Running PSA Order Tracker

[RealDocStrange]

Oddities-

41 card $15 special:
Sent November 21
Entered by PSA December 1
Popped last night

But I’ve yet to receive the email and only know because I a) got the credit card charge notification and b) check every night before bed.

This order lapped previous $15 specials entered far earlier in November.


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[oddstuff]

Wondering if the recent shipping delay is due possibly to all cards being scanned.

[bustsomewax]

Originally Posted by bustsomewax

Order Type: $15 Bulk
# of cards: 144
Order delivered: 12/11/22
Order received per PSA:12/12/22
Research & ID:12/13/22
Grading:12/20/22
Assembly:?
QA1:?
QA2:1/6/23
Grades:
Shipped:

Upcharge email received today with a copy of my grades.

Upcharge was made on a Julio Gold /2022 (10) and Mac Jones Downtown (10). Gladly pay the fee on those two.

Did get killed on base Update Julios. 6/24 which is way under the 62% Gem rate per pop report.

The good news is everything else did well including two Julio Rainbows that both got 10 along with the base gold.

[hammertime]

Latest bulk order popped (with pics, yay!) and shipped (via FedEx, boo!) and I've received zero emails from PSA.

[BRob1]

Originally Posted by bustsomewax

Did get killed on base Update Julios. 6/24 which is way under the 62% Gem rate per pop report.

Not sure what’s going on there. I had 10-12 of these and picked my best 3-4 along with my best 1-2 Witt’s and they all 9’d.


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[bustsomewax]

Originally Posted by BRob1

Not sure what’s going on there. I had 10-12 of these and picked my best 3-4 along with my best 1-2 Witt’s and they all 9’d.


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Yep. Rather disappointed as I reviewed all with a Loupe and was expecting at least 50%.

Maybe I'll try again next time there's a special.

[thenightman]

I have two orders I sent on 12/28, one 2 card at $30 and one 24 card at $15. As of today the $30 sub is in QA1 and the $15 is in Assembly.

[rkamm517]

Order Type: $15 Bulk
# of cards: 13
Order delivered: 1/3/23
Order received per PSA: 1/4/23
Research & ID: 1/10/23
Grading:
Assembly:
QA1:
QA2:
Grades:
Shipped:

[lisu]

Just had a $15 a card 33 card order pop. They received it on 12/12/2022, so about a 30 day pop.

[lisu]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

Wondering if the recent shipping delay is due possibly to all cards being scanned.

The one that I'm waiting for has all the pics, so I'm not sure what the delay is now. And now that I complained about it, my order is shipped now.

[towerymt]

Originally Posted by lisu

Just had a $15 a card 33 card order pop. They received it on 12/12/2022, so about a 30 day pop.

Same for mine, 1 month ago. End to end, rec'd PSA 11/15, delivered back to me 12/16.

I'm about to send 1 more $15/bulk I entered on 12/31 before it went away. Fingers crossed they'll still return this quick.

[rkamm517]

Any thoughts on when the next special will be? I know the last one just ended, but it's hard to believe that tons of people are submitting right now at $19.

[Brwdot]

Originally Posted by rkamm517

Any thoughts on when the next special will be? I know the last one just ended, but it's hard to believe that tons of people are submitting right now at $19.

Soon enough. $19 isn't realistic. You can't just open up the gates of $15, be able to meet all expectation and then think you're going back to $19.

Customers will wait out $15 or under. They are already waiting it out. So it will be soon.

Plus, customers like me they pushed to the back of the line on $18+ orders while they pushed all of the $15 orders to the front of the line and made our wait time over double that of the $15 orders are sending in less because of it.

PSA screwed up big time.

[Perfect JF]

Submission #8
Order Type: 15$ Bulk - December special
# of cards: 95
Order shipped: 12/30/2022
Order delivered: 01/03/2023
Order received per PSA: 01/03/2023
Entered Research & ID: 01/10/2023
Grading:
Assembly:
QA1:
QA2:
Popped:
Shipped:
Received:

[MFaulkCollector]

Bulk 15 dollar modern sports special

Arrived 12/9
Grading started 12/13
Grades popped today

13 gems in 24 card order

[NotSportsCards]

Still waiting on order from 8/29 National special. Now been in QA2 for a month.

