Good to hear. I’m curious though once PSA settles down what value Ludkins will provide. In the past it seemed like Ludkins actually did get quicker turnaround as opposed to sending direct, and the price per card was usually a better deal (outside of quarterly / summer specials). If Ludkins no longer saves the submitter time and money, what’s the point?
Convenience.
I’ve used them and graded my own cards multiple times and submitted my own cards, the time save is huge through middlemen. Maybe for US/CA it might be easier due to not needing to deal with customs and pay import taxes, but in the UK it’s a big stress here.
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I’m with you on that bulk. Mine went in right as it rolled into December so we’ll wait this one out together.
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Im assuming this is a bulk submission?
I sent in an order in February 2021, curious how that’s going to turn out.
My one card PSA express order shipped out yesterday. Definitely was in the “early” batch of orders they received after reopening express, but was actually pretty fast. Will be interesting to see what the express turnaround time is in a month.
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I understand that all the grading companies are recruiting - do you think that this is just a great grading backlog where demand massively surged against supply of grading - or do you think that there’s a chance things will change more drastically and that bulk grading will be a thing of the past?
I mean to say, is this a short term issue (in the long run) or will grading altogether change.
Difficult to say. Bulk grading will probably increase in cost relative to what proportion of all tiers bulk cards take up. There will always be a “bulk”, which is just to say there will always be a cheapest tier once they fully open back up. Whether that is $20 or $30 or $50 fee per card will be what will shape the future.
Idk, but if the lowest grading fee ends up being much higher like $50, could we even call it bulk at that point? Lol
It’s difficult to imagine that PSA will ever not have a backlog anymore, even with a $50 minimum fee per card, so why offer $20 tier anymore?
I’ll be shocked if they keep it at $20 once fully opened, despite my hopes otherwise.
I submitted bulk last July and it’s still in grading, so you might have a long way to go, unfortunately.
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Here’s the thing, though: they would lose a lot of business if they went to something like a $50 minimum fee per card for an extended period of time, because an incredibly large chunk of WOTC cards wouldn’t even be worth grading anymore (like, even some holos wouldn’t be worth grading). They might go to that price for a short stretch, but I just don’t see PSA doing it for a really long duration of time. So I think there is definitely hope. And I could be wrong, but didn’t Nat Turner say the $20 option would be there when PSA’s bulk tier reopens?
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Why does PSA have to feel obligated to offer cheaper grading costs so that every type of card can be graded? If there is a card that is only worth $30-50 graded today, why say they have to offer a tier that makes grading those cards profitable to the submitter?
there will be plenty of psa 9 1st ed cyndaquils for all without any new ones added
How are people still waiting on may bulk subs, July started to return already…I actually wonder if they have any real plan to try to fifo like they advertise big time on their site haha
Just seen PSA Japan are suspending the bulk service for the next set of submissions (September)
Not a big shock - I was really surprised that I was able to submit this month at only ~$11 a card
Wait this whole time you could still submit at $11 a card for bulk through PSA Japan? I should have had a middleman there submit for me 
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I feel with all the new grading companies forming PSA will definitely have competitive bulk pricing. Not sure if that will be 6 months from now or even 1-2 years from now but the amount of slabs from other companies right now is only going up. I realize a lot of these new companies probably won’t make it but there will definitely be a few that stick around to compete with PSA and BGS to help keep prices down IMO.
What does people think about Ace grading? Im just thinking in terms of the label now since they have not shown much else. I like the look so im positiv.
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starting a grading company today is like opening up a beaded necklace shop on the last hour of mardi gras
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I hope they succeed, as I do like the guys at GradedGem. However saying they face an uphill battle would be an understatement
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Sounds like they’ll be ready for the next Mardi Gras then 
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I made a video on new grading companies recently, but even over the month since I made it so many more have popped up. I’ll refine my thinking here with reference to Rand’s company.
The premise of these companies is as close to a false advertising scam as you can get. They market to people who don’t understand the graded card market and assume that “grading” is what makes the card increase in value. In fact, the only thing that matters about the card is the reputation of the company–not condition, not grade number, not name of the grade. It’s why PSA 10s (Gem Mint) sell for more than CGC 9.5s (Gem Mint) even if a CGC 9.5 is arguably a “stricter” grade and they have the same name. I could provide more examples but you get the point. Since these companies have no reputation, they provide little to no secondary market value increase. The people who end up holding the bag here are the customers of these companies, because they have basically thrown money away.
So many of these companies aren’t making even the most basic effort to develop their reputation. There was a new grading company this week started by aDrive, another popular content creator. This company advertises that they’ll grade basically any standard-sized card, but said nothing about what expertise they have to do so, including identifying and authenticating these cards. When you see things like “anything goes” authentication/grading, it’s a clear sign the company doesn’t care about their reputation and just wants to fleece people out of as much money as possible before the actually reputable companies catch up.
I like and respect Rand, and I know he won’t be malicious like some of these other companies. But I do feel like the well has been poisoned here. Starting a new grading company is the new get-rich-quick scheme in Pokemon, and while the startups may lose some money, the people who really get screwed are the ones who submit to these companies without understanding how far off their services are from the big boys.
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