PSA has eliminated their "Monthly Specials"

[The-Cardfather]

FYI Everyone -

It appears that on February 1st, PSA did away with their "Monthly Specials" and replaced it with "Quarterly Specials".

https://www.psacard.com/specials/

[toledo_mudhen]

and Specials include 65 Business Day Turnaround :eek:

Seriously?

[Republicaninmass]

I have to ask an opinion here. They did this big "move" and specials and turn around times have gotten worse! Also, quarterly profits are in the toilet. Any chance they may have downsized? I'd imagine it would be in their quarterly reports in overhead reduction of some sorts. It's just beyond me how they made this huge stride, and things seem slower than ever. I guess we shall see, since they are a public company, how much grading had increased.

[swarmee]

I don't think that's it. They are still slammed right now because Aug 1 they changed their bulk submission prices from $7 to $8 a card for orders over 100. Everyone and their mom sent in a submission to beat that deadline, and they are still digging out from under it. Until then, everyone had been holding bulk commons for the last year and a half waiting for a monthly special to reduce pricing to $5-6 per card. Once the bulk pricing increase was announced, people who were holding out hope for a return to cheaper grading prices gave up that hope.
Heck, BGS still can't dig out of all of their "nonguaranteed" orders picked up at and after the 2017 National. Most of those orders took one year to complete and mail back to the owners of their cards. You would think that having to pay for card grading a year before getting them back in your hands would hurt their nonguaranteed business, but the delays are still approximately a year on that service. At least PSA doesn't charge you until the cards have been graded.

[Republicaninmass]

Hi John!

In the first one to bang the drum of PSA and their grading...but

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!

As a holder of CLTC stock, hoping they outperform on Tuesday!

[Yastrzemski Sports]

I was told that a big part of their large surge in business has been from the gaming market - Pokémon, Yogioh, Magic. I would think business is great for them.

[swarmee]

As a holder of CLTC stock, hoping they outperform on Tuesday!
According to their publicity during their last quarter, their coin grading segment is the one that is underperforming. The fact that they won't give a discount to the $8 bulk to orders of 5,000 cards is kind of proof that they've got all the card business they can handle.
If you want to rumor monger that they've actually cut their throughput, make sure to wear your tin foil hat while doing it.

[glynparson]

Psa is not down. Clct may be down due to coins. But psa has not downsized they are in fact looking to hire they are doing the exact opposite of downsizing. I can not speak about the coin operation but I can assure people cards are not a problem at clct. The card division is actually moving into the coin divisions area. They have actually gotten the entering process worked out pretty well now. They just need more graders and they aren’t a dime a dozen. Now is your chance if you are qualified and live near Newport Beach give them a call if being a grader sounds intriguing to you. The surge is partially due to gaming cards and a large increase in Asian markets particularly japan and China along with a somewhat renewed push in modern grading of sports cards.

[frankbmd]

I’ve never submitted a card to PSA. Yogi told me that nobody submits there anymore, because they’re too crowded.

There ought to be a way to fix a mouse trap, if your only problem is too many mice. Logistics:eek:

Eliminate centering from the grading criteria. It’s the one factor that can be easily seen with the naked eye. Centering fanatics don’t seem to care about the numerical grade anyway.

Eliminate electron microscopy from the grading criteria. It only finds flaws that cannot be seen with the naked eye, so what difference does it make anyway.

The minimum wage increases are killing the bottom line. This is an easy one.

”ROBOT GRADERS”

[mantlefan]

Dr. Franks think alike!!

Robotic grading would solve a lot of their problems.

Scan for centering, corners, print dots, color, trimming, paper loss etc... and eliminate the human element. The startup costs would be significant, but bringing consistency to grading would be groundbreaking. Grading tens of thousands of cards a day would eliminate the wait times and bring TPG's into the 21st Century.

[bnorth]

Dr. Franks think alike!!

Robotic grading would solve a lot of their problems.

Scan for centering, corners, print dots, color, trimming, paper loss etc... and eliminate the human element. The startup costs would be significant, but bringing consistency to grading would be groundbreaking. Grading tens of thousands of cards a day would eliminate the wait times and bring TPG's into the 21st Century.

The only problem is they would lose a ton of business. Now they get to grade the same card more than once because of their inconsistency. A computer system that gives the cards the exact same grade every time would cost them a ton of cash in the long run. That is my take on the situation.:)

[Leon]

Yeah, sounds like the magic pill to turn water into gas. Can you imagine how much an oil company would pay to not have that be a problem for them. Billions, I would say. We just need to design robots.

