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PSA is pausing Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, and Value Max tiers on June 2, 2026, due to a backlog approaching 10 million cards. With the cheapest open tier now $79.99 per card, here is how to decide which cards are worth submitting — and how to pre-screen before you pay.
In short: With PSA's Value tiers paused and $79.99 now the cheapest way to submit, every borderline card that grades PSA 8 or 9 costs 2–3× more per miss. The collectors who come out ahead submit fewer cards — and pre-screen each one with AI first to confirm it's a real PSA 10 candidate before paying.
Update — May 2026: this is no longer a one-grader story. PSA, TAG, and CGC have all hit capacity within days of each other — read the full breakdown in The 2026 Card Grading Backlog.
On May 28, 2026, PSA announced that it is temporarily pausing new submissions for its four Value service tiers — Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, and Value Max — effective June 2, 2026. The reason: an active backlog approaching 10 million cards, after a 20% spike in submissions added 1.6 million cards in just two weeks.
If you were planning to submit at $32.99 or $49.99, that option is gone — at least for the next few months. The cheapest tier you can submit to right now is Regular at $79.99 per card.
That changes the math for every submission you're considering.
| Service Tier | Price Per Card | Max Insurance | Est. Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | $79.99 | $1,500 | 40–50 business days* |
| Express | $149.00 | $2,500 | 20–30 business days |
| Super Express | $349.00 | $5,000 | 7–10 business days |
| Walk-Through | $599.00 | $10,000 | 5–7 business days |
*Note: Regular turnaround temporarily extended from 30–40 to 40–50 business days due to backlog pressure. Dual-service authentication is 50–60 days.
| Service Tier | Price Per Card | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Value Bulk (Collectors Club) | $24.99 | Paused June 2 — 50-card min, members only |
| Value | $32.99 | Paused June 2 |
| Value Plus | $49.99 | Paused June 2 |
| Value Max | $64.99 | Paused June 2 |
PSA has committed to a monthly Backlog Tracker update and says it will reopen paused tiers once the backlog drops from ~10 million to 5 million cards. Their estimate: up to four months. Collectors Club members active as of May 14, 2026 will receive free membership extensions for the full duration of the pause.
For a full breakdown of every PSA service level once you factor in shipping and insurance, see our complete guide to PSA grading costs. This is the second straight year PSA has restructured pricing under demand pressure — we covered the 2025 price increase, and the same submission-ROI math applies now.
Before June 2, submitting a borderline card at $32.99 was a calculated risk. If it graded an 8, you lost $33. At $79.99, that same miss costs two and a half times more — and if you shipped a 10-card lot expecting Value, you're now looking at $799.90 minimum.
The PSA 10 to PSA 9 value gap on popular cards is significant:
| Card | PSA 9 (est.) | PSA 10 (est.) | PSA 10 Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan RC | ~$4,000 | ~$25,000 | 6x |
| Charizard Base Set Holo (Unlimited) | ~$800 | ~$5,000 | 6x |
| 2003 Topps Chrome LeBron James RC | ~$800 | ~$3,500 | 4.4x |
| 2016 Topps Chrome Mike Trout AU | ~$150 | ~$600 | 4x |
At $79.99 a card, submitting anything that comes back PSA 8 or 9 is a costly lesson. The collectors who profit are the ones who submit fewer cards — but the right cards.
It's worth remembering that PSA's gem-mint odds are lower than the headlines suggest — we break down why PSA's 43% gem rate is misleading and what realistic PSA 10 odds look like for an average raw card before you bet $79.99 on one.
Professional graders and full-time dealers have always done this. Now it matters for casual collectors too.
The approach is simple: grade your card with AI before you pay PSA to grade it professionally. It's the same workflow we detail in our guide to pre-screening cards before submitting to PSA or BGS.
CardGrade.io analyzes cards across 16 zones — centering, all four corners, top/bottom/left/right edges, and surface defects on both front and back — and returns a PSA, BGS, and CGC grade prediction in under 60 seconds. It surfaces exactly what a human grader will penalize: a slightly off-center label, a dinged corner at 7 o'clock, a hairline scratch across the surface.
The filter rule most collectors use:
At $4.99/month for 10 grades, pre-screening your next 10-card lot costs less than a single PSA submission. If you filter out even one card that would have come back PSA 8, the tool has paid for itself 16 times over. In our CardGrade accuracy methodology, AI pre-grading reliably caught the misses that cost collectors the most — and you can see how pre-grading lifts PSA submission success rates in practice.
PSA's reopening is tied to operational milestones, not calendar dates:
The $200 million capital commitment PSA announced remains fully funded. New grading facilities, machine-learning logistics technology, and expanded staff are in active deployment — but the runway to see that capacity reflected in turnaround times is measured in quarters, not weeks.
Submit now (at Regular or above) if:
Wait if:
Use this time to pre-screen your backlog. Most collectors have a box of cards they've been meaning to submit. Now is the time to run them through AI grading, identify your real 10-candidates, and build the tightest possible submission list for when Value tiers reopen — or submit only the strongest cards now at Regular.
PSA closing its Value tiers is not a crisis for collectors who submit strategically. It is a problem for collectors who submit volume and hope. At $79.99 minimum, every card in your next submission has to earn its place.
Pre-grading is no longer a nice-to-have. It is the difference between a profitable grading collection and an expensive box of PSA 8s.
Grade your next cards before submitting →
Source: PSA — Pricing and Estimated Turnaround Time Updates, official PSA submission updates (May 2026). Card values are market estimates and fluctuate; confirm recent sales before submitting.
Pre-screen your cards before submitting to PSA, BGS, or CGC. Plans from $4.99/mo.
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Founder, CardGrade
Jamie Budesky is the founder of CardGrade and the engineer behind its AI vision grading pipeline. An Army veteran and IT specialist (DoD, since 2017), he writes about card grading, AI/ML grading technology, and collecting strategy — grounded in CardGrade's own grading data.
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