Trading card grading leader Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) has paused four service levels due to an overwhelming backlog of submissions, the company announced Thursday.
Effective June 2, PSA is pausing the Value Bulk ($24.99 per card), Value ($32.99), Value Plus ($49.99), and Value Max ($64.99) tiers for new submissions. All currents submitted before June 2 will still be accepted and graded by PSA, however.
Submission tiers will reopen based on operational milestones, with a target of reducing the backlog from 10 million cards to five million. PSA projects it will take up to four months to reach that threshold. The company plans to publish a Backlog Tracker so customers can see progress in real time. PSA also announced extensions to current Collectors Club memberships, which give customers access to the Value Bulk grading tier. Each membership active on May 14 will be extended free of charge for the full duration of the tier’s service pause.
Thursday’s decision to pause popular service tiers follows PSA parent company Collectors’ announcement of a $200 million investment for the grader earlier this month. That money will be used to expand operations over the next 18 months with plans to double the company’s physical footprint and to add more than 1,000 new hires.
“The primary driver behind this temporary suspension was the recent and rapid surge in demand that eclipsed what had already been record levels,” Collectors president Ryan Hoge told The Athletic. “Following a May 14 announcement about infrastructure investment, PSA experienced a 20 percent spike in submissions, which added 1.6 million cards to the active backlog, bringing the total backlog to 10 million. The decision to pause the Value service tiers was a proactive step to alleviate this backlog, protect the integrity of the PSA grading standard, and prevent further delays to existing orders.”
Service tiers above Regular ($79.99) are planned to remain active, though PSA reported that the estimated turnaround time for Regular will be temporarily extended to 40-50 days. EBay confirmed to The Athletic that Thursday’s announcement will not impact its PSA grading service, as the Value Plus ($250-plus) tier will remain open to eBay customers on eligible purchases. EBay’s Authenticity Guarantee program, which runs through PSA, also will not be impacted.
PSA graded more than 19 million cards in 2025, according to grading tracker GemRate. The second-closest competitor by submission volume was CGC Cards, with 4.92 million.
The current backlog has been driven largely by a significant increase in submissions for Pokémon and other popular trading card games (TCGs) in recent months. According to GemRate, PSA graded more than 11.5 million TCG cards in 2025, an 85 percent year-over-year increase. In total, PSA’s graded card output has increased from 11 million cards in 2022 to 13.5 million in 2023 and 15.3 million in 2024.
Collectors announced earlier this month that it expects PSA to top more than 20 million graded cards in 2026, with output from January through April up 39 percent year over year. PSA announced significant changes to turnaround times alongside news of the $200 million investment, with Value Bulk jumping from an estimated 95 business days to 140–160 days and Value from 75 days to 100–120 days.
PSA last paused service tiers due to overwhelming demand in March 2021 at the height of the hobby’s pandemic popularity. Prices for some popular PSA-graded cards rose at the time as hobbyists anticipated fewer copies would enter the marketplace. Then-president Steve Sloan wrote to customers that PSA had raised its employee count to 783, in addition to physical expansions of 58,000 and 62,500 square feet at its California operation.
PSA has tripled its staff and opened grading facilities in Florida, New Jersey, Texas and Tokyo since 2021. Collectors president Ryan Hoge told The Athletic earlier this month that the $200 million investment will increase the company’s global physical footprint by 800,000 square feet.
Why are so many cards being sent to PSA?
Hobbyists are sending more cards than ever for multiple reasons. From a secondary-market perspective, the trading card industry is stronger than ever, with record sales of ultra-high-end cards and record transaction volume at the lower end. With more collectors participating, the number of submissions to major authenticators has also increased. Hobbyists authenticate their cards to both protect them for their own personal collection and to increase their value on the secondary market.
Some of PSA’s backlog can likely be attributed to a partnership with GameStop, which allows customers to submit cards for grading through the video game retailer. Hoge confirmed PSA’s service level pause will impact its business with GameStop and all other third-party partners. The companies launched that partnership in October 2024 and had reached one million cards graded through the program by May 2025. It’s unclear how many cards PSA has graded through the program so far in 2026.
Does PSA have more of an impact on card value than other graders?
PSA is generally considered the industry leader due to value and liquidity on the secondary market. Cards graded by PSA often carry a price premium over those graded by other authenticators, except in specific examples. Cards that achieve grades like the BGS 10 Black Label or the CGC Pristine 10 are considered superior in quality to the highest achievable grade from PSA, which is a more vague Gem-Mint 10.
Higher secondary market value has also made PSA-graded cards more liquid than those from other major graders. Hobbyists often prefer cards that can be smoothly bought or sold as needed, and PSA-graded cards have been the easiest to transact in recent years, in part because of the perception that its grades generally carry the most value.
Will this make ungraded cards more valuable?
A temporary shutdown could result in price fluctuations for both ungraded and graded cards on the secondary market. Mid- and high-end raw cards could see increases in value as hobbyists focus on copies that would typically be submitted at the higher service tiers still operating at PSA.
Hobbyists may also place a premium on graded cards that do move through PSA, with key cards likely to be slower to reach the marketplace, if at all.
Will this impact SGC or Beckett, the other grading companies under Collectors?
With PSA halting service, it’s expected other grading companies will see an increase in business. SGC and Beckett have yet to announce any changes to services, though hobbyists have recently reported slowed turnaround times through SGC. Hoge didn’t offer specifics, but told The Athletic, ”we are preparing to accommodate any surges (at SGC and Beckett) as a result of this pause.”
Other grading companies outside of the Collectors umbrella have already appeared to make changes to accommodate additional business. CGC Cards, which is the largest competitor to Collectors’ brands, appears to have increased turnaround times for its Bulk service ($17 per card) from 90 business days to 120 and Economy ($20) from 45 to 65. TAG Grading announced Thursday it was pausing its Express service due to capacity. The company had previously paused submissions for its Basic and Standard services earlier this month. The cheapest submission tier currently available at TAG is Priority at $149 per card.
Is it best to wait for PSA to reopen submissions or send cards to other graders?
Hobbyists should consider their objectives when deciding whether to continue submitting to PSA or wait for additional service tiers to reopen. Cards meant for one’s personal collection can likely be held raw until service reopens, because their value to the submitter isn’t necessarily tied to secondary-market pricing, which can change rapidly.
Collectors hoping to grade and flip low-end cards might be best served by selling cards ungraded rather than waiting out lower service levels. Hobbyists hoping to submit mid- and high-end cards with declared values of $1,500 or more can likely continue as usual, with those cards generally submitted at higher service levels that are currently unaffected.
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