of 162 cards and all 5 hologram cards put away for myself. All the rest will be at some point for sale as raw cards, the ones that will never gain the popularity needed to be high value. If my first attempt at selling graded cards works out then the high value cards will get graded and sold in that manor. I bought the boxes of cards 32 years ago on a whim that they would follow in the superhero comic books foot steps and become of value some day. Looks like it might just pay off for me now lol. The bonus here is that in the past 3 weeks since I started this process I am now hooked as a card collector...

DotStore

@ccmorgan said:
I just submitted 3 cards. Mailed them 1-18-22, two of the cards were the $100 variety and they're supposed to be delivered today according to tracking.
So about 22 days door to door not years. lol

Wow! Do you mean you sent them to PSA on January 18th and all 3 cards were graded and delivered to you yesterday? What level was the 3rd card? I'm just wondering if that 3rd card was such a high level that they just graded your entire order and turned them around quickly.

ccmorgan

@DotStore said:

@ccmorgan said:
I just submitted 3 cards. Mailed them 1-18-22, two of the cards were the $100 variety and they're supposed to be delivered today according to tracking.
So about 22 days door to door not years. lol

Wow! Do you mean you sent them to PSA on January 18th and all 3 cards were graded and delivered to you yesterday? What level was the 3rd card? I'm just wondering if that 3rd card was such a high level that they just graded your entire order and turned them around quickly.

3rd card was $600 level walk through. That one was graded and returned in a week. Yes I was shocked from what I read here about long grading times. They were all logged into the system right away and that was nice for me knowing they had them in the system and the package just didn't show delivered then get lost in their building or whatever.

This was my first ever submission to PSA.

MisterTim1962

Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

Dgilbert

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

I was surprised when I read that as well. I assumed they were talking about just the delivery time, time it took from being sent to being received at PSA, not the whole grading and return delivery...my bad.

ccmorgan

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

I agree, and have no idea. I was figuring 6 months at least but was surprised to see the cards logged into their system ASAP.
Maybe TCG doesn't have the backlog that baseball, football or basket ball cards do assuming they have different departments to grade different cards?

DotStore

For the $600 Walk-Through level, it does say on their site that they are complete through 2/7/2022. So it seems at that level you can get quick turnaround times. Just not sure how/why your other 2 cards at the Regular level were turned around so fast.

Either way -- congrats on your first successful submission!!! I am curious if the grades were in line with what you expected?

threeofsix

Regular service was going very quickly…door to door took about 5 weeks on a recent order for me.

82FootballWaxMemorys

@Chicago1976 said:
How slow? My last PSA order, a 20 card special, took over a year (August 2020 - September 2021).

That is literally many times slower than watching grass grow.

ccmorgan

@DotStore said:
For the $600 Walk-Through level, it does say on their site that they are complete through 2/7/2022. So it seems at that level you can get quick turnaround times. Just not sure how/why your other 2 cards at the Regular level were turned around so fast.

Either way -- congrats on your first successful submission!!! I am curious if the grades were in line with what you expected?

The 1st edition charizard met expectations after some advice from a couple "experts" on the forum and research.
@threeofsix and @RufussCkingston

I bought these cards 22ish years ago when my son and all kids worshipped pokemon cards then found out a couple months ago some of them are worth some serious $$$ like the first two charizards. I still have many more but they're not worth a lot even the unlimited holo cards.

Then the unlimited charizard exceeded expectations. I figured an 8 and it came back a 9.

Then the 1st edition team rocket charizard came back a 3 and I was hoping a 7-8
Thank goodness this is the least valuable card of the 3.

The reverse of the dark charizard now that I have it in hand looks to have a tiny red ink circle in the M that I missed before submitting other wise it looks like a 7-8.

grote15

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

ccmorgan

@grote15 said:

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

Actually the submission cost is according to the card value. $100 up to $1,499 $150 up to $2,499 $300 up to $4,999and $600 up to $9,999. One cannot submit a card with a value of $7,500 for $100 and if you do they will up charge you after grading. You have to list an approximate value of your card on the submission form then the appropriate price for that value to have it graded. They also assign a value to the card after grading according to their price guide provided it grades high enough to make their price guide list. in other words if their price guide's list shows a price for a 7 and no values lower and your card grades lower then no value is assigned.
I just learned all this since January.

