PSA Complete Through Date (CTD) Tracker

[Systemtrend]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

March 16 - some movement at the top. Not much for the bottom.

Walk-Through 11 Mar 2021
Super Express 8 Mar 2021
Express 25 Jan 2021
Regular 6 Jan 2021
Economy 16 Aug 2020
Value - Ultra Modern 22 July 2020
Value - Modern 12 July 2020
Value - Vintage 28 July 2020
Value - TCG 13 July 2020
Quarterly Specials 12 July 2020

How do I read this? I’m assuming for each service shown they’re looking at cards from the date shown (those are submission or received by psa dates?). So if I wanted a 1-2 week turnaround I basically have to get super express? Thanks.

[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by Systemtrend

How do I read this? I’m assuming for each service shown they’re looking at cards from the date shown (those are submission or received by psa dates?). So if I wanted a 1-2 week turnaround I basically have to get super express? Thanks.

For super express with the March 8th complete through date, that means they have super express submissions that were checked in ("Entered") from March 9th onward to work on. What we don't know is how MANY actual super express orders that have the checked in dates of March 9th through March 15th. It could be a few...or thousands. Say you send out something today by overnight shipping via Fedex/UPS (don't use USPS unless if you want slow processing) and the package physically arrives to PSA tomorrow, I'm guessing that with super express service, it will take a few days before the package is "entered" into PSA's system...so maybe by Friday, March 19th the package gets entered in. Once checked in/ENTERED, that means your order is officially "in line" at the end of the Super Express line, behind however many other super express orders that were entered March 9th through March 18th.

[Systemtrend]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

For super express with the March 8th complete through date, that means they have super express submissions that were checked in ("Entered") from March 9th onward to work on. What we don't know is how MANY actual super express orders that have the checked in dates of March 9th through March 15th. It could be a few...or thousands. Say you send out something today by overnight shipping via Fedex/UPS (don't use USPS unless if you want slow processing) and the package physically arrives to PSA tomorrow, I'm guessing that with super express service, it will take a few days before the package is "entered" into PSA's system...so maybe by Friday, March 19th the package gets entered in. Once checked in/ENTERED, that means your order is officially "in line" at the end of the Super Express line, behind however many other super express orders that were entered March 9th through March 18th.

Thanks! Pretty crazy on this backlog.

[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by Systemtrend

Thanks! Pretty crazy on this backlog.

It will get worse before it gets better too as thousands of orders got submitted last week of February and some are still getting sent as people locked in the old pricing before prices doubled on March 1st.

[pewe]

So I should have submitted that “regular” sub in Jan...

Oh well...


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[oddstuff]

Originally Posted by pewe

So I should have submitted that “regular” sub in Jan...

Oh well...


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Yeah...it's a totally different world now compared to two months ago in terms of third party grading.

[xtnimot]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

March 16

Walk-Through 11 Mar 2021
Super Express 8 Mar 2021
Express 25 Jan 2021
Regular 6 Jan 2021
Economy 16 Aug 2020
Value - Ultra Modern 22 July 2020
Value - Modern 12 July 2020
Value - Vintage 28 July 2020
Value - TCG 13 July 2020
Quarterly Specials 12 July 2020

March 17

Walk-Through 14 Mar 2021
Super Express 8 Mar 2021
Express 25 Jan 2021
Regular 14 Jan 2021
Economy 16 Aug 2020
Value - Ultra Modern 28 July 2020
Value - Modern 12 July 2020
Value - Vintage 28 July 2020
Value - TCG 13 July 2020
Quarterly Specials 12 July 2020

[KhalDrogo]

Junk wax era is killing modern.

[kylerap]

Confused a little at the CTD being posted continuously when they still aren't going in order.
I just had an express pop grades yesterday that was checked in by PSA 2/11. CTD tracked shows they're at 1/25 for those currently.

[ctal]

i'm just glad to see some movement and progress at the "faster" grading levels. really hoping as those get to their "expected turn around times" that we'll start to see strong gains on the other levels. Also have a few different regular submissions since late january and can't wait for those to get back

[rcgdodge]

I'm starting to doubt that the Pokemon cards I sent in, that were marked as received on November 2nd will be done this year.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by rcgdodge

I'm starting to doubt that the Pokemon cards I sent in, that were marked as received on November 2nd will be done this year.

Yeah, they don't seem too excited to spit those out. I'm speculating TCG is lower priority since they get less per slab for them. Note the big leap on Ultra Modern that nets them 50% more money per slab then TCG and 20% more than Modern... but, maybe they just have a problem child order holding back the date.

[rfgilles]

Originally Posted by xtnimot

March 17

Walk-Through 14 Mar 2021
Super Express 8 Mar 2021
Express 25 Jan 2021
Regular 14 Jan 2021
Economy 16 Aug 2020
Value - Ultra Modern 28 July 2020
Value - Modern 12 July 2020
Value - Vintage 28 July 2020
Value - TCG 13 July 2020
Quarterly Specials 12 July 2020

Economy hasn't moved in days. The August 16th submissions could be hidden under a table or they aren't grading any economy for the time being, which I hope isn't true.

The CTD is good when there was movement. When it's not moving, it's just another source of frustration.

[letsgocapitals]

Originally Posted by kylerap

Confused a little at the CTD being posted continuously when they still aren't going in order.
I just had an express pop grades yesterday that was checked in by PSA 2/11. CTD tracked shows they're at 1/25 for those currently.

You are correct. Irregular check-in times make this a flawed piece of data.

