“ essentially paying half the listed value of the card to have it graded.”īut others noted benefits to the new system. Lynch wrote in the group Buy, Sell, Trade & Breaks by TX Sports Cards. “I haven’t been one of those ‘bubble going to burst’ guys lately, but this seems like a huge checkpoint on the road to that happening,” Facebook user Lea T. Most internet chatter regarding the price increases skewed toward the negative. PSA raised prices for both sports cards and trading card games like Pokemon. The regular grading rate increased from $50 per card to $100 per card, with other increases seen for higher tier levels of grading. To access the value level, collectors and investors must join the PSA collector’s club, with the lowest buy-in level going from $59 to $99 on Monday. Modern card (2018 to present) rates jumped from $15 to $25.

The price for value grading increased from a starting price of $10 to $20. That sale, combined with the significant backlog of cards PSA has to grade due to increased demand during the sports card boom, led many to speculate that a price increase was coming.īut few foresaw the size of that increase. (Image: Old Sports Cards)Ĭollectors Universe, PSA’s parent company, announced in November that it would sell the company for $700 million to an investor group, which would make the company private.

PSA raised its rates on Monday, making it significantly more costly to have sports and TCG cards evaluated through the company. Although it had been rumored for weeks, Professional Sports Authenticators’ practical doubling of the rate it charges to grade cards sent shockwaves through the sports card collecting community on Monday.

Psa graded cards value