New Grading Special

ezyshooter

Personally i think the special sucks. Especially if you are planning to sell some of those cards. Come on 8.00 dollars for cards under 100.00 dollars? 15 day turnaround maybe decent but i cannot see PSA getting to many cards for grading in the near future. To many people complaining about there grades, damaged cards(went poof), and well people just don't have the money.
Especially since the trend of all cards in every sport has gone down. Sure you have the low pop's still going for decent money but other then stars and low pop's i find everything is on a downhill slide. So why would we want to pay more to get less ?
I'd rather see a special like 100 cards minimum with a 4.00 dollar fee.
This is just my opinion. Seems everybody wants more money. I mean e-bay(with paypal) is killing sellers with there fees. I understand that PSA can't keep there fees down forever. I haven't seen a 5.00 dollar special in a little while and i don't think we'll see another. I think the lowest we are going to see for now on is the 6.00 dollar special.
Quick turnaround ? Well i don't think they are flooded with cards right now so i think it would be a quick turnaround with any special.
Well what do you have to say? I say reduce price to 4.00 dollars a card, and increase quantity to 100. Then maybe we'll send more cards in ??
Cheers, Steve

jimrad

I would like to see a $5 special like Beckett just ran. However I do understand as a former business owner where profit comes from. It took me years to figure out that if I raised my prices, did less work, with high customer service - that is how I maximized my profit. When I did more business with large accounts, I found myself very busy with very little money in the bank.

ezyshooter

But is now the time to be raising prices ? I don't think so.
Steve

rube26105

have they had the 5.00 special yet the run once a year maybe,that the last time i sent a big sub in,other than that,just here and there

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

You dont make (hopefully) your profit soley from coupon chasers. They are good for business but should be considered an addition to your core. If they charge twice as less and get alot of work at once and will forfeit alot of profit...no. There will always be those that "need" to submit so they can profit or are impatient collectors (me). Maybe alot of big submitters will wait until the next $5 special, but alot will jump on a $6 or $8 one before that happens. I don't really know anything about their specials and am not a member or follow their patterns but I think they will eventually have a lower priced special and now was not the time to do it.

mtcards

Having just sent in two subs that were received on 10/15, one registry special and one 5 day express and havent got either one of them back yet, I think PSA needs to adjust some of their prices to match the quality of their turnaround times.

On a different note, seeing as how registered mail seems to be taking as long as 10-15 days cross country, has anyone used anything else to ship their cards to PSA, ie. UPS/DHL? UPS will get it there from here in four days, which would cut the turnaround time a week. Just wondering about insurance and stuff like that

OAKESY25

I have had to crack way too many lately.. the grades are just not accurate enough right now for whatever reason
I have a bunch I need to send in.. they are stacking up.. in the 2-300 range
but that is too much money especially right now.. to not get what I believe they should.. with a couple exceptions
I am usually right in line with what I expect.

as for the special.. $8 for 15 days.. I guess I don't mind it.. that is pretty fair I think.. basically a 50% off sale
I may pepper them a couple and see how they are doing.. before I bulk sub em

44Magnum

The other special is "single signed Basketball Autograph submissions" blah, blah, blah...

Too bad they limited it to basketball autos. I have a lot of baseball autos I need to submit.

rube26105

me too-100+ 52s autoed,im sure not gonna pay 20$ a slab for em though 407 times ,run a baseball special on autoes or stick it, ill get em graded somewhere else, scg are nice looking slabs

jeffcbay

I used USPS Priority to ship my latest subs. I shipped 2 packages, one was a combined 1 plus 3 card Set Registry Vouchers (one sheet had 1 voucher, the other sheet had 3), and the other package was a 15 card Set Registry Special. I shipped the packages on Tuesday, they posted them as received on Thursday, and the 1 card sub already popped on Friday! I must say I don't see anything wrong with the turnaround times, at least from where I'm standing. I did however find it strange that they didn't grade the other 3 cards from that same package, but I'm sure it will pop Monday.

Boopotts

I think it will eventually end up there, or maybe even lower. In fact, I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened already. You can get 10000 cards graded by BCCG for $2 a pop, and while i understand there are some fixed costs associated with individual orders I have a hard time believing that these costs justify a 300% increase over what is likely close to the marginal cost ($2 per) for grading a single card.

In any case, it will interesting to see how it all plays out. PSA made a huge strategic error, in my opinion, by not focusing more of its efforts on building demand for modern graded cards (by modern i mean roughly 'post-2000), and I think there's a chance they're going to really end up paying for that. Even two years ago I can remember seeing all kinds of 'grade popped' threads that were started by guys who were grading a ton of stuff from about '75-'85, and now, with the exception of a few guys who haven't quite figured things out, you rarely see anyone grading cards from these years anymore. Assuming that the demand for graded cards from 1976-1995 has slackened, and that BGS continues to be a major player in the post-1995 graded card market, where will PSA's future revenue streams come from?

