When demand becomes overwhelming

rexvos

I am a huge fan of the PSA grading service. Like many collectors I am very particular and love uniformity, and besides a few raw sets I build every card in my collection I desire to keep is in a PSA holder. I have seen a recent turn in modern collectors especially in baseball away from Beckett to PSA, I have seen this to a lesser extent in football (modern football collectors tend to be slower).

All this being said I also fund a major portion of my collecting by buying raw cards, grading them and selling.

So now as I finally get to the point of this thread. There is a large backlog at PSA with all of this demand with grading becoming more and more prevalent and PSA being the clear leader in the category. I have 3 orders that are going on a month of being at their location without being logged. I am hoping that a possible influx of new graders does not lead to an over harshness on grades. I have seen it in the past. I have had past subs where I have had multiple cards jump on modern from 8 to 10. Mid 80s jump from 7 to 9 and such on crack outs due to an overzealous grader or two (as it is PSA’s policy that 2 graders look at every card) I also do not want to wait 6 months for a bulk sub to be returned to me. I could stomach another small price increase but I am afraid at this point it will not quell the demand.

So in summary

With the huge demands should we be given an estimated log time once packages are received? There are few things I like less than having the feeling that my precious collectibles are in limbo.
I know we would like more graders and faster turn times but do we want them at the risk of new graders wrecking the value of our gems in an already subjective field?
Will price increases and turn times close windows of profit?

Just a few Sunday am thoughts on the current state of my little corner of the hobby.

I welcome others thoughts on this matter. I know PSA has addressed this issue already and asked for patience. I plan on waiting patiently, but I am curious about what the plan going forward is to meet this demand.

Unknown

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rexvos

There are no more good specials because there do not have to be. Why offer a discount if the line is out the door for full price?

prgsdw

Agreed. This is why I signed up for the silver subscription option this year,

craig44

Why not hire and train more graders? Seems they could turn much more product with more staff. Kind of a mystery to me

erikthredd

@craig44 said:
Why not hire and train more graders? Seems they could turn much more product with more staff. Kind of a mystery to me

I could be wrong but judging by the quote of 50-60k unmarked packages mentioned in the loggage thread,it sounds like they don't have enough handlers to properly open packages then log them into the system although it could be graders needed as well. What scares me the most is that 65 business days quote on 50+ bulk orders. At one time BGS changed their non-guaranteed time to 60 days at most but that quickly stretched to 85-90 business days. Hopefully thats not the case here.

Odessafile

Im a PSA guy too....its stunning the hit their public stock CLCT has taken this past month or so.... Im not going anywhere anytime soon ~ Im more than able to give them their "growing pains" time to get things squared away ... they have to be rethinking just about everything at this point....I too have a couple cards I sent in three weeks ago that have yet to be logged in to begin the 10 business day process. Obviously posted times mean pretty much nothing at this point. You get it when you get it.

PROMETHIUS88

While I don't like the long time it is taking to log items in, the actual grading time has been really good and I'm hoping that doesn't change. Here is look at my recent subs. The CC club should have been the quickest turnaround but went over. Very pleased with the turnaround on the bulk subs....although I don't understand how the one turned around in a week.

Order # Submission # Received Shipped Status Items Service
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 3/14/2018 N/A Processing 2 Regular
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 3/14/2018 N/A Processing 100 Bulk - 1

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 2/27/2018 3/6/2018 Shipped 100 Bulk - 1
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 2/27/2018 3/15/2018 Shipped 2 Regular
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 2/6/2018 3/16/2018 Shipped 107 Bulk - 1
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 1/12/2018 2/7/2018 Shipped 6 CC Free
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 12/28/2017 2/16/2018 Shipped 17 Bulk - 3

rexvos

As I say all this I am preparing another sub

Jimmy_Commonpants

FWIW, they claim to have 64 graders/authenticators on staff and a 34 person customer service staff as of July 2017.

Estil

That's an awfully TINY roster of graders for what must be what, at least tens of thousands of cards or so PSA must get in and out the door? And of course if PSA wants to continue to be the go-to card grading standard they cannot afford to rush or cut corners (pardon the pun)...so for their sake and the hobby's sake I hope they do get some more well qualified graders.

tonylags

Well my small 7 day order popped today; approx 40 days. I need cards in hand but it doesn't look like I am gonna be happy. Many were bgs RCR 8/9 and are now psa 6's, or N-Zero what ever that means So I am not quite sure more new graders is better if they can't get it right

dennis07

@tonylags said:
Well my small 7 day order popped today; approx 40 days. I need cards in hand but it doesn't look like I am gonna be happy. Many were bgs RCR 8/9 and are now psa 6's, or N-Zero what ever that means So I am not quite sure more new graders is better if they can't get it right

Could it be that BGS is the one who didn't get it right?

tonylags

@dennis07 said:

@tonylags said:
Well my small 7 day order popped today; approx 40 days. I need cards in hand but it doesn't look like I am gonna be happy. Many were bgs RCR 8/9 and are now psa 6's, or N-Zero what ever that means So I am not quite sure more new graders is better if they can't get it right

Could it be that BGS is the one who didn't get it right?

could be; but cards were very sharp

rcmb3220

I was thinking with how long it’s taking to grade at psa that I might switch some of my prospect cards over to Beckett. The problem is that it costs more for the guaranteed turnaround time, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if Beckett 9.5s sold for the same as psa 10s. I subbed a 2017 prospect card back in December that got a 10 that I just got back a couple weeks ago. PWCC just sold a psa 10 for $73 and a bgs 9.5 (3 x 9.5, 1 10) for $45 on the same day. Ungraded cards go for 30 and I have another ungraded copy.

So basically I’m either stuck with having a card at psa for half the season, hoping I get a bgs 10, only submitting to psa during the off-season, or not grading. None of which are appealing to me.

Odessafile

@rcmb3220 how successful have u been at crossovers? Ex. BGS 9.5 —3- 9.5s and 1 -10 into a PSA 10 holder? I’m considering sending some in soon to PSA

rcmb3220

@Odessafile said:
@rcmb3220 how successful have u been at crossovers? Ex. BGS 9.5 —3- 9.5s and 1 -10 into a PSA 10 holder? I’m considering sending some in soon to PSA

I have never done one but I do have a 1980 Topps Nolan Ryan bvg 8.5 that I got on eBay that I think could get a 9. I think the back centering kept it from getting a 9. It will probably be a while though before I send it in - cracked out of the case of course.

Odessafile

@rcmb3220 oh...so cracking it out is your methodology......Ive often thought that is the best route to take. Im leary of sending it in the BGS slab ...I think they may have some partiality.