I took a bit of a hiatus from the hobby mostly due to finances but I have some extra cash and am wanting to start grading. I have 3 mid tier cards that I’m wanting to grade, sell and then funnel that profit into more grading. Should I spend the $60 plus shipping just for those three cards or go ahead and buy a membership and use the voucher? Is there any difference between gold and platinum other than the amount of free grades? Also, I remember seeing talk that PSA was extremely backed up and people were having lots of issues with their turnaround times. Is this still an issue or can I expect my cards back within a reasonable amount of time now? Any other advice for a first time PSA user is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
If you’re only looking to grade 3 cards for now, I advise using Charlie/Ludkins.
Yes, as @poken00b88 said. You are better of using a third party service then get a whole membership. I can also send them in for you under my membership if you are crunched for time. The good thing is if you go w/ a third party, they normally send a ton of cards, in turn costs you less. Normal is $20 per card for cards declared value under $500, but 50 or more cards is $10 per card but with a 65 business day turn around. You might get a shorter turn around time w/ less cards, but can’t make any guarantees.
Oh yeah, other then the amount of vouchers, I did not see any other “perks” between gold/platinum.
Just to get you an estimate on turn around time, I sent in 20 cards before the change on 10/9/2018 and received them around 12/21/2018. I think it was 50 business days with the old bulk prices.
@chopkins1994 do you only want to grade them because of profit? because grading a mid tier card like you say, might not be worth it, in fact if the card gets a low grade, you might not even be able to recoup the grading cost.
Yeah I’m only grading these for initial profit to help kickstart myself a little more. My end goal is to be sending submissions on a regular basis to build my own collection and possibly make some money. I have no money in these 3 cards and at their worst possible grades (IMO) they would bring about $250 before fees and shipping. So, I don’t believe there’s anyway I can lose money in this situation. Thanks for the concern though!
Thanks for the info and the estimate on that turnaround. I thought about going with someone else but my end goal is to start grading myself on a regular basis. The only reason I’m considering paying the $20 per card is for the faster turnaround but I’m leaning toward just buying the gold membership since I realized the vouchers are 10 day anyways.
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Where did you see they’re 10 days? Regular service is now 15 days and I’d be surprised if it takes less than 20 business days to process. You might get lucky if you write 10 days on the box.
I’m curious what you mean by midtier cards. How much do you expect to earn from the 3 cards? Do you expect to get 10s?
You said you were on a tight budget, I think getting a gold membership is a waste if you’re not going to use bulk discounts for several months. You can use that $150 to buy and flip cards.
The vouchers aren’t free(they cost about $15 each) . You’re probably better off sending regular or using third party and getting a silver membership down the road if you have 50+ cards to grade.
I didn’t realize they changed to 15. I just watched gem mint pokemon’s tutorial video and saw they were 10 days back then. By mid tier I just mean like $100-500 as 9s and 10s. I’m not banking on 10s (although I’d be surprised if they aren’t) but even as 8s I won’t lose any money. What do you mean by the vouchers aren’t free? Don’t they cover total cost of grading minus shipping to and from? If that’s not the case then you’re probably right and I’ll just go third party until I can get more product and more disposable income.
Yes they do, I just mean you still pay for the vouchers through the subscription costs. Silver is only $60 with no vouchers.
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Oh okay, yeah that was part of my consideration for getting gold. If I’m going to grade 6 cards anyways then that’s $120. So for $30 more I can get the subscription and use the membership deals later.
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