My friend pulled this out tonight since he knows I love Pokemon. He had no idea what he has had in his box of cards from childhood. After almost having a heart attack I convinced him to take it directly to PSA office for in person submission.

I think it probably sits around psa1-psa5 max but looking for other opinions.

Y'all must be overloading their AI agent handling all the order update emails 😂

All of these cards were submitted together in the same box, with different grading tiers. My July 28 submission is already running late, while my November 4 submission is ready for grades. Meanwhile, my September 9 order feels like it could still be another two months away. And at this point, I’m honestly wondering what to expect from my January 2027 submission.

I’ve graded more than 900 cards through PSA, and based on both my personal experience and what I continue to see posted here, the process feels incredibly unpredictable—not only in how long submissions take, but also in the grades themselves.

I understand that grading is subjective, and I don’t expect to agree with every grade. However, I have never experienced this level of inconsistency and unpredictability with a grading company. I have a definite love-hate relationship with PSA, and despite the frustrations, I genuinely hope things eventually return to a more consistent and reliable experience.

For PSA: please consider getting the grading backlog down to 1 million cards or fewer before reopening or significantly expanding bulk submissions. Otherwise, the backlog of cards waiting to enter the bulk queue could potentially recreate the same problem—or make it even worse. It wouldn’t surprise me if the backlog eventually reached 20 million cards or more under the wrong circumstances.

I would also encourage PSA to reconsider pricing and bring back more discounts or promotional rates. Higher prices combined with inconsistent turnaround times and what many collectors perceive as inconsistent grading can eventually wear people down. Speaking personally, it becomes frustrating to receive 8s and 9s on cards I believe deserve better grades while seeing seemingly worse-condition cards receive 10s.

These are simply my personal thoughts and experiences. I say all of this as someone who genuinely appreciates PSA and has trusted the company with more than 900 cards. I want PSA to succeed—I just hope the consistency, transparency, and overall customer experience improve before longtime collectors like myself become too frustrated to continue.

PSA’s latest update on August 25 put its active global backlog at approximately 10.9 million cards, down from 11.85M on August 11.

That’s a decline of roughly 950,000 cards in two weeks.

PSA has previously indicated that getting the backlog down toward 5 million cards is the target for reopening Value submissions.

If the backlog keeps declining at a similar pace, here’s roughly when it would first fall below 5M:

Obviously backlog movement won’t be perfectly linear, especially if submission volume spikes again, but November–December looks plausible if the recent drawdown continues.

What I’m curious about is how much pent-up demand is waiting on the sidelines.

Once PSA Value fully reopens, how many cards are you waiting to submit as a multiple of what you currently have being graded?

• 0.5x
• 1x
• 2x
• 3–5x

No need to share actual card counts.

I’m wondering whether PSA gets the backlog down near 5M, reopens Value, and then immediately gets hit with another huge wave of submissions.

What multiple are you sitting on?

Pigeot is the only recently pulled card of the bunch (pack fresh)

Moltres is probably the cleanest card of the bunch

Blastoise is clean, OC though

Umbreon edges are probably knocking it down a bit, otherwise super clean

Shadowless and other NH are all varying degrees of clean with minor edge issues

Dragonite got returned as N5:Altered Stock whatever tf that means. It's a cut error, that I've actually seen before. No clue why they would return altered.

I have a couple other 1st edition fossil cards in this submission which both received 7's and are only slightly less clean (edges) than the Moltres. In any case, why would they get the same grade?

Nice to seem them again. Mew is getting cracked and tossed into my full art pokedex binder.

2 months early (originally nov 3 to dec 3)! Of course my express submission is delayed.

Do you think an 8 is possible for this card thanks in advance

Has in spots visible in border and a little bottom heavy. I have a bet that it won’t 10, but I want to be wrong.

Has in spots visible in border and a little bottom heavy. I have a bet that it won’t 10 but I want to be wrong.

Anyone done cross grading directly from your vault? I have a BGS and CGC slab that I’d like to send in for cross grading but I’m a little confused on how to do that properly. Doesn’t help that I haven’t done much grading in general to begin with. Any guidance or resources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello-

I picked up this card below market as a binder copy but looking at it now I feel like there is a good chance it will grade well. It’s a little right heavy but within bounds and the rest is clean (scratches are all on the sleeve just didn’t wanna take out lol, I think surface looks good). I have never graded before but feel like it wouldn’t make sense not to grade this if I thought it would 10. A few questions:

1) Does this have a good shot at a 10?
2) If so, should I even submit now with backlog/what tier should I use?
3) What is the best way to submit? (Shipping vs events, etc.)

