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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 Value Bulk ($24.99 per card), Value ($32.99), Value Plus ($49.99) and Value Max ($64.99) tiers to new submissions.
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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. PSA reported a 20 percent surge in submissions following that announcement, adding 1.6 million cards to a backlog approaching 10 million.
Submission tiers will reopen based on operational milestones, with a target of reducing the backlog to 5 million cards. PSA projects it will take up to four months to reach that threshold. The company plans to publish a Backlog Tracker so hobbyists 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 for free for the full duration of the tier’s service pause.
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 its PSA grading service will not be impacted by Thursday’s announcement, 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.
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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.
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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.
PSA graded cards
POWERED BY
GRADED
2022 BOWMAN CHROME UNIVERSITY PROSPECT AUTO-REFRACTOR CAITLIN CLARK 76/499 PSA 9
1 available
$2,350.00
View Listing
GRADED
2003 UPPER DECK MANCHESTER UNITED #14 CRISTIANO RONALDO ROOKIE RC PSA 9
1 available
$2,250.00
View Listing
GRADED
1952 BOWMAN #218 WILLIE MAYS PSA 3
1 available
$2,299.00
View Listing
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 behind record sales for ultra high-end cards, as well as record transaction volume at the lower end. With more collectors participating, the number of submissions to the major authenticators has increased as well. 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. 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.
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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 other authenticators outside of 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 resulted in PSA-graded cards being more liquid than 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 put a premium on the graded cards that do move through PSA, with key cards likely slower to reach the marketplace, if at all.
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 waiting for additional service tiers to reopen. Cards meant for one’s personal collection can likely be held raw until service reopens because value to the submitter isn’t necessarily tied to secondary-market pricing, which can rapidly change. Collectors hoping to grade and flip low-end cards may be best served selling cards ungraded rather than wait out lower service levels. Hobbyists hoping to submit mid- and high-end cards with declared values of $1,500 and above can likely continue as normal with those cards generally submitted at higher service levels that are currently unaffected.

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