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PSA resumes Regular service level as card-grading backlog shrinks
PSA continues to catch up on its card-grading backlog and is resuming its Regular service level this month at a cost of $100 per card.
PSA announced the update on its website and social media accounts Friday.
The hobby’s leading card-grading company, owned by Collectors Universe, has faced a massive backlog since March of this year, causing it to shutdown most of its service. It has hired dozens of new card graders in recent months and expanded its capacity, allowing it to grade as many as 40,000 cards per day and make big progress on a backlog that reached 13-14 million cards.
The latest moves allows it to reopen one of its most popular service levels. It is also introducing a new submission management process that will allow it to monitor demand in preparation for the return of its Value and other lower-priced services in 2022.
The Regular service level will cost $100 per card with a limited number of allocations in each event. The company said Friday it will continue to adjust its pricing as other service levels open.
The backlog has caused collectors to have to wait as long as nine months to a year to get some of their cards graded and returned. Collectors Universe CEO Nat Turner said last month that the company hopes to have that wait time down to about three months or less next year.
“The company always had a backlog of over a million-plus cards,” he said. “You want turnaround times to be three months or less, even at the slowest level. Therefore, you can have about three months’ worth of backlog, that’s kind of totally fine. That’s our goal and we’re not that far away.
“We won’t fully reopen this year, in the next two months, but I think Q1 (first quarter) next year, we will.”
PSA addresses more questions about its backlog and services on its website blog.
Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD.
