The future of bulk grading at PSA

[mrreality68]

We all hope it happens but do not believe it will.

With their business model, the high demand of grading cards, and low margins at lower bulk pricing their is no incentive to bring it back unless they can find a low cost profitable way to do it or to raise the prices which is possible but might not be reasonable for many of the more common cards

[Ronnie73]

I'd like to see the bulk option come back. Even at $10 per card, but I sure miss the $6 days. At $10 a card, this is the only way I can justify having my ungraded T206's graded or crossed over. I'd like to see an $8 reholder per card for adding T206 card back info to the label. Grading would not be necessary on these, but just getting the back description correct is only needed. I believe knocking $2 off each card would be a fair trade off. Especially since it benefits their registry, which is sometimes the only reason some of us have for getting the cards graded in the first place. I don't like the need to have a current set in the registry to qualify for the bulk price. There should still be a bulk price, but maybe a bonus savings for registry set addition. All I can do is hope someone from PSA is seeing this thread and paying attention to the end users needs. I also think it's time for them to go against their word on never adding T205 back info and start doing it and showing the T205 set more love. There's a few vintage sets that could use a grading description overhaul and should be considered when the next holder/insert change happens. Such as adding another line of text and slightly adjusting the print size to allow for the change, but if done right, and slightly narrowing the print, and maybe changing the hologram location to one of the sides, more info can be added. The final change I'd make is, get rid of the clear plastic holder. I'd experiment with solid black plastic, with clear plastic in the card and label area, where it's snapped into place and sonically sealed, similar to the sealing of the two sides. No black cardboard inserts. Plus the clear plastic used in the area of the cards, have it an UV protective plastic. You don't need UV protection where there is no card. Imagine all of that during their next major upgrade rollout. Well, back to my day dreaming I guess.

[Rich Klein]

with all the new personnel PSA (and BGS) have hired there is little doubt when all is settled they will resume some more normal priced based grading fees.

While we don't know what they will be, there will be some otherwise many of their new employees will be looking for work and most companies don't hire people just to let them go a year later

Rich

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

We all hope it happens but do not believe it will.

With their business model, the high demand of grading cards, and low margins at lower bulk pricing their is no incentive to bring it back unless they can find a low cost profitable way to do it or to raise the prices which is possible but might not be reasonable for many of the more common cards

If you would have asked me a week ago, I would have said, "no way they ever come back below $25-30ish per card". But Nat didn't mince words in this interview when he talked about getting them back down to $10 ea for the registry. He seems pretty adamant about it. Perhaps he'll get enough pushback on this to where it doesn't materialize, I don't know, but if Nat gets his way, there will be options again in 2022 to have cards (which ones, I don't know) graded through the registry for $10 ea. I'm just repeating what he said.

The part where I'm "reading between the lines" is that I'm guessing this will be the only way to get cards graded at that price, and that I'm speculating that it will only be offered for select sets (hence I referenced the basketball insert sets registry survey I took part in). I just think it makes the most sense too from a strategic standpoint. We'll see what happens though. But I'd be very surprised to see them reopen ultra-modern bulk services for anything less than $25 per card for the foreseeable future.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I can definitely see the logic in your conjecture. Keep the registry moving, but slow down the rampant speculation. Makes sense to me.

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by Snowman

If you would have asked me a week ago, I would have said, "no way they ever come back below $25-30ish per card". .

Without delving into your frequent departures from reality, nobody asked you this week either. Though I appreciate the sentiment. Thanks for posting Nats thoughts.

[slightlyrounded]

Huge partnership opportunity for PSA to partner with card companies and insert discounts/free submissions via redemption. For breakers it would actually increase the 'return/appeal' on certain unopened products while allowing PSA to adjust their lower-priced submission volume over time.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by slightlyrounded

Huge partnership opportunity for PSA to partner with card companies and insert discounts/free submissions via redemption. For breakers it would actually increase the 'return/appeal' on certain unopened products while allowing PSA to adjust their lower-priced submission volume over time.

Why would they do this? They already have more work than they can handle.

[slightlyrounded]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Why would they do this? They already have more work than they can handle.

They have more work than they can handle now because of massive back-orders. As they continue to expand capacity they’ll want a way to throttle the inflow and that’s tough to do with drops in pricing - Nat said this himself. Better to sell cheaper, controllable allocation to the card companies and keep your consumer-facing prices higher. That way you can increase or decrease that redemption allocation without having to continually change pricing.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Without delving into your frequent departures from reality, nobody asked you this week either. Though I appreciate the sentiment. Thanks for posting Nats thoughts.

I am always open to a side bet with anyone who thinks they've found an episode of me "departing from reality". If you ever feel like gambling against my predictions, please send me a PM.