PSA to open East Coast Office

[Thrill-of-the-Hunt]

this is an interesting move by psa. what is the investment here on their end?

how much for rent/utility bills/insurance
how much staff and wages
will they have on site equipment to encapsulate
will they have to move a grader or two to the new location
will they hire a new grader and will they train him in california first
will the turn around times be met

--- or ---

is this a drop off site only and cards will be shipped to california

... for the most part, people are pretty used to shipping cards, will opening another full time location really be profitable?

[Gradedcardman]

" Will work for PSA 10 T206's"

[Orioles1954]

I think this is more of JSA being put on notice than anything.

[keithsky]

Maybe they will be senseable on there shipping cost to the midwest to east coast clients. Can't believe there shipping costs.

[egbeachley]

Did the tweet say PSA or Collectors Universe? If it's the coin division it makes sense. If PSA only, it doesn't.

According to their 10-Q released last month, the submitted units from the PSA divisions for the last 2 quarters was 646,400 units, a 2% increase from the 634,800 units last year. But a lot lower than the 683,200 units the year before.

BTW, revenue also increased 2% in the same period. However, the declared value of the cards increased 15% from $44.8 million to $51.7 million so they must be heavily discounting their fees in order to keep the volume up. But at the same time their operating income (before unallocated expenses) dropped 13% from $600K to $521K which indicates costs are rising at a much higher rate than revenue.

So, if PSA only, they are probably expecting submittals to rise substantially going forward to cover the additional costs. That's possible if they have heard many collectors have avoided grading based upon nervousness of shipping their cards.

[glchen]

It was a generic tweet:

JoeOrlandoPSA: In response to hobby demand, PSA will be opening an east coast office this year. Updates and details will be provided in the coming weeks.

[egbeachley]

Makes sense then. "Hobby demand" is input from collectors that desire an East Coast location, not the overall demand increase for 3rd party grading.

Interesting to see how this works out - if the increase in East Coast submittals is greater than the loss of West Coast submittals.

[glchen]

The next tweet will be:

"PSA is pleased to announce that Derek Grady will be the head grader of the East Coast office, and Brian Dwyer and Michael Goldberg will be running customer service."

OK, poor early April Fool's joke.

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by glchen

The next tweet will be:

"PSA is pleased to announce that Derek Grady will be the head grader of the East Coast office, and Brian Dwyer and Michael Goldberg will be running customer service."

OK, poor early April Fool's joke.

That actually wouldn't be too far fetched.