Makes sense. Service suffers through prolonged turn around times due to unprecedented demand: put prices up. Filter out some chaff. Many lost their minds when they did this last bull market. Didn’t have the downward pressure effect many thought it would. Gave PSA a breather when it coincided with the ‘normal market conditions’ of 22-24, though. PSA are in a golden goose position directly benefiting, downstream, from TPC/i’s ability to virtually print money. Downside risk for PSA at this point minimal, at least to the extent they’re confidently (and rightly) willing to poke the market with a not-insignificant increase in pricing to, basically… see what happens. The ones most negatively affected are those whose models have been running on sending in the cards least worth grading. This is like the hahbee’s version of raising interest rates 
Didn’t PSA used to charge a premium for modern sports over vintage sports? You had to pay a few extra bucks per card with a specific year defining modern? I wonder if they will do the same for Pokémon. Honestly, I think it would solve some problems.
In 2020 when PSA shut down it was: “PSA is Dead, CGC is the new GOAT”
In 2024 When TAG Came on the Scene it was “PSA is Dead, TAG is the New GOAT”
If you go on Facebook, everyone glorifies CGC
If you go on Reddit, everyone glorifies TAG
At the end of the day, the “Best” grading company doesn’t come down to the morals or the company or scandals, but how much money you can make off of the company by using their services.
To put this into practice, go to ANY card show for an experiment.
Try to sell ONLY CGC Cards, then ONLY TAG Cards, then ONLY PSA cards.
Now count in all 3 scenarios how long it takes for you to only grade with PSA moving forward…
The pattern will continue like in 2020 when a large amount of people jumped the boat to CGC. It will be interesting to see if people stick with the cheaper option being CGC or people jump the ship to the more expensive TAG grading. Either way in 2 years, PSA will still be the market movers and everyone will try to crack open their TAG or CGC cards to try to cross to PSA 10’s.
Don’t hate the company, hate the market. The people speak with their wallets.
I am still in the process of grading all my EX series reverse cards. It’s going to be more expensive to complete it.
Having only PSA graded and not willing to mix it.
I will stop after the EX series are done. My doubts about doing all DP series is gone. They will stay raw.
This really sucks. I use grading cards as my main way to fund my collection so this will be a big hit on what I will be able to buy going forward. Bigger thing is that I am going to have to take larger risks as it will only be worth grading more valuable cards.
Just checked my PSA register and I still have 795 reverses to do.
So with $6 increase it’s over 4k more on grading, Auch
I went to start a submission a handful of days ago and saw these price changes. I was surprised I didn’t see any chatter about it here so a couple hours later I went to take a screenshot for a post and the prices had reverted back. Should’ve taken that as a sign..
For cards I intend to sell I will switch to CGC but only for pristine 10 candidates. From a sales perspective they seem to be comparable PSA10s. For everything else PSA still has my nuts in a vise and I can’t do anything about that.
I’m not really concerned with grading more cards for my PC so at least that’s something.
wehn quarterly special tho
It’s interesting to see the price distribution at the lowest tiers, I wonder how it will change in the coming days/weeks/months.
For historical purposes, these are the prices as of February 10th, 2026:
- AGS - Bulk - $12/card, <$100 declared value
- BGS - Base - $14.95/card, declared value not listed
- SGC - Lowest - $15/card, <$1,500 declared value
- CGC - Bulk - $15/card, <$200 declared value
- TAG - Bulk - $19/card, <$200 declared value
- PSA - Value Bulk - $25/card, <$500 declared value
I guess my grading pile will continue to grow in 2026
That’s why private equity invests in the service providers rather than the collectibles itself.