Everything You Need To Know About GameStop Bulk PSA Grading

The sports card hobby has long been corporatized. The entry of massive players into the hobby, such as Fanatics and eBay, and the fantastic power that PSA now wields have changed the game.

However, there are still many smaller operations in the business, such as local card stores. Now, GameStop is trying to establish itself in that world.

They are already buying and selling graded cards. Now, they are going to be providing bulk submission services to collectors. Will this increase the audience for grading?

Will it hurt bulk submissions? We have the full story in our overview of GameStop announcing entrance into bulk grading.

The GameStop announcement on group grading

Gamestop announced it was entering a deeper and more official partnership with PSA on October 15^th. According to their official announcement:

“(“GameStop” or the “Company”) today announced it has entered into a collaboration with Collectors through its Professional Sports Authenticator division (“PSA”). PSA offers the world’s largest and most trusted trading card and autograph authentication and grading services. As part of this collaboration, GameStop will become an authorized PSA dealer, and PSA will provide authentication and grading services for trading cards through select GameStop stores across the United States. Please visit http://www.gamestop.com/card-grading-service for a store locator and summary of the GameStop/PSA submission process, and visit PSAcard.com to learn more about PSA’s authentication and grading services.”

While GameStop has already been buying and selling graded cards in many locations, this is a new stage of said cooperation. Now, you can also get your cards graded at many of these stores located conveniently at a mall nearby.

How will cooperation work?

It is a straightforward and convenient setup. You can drop off your cards at the store and pay $19.99 per sports card. Meanwhile, you will pay less for Pokemon and other TCG cards, a mere $15.99. They will send the cards to PSA and inform you when they are ready for pickup.

So far, only some GameStop are involved in this initiative. However, it has already been launched on quite a wide scale. You can easily check with the handy dandy store checker that GameStop has provided.

I live in LA (nobody is perfect), so I threw in my address to see how easily I could grade my cards through this service.

I found 8 GameStops doing so within 15 miles of my address and no less than 24 within 30 miles. So if you live in a big city, it is safe to say that you will have no issue at all.

Gamestop in remote locations

But what about more remote locations? I found a couple in Bismarck, North Dakota, and two more in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Yeah, these stores are all over the place, and most are open to accepting your cards for grading.

And yes, that is all the stores in those two cities. But there is somewhere I could not find any. Anchorage, Alaska, has three GameStop locations, but they need to accept submissions for card grading. Come on, folks! The people up there need to submit cards. Get on it.

The new service will link up to one they are already offering. GameStop has been buying graded cards for several months now. Therefore, when you grade cards through this service, you can expect immediate offers for cards the company is interested in. That will doubtless add to the convenience of the service.

However, please take note that as we have seen, the offers they give to cards are usually not particularly strong. In addition, they only buy particular cards.

Those that fall into the category of being neither too rare (in which case they usually need more comps to make a firm offer) nor too familiar (in which case they may decline to make an offer or make a ridiculously low one).

Therefore, be VERY careful before accepting one of the GameStop offers. You can do a lot better on eBay. However, this saves you trouble and provides a more convenient alternative.

What does the GameStop announcement on group grading mean?

The most obvious advantage of this development is convenience. While many perceive GameStop as past its prime, it maintains a massive nationwide network of stores.

There are 2,915 GameStop locations in the United States alone. While not all of them provide this service, most already do, and others will eventually join them.

Indeed, there is a GameStop in every state in the union—even the smallest ones where very few people live. For example, there are five in Wyoming, seven in North Dakota, and nine in Montana.

Meanwhile, there are few local card stores outside big cities in the United States and fewer in less populated states. I could only locate one in Wyoming (shoutout to Sportscards and More in Cheyenne).

The buying and selling operation GameStop has been running from its stores since May 2024 was an attempt to turn its retail locations into mini local card stores. This service ups that attempt and gives it more heft.

How this move helps GameStop

The move will also help GameStop replenish its strength. The malls and retail businesses they depend on have stagnated for years.

First, they lost some of their market share to Steam and other online game purveyors. Then, they lost more of their share to Amazon, which sells just about everything you can get at GameStop.

Finally, they were walloped by the decreasing foot traffic in malls nationwide. You can get most of the stuff for sale at malls online.

Fast food is less popular than ever, and teenagers increasingly prefer to bully each other online rather than at a local food court. All this has been bad news for GameStop and its business model.

However, the market for sports cards has only increased over the last few years. Therefore, GameStop believes it can increase its customer base and get people in the doors more regularly. In addition, many of the same people who collect cards are video game enthusiasts. Therefore, it could be a beneficial investment for the company.

The effect on group PSA submitters

As grading has become more mainstream and popular, some industries have popped up around it. Wherever there is big money, people always try to get a piece of it. One industry that has grown around grading is group submissions.

