New PSA Pricing..

[way2slowbro]

Looks like CGC is my new friend.

[craigc]

I’m gonna need CGC to start grading Yugioh too. At this point the only reason for me to use PSA would be if I needed to super express a card or grade something CGC doesn’t do.

[opmystic]

@admiral

@pikachuisbestpokemon

Well needed with the current boom.

Or they could have expanded and scaled up instead of doing the lazy doubling of price lol

Cards arent going to be graded any faster now, PSA just makes more money now

100% agree.

I detest the argument from people that have said “prices should be increased so that less cards will be sent, thus resulting in faster turnaround times”.

That’s stupid.

Imo - They should move their location to somewhere cheaper to cut costs and improve profits, whilst expanding facilities and hiring more. (Yes I know they’re hiring more and expanding but if they had a cheaper location they’d be able to expand even more and hire even more employees because the salary would be cheaper).

I also still can’t believe they haven’t opened up a European office/ facility as of yet. I’ve spoken with psa since 2017 about this and they have no plans to open one even though they’ve seen tremendous international growth throughout the past 5 years from that region.

I will still send to psa but I just disagree with the way they are trying to combat the turnaround times issue.

[obliviox91]

As long as people keep sending cards to psa… they can do whatever they want…?

[jakew1992]

Hmmmm looks like my cards will look good in card savers for awhile

[icollectr]

I get that the astroturfing incident was bad, but CGC as a service has been good to me thus far. Affordability for submitting is there, pricing on graded will catch up to the PSA/BGS counterparts if it becomes widely accepted within the hobby. I’ve sent a fair amount of lower cost cards and was impressed enough to send in my 2005 Championship Arena. The more these new companies thrive the more pressure it puts on the old guard to step it up.

[xzini]

After this, I’m done with grading. I’ll send in couple that I need to get in to complete a few graded collection goals of mine and that’s going to be it. It was fun while it lasted

[serpintaxt]

oh god why.

Now the difference between Value ($20) and Regular ($100) is MUCH steeper cut in margins than $10 → $50. Now that value supports up to $500, my strategy will be around sending way more value than regular. I will basically try to avoid regular when possible to maintain margins (especially on cards I have no idea how will grade!)

I don’t think it really changes how much volume I submit fwiw.

I also think this really leans into the “value of being in a slab” part, any card now worth $200 or more will have inherently more value as of right now, as the opportunity cost and actual cost to get it in that slab today vs yesterday is double.

[effectspore]

Any binder collectors in the chat?

[serpintaxt]

@caughtatpoint

@ozenigma

There’s no way that dealers are going to get the same prices as they have.

That would just push the bottleneck to the dealers. Makes no sense.

I agree they’ll see an increase, but I wonder if it will be by the same amount.

According to Graded Gem UK, PSA have been trying to get people to use dealers so that everything is submitted correctly/can be processed in the most efficient manner. Whether there’s any merit to that argument in practice, I couldn’t say. But you have to imagine 100 packages of 500 cards is easier to manage than 1000 packages of 50 cards, for example. Plus the amount of first time submitters increase the chance of problems with the submission.

That’s just propaganda that Graded Gem publishes. They have a vested interest in you using their service, so they’re happy to create rumors like this without any evidence. PSA has never said this public.

There’s also no dealer pricing that comes with bulk grading services, they pay the same that we pay.

[randox]

I believe this will improve turnaround times, volumes will drop a lot and they can clear the backlog faster.

[squirtle1000]

@serpintaxt

@caughtatpoint

I agree they’ll see an increase, but I wonder if it will be by the same amount.

According to Graded Gem UK, PSA have been trying to get people to use dealers so that everything is submitted correctly/can be processed in the most efficient manner. Whether there’s any merit to that argument in practice, I couldn’t say. But you have to imagine 100 packages of 500 cards is easier to manage than 1000 packages of 50 cards, for example. Plus the amount of first time submitters increase the chance of problems with the submission.

That’s just propaganda that Graded Gem publishes. They have a vested interest in you using their service, so they’re happy to create rumors like this without any evidence. PSA has never said this public.

There’s also no dealer pricing that comes with bulk grading services, they pay the same that we pay.

So you think Ludkins and Graded Gem were taking a loss every time they submitted cards for $9/each (when direct-through-PSA “Value” was $10)? I highly doubt that. They absolutely must have a dealer discount otherwise the entire business is unsustainable.

[serpintaxt]

@randox

I believe this will improve turnaround times, volumes will drop a lot and they can clear the backlog faster.

don’t drink the kool aid man.

