Will the grotesque rise in grading costs eventually translate to higher prices?

[Snowman]

I think chadeast has an interesting point. It could kill graded set collecting if prices never come back to reasonable levels. Although I suspect they will eventually though. PSA probably only offers reasonable bulk pricing through quarterly specials in the future I would guess. I know Nat Turner said this was important to him, so I think it'll be back in some form at some point. The other issue now though is the moving targets with the grades themselves. I have about 150 or so 1986 Fleer basketball cards that are all in PSA 8,9,10 condition, but after watching them moving the goal posts recently, I'd be too afraid to send them in for fear of them all coming back as 7s. They have a serious problem on their hands and they need to fix it ASAP or PSA will lose their crown.

But at the end of the day, yes, economic theory would predict that the value of current slabs would increase unless for some reason the market decides to stop carrying about them.