Professional Sports Authenticator, known as PSA, reported a backlog of 7.2 million items pending processing as of Oct. 20, according to CNBC. That total represents a decrease from 12.4 million items in July, even as collectors continue to seek out grading services as trading and vintage sports cards are increasingly treated as alternative investments.
Secondary Market Values Drive PSA Preference
Grading involves verifying a card’s authenticity and assessing its condition before encapsulating it in a protective plastic case, referred to in the industry as a slab. PSA employs a 10-point scale, reserving its highest grade, Gem Mint 10, for cards described as virtually perfect.
Geoff Wilson, founder and CEO of CardsHQ, which operates one of the world’s largest sports card shops, noted that secondary market values drive the preference.
Despite competition and multi-million-item processing queues, many sellers prefer to wait for a PSA label rather than submit items to rival companies, according to wol.com.
It really all comes down to secondary market values,
Wilson said, according to kucoin.com.
PSA-graded cards typically command higher prices than equivalent grades from competing firms, providing an incentive for collectors and investors seeking stronger returns. For example, a 1999 Base Set Charizard graded PSA 9 sold on eBay for approximately $3,440 on Sept. 29, compared with roughly $1,890 for a CGC 9 copy sold on the same day, according to usa.bullmarkets.today.
Collectors Consolidates Grading Market Dominance
PSA operates within a larger collectibles commerce ecosystem. Its parent company, Collectors, also owns competing grading brands Beckett and SGC, alongside the pricing data platform Card Ladder, the PSA Vault, and various financial services operations. This consolidation has drawn legal scrutiny, including a proposed class action filed in April challenging Collectors’ acquisitions of SGC and Beckett on the grounds that the transactions unlawfully reduced competition in card grading.
An unnamed spokesperson for Singapore-based submission dealer Oxley Grading attributed PSA’s position as the industry standard to its early start, brand recognition, and extensive history of completed sales. The spokesperson estimated that roughly 90% of the graded cards offered to Oxley Grading for purchase carry the PSA label.
To address processing delays, PSA suspended its more affordable submission service in June and subsequently reopened the Value service on Oct. 29. In an Oct. 28 update, the company reported that submission volumes in April and May reached 2.5 times the volume received during the same months a year earlier. PSA also announced reduced estimated turnaround times for Standard and Priority services, while noting that new Value submission orders would be processed behind existing ones.
We have added an incredible amount of capacity, but we still have work to do,
Ryan Hoge, president of PSA and grading at Collectors, said in a statement.
Wilson noted that fee increases implemented in February—such as raising Value Bulk from $21.99 to $24.99 and Value from $27.99 to $32.99—along with service suspensions, have particularly impacted dealers and collectors who purchase raw cards—an industry term for ungraded cards—to grade and resell, making the strategy harder to justify for items worth a few hundred dollars or less.