A new proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against PSA and Collectors on 28.07.2026, alleging fraud, deceptive grading practices and even civil RICO violations.
Some of the main accusations include:
PSA grading is marketed as objective and consistent, while allegedly being highly subjective and unpredictable.
PSA may be controlling PSA 10 populations or applying different standards to valuable cards.
Crack-and-resubmit culture allegedly benefits PSA financially because collectors repeatedly pay for the same card to be graded.
Collectors’ ownership of PSA, Card Ladder, the PSA Vault and other card-related businesses creates potential conflicts of interest.
Value-based upcharges may not accurately reflect the actual work involved in grading a card.
The lawsuit reportedly seeks class-action status and potentially very substantial damages.
This lawsuit sounds like it was made by the instagram comments section. PSA has its flaws, and people are certainly welcome to not use them if they don’t like the service, but a lawsuit is a bit over the top. I don’t think they have anything to stand on, sounds like some ambulance chasing lawyers trying to capitalize on IG sentiment.
This just sounds like sour grapes. One pays for PSA’s opinion, which is inherently subjective. The PSA website literally has a section discussing subjectivity in grading.
Not to mention, any intellectually honest person would never expect a grading company to market themselves as “highly subjective and unpredictable” - of course they market as objective and “the standard”, but they also have humans conducting grading. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
More likely to settle than bother fighting it. BUT if they’re going for RICO, can it be a civil case? IDK, no longer my forte. Grading with PSA is by nature, a hostage situation, anyway.
This sounds like someone with a lot of money just joined the hobby, sent in cards, didn’t get the grades they wanted and now wants to try and sue their way into getting a 10.
PSA won’t lose. This is all the same tune. They’ll probably reach a settlement and nothing will change.
I’m surprised by how strongly people are defending PSA here. In almost every other thread, people complain about inconsistent grading, crack-and-resubmit incentives, population control, and PSA being unreliable, scammy or even fraudulent (e.g. PSA 10s for celebrity submissions etc…)
Obviously, nobody wants the value of their own collection to be affected by a lawsuit. But I would still welcome PSA being held accountable where appropriate, especially for grading known altered cards, any preferential treatment for high-profile submitters, and the lack of transparency around why a card received a particular grade.
I would welcome greater transparency, more consistent grading standards and an end to questionable value-based upcharges.
This literally is almost the most minimal concern there is in all of this.
Its mostly that without a surprising amount of evidence, these are just surface level complaints with no direct involvement or direction by psa not indicative of bigger anti-consumer policies.
