PSA's Value tier takes new orders again from Thursday, October 29, at 11 AM ET (8 AM PT). PSA paused Value on June 2 and tied its return to cutting the grading queue to 5 million units. Value returns with the queue at 7.2 million as of PSA's October 20 update.
Dates are as of October 29, 2026, unless we say otherwise.
Key takeaways
- Value opens Thursday, October 29, at 11 AM ET: $39.99 a card in the US, a $500 maximum insured value and an estimate of 90 to 100 business days.
- PSA cut 20 business days from its Standard and Priority estimates for new US orders. Their prices stay at $59.99 and $79.99.
- Value suits a card you expect to be worth under $500 once graded. PSA can move a card up a tier and bill you the difference.
- Before you buy a PSA slab, run two lookups: the cert on psacard.com/cert, then PSA's list of 6,451 stolen certs.
PSA brings Value back before its 5 million target
In May, PSA set a target of cutting the queue to 5 million before Value reopened, and on June 2 it projected on its backlog tracker that this would take five to six months. In September, Sports Illustrated still reported 5 million as Value's trigger. PSA's October 20 tracker update said it would keep reopening services in phases. On October 28, PSA announced that Value would return the next day, 149 days after the pause began. PSA now ties the 5 million target to reopening every service level.
The queue stood at 7.2 million on October 20, down from 12.4 million on July 28, the highest reading on PSA's tracker. PSA says its graded output is up close to 50% in 2026. In the announcement, Ryan Hoge, president of PSA and Grading at Collectors, said the pause let PSA streamline its services and that Value opens grading to the many people waiting for a lower price. He added that PSA has built a lot of capacity but still has work to do on existing orders and on making its estimates accurate.
Also from PSA:
- New Value orders go behind everything already at PSA, and orders already there keep their estimates.
- Value Bulk stays paused. PSA says it plans to reopen it, and its pages give no date or price. Sports Illustrated reports that reaching 5 million would let PSA reopen Value Bulk in full.
- PSA's announcement doesn't mention Value Plus or Value Max.
The announcement gives no date for reaching 5 million, so we won't guess one.
The US tiers for new orders
| Tier | Per card | PSA's estimate | Max insured value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $39.99 | 90 to 100 business days | $500 |
| Standard | $59.99 | 70 to 80 business days (was 90 to 100) | $1,000 |
| Priority | $79.99 | 50 to 60 business days (was 70 to 80) | $1,500 |
PSA's announcement applies the shorter estimates to orders submitted from October 28 at 8 AM PT, while its updates page says October 29. The same page says Express and the faster tiers keep their prices and estimates. Next to Standard, Value costs $20 less a card and takes 20 more business days, with half the cap.
Outside the US, PSA lists Value at CA$56.99 in Canada, €39.99 in Europe and ¥5,980 in Japan. It opens at the same moment in all four regions (midnight Friday in Japan), and PSA estimates 120 business days in Japan. The announcement states the cap in US dollars alone.
Other graders, for context:
- CGC (fee page, checked October 28): Bulk at $17 a card (25-card minimum, cover to $500, about 150 working days) and Economy at $20 (to $1,000, about 90 working days).
- TAG (help center, as of October 21): Value with a 10-card minimum, $250 cover and about 90 business days, at $29.95 per CardGrade.
- SGC and Beckett, as last reported: SGC Standard at $50 (to $1,500, 40-plus business days), per CardGrade. Beckett kept Express open at $79.95 after pausing Base and Standard again in late September, per Heavy.
The $500 cap, explained
The cap is PSA's maximum insured value. PSA's terms tell you to pick a tier whose cap sits above what you expect the card to be worth after grading, which can be more than its raw price. A card that could pass $500 as a PSA 10 belongs in Standard or higher from the start.
- PSA can move an under-declared card up a tier at any point and bill you the extra fee. Once you pay, PSA covers that card at the higher cap.
- Refuse the fee, and PSA sends the card back ungraded at your cost and still charges the tier you picked.
- If PSA loses a card, it pays the lower of its fair market value and the cap: $500 at most on Value.
- PSA doesn't insure your box on its way to PSA, so insure that shipment yourself.
- PSA's cover starts once staff open and verify the box, a step after the Arrived scan. In June, PSA warned that it could take six to eight weeks to open the Value packages arriving that month. PSA gave no opening time for new Value boxes in its October 28 announcement.
The clock and the box
PSA starts the clock when your box arrives and staff scan the submission label on the outside, the step PSA's order-status page calls Arrived. PSA moved the start from unboxing to arrival on November 20, 2025, so older guides may still describe the old rule. Business days run Monday to Friday, excluding holidays.
PSA calls its turnaround times "estimates, not guarantees," and its announcement admits too many orders are past theirs. By our arithmetic, a Brooklyn box that arrives in early November reaches 90 to 100 business days between about mid-March and mid-April 2027, depending on PSA's holidays. Return shipping comes on top.
CardGrade's packing guide relays PSA's preference:
- One new penny sleeve per card, then a Card Saver I semi-rigid holder. Graders can slide a card out of a semi-rigid without the friction of a toploader.
- No toploaders. Band the holders together and keep the bands off the cards.
Photograph each card front and back before you seal the box.
The theft, and a two-lookup slab check
Thieves broke into a FedEx truck near PSA in Santa Ana, California, on October 13. Santa Ana police put the loss at about $963,000 and say the exact value isn't settled yet (Associated Press). In its October 23 statement, PSA said Santa Ana police and the FBI are both investigating (Sports Illustrated).
PSA deactivated the cert of every stolen slab and published a list of 6,451 cert numbers with card descriptions and no grades. It says it has refunded grading fees on the affected orders, and for orders shipping back on PSA's own label it pays fair market value up to each card's cap. Sports Illustrated counted 2,978 Pokémon entries and noted that thousands of legitimate copies of the most-listed cards are still in circulation. Match on the cert number, since the same card name proves nothing by itself.
- Lookup one. Check that the front and back labels show the same cert, then enter it at psacard.com/cert and compare the card, set and grade with the label.
- Lookup two. Search PSA's stolen-cert list (PDF) for that number.
Sports Illustrated calls a deactivated cert a red flag. If you hit one, stop and ask the seller before you pay.
Slabs, sleeves and the herd
If you'd rather skip the queue, our graded slabs collection has Pokémon slabs from PSA and CGC plus K-pop photocard slabs. Each listing shows the front and back, so you can run both lookups before you buy. Every single ships in a sleeve and top loader at no extra cost, so a raw card from our singles stays protected while you decide whether to send it in.
Bring grading questions to the herd on Discord. You're welcome to hang out and watch, too.
Wooly's Vault