The only problem is they would lose a ton of business. Now they get to grade the same card more than once because of their inconsistency. A computer system that gives the cards the exact same grade every time would cost them a ton of cash in the long run. That is my take on the situation.:)

[itslarry]

Psa is not down. Clct may be down due to coins. But psa has not downsized they are in fact looking to hire they are doing the exact opposite of downsizing. I can not speak about the coin operation but I can assure people cards are not a problem at clct. The card division is actually moving into the coin divisions area. They have actually gotten the entering process worked out pretty well now. They just need more graders and they aren’t a dime a dozen. Now is your chance if you are qualified and live near Newport Beach give them a call if being a grader sounds intriguing to you. The surge is partially due to gaming cards and a large increase in Asian markets particularly japan and China along with a somewhat renewed push in modern grading of sports cards.

$12 an hour
Why ant they find qualified graders?
Hmmmm

[swarmee]

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1013538/message-from-psa-president-regarding-turnaround-times
Just posted to PSA's message board.

[Republicaninmass]

Will be looking forward to earnings on 2/5!

Foil hat not needed

[whitehse]

The only problem is they would lose a ton of business. Now they get to grade the same card more than once because of their inconsistency. A computer system that gives the cards the exact same grade every time would cost them a ton of cash in the long run. That is my take on the situation.:)

Honestly, I dont think they would lose tons of business but rather their business would improve as many fence sitters like me, who refuse to give up our cards for an indefinite period of time, perhaps even up to a full year would submit to them if their service improved. I have tried SGC and no matter how badly I wanted them to succeed, I have my doubts if they will ever find a foothold in this hobby that even approaches PSA's level.

As to your comment about cutting down on the crack and resubmit process, I believe there will still be those out there who no matter how the cards are being graded.

Speeding up the efficiency and accuracy of the grading process would find PSA with even more submissions than they ever imagined they could have.

[bnorth]

Honestly, I dont think they would lose tons of business but rather their business would improve as many fence sitters like me, who refuse to give up our cards for an indefinite period of time, perhaps even up to a full year would submit to them if their service improved. I have tried SGC and no matter how badly I wanted them to succeed, I have my doubts if they will ever find a foothold in this hobby that even approaches PSA's level.

As to your comment about cutting down on the crack and resubmit process, I believe there will still be those out there who no matter how the cards are being graded.

Speeding up the efficiency and accuracy of the grading process would find PSA with even more submissions than they ever imagined they could have.

Maybe I should have worded my post better. My whole post was just about the business they would lose from the crack and resubmit game. Between this forum and BO I have seen hundreds of posts about doing it. I have also seen advertising from businesses/people that specialize in it.

When someone does get a computer program that will give the same grade to the same card every time they will lose that whole section of submitters.

I personally would welcome the change to computer grading.

[rjackson44]

Agree with frank 100pct

[frankbmd]

Honestly, I dont think they would lose tons of business but rather their business would improve as many fence sitters like me, who refuse to give up our cards for an indefinite period of time, perhaps even up to a full year would submit to them if their service improved. I have tried SGC and no matter how badly I wanted them to succeed, I have my doubts if they will ever find a foothold in this hobby that even approaches PSA's level.

As to your comment about cutting down on the crack and resubmit process, I believe there will still be those out there who no matter how the cards are being graded.

Speeding up the efficiency and accuracy of the grading process would find PSA with even more submissions than they ever imagined they could have.

Maybe I should have worded my post better. My whole post was just about the business they would lose from the crack and resubmit game. Between this forum and BO I have seen hundreds of posts about doing it. I have also seen advertising from businesses/people that specialize in it.

When someone does get a computer program that will give the same grade to the same card every time they will lose that whole section of submitters.

I personally would welcome the change to computer grading.

Please do not misconstrue my remarks either. I do not wish for PSA's unfettered success at the expense of SGC, Beckett, GEM or PRO. If the TPG business becomes more of a monopoly, how can customer service be expected to improve. They already have a stranglehold on the Registry crowd, despite oft cited inconsistency and customer service that leaves much to be desired. If the Registry was amenable to an antitrust action to loosen their stranglehold, perhaps we could enter an age of true competition in the TPG market with jousting robots competing for market share.

[tribefan]

Psa switched the monthly specials to quarterly specials beginning January 2019.

[Ronnie73]

Please do not misconstrue my remarks either. I do not wish for PSA's unfettered success at the expense of SGC, Beckett, GEM or PRO. If the TPG business becomes more of a monopoly, how can customer service be expected to improve. They already have a stranglehold on the Registry crowd, despite oft cited inconsistency and customer service that leaves much to be desired. If the Registry was amenable to an antitrust action to loosen their stranglehold, perhaps we could enter an age of true competition in the TPG market with jousting robots competing for market share.

