Oh definitely. Clearly PSA is not simply charging for the cost of plastic and labor.
Playing Devil’s advocate:
Suppose they are handling a $1 million card. Then they are in principle liable for any of their potential damages to or misplacement of said card, to the tune of $1 million. They are also supposedly liable for misgrading the card, and could potentially owe a large sum of money to a future owner of the card, if they have to ever bump the grade down.
Their guarantee is supposedly good indefinitely. Say they give the card a PSA 9, but they overlooked a micro indentation.
Suppose in the year 2050 a PSA 9 goes for $20 million, and a PSA 6 is $5 million. Hypothetically PSA now owes $15 million to the owner of the card, when they bump it down to a 6. Does CGC offer a guarantee like this?
From PSA’s perspective, you could look at a portion of the grading fee as a type of insurance payment. It is insurance against their own mistakes now and into the future.
/End Devil’s advocate
To be clear, I don’t necessarily agree with PSA’s approach. It does seem to get to excessively high dollar amounts for expensive cards. I also somehow doubt PSA would admit wrongdoing in these extreme cases. If they do justify their high grading fees as insurance, then they are probably not a very honest insurance company… At least based on PSA horror stories I’ve seen here in the past.
Would it really matter which grading company you choose for a card of that caliber in the hobby? Would it make any difference in final sale price? Is it even possible to tell?