https://www.psacard.com/pricing

MisterTim1962

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

So if you pay more they put you to the head of the line and ignore the poor saps who've been waiting a year for their cards? Not a very good business model.

grote15

@ccmorgan said:

@grote15 said:

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

Actually the submission cost is according to the card value. $100 up to $1,499 $150 up to $2,499 $300 up to $4,999and $600 up to $9,999. One cannot submit a card with a value of $7,500 for $100 and if you do they will up charge you after grading. You have to list an approximate value of your card on the submission form then the appropriate price for that value to have it graded. They also assign a value to the card after grading according to their price guide provided it grades high enough to make their price guide list. in other words if their price guide's list shows a price for a 7 and no values lower and your card grades lower then no value is assigned.
I just learned all this since January.

https://www.psacard.com/pricing

Yes, of course, but PSA won't prevent you from sending a lower value card at a higher tiered service level if you want or need that card back quickly. Not that it would make much sense financially but bottom line is that with quicker turnaround time you are paying higher rate.

ccmorgan

@MisterTim1962 said:

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

So if you pay more they put you to the head of the line and ignore the poor saps who've been waiting a year for their cards? Not a very good business model.

Not that I agree or disagree but many things are like that. Baseball, football, basketball games and concerts too.
You pay more because of the value of the card. But I can't see why it costs more to grade any card vs another.
I sure wish I could have submitted the $600 card for $20. I'd gladly wait a year to save $600. It was $637 to include me paying to ship the card back insured.
Now selling there's a premium on the final price but grading should cost the same regardless of the value.
With that said PSA is a very successful company as well as the coin grading companies PCGS, NGC and ANACS.

Cheers gents....

MisterTim1962

With that said PSA is a very successful company

Successful companies don't have a backlog of millions of orders that will take years to process. Would you tolerate waiting a year if you bought something on Amazon or eBay? No way.

If they don't straighten this mess out soon, they will be in serious legal trouble. You can't take someone's money for a specified service (for example 30 business day turnaround time) and then take years to complete that service. Not an acceptable business practice.

AFLfan

@MisterTim1962 - PSA has been very open about how we are addressing the backlog, etc. If you read some of the posts on the PSA Blog or listen to the first episode of the new PSA Podcast, you would be better informed. We are dedicating 80% of grading efforts to the backlog and 20% to new submissions. Current estimates have us finishing the backlog sometime late summer/early fall. We have grown the staff by over 600 people in the last 12 months and streamlined processes. It has been stated multiple times that we are looking at opening new grading facilities in other areas of the country and possibly the world. As for taking someone's money, charges for our services are applied after the grading is finished, so no one is having their money sat on for extended periods.

Cards have been in our facility for longer times than collectors have wanted, but also for longer times than PSA has wanted. The hobby explosion took pretty much everyone for surprise with it's force and rapidity. PSA has responded after extensive consideration of all aspects of the situation.

Jayman1982

@AFLfan said:

Current estimates have us finishing the backlog sometime late summer/early fall.
>

That can't be right, can it? The backlog is primarily composed of Value submissions (84.2% as per your website) that were received up until the April 2021 cutoff date. PSA is currently working on March 2021 Value orders, that would mean you are telling us it will take another approximately 7 months to process 1.5 months of outstanding Value orders? That is far far slower than other backlog months have been processed, even taking into consideration that Feb, Mar and Apr 2021 have increasingly higher # of orders in them. Somethings not adding up...

AFLfan

That is what was reported by PSA President, Kevin Lenane, on the recent PSA Podcast. I am not involved in grading, so I don't interact with that part of the company. But I think something to consider is that we were receiving over 100,000 cards/day in March right before submissions were closed. I would suspect that we received a lot more cards that month that in others, which would account for a longer time to grade them all.

Jayman1982

@AFLfan said:
That is what was reported by PSA President, Kevin Lenane, on the recent PSA Podcast. I am not involved in grading, so I don't interact with that part of the company. But I think something to consider is that we were receiving over 100,000 cards/day in March right before submissions were closed. I would suspect that we received a lot more cards that month that in others, which would account for a longer time to grade them all.

Yikes!

Pretty sure this still won't stop me from checking my order statuses multiple times a day though

AFLfan

@Jayman1982 said:

Pretty sure this still won't stop me from checking my order statuses multiple times a day though

You and me both...