Personally I think Frank is right on the money with these points. Competition is always good for the "Good" business. As far as SGC's Registry, I feel it's a mess and should be scrapped and restarted correctly. SGC should hire the true set experts to make checklists and rates the cards & variations in the set. I'm not saying PSA is perfect with their Registry but feel it's better than SGC's. I've even told PSA I'd spend time helping with their T205 and T206 portion of the sets for free. Got no response and still no updates on the requests I've sent them for over a year now.

[swarmee]

SGC's set registry is going to get even worse before it gets better, because they've told one of the board members here that his pre-2018 flips with the original submission number-card submitted certification are no longer acceptable in the future SGC set registry. It was already awful, now it's lost almost all utility unless they can merge both databases.
SGC's plan to computer grade and then provide scans of all cards they grade in the future could be a game changer, but if they can't integrate 20+ years of previously graded cards into it (unless their owners reholder all of them?), sounds like a waste.

[steve B]

SGC's set registry is going to get even worse before it gets better, because they've told one of the board members here that his pre-2018 flips with the original submission number-card submitted certification are no longer acceptable in the future SGC set registry. It was already awful, now it's lost almost all utility unless they can merge both databases.
SGC's plan to computer grade and then provide scans of all cards they grade in the future could be a game changer, but if they can't integrate 20+ years of previously graded cards into it (unless their owners reholder all of them?), sounds like a waste.


And why would anyone pay to reholder something that could be made obsolete on another whim 5 years from now.

[Rich Klein]

And why would anyone pay to reholder something that could be made obsolete on another whim 5 years from now.

IIRC -- Jim Crandell threw a major fit and rightfully so when PSA went to .5 grading. They worked out something with him and I'm surprised SGC, providing the board member is one of their big collectors, did not work out something for their leading collectors

Regards
Rich

[OLDBILL]

Steve Sloan emailed this out today:
Dear PSA Collector,

I am writing you today to address the frustrations that PSA customers are experiencing as we scale up our business to meet the demand for our services. I completely understand your disappointment with PSA’s longer-than-expected turnaround times. As a collector and customer, it is painful to have to wait for your prized collectibles without a clear picture of when the order is expected to be completed.

I want to share updates on our progress, and two key areas where we are still working to improve.

It’s been just over a year since PSA moved into our new, expanded location. At the end of 2018, we saw a 25% growth in our capacity, compared to the year prior, due to our move and the addition of new staff. Still, during that same timeframe, we experienced a 165% surge in the number of collectibles received by PSA. We believed that expanded physical space and additional staff in grading, customer service, research, receiving, sealing, quality assurance and shipping would help us keep up with demand. But as you can see, the surge in submissions deems our efforts insufficient.

So, our work continues at an even more urgent pace. But even with urgency, we must be measured. Let me explain.

The card market has experienced incredible growth that I think we can all agree is a good thing. In PSA’s case, our great strength of expertise also represents a challenge as it relates to ramping up our business. The role that expertise plays in our process is paramount. We must first find qualified grading candidates and then ensure they are properly trained to our standards. As you can imagine, this takes time, as PSA’s brand has been built upon specialized skills that require experience, repetition and focus. It would be easy to hire unqualified graders and rush product out the door. We will not do that.

In addition to growing our capacity, we can do a better job at communication. We recently needed to extend turnaround times for our services. While our goal is to beat our posted times and deliver sooner, this extension is part of an effort to communicate more appropriate timelines for our services given the sheer volume of cards at our facility. Further efforts will be made by myself and PSA’s staff to communicate our progress more frequently.

Whether you are a longtime supporter of PSA, or a new collector, I want you to know that we take our commitment to the hobby seriously. Our purpose here at PSA is to grow the hobby by providing impartial, expert authentication and grading, and a consistent, quality product. My commitment to you, as a customer of PSA and a member of our hobby, is twofold: 1) grow PSA’s capacity without sacrificing quality; and 2) improve our communication to our customers.

I am open to your feedback and encourage you to reach out to me – good, bad or ugly – at either steve@collectors.com or on Twitter at @collectorsloan. I will do my best to respond to each inquiry in a timely manner.

Thank you for your business, your patience and your understanding.



Steve Sloan
President, PSA

[Snapolit1]

See you in a few years when the backlog is cleared.

[ValKehl]

Typical corporate damage-control effort.

[Stampsfan]

Typical corporate damage-control effort.

Yup. After reading it twice, I am wondering if it says anything tangible besides "We're gonna do better...".

[frankbmd]

If one has never submitted cards to PSA, would it be fair for him to claim that PSA has never sat my cards.:D

If one has submitted cards to PSA, would it be fair for him to claim that PSA graded my cards very meticulously (in only 11 months).:eek:

[Lorewalker]

Yup. After reading it twice, I am wondering if it says anything tangible besides "We're gonna do better...".

