PSA reopened its Value grading tier on October 29 at $39.99 per card in every region it serves. My advice: if you have Classic Collection singles you plan to flip, send them in now. Don’t hold them back for Value Bulk.
I expect PSA to close this tier again fairly fast because so many cards are waiting to go in. Yes, Value costs $15 more per card than Value Bulk did. But if you wait for Bulk to come back, I’m confident you’ll lose that $15 and a lot more because your graded copies will hit the market late.
What PSA Announced
PSA announced the change on October 28, and Value opened the next morning at 8 a.m. PT. It is open in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan, according to Sports Collectors Daily’s report on the announcement. The key terms:
- Price: $39.99 in the U.S. ($56.99 CAD, €39.99, ¥5,980)
- Maximum insured value: $500 per card
- Estimated turnaround: 90-100 business days (120 business days in Japan)
- Queue position: new Value orders go to the back of the line, behind every order already at PSA
PSA also cut its turnaround estimates for its two pricier everyday tiers, per Sports Collectors Daily. Standard ($59.99, $1,000 max value) dropped from 90-100 business days to 70-80. Priority ($79.99, $1,500 max value) dropped from 70-80 to 50-60. All of these are estimates, not guaranteed dates.
How We Got Here
PSA paused all four Value tiers on June 2 because its backlog had grown past 10 million cards, according to Sports Collectors Digest and Sports Collectors Daily. That shut off Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max. For most of the summer, the cheapest way to get a card graded at PSA was the $79.99 tier. PSA added a $59.99 Standard tier in September.
PSA says the backlog is now 7.2 million cards and falling every week. The company has said it will reopen every tier, including Value Bulk, once the backlog drops to 5 million, per Sports Collectors Daily. That leaves 2.2 million cards to go, and PSA has not given a date or a new price for Bulk.
The demand behind the backlog was huge. PSA said its April and May submissions were 2.5 times the volume of the same months in 2025. It also said weekly grading output is up nearly 50% in 2026.
The Price Math: Value vs. Value Bulk
Value is not the cheap tier it used to be. It cost $32.99 just before the pause, up from $27.99 before February’s price increase, according to Sports Collectors Daily. The new $39.99 is about 21% higher than before the pause.
The tier most people are really waiting for is Value Bulk. It was $24.99 per card before the pause and open only to Collectors Club members. That is where my $15 difference comes from.
On a 20-card submission, the gap between Value at $39.99 and Bulk at $24.99 is $300 before shipping and fees. That’s real money. The cost of waiting is bigger, though. Bulk might not open for months. And once it does, every submitter who held back will send in at the same moment.
If a card has a $25 price gap between PSA 10 and raw, Bulk looks better on paper. If you’re grading modern cards to flip, though, timing often matters more than the fee.
Why Speed Matters for Classic Collection
The Classic Collection cards came out of the 30th Celebration set in mid-September 2026. Pokellector lists 30 cards plus 23 secrets. They are reprints of famous cards from past eras with a new 30th anniversary stamp. PokeBeach’s list of the 30 includes Base Set Charizard and Pikachu, Shining Celebi, “Crystal” Lugia and staples from several eras of competitive play.
The flipping window for a set like this works the same way every time:
- In the first weeks, very few PSA 10s exist, and buyers pay a premium for one of the few slabs available.
- As submissions come back, the PSA 10 population climbs and more copies get listed.
- The premium for being early disappears, and slabs end up selling closer to what they’re really worth long-term.
This set is only about six weeks old, and PSA closed its cheap tiers before most people could submit. That means a lot of collectors are sitting on raw copies, waiting for a cheaper way to grade. Whoever gets slabs back first gets the best of what’s left of that early premium. Waiting for Bulk puts you at the back of a much bigger crowd.
Current prices:
The Timeline
My target: submit and ship by November 2, 2026. A 90-business-day turnaround should get your cards back around mid-to-late February.
Two things to keep in mind. First, PSA counts turnaround from when it receives your order, not when you ship it. Second, new Value orders go behind everything PSA already has, and the 90-100 days is an estimate. Sole Retriever pointed out that 90-100 business days works out to about four to five months on the calendar, and it could run longer.
Either way, cards that go in this week will be back well before anything sent on a reopened Bulk tier.
Risks Before You Submit
- The $500 cap. Value covers cards worth up to $500. If a card’s PSA 10 value is above that, PSA can move it to a higher tier and charge you the difference. Check what your top cards would be worth in a PSA 10 before choosing Value.
- Grading odds. You pay the full fee whether the card comes back a 10 or a 9. Check each card’s centering and surface before you send it, and only submit copies that look like 10s.
- Turnaround can slip. PSA admits many existing orders have gone past their original estimates. Plan around the long end of the range.
- Population growth. Everyone who sends in this week is chasing the same window. The longer PSA keeps Value open, the more PSA 10s will come back around the same time as yours.
- The tier could close again. That’s my whole point. I don’t know when it will close, but I wouldn’t count on it staying open.
What I Am Doing
If you want to flip Classic Collection singles, send them in as soon as you can on the $39.99 Value tier. Don’t wait for Value Bulk. I think PSA will shut Value down again quickly once the pent-up cards start coming in.
The extra $15 per card is the price of getting graded copies back while buyers are still paying up for them. If you wait for Bulk, you save $15 and give up more than that on the back end.
Get your order in and shipped by November 2. On a 90-business-day estimate, that should get your cards back around mid-to-late February. Pick your best copies, check what each one would be worth as a PSA 10 against the $500 cap, and send them in.