WinPitcher

You can get 10000 cards graded by BCCG for $2 a pop,


Ten thousand cards? Who here has 20k to tie up in grading modern cards?

Is that a minimum needed to get the 2.00 price?

Steve

jimrad

I personally walked into the submission Friday Sept 12th with a registry special and haven't heard a peep yet.

Boopotts

<< <i>You can get 10000 cards graded by BCCG for $2 a pop,


Ten thousand cards? Who here has 20k to tie up in grading modern cards?

Is that a minimum needed to get the 2.00 price?

Steve >>



I think that is the minimum-- or at least that's the minimum that's posted on the website.

WinPitcher

Thanks for clarifying Boo.


Steve

Boopotts

<< <i>Thanks for clarifying Boo.


Steve >>



I admit it's a little silly, since I can't imagine that anyone would ever be in possession of 10000 cards that would all be worth getting graded by BCCG (but not by another grader). But since they must be making at least a little money at $2 per, I'm assuming that this number is very close to what it costs to actually grade/slab a single card.

jivan

try sgc.. their grading is pretty consistant and they are running some specials now.. just my 2 cents !!

GoDodgersFan

Great post. The 5/6 per card special is reality and PSA will need to adjust. Your average seller/collector is getting
toasted with lower sales, increased in shipping/ebay/paypay, and etc. I, for one, will not submit anything over
6.00. I have mostly modern stuff so the 8 special will not work for me. In addition, the consistency of the
grades are just not like before.

HighChopper

You'd think $3 - $4 a card would be more realistic.

I personally can't justify grading anything I've set aside right now.

leathtech

<< <i>me too-100+ 52s autoed,im sure not gonna pay 20$ a slab for em though 407 times ,run a baseball special on autoes or stick it, ill get em graded somewhere else, scg are nice looking slabs >>



Why charge for slabs... they have millions of them at PSA! I was pumped for the basketball special till I saw they would charge for slabbing cards.

sayheykid54

The niche products that I sell online( not sports related) have been very profitable on Ebay the last 12 months. I concentrate on selling quality items with higher-end price points in both the auction format and in store listings. My customer service is rock solid and I have a very loyal following. My sales have improved because I've noticed that sellers that used to sell in the same category no longer sell on Ebay.

The best word of advise from experience, pick one type of item to sell and become a recognized category leader with that product. It's better than trying to build your name selling all kinds of different items that you might not feel completely comfortable selling.

PoppaJ

Why an $8 Special and not a $5 Special?

It might have something to do with PSA's business plan concerning their work load/work force.

Consider the following example:

If at $8 per card, PSA would make the same profit grading less cards, than they would
at $5 per card grading more cards, they would use less payroll and would lessen or eliminate
prolonged waiting times for subs.

$8 x 50,000 cards = $400,000
$5 x 80,000 cards = $400,000.

I have many friends and acquaintances that are accountants, hairdressers, lawyers, roofers etc. that say
they have actually raised their fees to lessen the amount of clients they have, strickly because
they couldn't handle the load. Yes, even in these tough times believe it or not!

This may not be PSA's reason at all; maybe pure greed on their part; or maybe a well-thought-out
business decision that they may regret and reconsider on November 30th.

As always ... JMHO,
PoppaJ

ezyshooter

My point i basically if people are not sending in cards at 6.00 dollars then why would you send them in at 8.00. Grades unconsistant ? Seen the grades unconsistant for over a year now. 7's that look like 9's. 8's that look like 10's and yes the odd card overgraded.
If you are sending basically anything 1989 or lower all i can say is good luck !! Grades all over the place on this end.
Steve

PoppaJ

<< <i>My point i basically if people are not sending in cards at 6.00 dollars then why would you send them in at 8.00. Grades unconsistant ? Seen the grades unconsistant for over a year now. 7's that look like 9's. 8's that look like 10's and yes the odd card overgraded.
If you are sending basically anything 1989 or lower all i can say is good luck !! Grades all over the place on this end.
Steve >>



Steve,

Is it possible that if when PSA was charging $5 and couldn't handle the workload, that maybe that's when the grading
started to be inconsistant?

I'm not sticking up for PSA, but maybe by charging more and slowing down the grading process, more consistent grades
would be the result.

I don't submit nearly as many cards to PSA that some of you do, but I must say that I have always been quite
pleased with the results and grades given.

Is this because I pay the regular $15 per card for my vintage? I don't know, maybe?

I remember someone else mentioning something about rookie graders (new graders ... not graders of rookie cards)
in a different post. Their point was that the new guys get the newer cards and the more experienced get the vintage.

I don't know if that's true or not; it makes sense, but maybe that's a factor of why gradings have been sporatic?!

Just a thought!

PoppaJ

lsutigers1973

I sent in 3 subs during the $6 special and all the cards were graded in 15 days or less. Of course I received a few that I thought were overgraded and a few that were horribly undergraded. What is the advantage to paying $2 more for the same service?

storm888

"...but maybe by charging more and slowing down the grading process, more consistent grades
would be the result."


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I suspect that would certainly be the case.