PSA Begins to Accept Card Authentication & Grading Service Levels

In our last article on PSA we saw..

After recently being purchased by Nat Turner this year after a massive injection of new collectors seeking to get their collectibles graded, PSA has just announced through email and on their website that they are suspending all new grading submissions.

PSA had to suspend new submissions and temporarily froze their membership tiers as they caught up on the massive influx of trading card collectors looking to grade their cards to either lock away for years or go for a quick turn around.

But now, collectors can breathe a sigh of relief as PSA Grading announces that they’re now accepting trading card submissions at all grading and authentication levels.

In their announcement…

PSA Reopens All Card Authentication & Grading Service Levels

Capacity Expansion Leads to Lowest Pricing in 14 months

SANTA ANA, CA, JUNE 9, 2022 – Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the leading authenticator and grader of sports cards and memorabilia, announces its low-cost Value card authentication and grading service level is once again available following a temporary suspension that began in March 2021.

Following historic growth across the collectibles industry, PSA witnessed unprecedented demand from customers for its industry-leading authentication and grading services. In early 2021, more than 500,000 cards were submitted for grading to PSA per week — a more than 10x increase over previous years. To address the resulting backlog of more than 12 million cards and ensure customer orders could be graded and returned as quickly as possible, PSA suspended its Value, Regular and Express service levels at that time.

Thanks to ongoing efforts by PSA to quickly grow its team, invest in new technology, and expand to additional space, the company is now close to completing the order backlog with a final subset of cards moving through the grading processes to be shipped back to customers in the coming months. All existing backlog orders with PSA will be serviced and shipped to customers before new Value orders are processed.

“We know that customers have been looking forward to this day for a long time so we thank them all for their patience,” said Kevin Lenane, PSA President. “We never could have anticipated the flood of submissions that we saw last year and our entire team has been focused on getting back to where we are today.”

“Investing in technology and other enhancements to expand our ability to meet customer demand has been our biggest focus at PSA,” said Nat Turner, CEO of Collectors. “I’m a collector myself so I deeply understand and appreciate how important the customer experience is for hobbyists. This is just one step on our journey to continue leading the hobby for generations to come.”

Starting today, Value service, which is specifically designed for modern cards issued since 1996, has reopened following the previous return of Express, Regular and Economy service levels. In addition to the relaunch of Value service, PSA is now opening Economy service submissions for all customers with no Collectors Club membership requirement to submit.

As part of its efforts to meet customer demand, PSA and its parent company, Collectors Holdings, Inc., has grown to over 1,200 total team members and also expanded with a new 130,000 square feet facility in New Jersey that it anticipates will soon significantly bolster the company’s robust grading operation. The company continues the integration of Genamint, Inc., a software company it acquired in 2021, to help improve and scale the process by which PSA grades trading card submissions.

For full details on PSA’s card grading service levels, visit www.PSAcard.com/services, and to become a PSA Collectors Club member, visit www.PSAcard.com/join.

About PSA

PSA is the world’s largest trading card, autograph and memorabilia authentication and grading service. Since 1991, PSA has examined and certified over 50 million collectibles with a combined value of over $1 billion. For more information, visit www.PSAcard.com.

PSA Grading Services

Other Options for Grading Collectibles

Other major trading card graders Beckett, and SGC are accepting submissions, though both have recently increased their prices. Another option for collectors is CGC grading. They have recently begun grading cards though many collectors are submitting Magic, Dragon Ball, Pokémon & other non-sport trading & gaming cards.

CSG, a coin & comic book grading company has also begun expanding into the trading card market, with unique green labels it has captured the eye of newer collectors.

The last option for grading your trading cards is arguably the cheapest. GMA Grading has been around for years and offers grading, slabbing & fast turn around times for years however collectors have mixed feelings about the company.

Some swear by it, others claim you pay what you get with complaints on cards being graded a perfect ’10’ that has obvious defects.

The Trading Card Market is on Fire

With so many new collectors & retail arbitrage prices going through the roof, trading cards have never been as popular. When you want to get your collectibles graded but unsure of where you should submit, it may benefit you to send a few of your cards to each company to see what you like if you’re collecting for long term, though as of recently, PSA, Beckett and SCG cards have held more value, though if you’re looking to buy, grade & flip cards quickly, CSG, CGC and GMA could be good options for you.

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