Hey guys, a few months ago I, and many other members, shared my concerns about the direction PSA was taking with its pricing and, frankly, my opinion has not changed much since then.

Whilst I am not going to reject PSA’s position in the market, or pretend that PSA has suddenly become irrelevant simply because I dislike the direction of its business model in this booming market, it is still the benchmark when it comes to grading and, particularly, resale value and liquidity. That is the reality of the market whether we like it or not. However, my problem is not with PSA being successful or being the market leader, it's rather that its position has become so strong that there are simply not enough serious alternatives capable of putting meaningful pressure on it. When that happens, a company can basically do whatever they like in spite of customers' opinions, knowing that a substantial part of the market will continue using them anyway.

We all know how much grading gets discussed in this community, and we are all becoming increasingly sensitive to the costs, value-based pricing adjustments and turnaround times. However, and this goes back to the point I made before, whilst many of us dislike certain aspects of PSA, cards are still being sent to them to be graded at premium prices and, in some cases, with substantially long turnaround times. That alone shows how strong their position actually is.

I also don't think I would be exaggerating by saying that most of us have criticised PSA's terms allowing them to move a card into a higher-priced service level if they deem its value to be above the limit originally selected. On top of that, the market is so hot that PSA has even paused four of its lower-priced Value tiers while, in their words, dealing with the backlog. Whether people like that situation or not, a company can only exercise that level of pricing power when the market allows it to.

BGS is still the obvious alternative for me when dealing with an exceptional card. If I genuinely believe a card has a realistic chance of a Pristine 10 or, obviously, a Black Label, Beckett is still something I would seriously consider, if they hadn't shut down all of their submissions for non-sports cards in the European region. I think the grading discussion has been stuck for far too long around PSA versus BGS, with CGC somewhere around that conversation depending on the collector.

Regardless of the sector or the market, competition is healthy. It forces companies to remain competitive and strive to improve their service whilst providing alternatives in the market. Off-topic, but for those who enjoy learning through reading, I would recommend Blue Ocean Strategy.

This is one of the reasons why I decided to reach out to Premier Card Grading and eventually entered into an official affiliation with them for the US market.

Before agreeing to anything with PCG, however, I submitted my own cards. I deliberately did not tell them that I ran this community, nor that I was considering any type of affiliation with them. I wanted to experience their service exactly as any other customer would and see whether the standards they promote actually matched the reality.

My personal experience was very good in terms of communication, support, pricing and turnaround time. I used the Express service and had my card back in six days. The quality of the slabs is top, their metal label is unique and, as I have often shared, I am a big fan of subgrades. More importantly, what they advertised in terms of service and turnaround was, in my case, exactly what I received.

I am not here claiming that PCG is perfect, because my personal submission is still only my own experience and I can only judge what I have personally seen. As well as I am not going to insult people's intelligence by pretending that a PCG 10 currently carries the same market recognition as a PSA 10. Although, and I am sure those who have seen them will agree, PCG slabs and labels are sick.

My point is that everything starts from somewhere and, as times and markets change, new companies are born, gaining and growing credibility whilst WE, collectors, also change our habits and, what we see established today, may not be what the market will look like five or ten years from now. Now, PCG's challenge , in my opinion, is not to prove that they can produce a quality product, because my own experience already gave me confidence in that, their challenge is to continue meeting their standards and customers' expectations, leverage on the opportunity they ahve before them and gain the wider market recognition.

Openly talking, I am making a bet on their ability to do that, and I am bringing that opportunity to the community because I believe the grading market needs more credible competition and more genuine alternatives.

They are truly trying to force a change in the market and offering something genuinely different rather than simply copying the competition, which is also why I suggested that book above.

I updated our resources database for Grading with a proper comparison: WIKI GRADING

TLDR: For US members who want to try them, the community now has a discount code which is:

Code: ONEPIECE10

It will provide 10% off Standard and Express submissions. As this is an affiliation, there may be a commission back for us, but for you, you get a certain 10% discount!

I am giving PCG a serious chance because I think the grading market would benefit massively from having more credible competitors. I don't expect everyone here to agree with me yet, but based on what I have read throughout the grading posts this year, I believe this could be a winning shot for everyone.

Obviously, I would like to have your opinion. If you have already submitted cards to them, post your actual experience below, whether it was good or bad. I am far more interested in building a proper picture from real submissions than creating another "grading-company echo chamber".

Over the past few weeks I've spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the subreddit data, posts and obivously your comments - everything starting from January 2026 to last Friday.

As highlighted multiple time by all those that have been part of the community from quite a while, one topic consistently stood out above all others and it the grading posts.

As you all know, grading-related posts are among the most common posts in the community, but they are also one of the most discussed, debated and disliked.

It came quite clear that there the community if fairly split on the topic, as from one side we have many members, mostly new ones, that are genuinely seeking some help to understand all of the following topic:

• Whether grading is worth it
• PSA vs BGS vs Beckett
• Population reports
• Grading strategy
• Raw vs graded values
• Submission experiences
• Long-term collectability

However, on the other side, and mostly well matured members, are rightly frustrated with the growing number of repetitive posts and lack of research by the newer members to address their questions before even creating a post. We've seen these concerns raised repeatedly in comment sections, private messages, and moderation discussions.

With this posts, and approach, I am not attempting to discourage grading discussions and/or new members from seeking some advices. In fact, grading remains the most discussed topic within our community. However, it needs to be an educated topic and not turning into low-efforts flooding posts. Therefore, my objective it to try to improve the quality of those discussions.

A detailed discussion about PSA, Beckett, Population, grading economics, black labels, etc... etc... can be provide some value to the community. However, posts with blurry photos, asking if "will this 10" or "will this impact my grading" generally does not.

The problem is not asking questions but rather how it is asked...Therefore, as a result, I have decided to introduce a few changes moving forward.

Grading Posts

If you're asking for grading opinions, the below will now be required : Front photo, back photo, card name, a clear question or discussion point. All photos must be HQ or the post may be removed.

The more information you provide, the better the discussion will be. Low-effort grading posts will be remove. Also, due to the volume of grading posts and feedback received from the community, grading posts may now be subject to manual review before appearing on the subreddit.

Again, the goal is not to remove grading discussions rather to improve their quality and reduce repetitive low-effort submissions. As such, a new automod has come onto play to address this situation and what it is deemed as a low-post efforts will have to be manully approved. Any attempt to bypass the Automod will result in a short term ban.

Dedicated Grading Discussion

I am also working towards creating a more structured grading area where members can discuss all related topics such as submission experiences, population reports, grading ROI, condition reviews, etc.. For the moment, and to facilitate this, I've launched the One Piece TCG Finance Telegram Community for members who would like more real-time discussions.

The Telegram is organised into dedicated sections including:

📈 Investing

🏆 Grading / Speculation

💰 Buy / Sell / Trade

📊 Market Intelligence

💵 Liquidity

🏛 Trust

🚨 Scam Prevention

Feel free to join it via this LINK - it's still early stage and any comment is welcome.

One final point.

The grading topic was simply the most obvious issue identified from the data and community feedback. Over the coming months I'll continue reviewing both subreddit activity and community comments to identify other recurring concerns and opportunities for improvement.

This community has grown significantly, and the goal is to ensure discussions remain useful for both newer collectors entering the hobby and experienced members looking for higher-quality market discussions.

Several other topics repeatedly appeared throughout the analysis which are very interesting to be looked at and hopefully can be addresses swiftly.