PSA Backlog Tracker
mbothner
Posts: 778 ✭✭✭
I have been following the PSA Backlog Tracker to try to get an idea when the value tiers will reopen. I keep thinking the same questions.
1. If the Pokemon cards were causing this huge backlog, why were their value tiers cheaper for so long?
2. Will the Pokemon cards still be cheaper when the tiers reopen.
3. Wouldn't make sense to make the value tiers more expensive for Pokemon cards so the back log does not reoccur?
4. Will the value tiers still be $25 or will PSA charge even more?
5. I send in both modern and vintage submissions. Wouldn't it make sense for the vintage to be a lower since this is very little of the PSA submissions? This would help the registry collectors.
6. If PSA does not change anything, won't the backlog just reoccur?
Comments
The only remotely viable competition still standing is in the TCG space. Thus pricing wont be raised there.
For Sports Cards Collectors Universe in effect has a monopoly!
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
Not even a minute do I buy the whole buh buh buh I'm a man-child japery - Me (2025)
Pokémon IS the graded card market.
You just have to hope that magic and yugioh players don't start grading their cards as well.
If PSA is increasing capacity that is all they can do imo.
Llamas and alpacas are camels. They aren't like camels, or related. They are camels. When was anyone going to tell me this?! How long had Bill Nye been holding out on us?
SGC Pricing for a Standard Card jumped from $15 to $50 now
That is what a parent company can do 
Scales of Economy.
The gemrate August numbers are out.
For sportscards (vs July), big drop for PSA and big increase for CGC.
Sportscards vs TCG
TAG vs SGC
If you're on reddit, you'd think TAG graded a lot more sportscards then they actually do,
Only 4K out of 58K cards graded are sports.
For SGC, the opposite. Only 2K TCG cards graded while 39K sports.
for august i notice that BGS is up 249% YOY for TCG grading. CGC is up 499% YOY for sports.
pretty crazy numbers
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I feel like I missed the boat, why didn't I collect Pokemon hard! It was so obvious it was gaining a tremendous following.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
SGC probably just shot themselves in the foot. With an extremely small footprint in the non-sports market, collectors like us are not going to spend $50 per card to grade 1985 Nolan Ryan's or 1992 Fleer Michael Jordan's. Ain't going to happen. Looks like to me, the big players have snuffed out the small players like us (mainly, some of you are probably big time).
Moving forward if you want to get a graded card you will probably need to get buy them from the 4SC of the world. The big players can't make the big bucks if I can send in raw cards and get paid too.
Said but true.
I wouldn't blow off graded cards just yet. If value increases are driven by grading fees, then the potential for graded material within the marketplace can only go up. I anticipate continued wild spending and look forward to finding those tidy little deals that suddenly postulate wealth.
@olb31 Well it seems that if a collector/person wants a 80's or 90's graded Ryan then they will have to pay the seller of those cards the extra cost now to grade them. As just any slabbed card by themselves are $50++ just to break even. Could be a good idea to gobble up them now when older graded cards were $15-$25 to grade. The graded card is likely to increase it seems. Definitely a hmmm!!!
With these prices (inflationary or whatever the reasons) going up like this it probably means collectors will be a LOT more selective in what they send in to be graded. Before the prices were at a range where you could take a chance on most cards that might be a borderline 9. Not now.
That probably means there will be a ton more raw cards in the wild for people to buy. For better or worse.
Or, if you're in the long game, you can just grade them and sit on them for 15/20 years as the market catches up...
@BBBrkrr I think collectors ALREADY went through this and were being extremely selective the last few years with the whole "undegrading" with all the PSA 5 & 6 head scratchers or no rhyme or reason (although look back thru my posts and I provided an opinionated reason). This to my knowledge has not been solved yet other than the "Overlay of sticker on the holder" service...
The business model changed when the company went private. Most private companies I studied prioritized quick and easy profits over long term profits and growth.
https://kennerstartinglineup.blogspot.com/
That doesn't make any sense.
That's ok, there was no way of knowing that fad would be Japan's #1 industry today. Everyone was sure it was beanie babies. I had a lot of 1st edition cards as a kid. My aunt got me and all my siblings a binder page with the second wave of pokemon starters in Japanese foil. $1500 page now. Yugioh cards too. Went to goodwill some spring cleaning
Llamas and alpacas are camels. They aren't like camels, or related. They are camels. When was anyone going to tell me this?! How long had Bill Nye been holding out on us?
I have about 60 1990's cards to send in for my registry sets. Not many are worth more than the $25 grading fee so if the bulk grading fees goes up, many of the registry collectors are screwed.
$25? Lowest PSA sub price is currently $79.99. PSA via their actions implies the Registry is unimportant. IMHO folk on the registry need to move into the final phase; Acceptance
P.S. My sincere condolences on what in effect is the brain death of the registry. It was useful to P$A until it wasn't.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
Not even a minute do I buy the whole buh buh buh I'm a man-child japery - Me (2025)
The Registry should die because it’s trash software and a terrible UI/UX. But it doesn’t have to die because sets are expensive to slab.
When I said $25, I was referring to when they reopen bulk submissions and if they raise the bulk submission prices above $25.
I do not think we will ever see $25 again. All of the current data suggests the price to grade cards has at least doubled permanently.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
If demand sustains at higher prices then prices will keep going up until PSA invests in technology or scale. There's a lesson to be learned from the lumber industry here I'm sure.
Direct Labor: $4.25
Ops supervision + grade QA: $0.50
Customer service: $0.35
Slab, inner sleeve, label: $0.75
Outbound: $0.30
Insurance on cards in custody: $0.30
Facilities (rent, util., security): $0.55
Equipment depreciation: $1.00
Software / cloud / ML: $0.60
Payment processing: $0.95
Warranty + loss/claims reserve: $0.50
COGS total: ~$10
I don't know how accurate this is right now... it's probably drifted up a bit. I heard that PSA loses money on grading autographed vintage when considering the research & id, alteration screening, and autograph authentication. No idea if that's true.