PSA has stopped accepting submissions

[Stampsfan]

Is there another business out there that actively and consciously shuts its doors to more customers / sales?

[glynparson]

Originally Posted by Stampsfan

Is there another business out there that actively and consciously shuts its doors to more customers / sales?

Yes anything that has a limited preset number. Happens in collector issue physical media all the time. They’ll issue say 1000 units but there are 3000 people that want one instantly and they now it but creating an after market helps them sell the next release and so on.

[Johnny630]

This is a positive for the collector of non-graded raw cards, they will become more affordable. Why? Because there is now less upside potential for someone to score with grading a card bought raw. Raw Card Prices should become more affordable.

PSA, it is my belief, 100% is making the right move here.

[bobbyw8469]

Since I have done a few bulk subs to help out the members here at Net54, I figure I will add my two cents worth. This move was LONG OVERDUE!!! I have a sub outstanding since LAST AUGUST!!!! Let that sink in. Having member wait almost a year to get their cards back is unheard of. I hope this will help clear up their backlog some. I was only going to sub under quarterly specials anyway, as I think the $20 price point to get a card graded in ENTIRELY too high. Unless you hold one of those recent "lottery winners", it makes no sense.

[TobaccoKing4]

I was just about to put in a bulk sub on April 1st, I was just waiting to see the new quarterly specials

[yanks87]

Looks like quarterly specials are now shut down as well. I guess it works out well, since I am still waiting on submissions from last June, as well as a couple of others. Maybe by fall turnaround times will get back to "normal", it will be interesting to see if pricing follows suit!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by yanks87

Looks like quarterly specials are now shut down as well. I guess it works out well, since I am still waiting on submissions from last June, as well as a couple of others. Maybe by fall turnaround times will get back to "normal", it will be interesting to see if pricing follows suit!

Have you ever seen prices go down? Maybe for a blip but not much at all. My guess is prices for grading goes up. New owners and all....

.

[sportscardpete]

Originally Posted by Stampsfan

Is there another business out there that actively and consciously shuts its doors to more customers / sales?

The biggest regret former Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz had was to not slow down growth for a few months and fix some of the operational issues the company had. It took years for him to eventually fix those problems.

[edhans]

362 new employees in the last 14 months. Wonder how many of them can spot a fake or altered card or tell the difference between an e120 and a w573.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by edhans

362 new employees in the last 14 months. Wonder how many of them can spot a fake or altered card or tell the difference between an e120 and a w573.

LOL, less than zero but don't worry they will still sell for more in their slab.

[dealme]

Originally Posted by edhans

362 new employees in the last 14 months. Wonder how many of them can spot a fake or altered card or tell the difference between an e120 and a w573.

I would guess very few, which may or may not be an issue. If they were hiring to meet the demand created by the glut of modern submissions, then being able to tell subtle differences in pre-war cards is probably not a requirement of the new employees.

I had always made the assumption that the grading companies operated in some type of assembly line fashion (which may or may not be correct). That would likely leave the logjam with the individual actually assigning the grade. To me, it would seem like there would or could potentially be a rather steep learning curve to this type of thing, even for someone with what many on this board would consider basic knowledge. As with many other business problems, throwing more people at a problem doesn't always make it go away.

Cheers,
Mark

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by dealme

I would guess very few, which may or may not be an issue. If they were hiring to meet the demand created by the glut of modern submissions, then being able to tell subtle differences in pre-war cards is probably not a requirement of the new employees.

I had always made the assumption that the grading companies operated in some type of assembly line fashion (which may or may not be correct). That would likely leave the logjam with the individual actually assigning the grade. To me, it would seem like there would or could potentially be a rather steep learning curve to this type of thing, even for someone with what many on this board would consider basic knowledge. As with many other business problems, throwing more people at a problem doesn't always make it go away.

Cheers,
Mark

Remember many of the newly hired employees are NOT hired as graders. You need people to accept mail, open mail, ship out packages, do data entry, do accounting, etc. Never assume everyone is hired as a grader and frankly many of the people just need to be proficient at what they are hired for, not card knowledge

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Stampsfan

Is there another business out there that actively and consciously shuts its doors to more customers / sales?

Any good bbq place.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by conor912

Any good bbq place.

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded.

One of my fave meals is BBQ. In Texas it is just a fact. That said. have yawl seen how much BBQ has gone up recently? You would think they are in the grading business!

To answer Ed's question above, 0 graders will know the difference between an E120 and W573. They look the same on the front, ya know...

Originally Posted by Leon

One of my fave meals is BBQ. In Texas it is just a fact. That said. have yawl seen how much BBQ has gone up recently? You would think they are in the grading business!

To answer Ed's question above, 0 graders will know the difference between an E120 and W573. They look the same on the front, ya know...

Yep. It has gotten more expensive but worth it at the great places. Have two right here in Central Texas. Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood and Creekside right here in Wimberley. Two of the best in Texas!

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Leon

One of my fave meals is BBQ. In Texas it is just a fact. That said. have yawl seen how much BBQ has gone up recently? You would think they are in the grading business!

To answer Ed's question above, 0 graders will know the difference between an E120 and W573. They look the same on the front, ya know...

TBH, I’ve never not had sticker shock at a BBQ joint, but I’ve never once regretted it, either. Expensive ingredients + a lot of labor is gonna cost you. The pandemic certainly isn’t helping the supply chain either. My guess is meat prices soar even higher as we head into prime grilling season, too.

As for PSA, it’s pretty rare that a company creates such a high demand for their product/service that they no longer even try to meet it. Usually when this happens another company swoops in to fill the gap, but I’m not so sure here. PSA is so much more preferred by everyone. I think Peter’s theory is interesting...that they come out of this and position themselves as a higher end option. If that happens, however, the hobby will be forced to accept an alternative TPG as the leader in the lower end, and I see no front runner there. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, nonetheless.