Trading Card Games and Grading Companies have gotten out of CONTROL

News outlets are claiming the value of graded cards has beaten the stock market by over 1000%, which must be true, at this rate, because we hear about thieves breaking in and stealing from card shops every other day now…

For the ones that aren’t thieving, it’s no secret they are spending a ton of money trying to get cards from scalpers, who are literally throwing hands in grocery stores for Pokémon cards, combine that with the current grading scene with the turnaround times at PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) being atrocious with value tiers paused since June 2026 due to high demand and the lowest price at triple digits a card for an almost two month turn around time is just insane, not to mention their upcharging fees.

TAG (Technical Authentication & Grading) is no different, suffering the same fate shortly after PSA, but at least for its higher priced $149 it’s a five day turn around time, no upcharging, and less controversy at the moment compared to PSA.

The reason I mentioned these two companies is because I recently used them myself and with all of this being said it seems the masses are at a boiling point according to online chatter, but despite that it seems these grading companies are busier than ever with people spending even up to $700 a card at the PSA booth at The National Sports Collectors Convention last week according to reports.

If they had a public stock, I’m not going to lie, I would invest, because it seems they are just printing money at this point, but when will the madness stop and just how far will people go?

It’s gotten so bad that reports also say the Japanese Government is planning to step in to regulate the prices of Pokémon cards. If the literal government is saying this, things are definitely out of control.

Speaking of Pokémon, the company said they are also adding ID requirements in Japan to prevent scalping for the upcoming 30th Anniversary sets.

I like trading cards just like everyone else and have since I was a kid, but it probably won’t be long before we start hearing about heists and official shipments being stolen mid-route like the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) craze a few years ago.

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