[swarmee]

The last couple of years, PSA has only (to my knowledge) graded/slabbed live at The National. All the other shows they go to, they take submissions back to California, grade there, then mail back to the owners. Someone on the Blowout forums said that PSA may have a new grading location in New Jersey that they were using to shuttle cards back and forth to Northeastern shows. I have not seen confirmation of that.

The Collector's Club membership is a good option if your cards are medium/high value. Because your 15 card submission basically is worth it for the $199 entry, plus you get the SMR magazine for a year, and normally a free book or shirt. You then have the ability to send in monthly special submissions, which this year haven't been that great, but sometimes are really nice and allow for big savings on bulk subs or autograph authentication. You will get an emailed voucher for the 15 free that you can start using immediately. It used to be a paper voucher that got mailed in the Collector's Club box, but this past year they changed it.

Yes, you should have your cards in Cardsavers or other similar "semi-rigid" sleeves. And it's highly recommended you have the list of cards you're submitting along with their raw replacement value. If your other cards are worth $100 each, and you're submitting it with the $1000 card, just mark all the other cards to $150 and the package total will cover the additional $500 insurance and still get you in under the $499 per card limit.

If you were to submit just that card by itself, it would cost you $45 plus $18 return shipping from California. So I'd flex the other values to get the entire package insured properly. PSA will only flag it if the declared value is way off. I know of a card that became a $1,000 PSA 10 Pop 1 that was submitted under $99 that PSA didn't require upgraded service on.