[chadeast]

Originally Posted by iwantitiwinit

I've been thinking about this for a bit and wanted others opinions. Since it has now become cost prohibitive to have commons graded by PSA (let's say pre-1977 for argument sale) and since individuals still seek to complete set registry's with all cards for a particular year, wouldn't it make sense that eventually there will be a scarcity of graded commons. Eventually, existing commons that have been previously graded should have a spike in value. That as long as the number of sets registered increases there will be demand for those commons and they should have a premium.

No, this spike has not happened, nor will it IMO. What is much more likely is that graded set collecting, and the importance of the registry, will be much diminished in the future. I think that this is already happening. Even if they get back to sub-$15 grading, which it seems many doubt, a good amount of damage has been done to that realm of collecting in the past year+. I think that PSA has consciously decided that the registry is no longer the thing that drives their business. Based on their actions, it is hard to imagine otherwise. I do also believe that there is a future in which the current card bubble bursts, and that PSA may well regret permanently losing a large chunk of the business they used to get from grading sub-$50 commons.

EDIT: edit to add that I'm not sure what else PSA could have done given the circumstances, so I'm not really blaming them, it is just the reality.