According to the congressman, the commission should investigate:
Monopolization: Whether Collectors acquired SGC and Beckett specifically to eliminate competition, and whether internal documents reveal a deliberate strategy of monopolization.
Serial Acquisition Pattern: Whether Collectors’ systematic roll-up strategy violates Section 5 of the FTC Act* as conduct that inherently produces the cumulative harms the antitrust laws were designed to prevent.
Regulatory Evasion: Whether Collēctīvus Holdings functioned as a pass-through entity to evade merger scrutiny, and the extent of Collectors’ involvement in the 2024 acquisition of Beckett.
Good-Faith Representations: Whether the post-acquisition marginalization of SGC was contrary to representations made at the time of the merger, and if those actions warrant a court-ordered divestiture or unwinding of the deal.
Erosion of Competition: How the elimination of independent rivals has directly impacted consumer pricing, service quality, and turnaround times across the industry.
Price and Policy Coordination: What safeguards, if any, prevent Collectors from coordinating pricing, grading standards, and competitive behavior across its three nominally “independent” brands.
Barriers to Entry: What structural barriers now prevent new competitors from entering the market, specifically regarding the control of the limited labor pool of professional graders.
Market Manipulation: How vertical integration — controlling the grading process, the pricing data through CardLadder, and the marketplace itself — creates unique opportunities for market manipulation and unfair self-dealing.
Section 5 of the FTC Act ai summary: Key aspects of Section 5:
Deceptive Practices: Misleading consumers with false or unsubstantiated claims, as seen in false advertising for products.
Unfair Practices: Actions causing substantial consumer injury (monetary or otherwise) that consumers can’t reasonably avoid, such as hiding fees or using misleading pricing.
Unfair Methods of Competition: Prohibits conduct that violates antitrust laws (like the Sherman or Clayton Acts) or other anticompetitive behavior, including certain non-compete clauses.
The biggest chance i see of psa having issues in this is with market manipulation. Hope some good things come from this and not a reactionary government response along the lines of reclassifying tcg as lootboxes or something like that.
This one for sure. They promised no changes and then right after were like “actually, it’s just a boutique little grading company, not like PSA!”
Congressional representatives do not push for monopoly investigations out of thin air. I suspect that Rep. Pat Ryan may have received support from or has a relationship with competitors of Collectors Universe. A great example would be Certified Collectibles Group and by extension, Blackstone. Funnily enough, Blackstone’s headquarters are in New York City, New York.
