Let’s just say it plainly, because nobody else will.
One company — Collectors Holdings — now owns PSA, SGC, and Beckett. That’s 80% of the entire card grading market under one roof. Not 40. Not 55. Eighty percent. And effective February 10, 2026, they raised your prices. Again. This is the second time in six months they’ve done it.
And the hobby heroes? Crickets. They’ll talk about “capacity management challenges.” They’ll explain “demand alignment strategy.” They’ll say “allegedly” and move on.
Not here.
Collectors Holdings bought SGC a couple years ago. Fine. Then in mid-December 2025, they acquired Beckett. That’s when a congressman — Rep. Pat Ryan, New York — actually read what was happening and wrote a detailed letter to the FTC demanding action.
“It pisses me off. I think it’s such an egregious, blatant attempt at a monopoly.”
— Congressman Pat Ryan (NY)
He called for the FTC to investigate Collectors on eight counts: monopolization, serial acquisition pattern, regulatory evasion, good-faith representations, erosion of competition, price and policy coordination, barriers to entry, and market manipulation. That’s not a guy firing off a tweet. That’s a guy who did his homework.
According to GemRate, PSA, SGC, and Beckett combined graded 21.5 million cards in 2025. CGC — the only real competitor left standing — graded 4.9 million. That puts Collectors Holdings at 80% market share, CGC at 18%, and everyone else at roughly nothing.
And with that 80% control firmly in hand, here’s what they just did to your wallet:
| Service Tier | Old Price | New Price | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value Bulk | $21.99 | $24.99 | — |
| Value | $27.99 | $32.99 | — |
| Value Plus | $44.99 | $49.99 | 40 → 45 days |
| Value Max | $59.99 | $64.99 | 30 → 35 days |
| Regular | $74.99 | $79.99 | 20 → 25 days |
Source: PSA official announcement, February 10, 2026
More money. Longer wait. Less competition to go to. Ryan Hoge — Collectors’ president of grading — wants you to believe PSA, Beckett, and SGC still operate as independent competitors. “We view the trio of brands as independent entities,” he said.
Guys. They’re owned by the same company. That’s not competition. That’s a three-card monte with the same hand running all three cups.
Upper Deck president Jason Masherah told The Athletic what a lot of people in this hobby are thinking but won’t say: PSA’s hands are in too many parts of the market at once. PSA grades your cards. PSA facilitates offers on those cards. PSA sells cards on eBay on behalf of customers. PSA provides cards for repack products.
Think about that. The company that grades your card and stamps a number on it also has a financial interest in what that card sells for.
“That’s the vertical integration where when you control multiple components of a market, it inevitably becomes a corrupt market. You buy cards low and rated to advantage or purchase, then miraculously the ratings go up a point or two, and then they’re selling it for often an order of magnitude more.”
— Congressman Pat Ryan
Not the big consignors. Not the high-volume dealers who submit 500 cards a month and have a rep on speed dial. The people who pay are working collectors. The guy with a $100 budget who saved up cards from this season to get slabbed. The kid submitting his first batch of Chrome rookies. The part-time collector who sends in 20 cards every few months and can’t absorb another price hike without rethinking the whole hobby.
Value Bulk went from $20 to $25 in six months. That’s a 25% increase in half a year on the cheapest tier. And what did collectors get for that? Longer turnaround times.
This is what a monopoly does. You don’t have to get better. You don’t have to compete. You just raise prices and wait for the next earnings report.
The one bright spot: CGC is growing fast. Their sports card volumes tripled in 2025 to about 5 million cards. Steve Eichenbaum, CEO of CGC’s parent company, says they’ve been flooded with calls from hobby shops and dealers looking to switch since the Beckett acquisition.
Yes, there’s a perception gap on comp values between a PSA 10 and a CGC 10 on the same card. That’s real. We won’t pretend it isn’t. But that gap only stays permanent if you let it. The hobby decided PSA mattered. The hobby can decide CGC matters too — but only if collectors actually use it in numbers that move the market.
Congressman Ryan is trying to get the FTC to pay attention. He’s building bipartisan support. Cheer for it. But the hobby can’t sit around waiting for Washington. The market tells the truth faster than any regulator ever will.
If you keep submitting 80% of your cards to PSA while complaining about price hikes, that’s on you. Every submission is a vote.
One company controls 80% of how this hobby assigns value to cards. They own your grading options. They own the comps. And they just charged you more for the privilege while making you wait longer to get your cards back.
Which direction do you want your hobby to go in?
Because right now, they’re choosing for you.
About the Author
Grayson Bryce Thompson
Grayson Bryce Thompson is a lifelong sports card collector and contributor to SportsCardRadio.com. He believes the hobby is worth protecting — and that collectors deserve straight answers.
