r/ModernComics

This honestly concerns me a lot.

Lately I feel like I've seen more and more influencers glazing PSA for Comic Books--notably the Amazing Fantasy PSA 7 that was paraded at a party at San Diego Comic Con ahead of its auction.

Let me lay down some background and context as to how massive the PSA/eBay partnership is:

• PSA slabs command more value (for cards). People say that it's due to decades of reputation, but I think it's much more simpler than that:
  • PSA upcharges you on the value of the card (they call it to cover the "insurance," but you pay that whether you get the collectible graded and handed to you in the same day)
  • It's actually a vehicle to bake in today's price into the cost of ownership of the collectible
  • A collector/seller is less likely to let go of a collectible for less than what they paid to acquire AND grade the collectible unless they're desperate
  • Therefore, with so many collectors holding the line on what they paid, the value doesn't diminish that much
• The Vault ecosystem allows you to grade your collectible, and:
  • Immediately sell it to PSA
  • Or, have it listed on eBay and shipped directly from PSA Vault
• When you buy from eBay, you have the option to add-on grading with PSA (and not any other graders)
• You can avoid sales tax on eBay by having the card go directly to PSA Vault
• They make it easy to consign and sell through one of the biggest eBay consignment accounts (PSA Vault), granting immediate reputation/trust and high # of views on your collectible
  • eBay is, quite frankly, the largest collectibles marketplace in the world
• Authenticity Guarantee makes it so that, for now, certain cards that are a minimum value (I think $250), the seller must ship to PSA and PSA will authenticate the card and send it to the buyer
  • As long as you do your job and ship the card to PSA, they will absorb the risk from the card to the buyer
  • They send the card sealed in a nice box with a QR code as a "certificate of authenticity" good for so long as the seal is not broken

Why this sucks for CGC:

• The moment that PSA opens up PSA Vault to comic books, we might actually start seeing a major shift in grading and selling behaviors
• CGC has no ecosystem that can compete--to even build the technology and logistics as something like PSA Vault, they are years behind
• Even if they could accomplish something like PSA Vault, they won't be able to get a partnership with eBay without eBay burning bridges with PSA

Why the partnership is anti-competitive:

• While long time and reputed graders like CGC qualify for Authenticity Guarantee, what about newcomers like TAG?
• What does a new up and coming company like TAG have to do to qualify to be part of Authenticity Guarantee? (bet you it's not documented anywhere!)
• What if eBay were to remove everything but PSA from Authenticity Guarantee? (PSA already bought out BGS and now defunct CBCS--so of the list of companies, feels like it's mostly PSA now)
• Without Authenticity Guarantee, selling your collectible exposes you to more risk as a seller--and buyers might not consider you, especially if it is a high value collectible

People say that PSA is good for competition--but is it in this case? It feels like a hostile takeover and checkmate for its competitors.

I really hope CGC is thinking about how and what they can do to compete but I fear that it may be bleak.