Deciding on a vault for thousands of cards!

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Hi all, I’ve been considering this for a while and am starting to seriously consider my next steps and would like some input.

I live in Japan and have far, far too many cards to deal with. A mixture of raw and graded, and in the raw pile we’re looking at ~50k cards where a decent percentage of these will end up being graded at some point. Now the values of these cards will vary considerably. Averaging $100s each, some will be lower (~$50) and some will be in the $1000s pile. Anything truly high end has already moved, so no issue there.

My life plans are constantly changing and I can’t hold onto all this stock. I want them out of my hands ASAP and to move the majority of it over time with as little effort as possible. I currently sell my cards solely on Mercari (Japan) which has been nice and low effort, but I need even lower effort and something more scalable for moving this sheer quantity. I understand I will sacrifice a % of earnings for this. With this in mind I’ve been looking at options to have my cards graded and sent directly to a vault, with a company which will then handle the listing for me. In my search I’ve found both Collectors and PWCC. There’s a lot to compare but let me try my best below. This will take into account the new changes that Collectors are considering for their Goldin/eBay aquisition etc. A little confusing where the line is between eBay and Goldin listings, so please correct me if I’m wrong anywhere.

  • My existing PSA cards: Can be sent directly to either the PWCC or Collectors vault.
  • Ungraded cards:
    • If sending to PSA, they can be sent to either Collectors or PWCC vault. Collectors offers a bit more flexibility in that I can choose which ones go there, and which ones “go home”. If my “home” is my PWCC vault I can pick and choose between the two.
    • If sending to BGS, I can do this directly with PWCC for $25 per card. They will handle the grading and storage in their vault.
  • Storage fees:
    • PWCC: Free if sending for auction within 30 days or valued > $50. Unsure where this value comes from. Otherwise $3 one-time fee.
    • Collectors: Free regardless
  • Withdrawal fees:
    • PWCC: 1% after 90 days of storage. 3% before that. Unclear if this is waived if fulfilled through their listings.
    • Collectors: $1 after 90 days of storage (promotional, no idea on future pricing). 3% (min $5) otherwise. Unclear if this is waived if sold through eBay/Goldin.
  • Fixed price listings:
    • PWCC: No listing fees. Real time editing/removal/adding. 20% BP added to the price. Receive 100% prior to BP + bonus for sales above $50. Minimum BP of $3. Shipping completely covered.
    • Collectors: Possible through Goldin, likely not eBay(?). There’s an 8.3% seller commission and 22% BP. Unclear how the calculation works out. My guess would be I receive 0.917 of the price without BP. Pretty low.
  • Auction listings:
    • PWCC:
      • Premier auction: Same fees as fixed above. Requires prior approval.
      • Weekly sunday auction: Same fees as fixed above.
    • Collectors: Receive 100% after 22% BP. Bonus $2500+. $5 listing fee if sold below $50. Unclear if shipping etc handled.

This is about all the information I could find. My high level view is:

  • Collectors is potentially more convenient in that it’s a single company (PSA, no shipping between there and PWCC), plus they can still auction through Goldin and soon eBay. However their fees are not as clear (is shipping waived?) and unclear if the listing on eBay is done through them or they help facilitate. Vault is free.
  • PWCC seems to offer better fees (lower BP), a nicer user interface and they are clear on fees (I think). 20% BP otherwise I receive everything. They do however charge for the vault for cheaper cards unless immediately auctioned.

Have I missed/ misinterpreted anything here? The one-time fee does make PWCC a little annoying in terms of the vault, but since they can handle all the listing and I can time when I want to add things to auction/ list everything at fixed-price this is super convenient for me. Downside being I need to get PSA to forward my cards to them.

Then there’s @smpratte 's PWCC auction. Is there a seamless way of migrating the cards in my PWCC vault to his :rofl:?

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I have only used the PWCC vault, but I’ve had generally good experiences with them. Everything is archived relatively quickly, imaging has varying scan quality, but mostly ok. The only issues I’ve had come up are around valuation, sometimes I’ll have a card drop to $48 or so in their “market value” and they’ll charge me for it, even if it was above $50 when it was sent and their “market value” is disproven by a few eBay searches. I also like the opportunity to get an insured shipping label through PWCC, which I don’t know if PSA offers. Fulfillment has been quick and reliable every time I’ve needed to ship something.

You may want to check out this thread here, which talks about how the eBay Vault and Collectors Vault are combining, allowing you to sell on eBay direct from the new PSA/eBay vault. However, selling fees look pretty high. From everything I’ve heard about the eBay vault, it is garbage, and the PSA vault isn’t much better. Personally, I would not use the PSA/eBay vault at the moment until they get a bit more logistical skill on their side.

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Unfortunately there is still shipping involved. PSA grades in NJ and California and then ships to the vault in Delaware. For the listings, you will log in to PSA/Collectors for your listings, and those listings will then be on eBay through a PSA Vault dedicated page. It is not through your own eBay page.

I use both vaults actively. Collectors is currently cheaper to take cards out so I have been using them more recently. Right now they are charging $6 to withdraw and ship FedEx, if under 90 days vaulted. $1 otherwise. That is sure to change at some point. Pwcc is significantly more expensive to withdraw (for now)

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It’s a difficult choice since the PSA will presumably be very different in 2 years than it is today.

But speaking as a non-American, only PWCC has let me use their service.

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The pwcc vault is really great. And it’s currently the best option so I’ll give it a +1

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If you’re looking for a quick liquidation of a large portion of your collection, you may want to reach out to CGC and sell through PWCC, Heritage, or Goldin. CGC undoubtedly has cheap grading tiers for those with extreme submissions like yourself.

If you’re sticking with PSA, I would wait until the PSA Vault situation has been resolved. The eBay Vault has been great to me, but that is all about to change. I have had pleasant experiences with the PWCC vault as well, but it may be worse for cheaper cards.

Alternatively, you could sell 20,000+ cards as a lot through Heritage and take a very large lump sum without grading.

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Thanks everyone! If what @pfm says is true then I have no choice in the matter anyway and will go with PWCC! I’ll send some stuff over and see what the market looks like before offloading everything!

Has anyone used their service which grades with CGC/BGS at all and can comment on it? Why would I not just send directly?