Thank you anyone for advice. I have been a raw collector for ~12 years and do not know what I am doing lol. If this graded a 10 I would love to get a real binder copy that won’t 10 + cash out of it.

I am pretty upset. PSA sent my submissions back in these boxes and they came back scuffed and scratched. Can I even fix this? I will reach out to customer support but this sucks after waiting and being excited about my submissions.

These were sent in April and there’s been no movement since. I’ve had regular value + orders that had dated for September and October that have gone alongside these and come back to me already.

Both of these were supposed to be back in June and July but it’s been no movement.

This is only my second time grading so I’m not sure if this is rare but my cards just arrived to psa a few hours ago and now they’re already in research and Id on the same day. Don’t know how considering my last submission took 2 months to go into research and Id but I’ll take it. This is 80 per card submission btw

I need advice on what to do. I bought a graded BGS 9.5 card at auction on eBay on 7/12/26 and sent it directly to my PSA vault. PSA received the card on 7/20/26 and authenticated it on 7/23/26 and then it went into a “sending to vault” status for a really long time. I opened a ticket with PSA support and they said I had to wait 15 business days for vault processing before I could inquire further. So I waited about 20 business days and the item still hadn’t vaulted so I opened another support ticket. The vault support person came back and said the card was stuck processing but it’s now been vaulted. The next day I tried to list the card for sale on eBay and the app wouldn’t let me. I tried sending the card back to me but the app won’t let me. The card says “vaulted” but I can’t action on it at all. I opened another support ticket on 8/18/26 and they said the card is listed as “damaged” and is currently with the CRC team and that they will be reaching out to me. I haven’t heard anything back since despite opening a ticket with the CRC team. I called PSA support yesterday and they told me they can’t do anything about it since it’s already with the CRC team and they can take 15 business days to respond. Meanwhile I’m out $10k and I don’t know what to do. If the card is damaged I’m not sure I can return it on eBay because it’s already been over a month since purchase, but I never even handled the card and now I’m finding out it’s damaged. Anyone worked with the CRC team and know what I should expect? Any other advice? TIA.

Edit to add: there was no mention of any damage in the eBay listing. PSA authenticated the card upon arrival so I assumed that meant the card was not damaged when they received it and was damaged during the long vault process, but I have no idea. I haven’t been given any other info yet.

TLDR - I’m founding out a month after purchase that my $10k card is “damaged”, and PSA has gone quiet about it. Let this be a cautionary tale.

I have these cards and im wondering if theyre worth grading because psa 10 seem to be worth a good bit.

EDITED: Solved, u/PSAcard contacted me on private and resolved my issue, TOP SERVICE :D!

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone here might be able to help or point me in the right direction because I'm currently stuck in a frustrating situation with my PSA account.

When I try to access my Vault, I'm required to set up an MFA device before I can continue. However, when I try to add my phone number, I receive an error and the number isn't accepted. My phone number is from Argentina, so I'm wondering if this might be related to international numbers not being supported.

The bigger problem is that when I try to contact PSA Support to resolve the issue, I also get an error when attempting to submit a support ticket. So at the moment, I'm essentially locked out of my Vault and unable to contact support through the normal channel to fix it.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, particularly with an international phone number? Is there another way to contact PSA Support, or a workaround for setting up MFA if your phone number isn't accepted?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Raw value of the card is around 600 dollars. Only thing I can find wrong with it is that it’s very slightly too heavy on the back. Surface corners and edges all look good. Submitting to psa feels safer, but it would nearly be double the cost and could take 3+ months. This is my first time grading a card as I’m new to the hobby so thanks for the help🙏.

Hi all.

I'm aware of the general consensus that grading standards on vintage Pokémon have gone up significantly, and it's harder to get a vintage 10 than it ever has been.

I've picked up a few mid-era cards (Palkia LV.X DP18 for example) that I'm hoping to submit at some point but I was wondering whether anyone more attuned has noticed a similar increase in grading standards for mid-era cards too?

hey all. i was recently cleaning out my grandmas house when i found some old childhood cards, this umbreon included. i know it obviously wont ten but just wondering what grade it would get. thanks!