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Friday, May, 17, 2024
The Dreaded PSA Upcharge: Is it Really That Bad?
Last Updated On: May 17th, 2024
For several years now, PSA has clearly established itself as the premier grading service when it comes to sports cards. The plus side: a high PSA grade can add hundreds or thousands of dollars to your card. The down side: PSA knows that their service is extraordinarily valuable.
As a result, PSA is able to charge more for its grades than competitors and stagger grading tiers so that it makes the most profit for itself. Sometimes this means a submitter could end up paying significantly more in fees than originally expected — also called an upcharge.
In this post, we’re going to discuss the PSA upcharge: what it is, alternatives, and why maybe, just maybe, the PSA upcharge isn’t so scary after all.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Overview
Before discussing whether the PSA upcharge is worth it, let’s clarify what an upcharge is.
What is an Upcharge?
Generally speaking, an upcharge is an additional fee that is added to a bill after a contract has already been negotiated. Common examples of upcharges include ATM fees, airline fees, and those pesky “processing fees” that double your concert ticket price at checkout.
To best understand the PSA upcharge, let’s take a look at PSA’s fee structure as seen on their website:
So we see that the “Value Plus” option comes in at $39.99, while “Regular” costs $74.99, and “Express” is slotted at $129.99. At first glance, it might seem like these designations refer to the turnaround time; each increase in pricing lowers the overall grading turnaround.
But what about those values in the first bullet point? That’s where the PSA upcharge comes into play. Let’s walk through an example to see how it works, using an Anthony Edwards Silver Prizm rookie.
First of all, if you happen to have an Edwards Silver Prizm, congrats — he’s having a strong playoff so far, and this leap is a big reason why we threw him into our preseason buyer’s guide.
Let’s say the Edwards Silver Prizm card is currently ungraded. After a careful visual inspection, you’re pretty sure it’ll grade out to a PSA 9. As it stands, most Mint condition Anthony Edwards Silver Prizm card sell for well below $500. Thus, when you submit the raw card for grading, you select that “Value Plus” tier for $39.99.
But what if PSA deems your Edwards card not a nine but a Gem Mint 10? This is excellent news for you; recent sales figures for that card have topped $1,500 (although sales have softened quickly as Minnesota surrendered three in a row to the Nuggets in the Semifinals).
The flip side is that PSA knows this, too. As a result of the value added to the card by the Gem Mint grade, and since PSA can point to recent sales eclipsing $1,500, it can upcharge you into the “Regular” or “Express” tier, in which case you will owe the difference from the “Value Plus” pricing (from $35 to almost $90 more in fees).
How Common is an Upcharge?
It’s impossible to know how frequently upcharges like this occur. Although they’re much more likely to happen when PSA hands down an unexpectedly high grade for a valuable card (e.g., the Edwards above).
And we should note that it’s not just cards that can be subjected to the PSA upcharge. User Mister2Bits posted the following to BlowoutCards:
I sent in 30+ packs to PSA for grading back in November. They just popped and PSA is upcharging me on some of the packs that received a higher grade. I got a charge increase on all 10’s and some 9’s (but not all), but for the same packs that got lower grades there was no upcharge.
PSA messaged me saying “This submission contains 15 packs that do not qualify for the $20 fee due to their graded value. We understand that you had no way of knowing the grades; however, when the value does exceed the limit for the fee you originally selected, we must make the proper adjustments.”
Sometimes, one might attempt to circumvent the PSA upcharge by deliberately submitting a card in a lower-value tier. This is a risky gambit; while there are no guarantees, it’s possible that PSA won’t trigger its upcharge if the card’s value is only slightly above what you initially declared.
If a card’s graded value is far-and-away more than what you declared, you can likely expect a PSA upcharge.
To avoid surprises, it’s important to stay current on card values and pricing. We highly recommend using Card Ladder for that very reason. Not only do they provide approximate values for cards, but you can see what cards are selling for with ease, which is the metric PSA tends to use when determining a card’s value.
Which of the top Graders Upcharge?
Most, but not all, graders tack on some form of an upcharge for their services. Let’s take a closer look.
PSA: Yes
As we’ve discussed already, PSA makes it pretty clear that it upcharges if its grade boosts a card’s value beyond its declared value.
Think about the upcharge from PSA’s perspective. There are three main cases when one might get upcharged: when one submits to a lower tier A) they hoped to get away with a lower fee even if the card gems; B) they honestly thought it will get a Mint 9 for example, and if somehow it gems then so be it they gladly eat the upcharge; or C) they had no clue how to value it to begin with, or what it will possibly grade as.
In the first event, the PSA upcharge implicitly punishes someone for knowingly submitting to the wrong tier. In the latter two cases, collectors will almost surely eat the difference given the pleasant surprise of receiving one of the most valuable grades that can be given in the hobby.
SGC: Yes
SGC also upcharges, but in a different way than PSA. First, let’s look at SGC’s pricing table:
The good news is that upcharging only applies to cards printed before 2000. Any cards printed after 2000 (“Modern” cards) will not be upcharged. In the words of SGC:
At SGC, no matter how a card is valued upon creation of an order, no customer will ever receive a call from us stating that more money is owed. . .. Your Josh Allen 2018 National Treasures RPA worth more than your car can be submitted for grading to SGC for as low as $15.
