What would be the cheapest way I could do this?
Would it be worth me becoming a PSA collectors club member? I currently live in the UK
Thanks!
I’d go via Ludkins Collectables.
You don’t wanna be getting stung on import taxes.
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PSA member for now as there is a Special going on for the month of July for $6.50 for a Pokemon card. Can’t say for sure what the Special is for next month.
Its most likely $6.50 only for this month because PSA is doing an expo at the Comicon and is promoting Pokemon. You have to be a PSA member to do bulk cards. You can do the silver membership for 59 but you would have to do the math. They have different level of memberships. You also have to make sure those 300 cards in your opinion would grade 8 or higher. If you submitted 300 cards, its $7/per card but with the promo like he said for 6.50 it would be: $1950 + $59 <silver membership. What type of cards are you submitting and if graded high, what would they be worth. Also, he brought up import taxes. It is also a 65+ day turn around plus days to get back to you. Then you also have to consider if you are trying to flip and are you able to wait that long… Many factors to take into account here.
Ludkins:50+ cards - £8.99 per card ( www.ludkinscollectables.com/public/assets/public/pdfs/UK_EU_Grading.pdf )£8.99 x 300 = £2,697 ~ $3,570 USD (but you save maybe like $70 on conversion fees)
Buying a silver membership:$79 for international membership, $6.50 special
$79 + $6.50 x 300 = $2,029 USD
Your call.
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Thanks just what I was looking for!
Pfm I appreciate and respect how you always take time to come up with numbers. Just like the guessing grades thread in the giveaway section. Thanks for going the extra mile man!
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While it’s absolutely going to be more expensive sending such a large submission with Ludkins it depends what kind of value we are talking here. How much are you going to insure your cards for?
20% tax can be huge on 300 cards.
True, the cards arnt that expensive.
They are all Sun & Moon era Secret Rares/ Rainbow Rates/with the new shinings
Thats a lot of dough and for the cards your talking about, I doubt it would be worth it :/. Unless, you just grade the rainbow rares or ones of higher value. If someone was nice enough that already has a membership in the UK :X.
As others have written-PSA Silver membership. $7 bulk submission/Pokemon $6.50 promo if you do it by the end of July.
You shouldn’t get taxed when you get them back. You only pay for the postage to and from PSA. Which will likely be £20 sending and £100 return roughly. With insurance it will be more, however in my experience not needing if sending via tracked.
For 300 odd cards there isn’t a cheaper option. Depending on if you want to save a few quid you can just pick out the cards that you think will most likely get 10 grades.
personally if it was me i would use graded groudon or gradedgem is the new name i think. uk sender thats cheaper then ludkins and just as trusted/respected here on efour. my experience is with him my cards always come back ALOT faster then ludkins.
pie off all that paper work and shipping fees and then the dirty import tax on the way back and just use my boy. might cost like 50p more per card or something using him rather then buying ur own membership but the hassle you save is by far worth it.
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UK based collector here.
Maybe I’ve been lucky so far, but I never had any tax applied when receiving my graded cards back so personally, from a purely financial standpoint, I recommend buying PSA Silver Membership and using their bulk service.
Ludkins charges £8.99 per card on bulk, which translates to $11.76 at today’s rates, whereas PSA bulk service charges $7 per card. That’s a $4.76 difference, so even if you consider shipping, and the off chance that somehow your cards will be taxed on return it still makes better financial sense to deal directly with PSA. Below goes my personal view on each option.
If going the PSA route consider the following:
- Royal Mail International Tracked is the safest shipping option to send your items.
- Your PSA Membership lasts a fulll year, so if you grade more cards within a year of subscribing you will dilute the cost of subscription.
- You need to assess card condition by yourself, same goes for submitting your order online, printing receipts and all the bureaucratic tasks. A bit daunting at first, but completely feasible. Bear in mind though, it is time consuming.
- You need to buy Card Savers as PSA doesn’t accept toploaders. These aren’t too expensive, but are a bit difficult to find in the UK.
- You only pay for your order once cards get graded, and need to sign a credit card declaration allowing PSA to charge your card once order is processed.
