PSA suspending most services as of Mar 30 2021

[serpintaxt]

welp. this just showed up. I had just gotten a submission in this morning, luckily. I suspect this will be a big shift in the collectibles industry right now, if they are turning down submissions for the next 2ish months

edit: here’s the letter to customers

www.psacard.com/articles/articleview/10367/psa-customer-update-april-2021

Hello PSA Customers,

Since my last update, the momentum behind the hobby has only accelerated. In fact, our Collectors Universe President and CEO, Joe Orlando, recently shared the reality of the surge of submissions to PSA.

I’ll try to further illustrate what has happened. The sheer volume of orders that PSA received in early March has fundamentally changed our ability to service the hobby. The reality is that we recently received more cards in three days than we did during the previous three months. Even after the surge, submissions continue at never-before-seen levels.

Given our growing backlog, it would be disingenuous for us to continue to accept submissions for cards that we will be unable to process in the foreseeable future. It’s an unpleasant conclusion, especially after the March 1 price increase, but it is necessary to properly serve the customers who have already submitted to PSA.

Effective immediately, PSA is temporarily suspending our Value, Regular and Express service levels. This will allow us to fully unbox and receive the recent surge of orders and focus on our most impacted service lines.

We will take a tiered approach to reintroducing these service levels. Our goal is to bring all suspended service levels back by July 1, 2021.

Collectors Club members will have their memberships automatically extended to match the duration of the Value suspension. This extension will ensure existing members have 12 full months to utilize their annual Collectors Club benefits.

PSA’s growth planning and capacity expansion remains in full effect. We recently added an additional 58,000 square feet to our California operation on top of the 62,500 square feet we added a few months ago, furthering our ability to hire and process orders. A successful Virtual Career Fair on March 16 netted many fresh candidates. Today we stand 783 people strong and are growing daily, compared to 421 employees at Collectors Universe in January 2020.

Please also know that PSA is working on physical office expansion to new international markets, and for the first time, new grading locations in the United States. This will help diffuse submissions across multiple locations and allow PSA to tap into new grading talent across the hobby. More information will be announced in the near future. If you are interested in working for PSA, please email your resume and a cover letter to our Human Resources department at jobs@collectors.com. Those interested in applying to become a Grader should contact our Grading Recruiter, Mike Levine, at mlevine@collectors.com.

This announcement puts our existing customers first. You have been extremely patient in waiting for your cards. This change will help get your cards back faster while maintaining the quality and accuracy you expect from PSA. We are working around the clock for you, and we appreciate your support as we grow our capacity.

Thank you and enjoy collecting,

[effectspore]

I remember someone in the Discord called it, crazy they are actually going through with it

[connorc]

whoa.

[iisanaggie]

Good

[fourthstartcg]

www.psacard.com/articles/articleview/10367/psa-customer-update-april-2021

Here is the letter explaining a bit more. Also this is another example of something that while technically should go in the Giant Professional Grading thread, we’ll leave it on its own because it’s so big and important.

[cooltrainertony]

thats a big ole rip, didnt they just buy a new facility too?

[themewcollector]

They should do this more often like an off season of sorts so they can catch up on grading as much as they can.

[mossdeep]

luckily i sent in about 4/5ths of my submissions last week. these last 20 cards won’t be graded for a while I guess.

[marchander]

I’m guessing the 3 days worth of submissions they received that was more than the previous three months were the orders that people got in before the price increase. That’s a bonkers number of cards.

Since I submitted a few express orders in March, hoping that there weren’t too many express orders in the mad rush to beat price jumps.

[icollectr]

They’ve had an entire year to adapt, this wasn’t what I would call adapting. Having too much business is a good problem I guess… Shutting off submissions for 90 days minimum just let’s other grading companies fill the void, even if it is only temporarily.

[A.P.Speeze]

I got over 700 cards ready to send right before the price increases so here I am waiting to send in cards as I would like to see if they will have Pokemon in the next quarterly special and instead they suspend all lower tiers. I am not on my game right now.

[admiral]

Nuts, glad I got my subs in.

[mossdeep]

silver lining is that I just made an SGC account last night. I don’t love the designs, but Beckett seems to be heavily backlogged as well. hopefully PSA’s new management learns from this situation, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

[nikhil]

@icollectr

They’ve had an entire year to adapt, this wasn’t what I would call adapting. Having too much business is a good problem I guess… Shutting off submissions for 90 days minimum just let’s other grading companies fill the void, even if it is only temporarily.

I feel at this point they are taking a short term loss for a longterm gain of being able to comeback strong and ready rather than continuously feeling overwhelmed of everything that is happening. I think they make enough money to sustain for a while, but the most long term growth approach is making sure you have happy repeat customers.

I think this is as justified as sports players taking an off season. It’s necessary for recovery.

[rsths12]

Not surprising at all. I often think about why they don’t try a per person cap, monthly cap, lottery, or something similar to allow submissions to come in but at more manageable pace. I bet this will further increase the demand for CGC, and I wonder if they will increase prices again/suspend submissions themselves.

[gengaranimal]

Although it must align with the business model goals (or, realistically, preserve private relationships with power brokers), it is no small thing for a company to say, “stop sending us your business and keep your money for now.” Many would say that’s just asking for the kiss of death. This is quite amazing to me.

Edit: PSA: “CGC, you owe us 15% of all your gross this next quarter.”

[Cerulean]

They honestly should have done this a while ago, and I think this should have actually occurred before the price increase. But hopefully, the combination of both things will significantly slow things down and allow them to get caught up.

[pfm]

The reality is that we recently received more cards in three days than we did during the previous three months.

This is why “just scaling” doesn’t work.

[Cerulean]

@gengaranimal

Although it must align with the business model goals (or, realistically, preserve private relationships with power brokers), it is no small thing for a company to say, “stop sending us your business and keep your money for now.” Many would say that’s just asking for the kiss of death. This is quite amazing to me.

It’s definitely not a kiss of death. They are backed up out their behinds. This will just allow them to catch up and (hopefully) provide more satisfactory customer service in terms of getting cards graded and out the door.

People will still submit to PSA once they open back up.

[chappo]

understandable, as I guessed the price increase was just a drop in the ocean, that didn’t really calm down the submissions PSA was getting. It also takes time to hire and train all the new staff, this all during the midst of a pandemic.