The graders it owns
On the Wire
Grading hits a record 3.87 million cards in October as PSA and CGC both set highs
Record month for PSA and CGC. CGC's sports grading is up 159% in a year.
The major graders processed a record 3.87 million cards in October, sports and TCG combined, according to GemRate data reported by Sports Collectors Daily. That is up 20% on September and 48% on October 2025. Beckett is not included; its numbers are expected back in November.
By Cardboard Journal, 3 NovRead our full analysis
PSA backlog falls to 6.8 million, but the Value reopening slowed the drop
Down 400,000 in two weeks, not a million. Reopening Value refilled the queue.
PSA reopens Value grading at $39.99 and cuts Standard and Priority turnaround by 20 days
Value is back at $39.99, but new orders wait behind the 7.2 million already there.
PSA publishes all 6,451 stolen certs as the FBI joins the FedEx theft case
Every stolen PSA cert is now public. Check any cert before you buy.
PSA's backlog is down to 7.2 million. Value still has no date.
The backlog keeps falling, but PSA has still not named a date for its cheapest tiers.
Thieves take two pallets of PSA cards from a FedEx truck at its headquarters
Stolen PSA slabs now have dead certs, but a cracked-out card has no cert to check.
Beckett’s Recovery, Phase 2: Still Waiting on Answers
Back: accounts, submissions, pop reports, cert lookup. Not back: price guide, Marketplace.
A grader should grade the card, not charge you for what it's worth
At PSA, the same five-day grade costs $999 or $13,191. Nothing about the service changes. Only the price of the card does.
PSA swears it has no stake in your sale. It's paid a percentage of the price.
PSA grades your card, then sells it for a cut of the price, so the higher it goes, the more PSA makes. Its own site still promises it has nothing riding on the sale.
Nobody can prove PSA is better than anyone
The biggest graders sell certainty, and none has been measured against a common, independent benchmark. Until someone grades the graders, a PSA 10 is a reputation, not a verified standard.
PSA's backlog is down to 8.2 million, and the biweekly pace has slowed three times running
Still falling, but slower each time. On this pace Value's 5 million is December, not November.
eBay UK will send cards from £250 to PSA for checks, down from £500
More UK card sales now pass through PSA. Only PSA, SGC, CGC, CSG and BGS slabs are on eBay's list.
It took Beckett 23 days to say "suspicious". The rest of its statement is still vague.
Beckett has admitted a security scare. Its careful wording still leaves customers guessing.
Beckett closes Base and Standard again, a week after reopening them
Beckett is changing course week by week. That is not how a company in control behaves.
Collectors refiles to end the antitrust case. Beckett's own terms are still offline.
No ruling before 11 December. Beckett wants its terms enforced while they are offline.
PSA's backlog is down to 9 million. At this pace, the Value threshold is late November.
At PSA's current pace, the 5 million threshold for Value arrives around late November.
Beckett's rebuild looks like recovery, not a plan
Until Beckett gives a date and says plainly whether customer data was involved, do not send it cards.
Golden's slab looks like Beckett's. Only one of them travels.
Buy the card, not the holder — and price a Golden slab as a nice case.
A collector's Beckett data-breach suit vanished the week the site went dark
The lawsuit vanished exactly when Beckett's site did — with no explanation for either.
BGS is grading again. Beckett.com still isn't.
Submissions reopened on a generic form-builder. Beckett's own site is still dark.
PSA and Collectors now face three lawsuits, two of them alleging fraud
Collectors' PSA/SGC/Beckett rollup is now defending three separate suits, none decided.
Beckett said it was upgrading software. Then everything went dark.
There is a boring explanation for this. Beckett's silence is what makes people doubt it.
Beckett expects to reopen Base and Standard on 15 September
If it holds, the BGS entry price drops from $79.95 to $14.95 — but it is an estimate from 5 August, not a confirmation.
PSA opens a $59.99 tier on 14 September, and it is not Value coming back
The cheap route back in is $59.99 and it queues behind everything already in the building.
PSA opens Frankfurt to EU submissions on 15 September
EU submitters stop paying the international shipping tax on every order.
SGC triples its base grading price, and its cheap-and-fast pitch goes with it
Re-run the maths on any submission under $200 — the floor moved to $50.
A judge hears PSA's bid to end the antitrust case on 11 September
Nothing changes for slabs you already own; watch whether it reaches open court at all.
Collectors keeps BGS subgrades intact — Black Label holders exhale
Existing Black Labels hold their premium; no reason to crack and resubmit.
PSA pauses its Value tiers as the backlog peaks near 14 million cards
Budget bulk submissions are off the table until at least November.
SGC's speed advantage erodes under Collectors ownership
Choosing SGC for turnaround now needs fresher evidence than last year's reputation.