PSA & the Impact to Set Collectors
 

Curious if other set collectors have seen this...

I am putting together a PSA graded 1953 Bowman Color set. I have a complete set but am looking to upgrade certain cards. I have noticed the number of PSA graded 7's and 8's at the various auction outlets (eBay and others) has dropped dramatically over the past year.

It seems every couple of weeks there would be a set break or a large group of high-grade Bowmans come up for auction. Now, not so much. Are any of you all seeing the same?

I have seen some folks speculating that higher PSA prices would hurt set collectors. Are we already seeing this in the market?

That's funny. Every comment I've read on here says buy Ruth and Cobb, they are going to go up forever and nobody wants common crap.

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Over the pandemic I saw prices start to drop on commons and minor stars in 7s and 8s. Low pop commons still were selling for ridiculous prices. I figured money was moving to the stars, which it did.

What also happened is that PSA stopped grading bulk for most people when they suspended so many grading tiers. In speaking with a few guys who were doing sets they said they were refraining from moving forward with their sets because the supply of graded commons had been choked. Not sure if that is the predominant sentiment which has lead to the lower prices and fewer cards over the last year.

I can't imagine how anyone could disagree that PSA set collecting is currently DOA in modern and post-war is losing steam now incredibly rapidly.

The higher costs have absolutely killed supply and caused innumerable set collectors to hang it up due to grading costs. You have to look at the financials of trying, on most modern commons anything less than a 10 will net you an automatic huge loss. Unless you have some sort of guaranteed scam to get 75% 10's or more you will lose your shirt.

So yes, it has made a huge difference and I would think that common sense would tell PSA that their set registry cash cow will crash and burn as a collector driver if they cannot return that part of the base.

The 1965 Topps PSA 8 set break last evening via GM cards certainly didn't appear to lose any steam. I need 235 cards to finish the set. I bid on all 235 cards I still need. Every card I bid on, I bid between 10-15% over APR. I won just over a third of my bids. Half of my wins finished less than APR, while the other half were within that 10-15% over APR range. My wins came out 2% below the APR all totaled. Obviously, I can only speak to the cards I needed.

Maybe it is just the 65s, but that was one of my smallest hauls on a PSA set break ever. IMO, post-war is not losing any steam as that basically straight PSA 8 set broke at nearly $46,000.

Grading card submission costs are rapidly decreasing back to a reasonable price. So this may be short-lived, or the flippers may have finally left the game. But if that were the case, they'd likely be selling their cards to get out.