When will PSA just admit they cant grade cards pre 1990?

[MFaulkCollector]

Originally Posted by Brwdot

Soon enough. $19 isn't realistic. You can't just open up the gates of $15, be able to meet all expectation and then think you're going back to $19.

Customers will wait out $15 or under. They are already waiting it out. So it will be soon.

Plus, customers like me they pushed to the back of the line on $18+ orders while they pushed all of the $15 orders to the front of the line and made our wait time over double that of the $15 orders are sending in less because of it.

PSA screwed up big time.

In general the largest non group submitters aren’t working on a margin where 4-5 dollars is a make or break proposition. Those who do this secondary for income will wait; but those who do this for their livelihood will figure out how make better ROI on the subs… period; either that or they go extinct in this line of work.

The people bellyaching about 19 but were Uber excited at 15? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. They aren’t the people PSA is staying in business because of. The majority of the crowd who is demanding 8-10 are working on extremely small margins… and often are the ones who always complain about people who send in base and clog up the grading timeline…. Yea that sure makes a lot of sense.

And even at 2016-17 conditions and operating capacity….. specials at 7.50 with a bulk of 8 are not realistic now. The economy has grown, supply costs are up and it’s significant more expensive to find workers… pair that will the collecting and flipping base being much larger than 5 years ago. 12 is likely going to be the basement number…. With 10 specials in lower volume categories. If someone can’t make money at 19…… they aren’t going to make enough to matter at 15 or 12 either. Consideration for what to buy be submit is going to change. Base rcs just aren’t going to do it anymore in most cases. The landscape is forever changed to varying degrees depending on your area/s of expertise. The sooner people realize this the better off they will be

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

In general the largest non group submitters aren’t working on a margin where 4-5 dollars is a make or break proposition. Those who do this secondary for income will wait; but those who do this for their livelihood will figure out how make better ROI on the subs… period; either that or they go extinct in this line of work.

The people bellyaching about 19 but were Uber excited at 15? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. They aren’t the people PSA is staying in business because of. The majority of the crowd who is demanding 8-10 are working on extremely small margins… and often are the ones who always complain about people who send in base and clog up the grading timeline…. Yea that sure makes a lot of sense.

And even at 2016-17 conditions and operating capacity….. specials at 7.50 with a bulk of 8 are not realistic now. The economy has grown, supply costs are up and it’s significant more expensive to find workers… pair that will the collecting and flipping base being much larger than 5 years ago. 12 is likely going to be the basement number…. With 10 specials in lower volume categories. If someone can’t make money at 19…… they aren’t going to make enough to matter at 15 or 12 either. Consideration for what to buy be submit is going to change. Base rcs just aren’t going to do it anymore in most cases. The landscape is forever changed to varying degrees depending on your area/s of expertise. The sooner people realize this the better off they will be

This completely ignores the fact that base RCs are now dirt cheap in slabs and that PSA expects to grade over a million cards a month. They arent getting that volume at $19 a pop.

[jjcan]

The premium for any card valued at $50 or less for a PSA 9. (God forbid anything less than a PSA 9) makes it too risky to grade at $19. for any Ultra Modern base/low end parallel card.

With the only way to find better Packed pulled condition cards from the 2019-present product being your best odds on getting a PSA 10 vs older sitting cards.

Card Shows are still the best bet to find the raw, and find the ones who just crack and do not grade/ or grading value threshold is high (which is getting rare)


Vintage grading makes sense at $19, or SGC still. TCG better cards (wotc, old Japanese, alt cards, promo cards) still make sense at $19, parallels and # still make sense at $19.

Grading a 2022 update JROD US 44 for $19, to get $60 in a PSA 10, or a PSA 9 for $25 really does not make as much sense, unless your grading eye is really good. I know mine is not.

[waytoomanycards]

Originally Posted by thenightman

I have two orders I sent on 12/28, one 2 card at $30 and one 24 card at $15. As of today the $30 sub is in QA1 and the $15 is in Assembly.

My $15 order sent out at the end of December is also in assembly.

Unless we were just lucky, that's a good sign--they signaled a price increase over a week in advance and they still didn't get flooded.

I realize the orders have a ways to go, but they also have to keep their rank and file graders busy. So the number of orders in grading or earlier stages is important.