It’s a nice perk, especially for fans who primarily collect modern Prizm basketball cards.
CGC: Yes
Like SGC and PSA, CGC also levies an upcharge, which is seen present in its grading tiers:
Additionally, CGC provides the following disclaimer about its upcharging:
If CGC determines that a collectible is undervalued and does not qualify for the tier or services selected, it may adjust the tier and charge the appropriate difference in CGC services, grading and/or services fees based on its determination of the collectible’s current Fair Market Value. (Note: CGC will adjust the tier even if the collectible is later determined to be not genuine, altered or otherwise ungradable.) CGC will not, however, change the declared value originally assigned by the submitter.
CGC also makes clear that, in order to determine the approximate value of a card, it will utilize “Fair Market Value,” which is the price CGC would reasonably expect the card to sell for at auction.
BGS: No
BGS makes it abundantly clear that collectors get “the same price no matter the grade,” almost explicitly calling out the PSA upcharge. Frankly, it’s not a bad strategy to draw some positive publicity, especially after the concerning trends regarding BGS of late.
Other Alternatives
There are, of course, alternative grading options to the ones listed here. GMA, for instance, offers the cheapest grading price and doesn’t upcharge. If these fees are truly a concern for a would-be submitter, we also recommend exploring bulk grading options, which we recently covered in detail.
Are Upcharges a net Negative?
At first blush, an upcharge might feel like a strong negative; why pay extra for a PSA, SGC, or CGC grade when you could just as easily go with BGS? But there are at least two reasons why upcharges aren’t a net negative.
First, if we return to our Anthony Edwards example, we see why upcharges aren’t necessarily a net negative. You may pay $90 in additional fees, but you’re receiving a card roughly five times more valuable than the one you sent.
In theory, the greatest upcharge one could be forced to pay through PSA could be in the thousands of dollars. But this is extremely unlikely; in that event, a collector probably submitted to a substantially lower tier on purpose or misread the grading instructions. And in either event, the card they receive back will be worth many more thousands of dollars because the higher priced tiers reflect higher valued cards.
In reality, the highest upcharge is likely to be less than $1,000, and perhaps even less than $500.
Second, it’s also the case that PSA relies on these upcharges to pay for important customer services. Here’s PSA President Ryan Hoge explaining how these fees ultimately provide a service for the user:
In the clip, Hoge says:
. . . we have something called the PSA Grade Guarantee. A lot of people don’t know about this. This is unique in the hobby, unique among the grading companies. We will stand behind the cards that we grade. So if we make a mistake . . . we stand behind these and will back it up with real money and cut checks to people. Part of that is, we’re creating additional value for the collector, for the customer with our services and we’re backing that with this sort of insurance-like policy.
Hoge explains that the PSA upcharge essentially helps subsidize the PSA Grade Guarantee service. In a long and winding sort of way, the upcharge actually contributes to bolstering PSA’s reputation in the hobby.
Strategically Picking Grading Tiers
There are instances where you can be opportunistic when selecting grading tiers, namely with crossover grading.
When crossing over cards to PSA from other grading companies like BGS, or defunct BCCG, you could choose a lower tier service with a minimum grade condition so that the card is removed from its current slab only if the grade will be an 8 or better, for example.
This puts the onus on the grader to determine if it meets the criteria of the minimum grade before cracking it and upcharging you (and you shouldn’t be surprised, but delighted instead).
Here’s a story from personal experience: I once tried to crossover a BGS 8 Jordan Fleer Rookie Card (without cracking it out, it went in its existing BGS slab as pictured below) to a PSA 8 min. grade or better. The card was submitted it at the $499 tier (up to 10k value), which would have been the correct tier if the card had received a PSA 8 assessment at the time.
PSA charged $499 to inspect the card in the slab, said the MJ didn’t meet the minimum grade of PSA 8, and sent the card back as-is in the BGS case. In retrospect, I could have skirted by at the $5,000 value tier for $249 had I hedged in case the card wouldn’t meet the minimum grade anyway — essentially paying the higher price only if the card met the condition required. Lesson learned.
Another instance worth mentioning is when grading rare cards with little to no comps; they’re a good candidate for selecting lower value tiers at submission time. Once again, the burden of proof falls on the grader to prove a rare card is worth a higher value than the tier selected originally. Keep in mind this could also backfire if the grading company comps the card to a completely different — and considerably higher valued — card.
PSA Upcharge: Final Verdict
All of the premium companies are upcharging because they offer a service unrivaled by the competition (and probably look around them and see others getting away with it, too).
But if upcharging is truly a top-of-mind concern, there are plenty of other graders to go with. Just bear in mind a GMA 10 will not command the same amount of value as a PSA 10 (nor will a BGS 9.5, for that matter).
It also helps to set reasonable expectations when submitting your cards. Everyone is looking for ways to get the best deal, which makes perfect sense. If you intentionally submit a card you know to be worth more in a significantly lower tier, you’re setting yourself up for those pesky fees.
Finally, let’s face it – upcharging could be the least of one’s concerns (looking at you WCG). While upcharging doesn’t automatically equate to a quality service, it’s far more common among premium graders, which means you leave behind the headache of going with a less reputable service.
Have you experienced an upcharge from PSA or another grader? Let us know in the comments below!
