SGC Announcement

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I can't figure out why PSA seems incapable of providing accurate turnaround times. Yes, SGC has made a ton of pricing and turnaround time changes in recent years, but at least they are trying to give their customers accurate information...

It's a forecasting problem. PSA receives around 25,000 to 50,000 cards per day, with massive amounts of variance from one day to the next, and from one month to the next. SGC recieves around 3,000 cards per day and has lower variance. It is much easier to project turnaround times for a smaller operation like SGC than it would be for one like PSA, simply because of how the math works out.

There are just simply too many things outside of their control that make it difficult to predict future grading demands like product release dates, changes in market values of cards, etc. These all affect grading demand. PSA is effectively guessing at how much demand will be generated by monthly specials and changes to the pricing structure as well. It's a never ending battle of push and pull.

Predicting their future demand with the sort of precision that the hobby wants is nearly impossible. The best they can do is guess, throw a big-ish number out there and hope they don't go over. Then, if they do, they can make adjustments to their pricing, hiring, and monthly specials that help to chip away at that demand. Some levers work more quickly than others. Hiring more talent, or perhaps I should say more "talent", is the one that takes the longest, of course.