Maybe this was already shared but thought it deserved its own thread; I just watched the interview with PSA’s president, and he mentioned that once they switch back to Blue Labels for signed cards, any fake, custom or non-authorized signed reprints will be denied.
For those who aren’t aware, this was a newer annoyance for pokemon, as fake mario pikachu cards and the notirious fake gold cards were signed with legitimate autographs and encapsultated by PSA. Basically for most members here, we know the deal, but for new collectors, it was a source of confusion.
Oh and he talks about how Pokemon does more than Baseball cards. He casually used “trophy cards” as a term. I just had to put that in there because I remember doing an interview with PSA way back in 2017 about what are trophy cards!
I’m glad they no longer continue to brush off pokemon/other tcgs. It’s a welcomed change and I hope they continue to listen to feedback from their customers.
I wanted to share some recent stats that highlight how much of their volume has been impacted by pokemon/tcgs:
In 2023, 6M pokemon cards were graded out of 14M processed
Their tokyo office (grades ~90% tcgs) grew from 8 people to 110 in the last 2 years
Total staff across all locations, grew from 600 to 1900 since 2021 (when pokemon started to overtake baseball submissions)
