[swarmee]

1) PSA has been shut down for normal submissions and bulk levels for approximately a year because of the number of people flipping modern PSA 10s for $50. Therefore the current lowest level to submit at is $100 with like a 1-2 month turnaround.
2) When submitting, you make a guess as to what you think the card should grade. Since most submitters overestimate their card grade (since PSA has gotten tougher in the last couple of years despite not changing their "standards"), most submitters declare the value and choose the level corresponding to 1-2 grades lower.

Say you have the following card which might grade the following:
5: $300
6: $500
7: $1,000
8: $8,000

Even if you think the card will grade a NM-MT 8, most people would submit at the PSA 6 level at $499 max declared value. If the card gets a 7, PSA would probably not mind. If the card gets an 8, PSA will hold delivery of your order until you pay the additional fee based on the submission level of an $8k card.

Or it could come back altered/or a PSA 5/6 and you paid the appropriate amount for the submission level. If you paid the $8,000 level to get a PSA 5/6, you don't get a refund. If PSA finds the card is altered, you would have had to type "PLEASE GIVE AUTHENTIC ALTERED RATHER THAN RETURN UNGRADED IF CARD IS ALTERED." on your order form. If the card is undersized, but not deemed altered, PSA will return it MINSIZREQ and not charge the submission fee, but you'll still be stuck paying the shipping to and from California.