PSA reopened Value grading at $39.99 with 7.2 million items still in line
PSA reopened its Value grading tier on October 29 at $39.99 a card in the US, per CollectiblesNews.com (October 28). The tier opened at 8 AM Pacific in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. US Value orders carry a maximum insured value of $500 and an estimated turnaround of 90 to 100 business days. The price is CAD $56.99 in Canada, €39.99 in Europe and ¥5,980 in Japan, where the estimate is 120 business days.
The catch is the line. PSA says new Value orders are processed behind every order already in its system, and that reopening the tier doesn't change estimates for anyone with cards there now. Its backlog stands at 7.2 million items.
What else changed
- Faster estimates at the top. Standard drops to an estimated 70 to 80 business days and Priority to 50 to 60, both cut by 20 business days for orders placed from October 28 at 8 AM Pacific.
- Value Bulk stays closed. In May PSA set a target of 5 million items in the backlog before fully reopening its grading services. It says it will keep moving toward that number before bringing back Value Bulk and other lower-priced options, in phases, so it can watch demand.
- An apology on the record. "Too many orders are past their estimated turnaround time, and we owe an explanation," the company said, and it says customers with late orders will get email updates.
Ryan Hoge, President of PSA and Grading at Collectors, said feedback from collectors "directly informs how we are reopening our value services."
How the backlog got here
PSA's spring was the busiest in its history. Submissions in April and May were 2.5 times those of the same two months in 2025, the company says, and more than half of the orders now past their estimates came in during one five-week stretch when PSA took in 165% more items than a year earlier.
The backlog peaked at 12.4 million items. CollectiblesNews tracked it down to 11.85 million in August, then to about 10.9 million two weeks later. In September PSA added a $59.99 Standard tier while keeping Value closed. At 7.2 million, the backlog has fallen by more than 5 million items from the peak and is still 2.2 million above PSA's own target.
Output is the other half of the story. PSA says graded-item output is up nearly 50% in 2026 and runs 150% above its average weekly output from 2020 through 2025. It graded 59 million items in the past three years, more than the 57 million it graded in the 23 years before that combined.
Why it matters for the market
The cheapest door is open again, but it opens onto the back of the line. At $39.99 and an estimated 90 to 100 business days, a card sent to Value this week has an estimated return around March, before any slip. Collectors who were waiting for a lower price can now submit, but cards they send won't reach the graded market for months.
The price floor for grading moved down. Since Value closed, a PSA slab cost at least $59.99 in fees. A $20 lower floor changes the math on cards where the grading fee was most of the expected premium for a high grade. More of those cards become worth sending, which adds to future supply of PSA slabs in the lower price bands.
Graded population is growing fast. Fifty-nine million items in three years means the counts behind "only X in PSA 10" keep rising for anything collectors send in volume. A $39.99 tier with a $500 insured cap mostly serves cards worth under $500, which is where submissions run in the largest numbers.
Turnaround estimates are the number to check. PSA itself says it still has work to do on making its estimates accurate. Anyone planning around a return date should treat the published range as an estimate, which is how PSA labels it.
None of this is a call on card prices. More grading capacity can add supply, and it can also bring new buyers who want slabs, and the report doesn't say which effect will be larger.
What to watch next
- PSA's next backlog figure, and whether it falls toward the 5 million target with Value open.
- The return of Value Bulk and other lower-priced tiers, which PSA says will come in phases.
- Whether Standard and Priority orders placed from October 28 come back inside the new, shorter estimates.
Figures are as reported by the source below on the date shown. This is market data and commentary, not investment advice.