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Submitting cards to PSA means five things in order: build the order online, sleeve and holder every card, stack them in the exact sequence on your form, pack them between cardboard in a new box, and ship to the address that matches your carrier. The part almost nobody tells you is that four of PSA’s service levels have been closed to new submissions since June 2, 2026, so the tier you read about last year may not be available to you today.
That last detail changes the answer to “should I submit right now,” which is why it goes first.
What changed in June 2026, and why it matters before you start
PSA paused new submissions on four tiers: Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, and Value Max. Regular, Express, Super Express, and Walk-Through and above stayed open.
The reason is volume. PSA’s own service level update says a 20% spike in submissions added 1.6 million cards to a backlog approaching 10 million. Their stated target is to bring that down to 5 million, with a projection of up to four months to get there, and they publish a Backlog Tracker on that same page monthly.
Regular service turnaround was temporarily extended to 40 to 50 days, and 50 to 60 days for dual-service authentication.
So the cheap bulk route most people plan around is gone for now. If you were counting on Value Bulk through a Collectors Club membership, PSA is extending every membership that was active on May 14, 2026 for free through the length of the pause. Check current tier availability on PSA’s site before you build an order, because this is a fluid situation tied to backlog milestones rather than a fixed reopening date.
Step 1: Build the submission online first, not last
Everything downstream depends on the order existing already. You pick a service level, enter each card, and declare a value for each one, then print the confirmation pages.
Declared value is your estimate of what the item will be worth after PSA grades it, not what you paid. It drives which service level you’re eligible for and it drives the price. Overstating it costs you money on every card. Understating it caps what PSA’s guarantee covers if something goes wrong.
The submission form order is not a formality either. Your cards have to physically arrive stacked in the sequence the form lists, item #1 on top. Get this wrong and you have created a hand-sorting job for someone in receiving, which is exactly the kind of thing that adds days.
Step 2: Screen the cards before you pay to grade them
This step isn’t in PSA’s guide because it isn’t PSA’s job. It’s the one that saves the most money.
Grading fees are per card and non-refundable regardless of what comes back. A card with a soft corner, a surface scratch under raking light, or a print line you didn’t notice still costs full price to receive a 6. Fifteen minutes with a magnifier and a bright light before you commit is the highest-return work in the whole process.
Look at four things, because those are the four PSA subgrades: centering, corners, edges, surface. Tilt the card under a single light source and move it. Surface flaws hide until the light rakes across them at a low angle, and they are invisible under flat overhead light.
Before You Pay to Grade It
Nikon 10x Jewelry Triplet Loupe
- 10x triplet optic, corrected so a straight print line stays straight instead of bending at the edge of the field
- 13mm lens with a 25mm focusing distance, close enough to read surface texture rather than just magnify it
- Folds into its own case, so the glass isn’t collecting grit in a box of supplies
What’s good: a triplet lens is the real dividing line in magnifiers, and this is a genuine one. Cheap doublets and single lenses distort toward the edges, which on a card means you spend a minute deciding whether you’re looking at a print defect or an artifact of the glass. A small field of view is fine here because you’re inspecting one corner at a time anyway.
What’s not: it costs many times what a basic plastic loupe costs, and for pure corner-and-edge checks a cheap one gets you most of the way. 10x is also more magnification than the job strictly needs. At 10x, every card looks bad, and new submitters routinely talk themselves out of cards that would have graded 9 because the fibers of the cardboard are visible. If you only own one magnifier, something in the 5x to 7x range is easier to calibrate your eye against. This is the buy for someone who already knows what a 9 looks like, not for someone learning.
Step 3: Sleeve every card, and use clear sleeves
PSA’s shipping guide is specific: each card goes into a clear penny sleeve, and solid or opaque sleeves cause delays.
The reason is boring and mechanical. A grader has to see the card without removing it from anything. An opaque back means handling the card an extra time, and every extra handling is both a delay and a risk.
Skipping the sleeve entirely is worse. Semi-rigid plastic is harder than card stock. Sliding a bare card in and out of a holder puts fine wear into the surface and edges, and surface is one of the four things being graded.
Required, and Clear Not Opaque
Ultra Pro Clear Standard Card Sleeves (100 pk)
- Fully clear polypropylene, which is what PSA asks for, since opaque sleeves slow processing
- Acid-free and PVC-free, safe sitting against the card face in long-term storage
- Fits standard cards up to 2 5/8″ x 3 5/8″, so the sleeved card still drops into a semi-rigid holder
What’s good: it’s the cheapest step in the entire process and it protects the subgrade that’s hardest to recover. Buying the plain clear version sidesteps the opaque-sleeve delay problem without having to think about it.
What’s not: the real downside of penny sleeves is that they split. They’re thin on purpose, they tear at the seam if you load a card at an angle, and a torn sleeve inside a holder is worse than no sleeve because you won’t see it once the card is in. Buy well past the count you need. Also skip any sleeve with a pull tab for a submission, since PSA lists pull tabs next to tape and sticky notes as things to keep off the holder.
Step 4: The semi-rigid holder, and the size PSA actually requires
The stated requirement is a measurement, not a brand. For standard trading cards, PSA’s shipping guide says semi-rigid holders must be 3 5/16″ x 4 7/8″. Both sides of the card have to be fully visible. No toploaders, no tape, no pull tabs, no sticky notes.
That dimension is the Card Saver 1 spec. Card Saver 2 is a smaller holder and misses it in both directions, which is worth knowing because the naming misleads almost everyone. If you’re deciding between the two, Card Saver 1 vs. 2 covers which one PSA accepts in detail.
