Yes, at least that is how it’s been in the past. What price you made your submission at are what you’ll be billed for no matter the pricing changes that occur during the time it takes to be graded
Hello to all the Pokémon experts here! I’m a total Newby to grading and was wondering what PSA grade this Charizard might get. Front very nice with only one tiny scratch, back not so great, and a dent ion the edge I really can’t judge…
This morning I noticed that CGC updated their website to say bulk is now 70 days.
www.cgccomics.com/submit/services-fees/cgc-grading/
I subbed at the beginning of December, but it looks like those original turn around times won’t be met.
geg89 Avatar
Feb 23, 2021 10:16:16 GMT -5 geg89 said:
Feb 23, 2021 10:32:34 GMT -5 wisewailmer said:
As long as there is money in it. There are two ways for “junk slabs” to stop being a thing:
- Grading services sharply increase the price, I’m talking 2x or more.
- Market stops buying junk slabs.
I think 1 is more likely to happen than 2 in the next 12-24 months. I’ve seen PSA/CGC/BGS 1-8 cards selling for $25+ when the raw card is a couple bucks and the grading fee is less than $10. It’s a no lose proposition to grade literally anything (for now and at current prices).
Didn’t realize my first post was in the Ludkins thread so deleted that and copied it herre
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Yea, was going through prices this past sunday (2/20) and they had already bumped up their current turn arounds. Last week I was hearing people with bulk received around 12/3 - 12/5 were getting updates for going to grading. I have an order received 12/14 and hoping for an update soon.
bgs did the same last week. Wonder if the higher prices will slow subs and allow some backlog to move in the right direction?
@gottaketchumall, I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot. Out of curiosity, what would you consider a junk slab? I primarily submit cards to be graded to go into my personal collection (~80% of cards submitted are for personal collection). For all three of my subs (1 PSA and 2 CGC so far) I’ve submitted at the bulk tier because the cards are not high-dollar. Would you consider those in the “junk slab” category?
I agree that higher pricing is necessary to slow down the amount of cards being submitted, but I think an unintended consequence might be that people stop submitting cards for their personal collection if the average cost is going to be $25+ per card.
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I really hope they are careful in how they implement this.
If it’s $15, I think I can handle it. It also wouldn’t change what I send in to grade (I don’t send anything in with less than $100 in estimated value)
If it’s $25 though, it changes a lot. I think that would be a substantial price increase (can you imagine anything you buy regularly costing more than double next time you purchase it?) and I would probably send in about half the cards I do now.
a 500 card submission already hurts at $5k, but damn if it’s $12.5k … yikes.
I guess that’s the point…
I wonder what affect this would have on the bottom part of the market? The cards that are in fact worth less than $200.
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@lamplamp my opinion and the opinion of the market don’t agree very well at all so I’m not sure how meaningful my answer would be, but I’ll still give it.
IMO any card that would not be worth paying $25 to grade is in the “junk slab” territory and admittedly I have thousands of cards at the various companies waiting to become junk slabs for the very reason that I sent them in when pricing was <$10 and I think we are headed to >$20 per card pricing. The market vastly overvalues grading IMO, especially on cards that are readily available raw mint and I think it mainly comes down to impatience. Look at any modern card that is available for $5-$25 in mint condition and then for whatever reason is magically worth $50-$100+ when graded ~9/10 even though it is the same card. Not even just modern but any early non holo set cards are just achieving ridiculous graded prices recently IMO even after they’ve fallen from their peaks.
At the end of the day people pay what they are willing to pay for cards and I gladly sell them. The market just has an insatiable demand for cards that IMO shouldn’t be graded but I see a demand I try to supply it. Maybe I am wrong and all these “junk slabs” will be major stonkers but the more wrong I am the more I’ll benefit financially.
There are random “junk slabs” that I grade for myself that maybe make no sense to others such as random ~$0.50 set cards that I really like the art on, but honestly if and when the grading price became too high for it to make sense grading those I’d just move to another style of case for protection and presentation. For whatever reason some people just seem unwilling to have raw cards in their collection or cards that are not graded 9/10 or 10/10 and they pay quite the premium to achieve that and I don’t get it but again I benefit from it.
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$25+ would be absolutely asinine for bulk cards. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that point.
My guess is the price increase will be somewhere in the $15-20 range. That extra $5-10 should definitely serve as enough of a deterrent to slow down bulk submissions.
EDIT: Also, I just thought of something. Wouldn’t a grading price increase also result in an increase in prices of graded cards in general to make up for that grading cost? At least for vintage stuff, anyway.
