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Originally Posted by Hankphenom
What explains such a quantum jump in fees? Is it because they are based on the value of these cards, which have gone up so much? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, since it shouldn't cost them any more to grade now than it did then. I guess it's because they can?
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First and foremost, it's what the market will bear. And if 311 Mantles were still trading for $1 apiece, then grading wouldn't likely be a thing at today's grading costs.
But certainly their costs have risen over time, and particularly in the last few years, everything from employees to space and utilities to their insurance costs.
Speaking of insurance costs, PSA would probably add their guarantee to the list of their costs that has increased, simply because card values have risen. Naturally, not everyone believes that the guarantee is real, but it sure seemed real when they wrote me a big check earlier this year for a doctored card that they assigned a numeric grade. For a card that is valuable, such a screwup could wipe out their profits from grading a whole bunch of other cards.