PSA Has 9.9 Million Cards in Its Backlog. Is the Grading Game Broken?

Nearly 10 million cards are currently sitting in PSA's active grading backlog.

Think about that for a second.

PSA has dramatically expanded its grading operation, is processing cards at record levels, and recently managed to reduce its backlog from 10.9 million to approximately 9.9 million cards. Yet demand remains so enormous that its lower-priced Value tiers are still paused.

Now PSA has introduced a new Standard grading tier at $59.99 per card, with an estimated turnaround time of 90 to 100 business days and a maximum insured value of $1,000.

So where does card grading go from here?

That's exactly what Herman Moore and I tackle in the latest episode of The Reclaim CoLab Podcast.

🎥 WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION:PSA Is 9.9 MILLION Cards Deep... Is the Grading Game Broken?

First, This Isn't About Bashing PSA

It's almost impossible to discuss the modern card hobby without acknowledging what PSA has meant to it.

PSA has helped establish confidence and liquidity in the secondary market. Its grading scale and slabs have become instantly recognizable. For a massive number of collectors, those three letters carry significant weight when buying and selling cards.

And it's important to put the current backlog into perspective.

PSA isn't sitting around doing nothing while 9.9 million cards pile up.

The company says it has increased grading capacity nearly five-fold since 2021. It has committed $200 million to expanding infrastructure, opened its Plano, Texas grading facility this summer, expanded grading into Europe, and says its global production is now approximately 40% higher than last year.

That's significant.

The hobby exploded, submissions exploded with it, and PSA is trying to build an operation capable of handling demand on a scale that would have been difficult to imagine several years ago.

They deserve credit for that.

But that doesn't mean collectors shouldn't be asking some difficult questions.

$59.99 and 90–100 Business Days

PSA's new Standard tier opened September 14 at $59.99 per card.

The estimated turnaround?

90–100 business days. 

And Standard isn't the return of PSA's Value service. Those lower-priced tiers remain paused, while PSA says it plans to reopen additional services gradually as capacity allows.

This is where Herman and I start digging into the bigger question in the podcast.

At what point do collectors need to reconsider what we're sending out to be graded?

Because grading has changed.

There was a time when sending a card to a grading company was primarily about authentication, condition, preservation or adding confidence to an important card.

Today, grading has become part of the normal lifecycle of an enormous percentage of cards entering the hobby.

Pull it.

Grade it.

Hope for a 10.

Check the comps.

Sell it, trade it or put it away.

Then do it again.

When one grading company has 9.9 million items in its active backlog, perhaps it's worth asking whether we've become a little too dependent on the slab.

Does Every Card Need to Be Graded?

This is one of the conversations I find most interesting about where the hobby is headed.

There are plenty of cards that absolutely make sense to grade.

Authentication can be extremely important. Condition can dramatically affect value. Grading can make expensive cards easier to transact. Registry collecting has become an entire segment of the hobby itself.

And sometimes collectors simply prefer slabs.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

But does every card need one?

When grading costs approach $60 before you even account for other expenses, and the estimated turnaround stretches across several months, the economics begin to change.

Maybe instead of asking:

"What grade will this card get?"

we should first be asking:

"Why am I grading this card at all?

That's a big part of the discussion Herman and I have in the episode.

The Backlog Is Actually Getting Better

Here's the interesting part.

PSA is making progress.

Its backlog reached approximately 12.4 million units in late July. By August 25, it had fallen to 10.9 million. As of September 8, PSA reported approximately 9.9 million active units.

That's an impressive amount of cardboard moving through the system.

It also demonstrates the extraordinary scale of the challenge.

PSA temporarily paused Value submissions in June after reporting a 20% spike in submissions. The company has said the pause gives its operation room to work through existing volume while its additional capacity comes online.

From a business standpoint, that makes sense.

If demand exceeds your ability to provide the service at an acceptable level, eventually you have to control the intake.

The more interesting question for collectors is what happens after PSA catches up.

What Does the Future of Grading Look Like?

That's where our podcast conversation gets bigger than PSA's current backlog.

Are collectors going to continue grading cards at this pace?

Will rising prices make people more selective?

Will alternative grading companies gain ground?

Does a grade still add the same value when millions upon millions of modern cards are being encapsulated?

And perhaps most importantly:

Has grading become too important to the way we determine what our collections are worth?

Herman and I don't agree on every aspect of the grading conversation, either.

And that's what made this episode fun.

We're both collectors. We both recognize the enormous contribution PSA has made to this hobby. We also believe it's healthy to question some of the habits the hobby has developed around grading.

Because 9.9 million cards waiting to be graded isn't just a PSA story.

It's a collector story.

It's evidence of how dramatically this hobby has grown and how fundamentally grading has become intertwined with collecting.

Whether that's ultimately good, bad, or simply the new reality is worth talking about.

Join the Conversation

That's exactly what we do in the latest episode of The Reclaim CoLab Podcast.

Herman Moore and I break down PSA's backlog, the new pricing structure, the grading culture that has developed within the hobby, and what we think collectors should be considering before sending that next stack of cards off to be slabbed.

Is the grading game broken? Or are we simply watching the hobby evolve into something new?

🎥 Watch the full episode and join the conversation:PSA Is 9.9 MILLION Cards Deep... Is the Grading Game Broken?

And after you watch, let us know:

Would you send cards to PSA right now, or are you holding off?