The late 2020/early 2021 card market exploded. Card prices (demand) significantly increased, while grading prices remained the same. The cost-benefit/risk-reward was there for flippers to grade everything under the sun. Plus, Covid caused dormant collectors to return to the hobby and submit their cards for grading. It was a perfect storm.
The graders were slow to suspend grading services (or raise grading prices). When they finally acted (i.e. significantly raise prices and/or suspend services) it was too late. That is the long and short of what happy. The good news is that PSA is almost through the significant backlog and Nat Turner recently stated PSA will hopefully return to pre Covid pricing soon.
The frustrating part is that stupid Pokémon cards are the vast majority backlogged that created this mess.
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