PSA setting new grading records 🏆

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Rise and shine, card enthusiasts! This is Penny Sleeve, we’re like a golden ticket to a factory tour with Willy Wonka himself. 🍭

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• PSA setting new grading records 🏆

• How are breaks priced for a not-sold-out product? 📦

• Auctions ending soon 🔎

• People to follow in the hobby 👥

• Meme of the day 🃏

PSA SETTING NEW GRADING RECORDS 🏆

March grading numbers are in, and PSA has yet again topped its record for number of cards graded in a month, coming in at 1.33 million cards in March. That’s an 8% month-over-month increase and a 9% year-over-year increase. Interestingly, TCG grading at PSA saw its first year-over-year decline, but it was more than made up for by strength in the sports categories.

CGC, which is mostly known for TCG and non-sports, graded 185k cards, up 13% month-over-month and a whopping 62% year-over-year. Interestingly, Pokemon grew only 2% month-over-month, but sports grew by double digits (with basketball growing by 62% month-over-month). This is supposedly related to CGC’s on-site grading initiatives in China.

Unsurprisingly, Beckett came in at fourth with 66k cards graded, a 6% year-over-year decline. Their business is currently buoyed by Pokemon, which accounts for a whopping 47% of their grading activity. Baseball is 17% of their volume, basketball is 14%, and football is 13%.

My take: PSA released some mid-month specials which definitely helped boost their numbers. Some of those have rolled over into this month, so there’s a possibility that they set yet another record. It’s interesting to see Beckett’s strength in Pokemon — it’s currently serving as a lifeline for their otherwise faltering business. Thanks to GemRate for this data!

HOW ARE BREAKS PRICED FOR A NOT-SOLD-OUT PRODUCT? 📦

As I’ve been running numbers on breaks, a question came to mind: how are breaks priced for not-sold-out products? 2023 Panini Obsidian Football dropped last week, so I decided to answer that.

Obsidian seemed like a great set to analyze because it sits somewhere in the middle in terms of desirability. Above stuff like Score and Absolute, but below the big four brands (Prizm, Donruss Optic, Select, Mosaic).

Here’s the price breakdown for 13 different breakers:

Here are my takeaways:

• The retail price of a box is $550, but you can get them on eBay right now for $450-470. I used the retail price for this analysis, but if you instead use the market value of the boxes, the break premiums are even higher than noted above.

• Since this product hasn’t sold out, the break premiums aren’t as high as other more exclusive products. In this case, there’s a decent number of breakers charging close to or even below retail. 

• CB Hobby consistently has the lowest priced breaks of all the breakers I track (not sponsored or affiliated in any way).

• Most expensive teams (average break spot price): Texans ($449), Colts ($408), Lions ($240), Chiefs ($170), Rams ($167).

• Cheapest teams (average break spot price): Cardinals ($35), Commanders ($35), Bucs ($39), Patriots ($40), Saints ($44).

• As always, there’s a lot of variance in the prices charged for each team. CB Hobby is charging $90 for the Panthers, while HOBBYGANG is charging $270 (a 3x price difference).

AUCTIONS ENDING SOON 🔎

• Collect Auctions: ends on April 4

• Huggins & Scott: ends on April 4

• Sirius Sports Cards: ends on April 4

• Sterling Sports Auctions: ends on April 4

• Detroit City Sports: ends on April 6

• MEARS Auctions: ends on April 6

• BBCE Auctions: ends on April 7

• Greg Morris Marketplace: ends on April 7

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW IN THE HOBBY 👥

• Flipping Steve: Card flipping content

• Junk Wax Hero: Sports card storyteller

• Box Alarm Trading: All things MMA

MEME OF THE DAY 🃏