1959

Todd, I have cards received in OCT. 2020 at the cheapest possible grading fee. (Sent through a 3rd party) . Should I be worried?( I am in no hurry to get them , but concerned)

MisterTim1962

I guess the obvious question is why take ANY new submissions with such a huge backlog?

grote15

PSA did restrict (and still restricts) submissions for all but the highest service levels in response to that backlog.

No one likes to wait...but they are still by far the best option among collectors (or they wouldn't have the backlog they do) for submitting collectibles for authentication and/or grading.

daltex

@grote15 said:

@ccmorgan said:

@grote15 said:

@MisterTim1962 said:
Why have some people been waiting over a year for their cards, while you get your cards in a couple of weeks? That doesn't seem right. First come, first served is usually how it works.

The people getting them back in a week or so are paying way more than those waiting a year ($600 per card in this case vs less than $20 per card in most instances). You pay accordingly for quick turnaround.

Actually the submission cost is according to the card value. $100 up to $1,499 $150 up to $2,499 $300 up to $4,999and $600 up to $9,999. One cannot submit a card with a value of $7,500 for $100 and if you do they will up charge you after grading. You have to list an approximate value of your card on the submission form then the appropriate price for that value to have it graded. They also assign a value to the card after grading according to their price guide provided it grades high enough to make their price guide list. in other words if their price guide's list shows a price for a 7 and no values lower and your card grades lower then no value is assigned.
I just learned all this since January.

https://www.psacard.com/pricing

Yes, of course, but PSA won't prevent you from sending a lower value card at a higher tiered service level if you want or need that card back quickly. Not that it would make much sense financially but bottom line is that with quicker turnaround time you are paying higher rate.

Well, that's the way things are worded. I mean a creased 1988 Donruss Jeffries is worth less than $24,999.

Mickey71

@AFLfan said:
@MisterTim1962 - PSA has been very open about how we are addressing the backlog, etc. If you read some of the posts on the PSA Blog or listen to the first episode of the new PSA Podcast, you would be better informed. We are dedicating 80% of grading efforts to the backlog and 20% to new submissions. Current estimates have us finishing the backlog sometime late summer/early fall. We have grown the staff by over 600 people in the last 12 months and streamlined processes. It has been stated multiple times that we are looking at opening new grading facilities in other areas of the country and possibly the world. As for taking someone's money, charges for our services are applied after the grading is finished, so no one is having their money sat on for extended periods.

Cards have been in our facility for longer times than collectors have wanted, but also for longer times than PSA has wanted. The hobby explosion took pretty much everyone for surprise with it's force and rapidity. PSA has responded after extensive consideration of all aspects of the situation.

I'm try to make sure someone didn't slip something in my drink. LOL. The staff has grown by 600 in the past 12 months?? I don't think the number 2,000 would surprise me any more than the number 600 does. I realize there are many different parts to a company; but what if just 50 of those 600 were added to the graders?????? The math in my head just doesn't seem to add up. Can we assume at this point that there are 100 graders??? I guess what everyone can't figure out is with all of these additions the cards are still piled up.

MisterTim1962

No one likes to wait...but they are still by far the best option among collectors (or they wouldn't have the backlog they do) for submitting collectibles for authentication and/or grading.

I agree 100% on that comment. I'm really surprised that Beckett graded cards don't get more respect. They were the big name in the hobby when I collected in the past. But they're definitely second in the race right now.

AFLfan

@Mickey71 said:

I'm try to make sure someone didn't slip something in my drink. LOL. The staff has grown by 600 in the past 12 months?? I don't think the number 2,000 would surprise me any more than the number 600 does. I realize there are many different parts to a company; but what if just 50 of those 600 were added to the graders?????? The math in my head just doesn't seem to add up. Can we assume at this point that there are 100 graders??? I guess what everyone can't figure out is with all of these additions the cards are still piled up.

It may be 15 months, but yes, 600 people. We have increased graders significantly, but no there are not 100 graders. We've also tripled our office space (up to roughly 180,000 square feet). In truth, there are multiple potential bottlenecks that we have been freeing in the system. But when you get such massive influxes of cards over a short period like we did last year, it poses challenges.