Because of that, I think it serves two purposes:

1) Comparing your old order to the oldest in their system gives you an idea of when your old order will pop and...

2) A general sense on if, and at what service levels, PSA is getting better or worse. For instance, they put a pretty big dent in Regular subs... not so much others.

[CheapThief]

Originally Posted by f2tornado

Yeah, they don't seem too excited to spit those out. I'm speculating TCG is lower priority since they get less per slab for them. Note the big leap on Ultra Modern that nets them 50% more money per slab then TCG and 20% more than Modern... but, maybe they just have a problem child order holding back the date.

I was thinking that too, but now that they're under private ownership I'm not sure that it matters? Assuming they're actually committed to grading everything that's in-house, the order in which they receive those monies shouldn't (I don't think) matter very much.

I guess we'll know more in about a month. There's probably still a significant backlog of EXMT Charizard unlimiteds, etc, that were submitted at a $50 price point, and my guess is they're working through all of that-- once those cards are cleared I think we'll start seeing some movement, since I can't imagine anyone's submitting TCG in quantity at $100 a pop.

[CheapThief]

Originally Posted by rcgdodge

I'm starting to doubt that the Pokemon cards I sent in, that were marked as received on November 2nd will be done this year.

If I had to guess I'd say that TCG bulk is going to be at a stand still until early May or so, and after that we're going to start seeing significant movement.

[jzx1103]

Originally Posted by rfgilles

Economy hasn't moved in days. The August 16th submissions could be hidden under a table or they aren't grading any economy for the time being, which I hope isn't true.

The CTD is good when there was movement. When it's not moving, it's just another source of frustration.

Yea I'm hoping this is a case where there's one economy order that they're having a hard time getting done for whatever reason and once done it'll jump several days.

[PoPCulture]

Originally Posted by rcgdodge

I'm starting to doubt that the Pokemon cards I sent in, that were marked as received on November 2nd will be done this year.

I have gaming subs that are each 100% Pokémon cards received in July, August, September, October (2), and November (3). All of these are only in R&ID. Gaming subs are the red headed step child at PSA.

[rcgdodge]

Originally Posted by PoPCulture

I have gaming subs that are each 100% Pokémon cards received in July, August, September, October (2), and November (3). All of these are only in R&ID. Gaming subs are the red headed step child at PSA.

[f2tornado]

Originally Posted by CheapThief

I was thinking that too, but now that they're under private ownership I'm not sure that it matters? Assuming they're actually committed to grading everything that's in-house, the order in which they receive those monies shouldn't (I don't think) matter very much.

Those investors are going to want to get their money back ASAP so they can throw it at something else. I get it, if they really are letting specials and TCG collect dust for another month or two. I'm not in a huge rush at this moment since it's getting harder to find reasonable priced stuff worthy of the higher submission fees to reinvest.

[pewe]

Originally Posted by oddstuff

Yeah...it's a totally different world now compared to two months ago in terms of third party grading.

Perhaps you intended this as snarky, but “regular” was running 6 months in Jan.... I had wanted these cards back for spring training sales (now)... so just decided to sell them raw, instead... at least getting my $$ back


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[htn315]

Originally Posted by kylerap

Confused a little at the CTD being posted continuously when they still aren't going in order.
I just had an express pop grades yesterday that was checked in by PSA 2/11. CTD tracked shows they're at 1/25 for those currently.

They're using FIFO with Lean principles so orders won't complete in the same order they come in. With Lean you're going to break down the task into a bunch of sub task and allocate specialized resources to each task to improve efficiency. So order's are likely being broken down and put into the various queues like type, era, set etc, the number of queues would depend on what ever makes sense based on how their resources are trained and their specialties. Items will move though each queue in order but they won't likely all finish at the same time so orders with items that go into faster moving queues will just complete before older others.

The CTD date is just a metric that shows the oldest order entered date, it could just be 1 order with 1 item stuck so it shows that date for a few days, once that item gets complete you'll see the date jump a few days because everything in between was completed while that was stuck.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by htn315

They're using FIFO with Lean principles so orders won't complete in the same order they come in. With Lean you're going to break down the task into a bunch of sub task and allocate specialized resources to each task to improve efficiency. So order's are likely being broken down and put into the various queues like type, era, set etc, the number of queues would depend on what ever makes sense based on how their resources are trained and their specialties. Items will move though each queue in order but they won't likely all finish at the same time so orders with items that go into faster moving queues will just complete before older others.

The CTD date is just a metric that shows the oldest order entered date, it could just be 1 order with 1 item stuck so it shows that date for a few days, once that item gets complete you'll see the date jump a few days because everything in between was completed while that was stuck.

This. Again and again.

You want your subs finished quickly in comparison to other subs of the same level? Submit cards that are similar in attributes so the order can go to one grader and not five.

[jrd1436]

This is just me but I think graders would rather bang out 20 "easier" orders of say 1-20 cards rather than 1 order of 200 cards regardless of FIFO. I did that when I was a mortgage underwriter 15 years ago at my last job that had a queue system.

[NatsSBR]

Originally Posted by PoPCulture

I have gaming subs that are each 100% Pokémon cards received in July, August, September, October (2), and November (3). All of these are only in R&ID. Gaming subs are the red headed step child at PSA.

It's the submission level, not gaming versus sports. I have a couple hundred modern sports cards that have been waiting since August and a couple dozen value TCG that will wait alongside them.

Anything "value" is mainly just offered to keep idle resources utilized and recoup costs or make a minimal profit. It gets the graders through slow periods. PSA is still living large, so value will wait... and wait... and wait. There's nothing surprising about this to me.