Yeah I read it twice too and there was nothing of substance and nothing specific. Just enough to give an assurance that they are aware of the issue and doing things to correct it.

[steve B]

IIRC -- Jim Crandell threw a major fit and rightfully so when PSA went to .5 grading. They worked out something with him and I'm surprised SGC, providing the board member is one of their big collectors, did not work out something for their leading collectors

Regards
Rich


All the cards I've had graded have been by SGC. Not a ton of them, just a few. I have them on the old registry. Whatever "deal" they've offered the big graders is exactly no help to me, as it appears they're saying the grades before whatever random new system they have aren't valid anymore.


I have seen other collectibles with certs dating back to the 60's at least, and the assessment is still valid. since there's no guarantee than stuff hasn't happened to a non- slabbed item in the last 40 + years getting a new one is recommended. The groups just haven't abandoned their expertising wholesale.


I was becoming sort of ok with grading. Not so much anymore. So many bad cards get through, the companies don't stand behind the grade, repair cards damaged in slabbing, won't slab anything that isn't easy for anyone to figure out it's real.... Just wasted money. Wasting more would be pretty stupid.

[Republicaninmass]

Collectors Universe (NASDAQ:CLCT): Q2 GAAP EPS of $0.17.

Revenue of $15.7M (+11.7% Y/Y)

Not quite the 165%

[prestigecollectibles]

After 20 years of using blue labels for items encapsulated through PSA/DNA, PSA’s autograph authentication division, the company will now use red labels across the board for all submissions going forward.

The change went into effect on Jan. 1.

The decision impacts encapsulation submissions of all types and sizes and includes PSA’s recently launched line of oversized “jumbo holders” that accommodates larger-scale items like 8×10 photos and signed letters. The decision was made based on two primary factors: better security and uniformity.

“The red labels have now been integrated into our autograph encapsulation and original photograph services,” said PSA President Steve Sloan. “Uniformity and consistency are significant aspects for collectors, but we also believe that the added security measures that come with the red labels, such as the PSA LightHouse™ logo and the fugitive ink pattern, are critical components of collecting today.”

Another important distinction is that any autographed items currently with the PSA/DNA blue label that are being reholdered to the red label may not have specific ticket or card information reflected on the label. For example, only trading cards submitted through PSA’s dual-service option that are determined to be authentic will include the year and manufacturer on the label.

“It’s important for collectors to recognize this difference,” Sloan said. “If they see an autographed card with the designation ‘trading card’ on the LightHouse label, that means that PSA has only authenticated the autograph. However, if the label specifies year and manufacturer, that means the submission went through our dual authentication service.”

Collectors who possess large collections of previously encapsulated items in PSA/DNA blue labels who are now interested in reholdering to red LightHouse labels can call PSA’s Customer Service department at 800-325-1121 for special pricing information.

[chalupacollects]

After 20 years of using blue labels for items encapsulated through PSA/DNA, PSA’s autograph authentication division, the company will now use red labels across the board for all submissions going forward.

The change went into effect on Jan. 1.

The decision impacts encapsulation submissions of all types and sizes and includes PSA’s recently launched line of oversized “jumbo holders” that accommodates larger-scale items like 8×10 photos and signed letters. The decision was made based on two primary factors: better security and uniformity.

“The red labels have now been integrated into our autograph encapsulation and original photograph services,” said PSA President Steve Sloan. “Uniformity and consistency are significant aspects for collectors, but we also believe that the added security measures that come with the red labels, such as the PSA LightHouse™ logo and the fugitive ink pattern, are critical components of collecting today.”

Another important distinction is that any autographed items currently with the PSA/DNA blue label that are being reholdered to the red label may not have specific ticket or card information reflected on the label. For example, only trading cards submitted through PSA’s dual-service option that are determined to be authentic will include the year and manufacturer on the label.

“It’s important for collectors to recognize this difference,” Sloan said. “If they see an autographed card with the designation ‘trading card’ on the LightHouse label, that means that PSA has only authenticated the autograph. However, if the label specifies year and manufacturer, that means the submission went through our dual authentication service.”

Collectors who possess large collections of previously encapsulated items in PSA/DNA blue labels who are now interested in reholdering to red LightHouse labels can call PSA’s Customer Service department at 800-325-1121 for special pricing information.

Really? sounds like another way to soak your customer base for another reholder fee.. And somewhat confusing to know the difference of what was graded... smh

[Republicaninmass]

"

Collectors who possess large collections of previously encapsulated items in PSA/DNA blue labels who are now interested in reholdering to red LightHouse labels can call PSA’s Customer Service department at 800-325-1121 for special pricing information"


Those of you who have small collections of previously encapsulated items, the fees are posted.

[Leon]

See you in a few years when the backlog is cleared.

LOL. I wonder how many collectors say that?