PSA Special $18/Card through end of July

My submission is going to be 400 cards. I submitted 125 in the $30 tier. I’ve been waiting for this (like many of you).

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That’s a heavy box! I shipped out 262 cards in an extra thick cardboard box this morning that weighed in at close to 7 lbs. I wish I had reduced the weight with a smaller, lighter box after seeing the shipping cost to next day air it to Cali :expressionless:

I used two card saver boxes for all of them and will put them inside another box. I do registered mail but with no rush. Registered mail takes forever anyway.

I plan to submit about 500 cards at the $18 tier, but I’m going to split them up into 3-4 subs between now and the end of the month to hopefully spread out the huge PSA bill a little bit 5 months from now :slight_smile:

Does any one know if any middleman operating in the EU is offering prices in this range? I’ve never submitted to PSA by myself and I’m not too keen on doing it.

This post says in the near future for EU. Might be worth emailing Ludkins to inquire.

I’ve submitted around 50 cards at the $30 tier, 25-50% of those likely wouldn’t have qualified at this $18 tier. Most of all of these have been for my personal collection.

I’ve sent off my first 20 cards at the $18 tier and am planning to send most or all of my remaining grading pile, probably another 80 cards or so.

Even if there’s a cheaper tier at the end of the year, I’ve been sitting on a lot of these cards for a year or two and just want to get the grading process started. I’m not a dealer or working on a large scale so even with the stuff I’m grading to eventually get rid of, $8 per card probably isn’t going to make a big difference to me. It’s pretty much all stuff I pulled and/or for my personal collection so the squeeze to make a profit isn’t really there.

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I just finalised my first $18 sub, about 130 cards. I initially had planned to send 500-600 across 3 subs, but I think I’ll just do one more of about 130. I could probably feel comfortable sending every card in my grading pile at $18 or higher, but… what’s the rush?

That’s the big difference - it ‘feels’ like prices are on a downward trend and you can relax a little, rather than trying to shovel every card onto the last flight into Santa Ana.*

*Famous last words.

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Exactly my feeling as well. I have a few thousand cards I’d consider sending in at $18 a piece but I’m not going to prioritize it in this current climate when the money is needed so much elsewhere.

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Great points. We’ll know if we are officially in a recession on July 28th. That fact could impact the Pokémon market a lot or could have barely any effect. Either way, definitely a different consideration compared to August 2020 lol

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I am submitting about 160 cards, which is half of what I have that I feel is worth grading at $18/card. I’d submit it all but $3k in grading fees is just enough for me right now. I think $18 is a great price to start emptying out the grading coffers, especially with the estimated 5-month turnaround. Prices haven’t been this low for grading since March of 2021.

It’s very interesting to see PSA dropping prices so low so fast. I was not expecting grading to be this cheap for maybe another 8-10 months. The backlog must be through grading and into the assembly/shipping departments, so now the research and grading departments need something to do. This special should give them enough to chew on for awhile, but it really does highlight that it’s all about supply (i.e. grading capacity) and demand. Will be interesting to see how things shake out in the future, but I don’t think the “grading will inevitably be cheaper in a few months so I won’t send anything” approach is going to work for people.

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Could work out but certainly no guarantee. I am sure the amount submitted during this special will help PSA determine what their next move should be in terms of pricing.

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The experience with the $30 tier has exceeded my expectations. They were entered almost immediately after received by psa and already in the grading phase. That is better processing than pre 2020!

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Mine were received on July 6th and haven’t been entered in yet.

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Be prepared for a long, long wait

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Was committed to waiting but I bit at $18 for just under 100 cards. What I was waiting for but not expecting yet with those cracked out CGC 8.5-9.5 value purchases. Will be interesting to see what the market is in 6 months. PSA upcharges to the appropriate tier at time of sub versus the appropriate tier level at time of grading, yeah?

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No, the upcharge is decided after grading, which is why so many were/are frustrated with their upcharge policy.

When turnaround times ended up being many months longer than expected, and the value of cards increased a lot, some felt it was unfair that they got upcharged. All this with PSA cracking down on cards being sent at tiers lower than they should have been, which submitters got away with for a long time.

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Hmm, yeah that’s not ok. Submitters should not be punished for PSA’s failures. There would typically otherwise not be that much PSA valuation shift in 3-4 months.

So if at time of grading PSA has a $10 sub special for $499 valuation, they will down charge me for cards that meet that criteria from an $18/$199 sub rate? :upside_down_face:

Haha the charging only goes one way my friend :upside_down_face:

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Are you telling me the gig is rigged?? Whaaaaaaat a shocker

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