Here are a few blog posts that help illuminate challenges our people face in the process:

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/07/08/psa-and-the-hobby-explosion-from-2015-to-present/

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/08/07/journey-of-a-psa-card/

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/07/15/the-challenges-of-ultra-modern-trading-cards/

https://blog.psacard.com/2021/12/30/psa-blog-psas-new-years-resolutions-for-2022/

Becoming much more transparent is a goal of ours this year. I would really encourage everyone to follow PSA social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), read the PSA Blog and listen to the new PSA Podcast. We are doing our best to tell people exactly what is going on, keep them updated on our progress, etc.

1951WheatiesPremium

@MisterTim1962 said:
I guess the obvious question is why take ANY new submissions with such a huge backlog?

Because some collectors, deals, cards and card businesses require the service.

Example? If I owned an auction house and someone comes to me with a raw, new to the hobby, mid grade T206 Honus Wagner or high grade 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, I need to get that card graded for my customer to maximize both of our returns.

Recognize, PSA is open in the sense that if you have cards you want/need to pay $100 per card to grade (sans the PSA submission event Golden Ticket) then you can get that item slabbed. That’s probably a small percentage of collectors that want or need to use the service at the price point but it keeps the line moving for the Heritage’s, Goldin’s, REA’s and Love of the Game’s of this hobby.

Mickey71

@AFLfan said:

@Mickey71 said:

I'm try to make sure someone didn't slip something in my drink. LOL. The staff has grown by 600 in the past 12 months?? I don't think the number 2,000 would surprise me any more than the number 600 does. I realize there are many different parts to a company; but what if just 50 of those 600 were added to the graders?????? The math in my head just doesn't seem to add up. Can we assume at this point that there are 100 graders??? I guess what everyone can't figure out is with all of these additions the cards are still piled up.

It may be 15 months, but yes, 600 people. We have increased graders significantly, but no there are not 100 graders. We've also tripled our office space (up to roughly 180,000 square feet). In truth, there are multiple potential bottlenecks that we have been freeing in the system. But when you get such massive influxes of cards over a short period like we did last year, it poses challenges.

Here are a few blog posts that help illuminate challenges our people face in the process:

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/07/08/psa-and-the-hobby-explosion-from-2015-to-present/

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/08/07/journey-of-a-psa-card/

https://blog.psacard.com/2020/07/15/the-challenges-of-ultra-modern-trading-cards/

https://blog.psacard.com/2021/12/30/psa-blog-psas-new-years-resolutions-for-2022/

Becoming much more transparent is a goal of ours this year. I would really encourage everyone to follow PSA social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), read the PSA Blog and listen to the new PSA Podcast. We are doing our best to tell people exactly what is going on, keep them updated on our progress, etc.

Thanks Todd for the info. Yes, the hobby is in a crazy time right now.

1951WheatiesPremium

@MisterTim1962 said:

No one likes to wait...but they are still by far the best option among collectors (or they wouldn't have the backlog they do) for submitting collectibles for authentication and/or grading.

I agree 100% on that comment. I'm really surprised that Beckett graded cards don't get more respect. They were the big name in the hobby when I collected in the past. But they're definitely second in the race right now.

And even that is debatable. For modern (1980-Present) I’d be inclined to agree with you but SGC is probably preferable to Beckett, after PSA, when it comes to vintage cards and their collectors.

Mickey71

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@MisterTim1962 said:

No one likes to wait...but they are still by far the best option among collectors (or they wouldn't have the backlog they do) for submitting collectibles for authentication and/or grading.

I agree 100% on that comment. I'm really surprised that Beckett graded cards don't get more respect. They were the big name in the hobby when I collected in the past. But they're definitely second in the race right now.

And even that is debatable. For modern (1980-Present) I’d be inclined to agree with you but SGC is probably preferable to Beckett, after PSA, when it comes to vintage cards and their collectors.

Yes, for vintage SGC would be a very distant; but solid #2.

82FootballWaxMemorys

@MisterTim1962 said:

With that said PSA is a very successful company

Successful companies don't have a backlog of millions of orders that will take years to process. Would you tolerate waiting a year if you bought something on Amazon or eBay? No way.

If they don't straighten this mess out soon, they will be in serious legal trouble. You can't take someone's money for a specified service (for example 30 business day turnaround time) and then take years to complete that service. Not an acceptable business practice.

CGC for comics may be even be worse.