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Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
They have completely cornered and dominate the third party grading market which is absolutely thriving. They authenticate all sorts of stuff like type 1 photos, balls, autographs, who knows what else. PCGS is a dominant player in coins. They surely have other sources of revenue as well such as their authentication deals with ebay. PSA as an entity does not "own" cards and I can't imagine that fits in the business plan. And even if it did, they could easily sell through auction houses, they don't need to sell through an ebay account. Why would they, to shill cards up a few bucks? They can do that anyhow, believe me. If you are saying Nat Turner would do it to sell his own cards, that makes no sense to me either.
Even if they were ruthlessly greedy, that doesn't mean they want to expand to every corner and level of the hobby.
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Well, it'd be difficult to debate your points.
But... it wouldn't be a few bucks.
This can easily can get 3 or 4 extra zeros deep. Even for cards that only get pushed a couple extra zeros, that still adds up after a while and those cards are easily absorbed into circulation. A single grade point could push a card to a point that the ROI is insane.
I don't want to start a conspiracy theory, but should we believe, or be naive enough to not believe there's no impropriety going on behind PSA management's back with the number of submissions being handled on a yearly basis? All it takes is a few $20/hour submission and grading monkeys to figure things out and spin a few hundred grand profit under everyone's noses every year. Ok, that would not be a PSA thing because it wouldn't be authorized. But again, at some point after all the good ideas for making more money don't pan out, there's always going to be pushing a few 10s or low pop 9s out there and selling it through one of the many available networks (AHs, fleabay, shows).
I guess I don't have as much faith as you have when it comes to people doing the right thing all the time. Perhaps that has to do with the way the business has been run from day one - PSA8 Wags. Yes, new blood is in, but they're looking to make a profit.
Your points are good and was worth the read. Thank you for that.