These outfits have experience organizing submissions and sending many cards in at once. They are approved by PSA and are known quantities from the perspective of the grading company.

Here is what the PSA website says about them and the process they represent:

PSA dealers run group submissions, aggregating cards from multiple collectors into one submission. These dealers have years of experience with PSA and adequately organize and package the cards for submission directly to PSA.”

PSA recommends using these services and points out the following advantages:

• All registered PSA group submitters have signed PSA’s dealer agreement and have committed to honoring PSA’s Customer Bill of Rights.
• Delegate the submission process to an experienced professional.
• Receive professional advice on the best cards to submit to PSA.
• Work directly with a knowledgeable, professional trading card dealer.
• Direct liquidation opportunities for your freshly graded orders.
• Join a group of like-minded collectors who share your passion for cards.

Is it worth using group submitters?

Like most things in this hobby (and in life), there is no clear answer for every conceivable circumstance. It depends on your needs, means, and what you are trying to accomplish.

One great advantage to group submissions is that you can get the bulk rate even if you do not have enough cards to submit. Therefore, it can be a great idea for very few cards.

There is also a theory, unproven as of yet, that more excellent submissions get less scrutiny from the graders. The idea is that extensive submissions go to the same grader, and they put less attention on more significant amounts.

Some also believe that higher-value cards get more attention than low-value ones; therefore, if you sprinkle higher-value cards in with many lower-value ones (so the theory goes).

Some bulk submission specialists claim that they get better grades through the process. That is possible, especially for those who do much business through the grading company, like in any industry, who you know can matter.

Still, we have not seen any evidence that bulk submissions make a difference. People may make this stuff up to get more customers.

One Blowout Forums user wrote about this, “Any bulk submitter claiming this is either making stuff up or has no business sense at all. Anybody claiming they got a better result going through a bulk submitter would be merely an opinion and not based on any hard data, as that’s not the kind of available data. If they say their bulk submitter tells them they get better grades, the bulk submitter is making stuff up and risks losing the “dealer submitter” status by revealing their “special” relation with PSA.”

The downside to bulk submissions to PSA

There are some critical downsides. For example, the insurance does not cover damage directly to you if cards are damaged. Instead, it covers the submitter. This has been known to cause trouble for hobbyists in the past.

Another disadvantage is that more people are handling your cards. That means there is a better chance they will be damaged along the way. Having a middleman (or woman) touching your cards on the way in and on the way out can be consequential.

Still, most serious submitters prefer to do this stuff on their own. The process of grading is relatively easy. If you find any part of it mystifying, countless YouTube videos can be helpful to you.

Why GameStop PSA submissions changes the game

We don’t yet know who this change in the submissions game will appeal to. The well-known YouTube channel NEO Cards & Comics speculates that this new policy will not appeal to veteran graders and enthusiasts.

Instead, they believe this will function as “my first grading” venue. The host thinks it will appeal to mothers grading their kids Pokémon and so on.

That is definitely part of the story. GameStop is a venue familiar to parents since many of them used its services when they were mall dwellers. This is smart because it can get parents and children in the habit of grading cards with PSA from a very young age. Once they get older, that habit will remain for a longer time.

This interpretation may not be correct. Many people don’t like to navigate the submission process. True, they are not the most hardcore graders out there.

Grading has become such a massive trend that many people who are not part of the hobby’s most serious core are doing it. They may be tempted to use GameStop instead of currently accredited providers of group submissions.

To run group submissions to PSA, you need to be accredited by the company. That is somewhat reassuring. However, there is still something shady about these enterprises, and many of the companies that engage in this do not have due transparency.

Is GameStop more trustworthy than your bulk submissions agent?

GameStop is a well-known and publicly traded company. To some people, that means they are more reliable and accountable than others providing this service. That may not be accurate, but it’s how many customers will see it.

Indeed, the opposite may be the case. You could be taking more of a risk with GameStop. While the accredited bulk submissions folks have a reputation to uphold, GameStop is full of low-wage employees who may be tempted to steal high-value cards and have less to lose reputation-wise.

I would not be surprised if cards were eventually missing from one of the stores. So many employees are involved, and they are being paid so little.

That means that, like in so many other cases, the smaller players in the hobby will be undercut in favor of the bigger ones.

The final word on GameStop announcing entrance into bulk grading

There is an argument over how important GameStop’s entry into the hobby is going to be. But every new move they make into this space increases the odds of their having an impact.

The submissions to PSA are a place where there is space for a bigger and better-known actor to make waves. Therefore, there is a good chance this move will be a difference maker—probably more so than the problematic policy on buying graded cards.

Either way, this is another step towards the corporatization of what was once a hobby dominated by enthusiasts and local card stores. It is also part of the broader trend of the corporatization of America. The overall move seems unstoppable.

This is a warning to those living off these sorts of enterprises in the sports card world. Your days may be numbered. To me, that is unfortunate.