PSA Value Tier Returns Along with Faster Turnaround Times as Over 7 Million Cards Remain in Backlog

The long-awaited return of PSA’s Value Tier was announced on Wednesday after pausing the service in June as the grading company worked through an over 12 million card backlog. Along with the Value Tier news, PSA is lowering the turnaround times for their Standard and Priority Tiers. The announcement is a respite from the past several weeks, as PSA is managing a crisis after thousands of graded cards were stolen from a FedEx truck inside their Santa Ana facility on October 13.

What is PSA’s Value Tier?

Value Tier is PSA’s affordable level that provides collectors with the same grading service as other higher-priced tiers but with a longer turnaround time. Priced at $32.99 each for cards valued at $499 or less prior to the suspension, the service was paused in early June so the company could work through their then-backlog of over 12 million cards. At the time, PSA said that they would hopefully be able to bring back Value Tier within five to six months. After the backlog ballooned to 14 million cards thanks to last-minute submissions, the backlog has been reduced to 7.2 million cards.

Submissions for the Value Tier will begin on October 29 with an increased price of $39.99 per card, with a turnaround time of 90 to 100 business days.

The caveat of Value Tier’s return is that every card submitted at this level will be placed at the back of the line as PSA works through said 7.2 million card backlog. What this means is that even with the advertised 90 to 100 business day turnaround time (4 to 5 months in real time), the possibility of longer wait times exists.

Despite the Value Tier name, the price of sending a card to be graded at the Value Tier has gone up significantly over the past several years. Prior to the trading card boom of the 2020s, Value Tier was called Regular in 2019, and it was priced at $19.99 per card with a turnaround time of 10 to 15 business days (2 to 3 weeks). Since the boom, Regular has become Value, and the price increased from $19.99 in 2019 to $27.99 at the start of 2026. In February, PSA announced a hike to $32.99 that lasted until the June suspension before landing at the current $39.99 price.

What Tiers are Getting Shorter Turnaround Times?

Along with the return of Value Tier, PSA also announced that Standard and Priority Tiers will now have shorter turnaround times. Standard Tier ($59.99 per card), a new Tier that was unveiled in September, will now have a turnaround time of 70 to 80 business days, while Priority Tier ($79.99 per card) is now at 50-60 days. As someone who submitted several cards between the suspension of the Value Tier but before the announcement of Standard, Priority Tier changed turnaround times while my cards were in process, resulting in cards that were submitted in late July with an estimated return of mid-September to late October.

The Future of Submissions, Pricing, and Turnaround Times

While PSA is regularly announcing expansion plans that include the opening of new grading facilities in Europe and hiring of additional staff, the company is grading cards at an unprecedented rate as collectors and investors chase those elusive Gem Mint 10 grades. The return of the Value Tier and the promised return of Value Bulk Tiers in the near future, where people can send in hundreds of cards for grading at significantly reduced costs, could result in a massive influx of cards that PSA might not be able to keep up with. It would not be shocking to hear a similar suspension sometime in the next year.

Despite the increased prices, extended wait times, the emergence of competitor CGC, and the recent news of thousands of stolen graded cards from their own facilities, PSA remains the top dog of the graded card industry. The resale value of their slabs outpace any other grading companies by a wide margin, forcing people who want to maximize the potential value of their cards to go with PSA. In other words, prices and wait times will go up until resale prices don’t.

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. His current hot take is that people are really underrating the Psyduck trading card market. Email: juan@soleretriever.com Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Threads : @ezyville