Making supply 2x expensive does not reduce demand. This isn’t going to have a significant impact on their backlog. The demand for PSA is simply significantly higher than it was 1 year ago, I’m imagining it’s exponentially so. Doubling price is not going to reduce backlog / work for PSA back to those rates.

this is just simple economics.

ideally PSA could scale their business with demand, they have shown they don’t know how to do that (and I know it’s not easy)

[obliviox91]

@effectspore

Any binder collectors in the chat?

Check (collect both)

[serpintaxt]

@squirtle1000

@serpintaxt

That’s just propaganda that Graded Gem publishes. They have a vested interest in you using their service, so they’re happy to create rumors like this without any evidence. PSA has never said this public.

There’s also no dealer pricing that comes with bulk grading services, they pay the same that we pay.

So you think Ludkins and Graded Gem were taking a loss every time they submitted cards for $9/each (when direct-through-PSA “Value” was $10)? I highly doubt that. They absolutely must have a dealer discount otherwise the entire business is unsustainable.

I don’t remember them ever taking $9 a month but that would surely imply that is true, they do have a discount. Them having a discount wouldn’t make much business sense to me - the cards are all the same to PSA, PSA’s only perceived benefit of a 3rd party grader is that submissions come in correct every time… I’m not sure how big of a problem that is and if PSA would be willing to reward dealers with a discount for that.

but I will admit that I could be wrong here!

[icollectr]

@randox

I believe this will improve turnaround times, volumes will drop a lot and they can clear the backlog faster.

Maybe for the high end levels, it’ll have no effect on Econ and bulk.

[caughtatpoint]

@serpintaxt dealers/agents/middlemen make grading much more accessible to people who lack knowledge, time, or just the willingness to deal with the process, and otherwise would not submit cards at all. The option to throw your cards into a box and have someone do the work for you is huge.

[randox]

@serpintaxt

@randox

I believe this will improve turnaround times, volumes will drop a lot and they can clear the backlog faster.

don’t drink the kool aid man.

Making supply 2x expensive does not reduce demand. This isn’t going to have a significant impact on their backlog. The demand for PSA is simply significantly higher than it was 1 year ago, I’m imagining it’s exponentially so. Doubling price is not going to reduce backlog / work for PSA back to those rates.

this is just simple economics.

ideally PSA could scale their business with demand, they have shown they don’t know how to do that (and I know it’s not easy)

I guess we will see in time but for me personally, I am no longer sending in my 100+ card submission. Maybe I’m just poorer than everyone else tho haha

[kpod]

@serpintaxt

@squirtle1000

So you think Ludkins and Graded Gem were taking a loss every time they submitted cards for $9/each (when direct-through-PSA “Value” was $10)? I highly doubt that. They absolutely must have a dealer discount otherwise the entire business is unsustainable.

I don’t remember them ever taking $9 a month but that would surely imply that is true, they do have a discount. Them having a discount wouldn’t make much business sense to me - the cards are all the same to PSA, PSA’s only perceived benefit of a 3rd party grader is that submissions come in correct every time… I’m not sure how big of a problem that is and if PSA would be willing to reward dealers with a discount for that.

but I will admit that I could be wrong here!

Yes you are wrong

[squirtle1000]

@serpintaxt

@squirtle1000

So you think Ludkins and Graded Gem were taking a loss every time they submitted cards for $9/each (when direct-through-PSA “Value” was $10)? I highly doubt that. They absolutely must have a dealer discount otherwise the entire business is unsustainable.

I don’t remember them ever taking $9 a month but that would surely imply that is true, they do have a discount. Them having a discount wouldn’t make much business sense to me - the cards are all the same to PSA, PSA’s only perceived benefit of a 3rd party grader is that submissions come in correct every time… I’m not sure how big of a problem that is and if PSA would be willing to reward dealers with a discount for that.

but I will admit that I could be wrong here!

Ludkins US was offering a deal of $9/card for orders of 200+ cards. It’s the current deal they advertise, but it is likely to change now that PSA’s prices have increased.

I think the dealer discount makes sense. From my understanding Ludkins always sends PSA 200+ cards in every Value order. If you submit 200 cards yourself then you get your own order sent to PSA, otherwise Ludkins combines orders with other customers before sending to PSA. Surely PSA likes getting large orders which are submitted correctly and consistently every time. That saves them a lot of time, so I suspect that is why they are willing to offer dealers a discount.