Obviously the way PSA handles its grading and shipping of orders must be a very complex beast. Thousands of orders a month and several different priorities places on the orders from 1 day turnaround to 50 day+ turnaround (estimated times as I am sure we all know.) Order sizes must vary for them from 1 card up to thousands of cards per submission. Re-holders, custom encapsulations and everything on top of all that.
So far I have only done 7 submissions myself, varying from 15 cards to 200 cards. These have all been monthly specials except for the 15 “free” grades with my membership. The monthly specials have shipped as soon as 5 days after receipt and as long as 55 days (not business, just calendar days).
I noticed something interesting and surprising today. I have two active orders out. I had sent out 170 cards in early OCT for their monthly special as well as another 51 late OCT for the same monthly special. 50 day turnaround on each expected wait time, so I was happy today to see a shipping email sent to me today. Very stoked to get the 170 cards back as I have some nice ones out for grading of some older boxes. I go into my CC to make sure everything was charged correctly, and it appears the smaller order has been completed first. I would have expected all monthly specials to form a line regardless of size and be taken and graded in that order. It is interesting to note that in some cases the smaller orders will be pushed through quicker. I would not have expected this. Just thought I would share the story. I have some VERY interesting decisions to make as I have only been holding onto the nicer 9’s so far, but some of my FAVORITE cards from this 51 card submission have been given GEM MINT 10’s.
Not sure how is this an example of PSA being inconsistent. Their monthly specials clearly state their turnaround times as “estimated 50 days”. There is no guarantee if one order gets done before another. If you want a guaranteed turnaround time, don’t use bulk, pay for a service with a guaranteed turnaround time. Otherwise using bulk is the literal and figurative cost of being thrifty, or more simply put, you get what you pay for.
PSA is actually awesome compared to other grading services in other hobbies. I am actually amazed at how fast they can turn around so many graded products not just Pokemon in a relatively short time period
I wasn’t trying to say they were inconsistent myself. I was just noting that they clearly don’t use queues in the way that I would have expected. My smaller order of the same turnaround time jumped the other and was graded blazingly fast. Sometimes there are times where I would like the cards back quicker, but still don’t want to pay much. If I knew that 50 cards get sent back faster than 150 on a regular basis, I might tend to lower the order size more often.
I understand. I was responding to both comments in one, the one that stated the inconsistencies, while also trying to explain the process as a whole. It does seem a bit counter-intuitive for the latter order to turnaround quicker, but both still fall under the estimated 50 day umbrella. I have orders that do this constantly, and it is one of if not the main pattern to get accustomed to while using the bulk service.
Cost is always going to be my main concern so I will always be using bulk, but still a quicker time to return is often nice. The difference between sending 50 cards and 200 cards often times works out to less than $1 a card or so more (only savings is dividing shipping between more cards), yet “guaranteeing” a quicker timeline from 50 days down to 15 days using a standard service costs about $10 per card more which is way out of the question personally.
If people generally saw 50 card subs coming back in ~10 business days and ~200 card subs coming back in ~50 business days I would certainly spend the ~$1 more per card to save the 40 business days most times. I will never spend the extra $10 per card though. I will just deal with the 50.
Make sure to note that as far as I know, ALL of their services are ESTIMATED as shown in red bold capitalized letters under the turnaround time. I am not sure if anyone has experience with the more expensive services, and whether or not they actually hit the ESTIMATED times normally. This would be interested to hear. Though I do not plan to ever use any of the more expensive services.
The word “estimated” implies it might be done sooner than the numbered amount of days. If you pay for a higher service and it takes longer than the maximum estimated time you can request a refund for the charge.
@garyis2000 Could probably elaborate if this distinction still isn’t clear.
I assume what is happening is they have a target of grading x number of cards a day. On a light they get through their fast turn around orders quickly and have time to work on long time turn around orders. In which case I would have the following priority.
In progress grading
orders nearing their time limit
small orders
I was ecstatic to get the e-mail which I thought was for my 170 card submission. Was so excited to go on and read the grades. I have never and likely will never have the patience to wait to see the grades until I physically unbox the cards.
I was just a little upset when I realized my 51 card sub jumped over the 170 card sub to be the one being sent back. Still insanely fast. Anyone else care to share their times for information for the board? See mine here:
So I’m just wondering… What are the prices and speedy services, and do they cost a ton more per card if your sending in big bulk orders? Why pay like 10 bucks more per card for a faster turn around?? Seems silly unless you have to get stuff up on your store fast. Do you do Fast turn around @smpratte You have lots of stuff on your store so I don’t see why you would need to. Just seen your Venusaur Japanese ex go up by the way, I listed all 3 of the starters in PSA 10 for months and I tried to put venusaur up there for the exact same price, and I tell you that aint gonna sell at that price. The other thing i was wondering is if you can’t grade Chinese old school ex cards, can you encapsulate them through PSA?
If they do not get it done by Monday, give them a call. Typically when I am have been in a comparable situation, calling them gets things moving along.
Thanks for sharing @ozenigma. No idea how to tag someone as I have seen others do, maybe I got it, maybe not. If enough people share theirs as well, in excel I will put together a plot of # of cards vs the # of days from received to shipped and do so for each service type. Perhaps there will be some type of a general trend? Or perhaps if we get enough data we can see what months typically result in faster turnaround? In either case, as an engineer I would gladly do it and think it would be interesting to see.
