On All-Star Game Tuesday, PSA provided a new update as part of their bi-weekly pledge to provide clarity on their current backlog. After their last update showed the backlog eclipsing 12 million, the latest update shows the total drop to 11 million. They also updated that June’s grading was up 10%over May’s – despite their pause – and that July was tracking to even beat June’s pace
Without sacrificing quality, our current backlog now stands at⁰11 million cards. As we continue to accelerate our output, July’s grading projections are on track to surpass June’s record pace. Learn more about this update with the PSA Backlog Tracker: https://t.co/2boq29SYASpic.twitter.com/UuEBPomN7F
— PSAcard (@PSAcard) July 14, 2026
The Good
PSA also added a note in their update around quality assurance. They make note that the surge in submissions did not come with a surge in grading inaccuracies, claiming that grading accuracy and card safety maintain a 99.4% operational success rate. In response to an X user’s question on the specifics of what that entails, they confirmed that the 0.6% mainly accounts for fewer than 6,000 cards that saw either a grade change at the QA level or that were damaged while processing
The Bad
Despite their updates, PSA still has no plans of bringing the Value, Value Plus, or Value Max tiers back for collectors looking to save money on their submissions. As it stands, the cheapest option for someone submitting a card for basic grading, meaning no added services such as autograph authentication or grading, is the Regular level, which would cost someone $80 per card. In their June 8th update, PSA made it clear that 6-8 weeks might still be needed to open the Value and Value Bulk orders currently processing, and their backlog tracker remains unchanged for the Value Tiers Open section, still showing under 5 million submissions waiting to be opened, processed, graded, and returned.
GemRate shows a steep drop amongst PSA competitors CGC, Beckett, and SGC in the first week of July, each down 32%, 51%, and 35%, respectively. Meanwhile, despite their own pause, TAG is soaring, showing a 55% jump over the previous week with 19.1k total items graded from July 1st through the 6th, while TAG graded 54,000 items in all of June. PSA, with 492.9k total items graded is showing a 18% drop in the first six days of July despite PSA stating they’re trending toward surpassing June’s total submissions.
The Ugly
While the PSA Backlog Tracker update seemed to be trending positive on paper, users’ responses were mostly anything but. Many X users took the opportunity to highlight the delays that PSA claimed were being addressed but were not
Other users took issue with the quality assurance aspect of the update, including photos of PSA slabs that were received with scuffs and chips in the slabs themselves. Others show that the grading process was completed around a month ago but that they were still waiting to receive a tracking number that showed the cards were on their way back
Final Thoughts
Transparency can not be discouraged, despite updates being seen as positive or negative, collectors in general need to at least welcome that PSA is sticking to their word on bi-weekly updates. TAG also created their own Backlog Tracker which building on PSA’s include quite a bit more information such as the total percentage they’ve recovered from peak, what percentage they’re looking for before re-opening, and what the current backlog load looks like
U P D A T E / 0 7 . 1 4 . 2 6Since peak demand, TAG has reduced active backlog volume by approximately 43%.Significant work remains, but meaningful progress is being made.We’ve launched a new TAG Backlog Tracker to provide collectors with a transparent look at where things…
— TAG (@TAGgrading) July 14, 2026
All in all, with card collecting in general soaring, it would make sense that grading would come with it. That being said, PSA has a lot of work to do not just to reduce its backlog, but to ease customer concerns
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Published 1 hour ago| Modified 1 hour ago
JONATHAN KLINGER
Jonathan Klinger is a collector and baseball historian based in Texas. Jonathan has been a lifelong Yankee fan and his love of collecting goes back over two decades. His collection is focused primarily on Yankees team sets, vintage memorabilia, and other unique pieces. He is a member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research). When he’s not writing or collecting, Jonathan spends his time with his family, coaching his son’s Tee-ball team