If going the Ludkins route consider the following:
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International shipping will be their responsibility. You just need to get the cards to their UK address and they’ll take care of the rest.
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They provide a pre-grading service, which gives you an estimate of what grade will be expected on return. So if a card is not within the grade you expected you can simply cancel the grading and they’ll send that card back to you. It will cost you £1.99 per card though.
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They also provide the Card Savers.
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Ludkins don’t seem to have a price tier based on card value, so if you’re submitting a few high end cards, their service may turn out cheaper than PSA’s.
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You need to submit payment before cards are shipped to PSA. They accept paypal though.
That’s basically everything I could think of. If you chose to deal directly with PSA and need any help just PM me and I’ll do my best to assist.
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@cljdavis A fellow UK collector who also offers grading. His next submission is the 28th July I believe…https://www.gradedgem.com/ Check it out!
The special this month has tempted me to sign up for silver and drop 50-100+ cards myself that i have been saving. It will be my first psa sub though ha, but working out the costs it is cheaper doing it yourself, especially with 6.50 grade costs…however with a cheaper price comes all the work to list pack insure send off etc
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^^^^ That is why I love using the grading services provided through efour members. I’m simply worried I would screw up a label, especially some of the more difficult japanese promos or long winded labels/errors.
For those comparing the fees that Ludkins provides to those of going directly through PSA, and saying that Ludkins is significantly more expensive, you’ve made several very comical and rookie errors.
Firstly. If you are submitting 300 cards through Ludkins, you could always ask for a better rate. It never hurts to ask.
Second, you’ve all totally disregarded the return shipping fees. Here’s a far more realistic comparison;
Ludkins
300 x £8.99 = £2,697 = $3,517USD
In that, you get all of this;
Doing it yourself;
300 x $7.75USD = $2,325USD
- $79USD membership = $2,404
Plus the costs of importing the card savers you’ll need, the likely Import/VAT, the credit card fee that most banks have for international transactions etc.
It’s just not a clean comparison.
Of course the premium of going through Ludkins, gradedgroudon or Scott is the convenience, experience and more.Doing it yourself has have all kinds of complications, especially if you dont live in the US and an inexperienced submitter. I think the comparisons were the options available with raw numbers rather than what added value etc you get from goign through seasoned submitters. Yes is should be overall cheaper to DIY, however there are certain complications such as import tax, VAT, lost, stolen and human errors etc which could pose a problem. I didnt think you should have to pay tax on your own items…however life isnt always that kind 
.Also, I think this has been discussed due to the really nice monthly offer from PSA. If I am correct this is the kind of once a year at best special, so a good one to take advantage of. 6.50 a card is an amazing deal! especially for us EU and Other world countries due to higher costs of grading in general.
Anyways, useless ramble over ha! i get what you mean though, just thought id give me unwanted opinion 
IM PICKLEE RIIICCCKKK!!!
Ludkins:
50+ cards - £8.99 per card
£8.99 x 300 = £2,697 ~ $3,570 USD
Shipping to Ludkins: Let’s just say it’s free.
Total: $3,570 USD
Buying a silver membership:
$79 for international membership, $6.50 special
Cost of grading: $79 + $6.50 x 300 = $2,029 USDShipping to PSA: My last international order cost me about $40CAD shipping, so let’s just say $150USD for shippingShipping from PSA: $1.25 x 300 = $375USDSleeves: I can buy a box of 200 ultrapro sleeves for $20CAD here. But maybe you really like Cardsavers… add another $100USDLet’s say you get charged an extra 10% on your PSA order due to credit card stuff and conversion fees ($2,029 + $375) x 10% = $240.40USD
Total: $2,895 USD
You’re still ahead by $675 and you now have a PSA membership for a year and probably extra cardsavers. Though my original answer didn’t have all the nuance you may have liked, the answer of which is the cheaper option is still the same. Ludkins may provide many convenience services, The OP was only concerned with the cheapest method.
Middling companies to PSA make money by taking advantage of bulk discounts in shipping and grading by combining multiple orders together. If you already have a bulk-sized order, there’s no reason to used a middle company other than for your own convenience.
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Send the cards yourself. Middleman services are typically for smaller quantities. At 300 cards it’s much cheaper to submit yourself.
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