pretty sure why they keep changing names is because psa removed any dealer who works with a competitor. that is why gg was radio silence in 2021 because they work with ace, and probably the same with charlie because he is a cgc employee. it is pretty obvious to me that someone didn’t really “quit” when they immediately continue doing middleman grading with the same employees but under another company name.
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Yes, it is. It’s probably because we paid our submission fees to Charlie’s company so they’re still handing all the expenses with regards to those submissions that were processed under his watch.
There’s nothing shady going on, Charlie is no longer involved with Ludkins. It makes a lot of sense that the company who we paid fees to originally is the one handing all the return and upcharge expenses.
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Charlie confirmed this is exactly the case.
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In case not everyone received:
Hello All,
Providing an update on the status so far. To date, we have received back and processed more than half of the total group submissions, including all but one of the oldest that remained. We have a little over 200 single-submitter subs as well that we have not yet received back. Of those, over half are with PSA’s shipping logistics team and are slated to be returned promptly.
We have active communication with PSA and there have been substantial gains overall in returning all of the Ludkins USA subs.
While we haven’t hit the 4-6 weeks target that we were optimistic for in our last mass communication, we can see considerable movement and are working as hard as we can to get everything turned around quickly as it lands. The number of people waiting on submissions has shrunk 40% in the last 25 days.
Please note that the Ludkins Tracker is not functional as of now. Changes to Google Chrome and PSA’s own website have rendered it non-functional and we do not have the resources to get it repaired. Our goal is to manually process these remaining returns and empty all Ludkins USA submissions from the backlog as fast as possible. As always, when your submission returns, we will reach out and ask for a return address.
Thank you again for your patience as we complete the return of all Ludkins USA subs.
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I received that email to my secondary email, but not my primary email that was used for my submission haha
I got the first one, but not this one lol 
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For some reason I never get any of these emails, yet I have three outstanding orders with Ludkins USA.
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Might be worth a shot emailing them with your order numbers to see if they have the order back and are waiting on an address reply from you?
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40% done is better than I was expecting
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oh cool I actually did get that email just now
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I got the email as well. My Polaris returns from July meanwhile will be here by Friday lol
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Not sure if someone posted this already. Received an update today from Ludkins:
Hello Ludkins USA Submitters,
First, thank you for your patience as we continue to work toward the end of PSA’s backlog. We started this process with nearly 2,000 orders in play, and we are down to fewer than 400 total orders, only 72 of which are group submissions.
We understand that the communication has not been consistent with what you might have hoped to receive. We apologize for the circumstances that have led to that and are providing the following information to hopefully address the range of questions received.
When will my submission be back?
100% of CGC submissions have been returned to customers.
RE: PSA - We last met with Kevin Lenane, the president of PSA, on Friday, August 26th to discuss the transfer of the remaining submissions due back to US customers. There are no remaining hurdles to receiving back the submissions except their completion of service and return from PSA. As of October 5th we have received back and processed more than half of the total group submissions, including all but one of the oldest that remained. We have a little over 200 single-submitter subs as well that we have not yet received back. Of those, over half are with PSA’s shipping logistics team and are slated to be returned promptly. We continue to have active communication with PSA and there have been substantial gains overall in returning all of the Ludkins USA subs.
Why are my messages not being answered?
To our knowledge, Ludkins Collectables, the UK-based company for whom Ludkins USA ran services, does not intend to resume accepting submissions. In the absence of new income, ensuring that sufficient funds are reserved for completing the return of the submissions from PSA is our number one priority.
Our company was not prepared for the devastating increase in customer service costs that came with PSA delays, shutdowns, and pandemic uncertainty/anxiety. We saw our costs of providing just customer correspondence increase by over $140,000 in 2021. Our model had always been based on returning savings on grading to customers at the best industry rate, leaving Ludkins USA to operate on slim margins. We attempted to overcome the communication demands by investing in scraping order statuses, but our attempts ultimately failed as PSA’s cybersecurity actively combatted scraping. At the peak of our efforts, we had a team of Stanford computer science graduates specifically working to overcome the issue. Requests for an API to pull information were not acknowledged or not granted. Please note that the Ludkins Tracker is not functional as of now. Changes to Google Chrome and PSA’s own website have rendered it non-functional and we do not have the resources to get it repaired.
As of now, we have reduced the Ludkins staff to a single director overseeing all remaining operations on one day per week with approval to work additional time only when orders return. While this is not the situation we imagined at our peak, it is the only possible path forward for ensuring that orders are returned. We cannot invest money that is not had on additional customer correspondence. We can only reserve funds to ensure that all submissions will be returned as soon as feasible.
Our hope is that customers will accept this general update in lieu of personalized responses with the understanding that it is essential to guarantee the safe return of their cards as quickly as possible.
What should I expect for future communications?
As has always been the case, when your submission is returned, you will be contacted, and we will return your submission in a timely manner. We do not have any unprocessed submissions on hand. All submissions are still being returned quickly to customers once they come into our possession. Please keep an eye out for address requests and payment requests for return shipping. Ludkins will not provide individualized responses to questions about PSA’s turnaround times. We are solely focused on wrapping up these remaining orders operationally with PSA and have exhausted our resources for seeking special treatment. To reiterate, from the highest levels of PSA, we have contractual reassurances that all Ludkins USA submissions will be returned soon. There are no concerns about receiving back and returning these submissions. But making that guarantee necessitates a laser focus on processing and reserving 100% of capacity previously diluted between individual customer responses, new submissions, and returns for bringing these remaining subs to their conclusion.
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That is an email they sent out many weeks ago, earlier today they sent out a new email that someone shared a few posts up above yours
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To summarize what happened at Ludkins USA, assuming their information is accurate (i didnt get the email)
325ish Single Submissions → 200ish Single Submissions
72 Group Submissions → 1 old one stuck, 35 completed & returned, 36 outstanding
400 outstanding → 250 ish left
for me is it is 0/3 and 0/1
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I’m 1031G-C, finally got return notice! Submitted Nov 2020
Side note: first time using Ludkins, you’d think after almost 2 years of no comms they’d at least cover the return shipping…
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Sounds like they could barely even cover the grading fees even though that was 100% prepaid.
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Just got a returns incoming email for January 2021! Super pumped! Crazy that it comes a few days after my Polaris order from 3 months ago!
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lol, this reminds me of “buy the card, not the grade” because they bought into the label of a specific education instead of a skillset. They mention paying Stanford computer science graduates as if going to Stanford means they were the right people for the job. The fact that they mention their education tells me that these people probably didn’t have other qualifications, like being professionals at webscraping and APIs. Software engineers are expensive, but paying people who aren’t properly qualified is even more expensive. If they put a lot of money into that, then I’m not surprised that they ran out of capital rather quickly given everything else that was going on.
Source: I’m a software engineer by trade who has to deal with people who aren’t qualified for the job on a daily basis 
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I submitted in March/April 21 with Ludkins UK and the order was registered in July 21. Update sheet still says 0/96 standard submissions graded.
If I get the latest info here correctly: Only US submitters are getting cards back lately, right? Or is there anybody from Europe as well?
Looks like even though Ludkins US seemed to be less reliable in the beginning, they are delivering now.
I think both UK and US are starting to see more and more returns.
Got my November 2020 UK sub back last week.
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