With PSA starting to grade many bulk submissions submitted in May, such as mine, I was curious, have any of you experienced any sort of upcharge due to the price inflation since then? They used to let cards retailing a couple hundred bucks slide all day everyday, though many of those $200 cards now cost closer to $1000, like my FRLG Charizard ex or my Shadowless Charizard.
I just have some concern that PSA will rip my submission apart and say that it all needs upgraded service.
Has PSA been turning a blind eye towards card values in spirit of moving their backlog along? Or are they being strict regarding this manner?
I’ve experienced upcharge once on a 1 card submission that scored a 10 back in 2019, but I have no idea how they would handle this in a 33 card submission with market instability.
@charetard How much were you up charged last time? And what was the reasoning they said? I’d like to hear details from people’s upcharge experiences please! Upcharges are worse then the wait time in my opinion!
Thanks abunch for sharing! $225 to grade one card is kind of extreme. Do you remember roughly what it was worth on eBay at the time?
And please others post your stories for context for fellow members. The problem is not many people share their whole stories. New graders submit cards not aware of upcharges and get blindsided with fees they arnt possibily prepared for.
I should’ve mentioned that already, my apologies.
Here is the market value of a DDS-001 Blue-Eyes White Dragon at that time:
PSA 10: $2,500-$3,000 ($200 to grade)
PSA 9: $1,500-$2,000 ($75 to grade)
For what it’s worth, those are eBay prices. I submitted with the $1,999 declared value, because obviously, in the case I scored a 9, I didn’t want to take the $200 hit. I don’t mind paying the $200 service knowing I scored the 10, but that is impossible to know until PSA actually grades it.
Wondering the same myself, and I guess I will find out soon. My sub from May is currently being graded and there are quite a few cards that have bumped above the limit. Really hope not, since at the time the value was current.
Hmm ok so that gives a good rough estimate. I’d like to hear others around the $200-$500 mark. And others around the $10,000 mark.
From your numbers it looks like about 10 percent of whatever value is on eBay. Which I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to pick a price to charge for grading no matter the card. Why does its value matter for what it’s worth once sold? What if it’s for your own personal collection and you simply want it encased with a grade. It’s not like they have a super special case for cards worth more than X amount.
For sure. I’m just curious if they’re being sticklers at the moment researching each card or just saying “screw it we got orders to move” and pass them along.
If they were to email me this time regarding the upcharge, I definitely would reach out regarding the market prices at time of submission. If it happens, I will share with the forum.
They increased their staff size dedicated to upcharging specifically. There isn’t a discernible pattern in what causes anything to get missed. Just human error from their team.
It does make me laugh to read that they increased the size of the staff that’s dedicated to up-charging when turnaround times are enormous. I guess from their perspective, they’ve got us by the balls once we send our cards in so it makes business sense to increase revenue from other channels.
@lamplamp O wow I just figured it out. They are geniuses for real! So the longer they make us wait for our submissions the higher the chance the price will increase. So they’re basically making interest off delaying everyone’s orders…
They want that million card backlog to be ONE BILLION DOLLARS
I agree. It kind of adds a layer of stress for the customer. In situations where the PSA 9 and 10 are in different service levels, one of the following is bound to happen:
Overpay the PSA 10’s service level for a PSA 9 grade.
Pay the PSA 9’s service level, and end up paying the PSA 10’s service level without the receiving the faster turnaround time.
I completely agree. I have been trying to get a PSA 10 grade on a card for a while. The PSA 9 version is worth anywhere from $90-$150, whereas the PSA 10 version is worth anywhere from $3000-5000+ (Pop 3, hasn’t been publicly sold in long time). Can you imagine having to pay the premium every time?
I am glad to hear that PSA reaches out to upcharge for higher grades. I was always scared that since I did not pay for the higher tier, the graders may have tilted in favor of a PSA 9 instead of a PSA 10.
I’m in the same boat as well. I submitted some cards that were valued under the limit but has since significantly gone over (especially for a PSA10). I really hope they honor the value at the time they were submitted.
They do not, remember seeing that someone got up charged on PSA 10 1st edition fossil Gengar and dragonite because they became over $1k by the time they were done being graded