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People are paying way too much of a premium for grades under 9 (and in some instances for 9s and 10s, too). It’s stunning to see cards that are readily available for $5 in raw NM/M condition sell for considerable premiums in PSA 8.
I might be wrong, but I think a lot of people without grading experience and experience cracking slabs don’t realize quite how unimpressive PSA 8 condition is. I think people imagine that PSA 8 condition is above what one could expect from buying a raw card. But it’s really not. PSA 9/10 condition is a different story, but it’s super easy to find PSA 8-quality raw cards. Paying more than a $10-$15 premium for a PSA 8 slab makes very little sense to me, and I think it’s a result of, as you said, people dramatically overvaluing slabs.
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Bring on the price increase… at this point it’s just worth it to deter such a backlog of bulk crazy submissions and right the ship… unprecedented growth and literally everyone and their brother submitting to PSA (or BGS for that matter and CGC) has created such a sour spot in my experience for trying to get cards graded. Yes it will suck paying more but barring expanded facilities or a card market crash, what else will slow down these submissions?
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Thanks for sharing your opinion, I appreciate you taking the time to write our your thoughts.
I agree with what you said about the market’s willingness to pay a premium for modern graded cards. It’s wild that people are willing to pay that premium when they could just buy the same quality card raw for a fraction of the price. That might have something to do with people not being as experienced in determining the differences between grades though. I know when I first started collecting graded cards, I had a hard time determining the nuances between each grade. As I gained more experience in evaluating the differences, I could more consistently differentiate between each level.
I do the same thing regarding $0.50 set cards for my personal collection. I’ve thought about doing the same thing (shifting them to a different form of protection) if prices for grading get too high.
The thing that I think about when I hear “junk slabs” that we haven’t touched on, is what I believe to be a huge influx of cards being submitted by amateur graders that believe their PSA 5/6 Unlimited Base Set cards are 9’s and 10’s. I think that is being driven by the prices people are seeing for the peak of Unlimited back in Oct. 2020. I doubt we would ever know, but I wonder how much of the current backlog is being driven by cards like that.
Typically price increases in anything get pushed down to the consumer. Think US- Chinese tariffs on steel… the end user paying for the building to be constructed foots the cost increase. Not the company producing the steel or selling it. I’m not sure how that plays out in this situation but would make sense for people to expect to pass it down to the buyer of their cards. My .02
I strongly disagree. There is a LOT of value in having a card ACTUALLY graded a PSA 7 over one that’s “LP”. I have had so many great card come back 6 or 5 because there was a crease I never saw in them… I’d rather have the security of an encapsulated grade than the insecurity and buying based on photos or description alone.
The market is transitioning towards investment and away from collection, IMHO.
Collection = raw, slab, doesn’t matter to them. Throw it in a binder and look at it occasionally
Investment = encapsulate a card and stick it to a value that can be traded more like a security than a piece of cardboard.
I think the market accurately depicts the value of having a card in a slab over raw. The opportunity cost alone of grading a sub $200 card is insane!
If I was INVESTING, I would buy a PSA 8 slab over a Mint or LP card for $15 more any day of the week. Every day of the week. 24/7. It’s a no brainer!
The overall affect imho is that the price of graded cards will separate more from the price of raw cards as the opportunity cost will likely remain the same but actual COGS will rise.
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My thinking here as well and it particularly bodes well for people in a position with multiple thousands of cards in the que already. With that said, I have about 200 non holo unlimited cards i thoguth might be worth while to grade but didnt get around to it. Kinda thinking i need to rush these through cause once the prices increase i highly doubt these are sent in and will suppress the supply on market. Even undesirable cards such as these may bring good value if they are already graded.
lol were at the point where we literally grade undesirable cards for the fun of it
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Depends on the card. Are we talking about a 1st Edition Base Set Charizard? Then hell yeah I’d rather buy a PSA 7 over a raw copy.
But I’m referring to cards like the Umbreon. It’s a non-holo rare that you can easily buy for like $5 in raw PSA 8/9 quality shape. For a card like that, paying $62 for a PSA 8 version is a waste of money, MO.
Re: the investment aspect – I don’t agree with this either. A slabbed PSA 8 and a raw PSA 8 are equally good/bad investments. If the PSA 8 appreciates in value more, you can just submit the raw 8 to be graded lol. Paying $15 more for a PSA 8 is reasonable; you might have misread my post. I’m talking about people paying significantly more than that. Like the buyer of the Umbreon paid $57 extra for a PSA 8 version of an abundant non-holo lol.
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Better get my bulk mailed by Saturday
I wouldn’t even wait that long, in case we get more weather-based delays
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