[yoyosh]

Originally Posted by bustsomewax

Upcharge email received today with a copy of my grades.

Upcharge was made on a Julio Gold /2022 (10) and Mac Jones Downtown (10). Gladly pay the fee on those two.

Did get killed on base Update Julios. 6/24 which is way under the 62% Gem rate per pop report.

The good news is everything else did well including two Julio Rainbows that both got 10 along with the base gold.

Damn man, sorry to hear this, but that’s why I haven’t sent any bass Julio etc
I’ve been getting crushed lately on modern/ultra modern
I used to be 65-70% gem rate for past 3-4 years….last 6/7 months it’s been 40%, and nothings changed w how I pick what to send.
If you’re gonna play the game, gotta deal w the wild swings I guess?

[mredsox89]

Order Type: $18 Bulk
# of cards: 31
Order delivered: 10/27/22
Order received per PSA: 10/28/22
Research & ID: 10/31/22
Grading: 11/4/22
Assembly: 11/9/22
QA1: 11/30/22
QA2: 12/13/22
Grades: 12/20/22
Shipped: 12/21/22

Order Type: $15 Bulk
# of cards: 10
Order delivered: 12/7/22
Order received per PSA: 12/7/22
Research & ID: 12/8/22
Grading: 12/13/22
Assembly: 12/21/22
QA1: 12/29/22
QA2: 1/6/22
Grades: 1/10/22
Shipped: 1/10/22

Order Type: $15 Bulk
# of cards: 22
Order delivered: 12/7/22
Order received per PSA: 12/7/22
Research & ID: 12/8/22
Grading: 12/13/22
Assembly: 12/21/22
QA1: 12/23/22
QA2: 1/3/22
Grades: 1/5/22
Shipped: 1/6/22

Bulk order popped. Managed to only go 4/10 with four 8's as well, so that's two consecutive dreadful orders. At least the three most valuable cards in the order gemmed

[BRob1]

Originally Posted by Brwdot

Soon enough. $19 isn't realistic. You can't just open up the gates of $15, be able to meet all expectation and then think you're going back to $19.

Not to mention it takes 20 cards to get the $19 price, when previously it was only 10 card minimum for the $15 special.


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[MFaulkCollector]

Originally Posted by anusinha

This completely ignores the fact that base RCs are now dirt cheap in slabs and that PSA expects to grade over a million cards a month. They arent getting that volume at $19 a pop.

And you ignore the fact the sheer volume may not matter. Maybe margins matter more. Maybe they have decided that the past 2 years have shown that paper base aren’t a sector they care about minus the few top prospects a year that pan out.

Why grade twice the amount of cards, with twice the amount of employees … when they can grade half…. Have less volume, less staff, and less overall headache …. And make the same profit.

At some point it’s general sense that large companies know their numbers inside and out… which I’m sure PSA does….. and successful companies have a long term vision. With an actual collector at the helm, PSA certainly has some sort of vision for the future and what they expect to happen.

It’s just comical to see people act like they know so much more than individuals who actually run a company worth millions and millions of dollars.

For anyone dissatisfied with PSA…. Feel free to send your paper base rcs elsewhere …. Either that or adapt to the current environment… get parallels and submit fewer cards with better ROI… and if they aren’t gradable they are still sellable.

[TooManyCards76]

Originally Posted by MFaulkCollector

The people bellyaching about 19 but were Uber excited at 15? It doesn’t make a lot of sense

Really?!?! So to you I’m bellyaching when I’m waiting for $15/card on my 50 card submission?!?! That’s $200 f&$@ing dollars, we all know PSA is going to be $15 soon because they are turning submissions around in under 30 days on the $15 special (even with the holidays), and now that’s it’s $19 it’ll get quicker as submissions will drop. PSA is just trying to squeeze every dollar out of us before lowering the price point, then they’ll squeeze every dollar out of the $15 level before going to $12 by the end of the year. My guess is PSA will wait till March 1st before lowering to $15 to force baseball graders to choose between having slabs back for sprint training/opening day or get $4 cheaper slabs that show up a month late. It’s a real f you move by PSA, they are making money hand over fist and purposefully keeping pricing high as the market is falling.