One quirk worth flagging, since it confuses people who click through from PSA’s own guide. The “semi-rigid card holders” link on the shipping guide points to a store URL ending in card-saver-2, but the product on that page is titled Card Saver 1. It’s a leftover slug, not a change in the requirement. Follow the measurement printed on the guide, not the URL.
Toploaders are the single most common mistake here, and PSA is blunt about the consequence. Submissions arriving in toploaders, hard acrylic cases, or screw-down holders get processing delays, and the cases don’t come back with the order.
Matches the 3 5/16″ x 4 7/8″ Spec
Cardboard Gold Card Saver 1 (100 ct)
- 3 5/16″ x 4 7/8″ including the lip, matching PSA’s stated submission dimension
- Slightly oversized around the card, so a sleeved card loads without being forced
- Also takes the larger pre-1957 cards that won’t fit a standard 3″ x 4″ holder
What’s good: it’s the holder PSA and its dealers built their handling around, the 100 count drops the per-card cost to pocket change, and the oversized fit means loading a sleeved card doesn’t take force.
What’s not: it’s floppy, and anyone coming from toploaders finds that alarming. The lip creases if you’re careless, a creased holder can press a corner, and an unbanded stack lets cards slide back out. It’s also awkward to store, since Card Saver 1s don’t sit in deck boxes or most row boxes. Amazon stock on the 100 count runs thin in stretches, so if a submission has a deadline, order supplies before you build the order rather than after.
Step 5: Pack it the way PSA’s guide describes
Nine of the ten steps on PSA’s shipping guide are packing, and the failure modes are all mundane.
Stack the holdered cards in submission-form order, item #1 on top. Put that stack between two cardboard dividers slightly larger than the holders. Secure it with two or three rubber bands, tight enough that nothing shifts and loose enough that nothing gets pressed.
Wrap the bundle and put it in a new shipping box. PSA says new specifically, not a reused one. Fill the empty space so the bundle can’t move in transit. Put the printed submission form inside the box, and if you’re shipping more than one submission, keep each bundled separately.
Seal every seam with packing tape. Not painter’s tape, not scotch tape, not tape peeled off something else.
Then the step people skip: attach the tracking label ID from your confirmation page to the outside of the box, with the barcodes fully visible under clear tape or on a sticker label. PSA’s guide says outright that skipping this or applying it wrong can cause order entry and processing delays. Secure the label flat to the box, no label pouches.
Step 6: Ship to the address that matches your carrier
PSA uses different addresses for different carriers, and for different kinds of items. Cards go to one of two places.
USPS goes to CU Receiving, P.O. Box 6180, Newport Beach, CA 92658. UPS, FedEx, and DHL go to CU Receiving, 1600 E. St Andrew Place, Santa Ana, CA 92705. A PO Box will not accept a UPS delivery, which is how packages end up sitting.
Autographs, tickets, original photographs, and comics all have their own destinations, so check the shipping addresses section against what you’re actually sending rather than reusing an address from a previous order.
Insure it and use tracking. PSA states plainly that they take responsibility for items once the items are in their possession, and that they are not liable for loss or damage during shipping to them. That gap is yours to cover.
Is it worth sending cards to PSA right now?
Depends on two numbers you can actually check, and one you can’t.
The checkable ones: the grading fee at the service level available to you, and what the card sells for raw versus graded. Look up recent sales for the same card in a PSA 9 and a PSA 10 and compare against raw sales. If the spread doesn’t clear the fee plus shipping both ways with margin, the card isn’t a submission candidate.
The number you can’t check is the grade you’ll get, and that’s where most of the disappointment lives. A card you’re confident is a 10 comes back a 9 often enough that any plan requiring a 10 to break even is a bad plan. Run the math on a 9.
Current turnaround makes this sharper than usual. Regular sitting at 40 to 50 days with the Value tiers closed means the cheap slow lane isn’t available, so cards that only penciled out at bulk pricing don’t pencil out at all this month. That’s a real reason to hold a stack rather than force it.
Common questions
How much does it cost to send a card to PSA? It’s set by declared value and service level, both of which you choose when building the order. PSA changed pricing in February 2026 and adjusted service levels again in June, so check their current authentication and grading page rather than a figure quoted in an older guide. Add outbound shipping with insurance and the return shipping PSA charges per order.
Can I still use Value Bulk? Not for new submissions as of June 2, 2026. Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, and Value Max are paused. Submissions already in the system keep the turnaround they were submitted under.
Can I send cards in toploaders? No. PSA advises against toploaders, hard acrylic cases, and screw-down holders, and says those submissions get delayed and the cases aren’t returned. Use a semi-rigid holder at the stated dimension.
Do I need a Collectors Club membership? Only for the member-exclusive tiers. Regular and above are open to anyone with an account. Memberships that were active on May 14, 2026 are being extended free for the length of the Value Bulk pause.
How many cards can go in one submission? Service levels set their own minimums and maximums, and bulk tiers carry the higher minimums. Since the bulk tiers are paused, plan around the open levels instead.
What I’d actually do this month
Buy Card Saver 1s and clear penny sleeves, because those are required and cheap. Screen the cards hard before committing, since fees don’t care what grade comes back.
Then look at the calendar honestly. With Regular at 40 to 50 days and the Value tiers closed, this is a good month to build the pile and a bad month to rush it out the door. PSA is publishing the backlog number monthly on its own site, so the reopening is something you can watch rather than guess at.
The one thing not worth waiting on is supplies. Holder stock is the part that goes thin without warning.
Related guides
- Card Saver vs. Toploader: Which One Your Card Should Actually Be In (start here)
- Card Saver 1 vs. 2: Which One PSA Actually Accepts
