Monopoly Money: How PSA Bought the Hobby and Sold It Back to Us
✍ The Collector’s Crossroads
by Brews & Breaks
PSA isn’t just grading cards anymore, they’re grading your wallet. From slabs to sales, they’ve built a hobby empire that controls grading, pricing, and resale in one closed-loop ecosystem.
The more you look at PSA in 2025, the harder it is to tell where the hobby ends and where PSA begins. They grade the cards, run the pricing tools, sell through eBay, buy back through their vault, and now, thanks to influencer partnerships, they’re even helping repackage slabs as repack “chase” products.
Let’s break that down.
📊 The Data Nobody Talks About
NEO Cards & Comics compiled GemRate data and found that PSA is now the single largest eBay consigner, moving over $15 million in monthly sales, far outpacing longtime sellers like DC Sports and Probstein (who left to launch Snype).
They also own Card Ladder, a pricing database used by many collectors and flippers to establish comps. While there’s no proof that PSA directly manipulates prices, (like Market Movers) “missed” or incomplete sales can make the ecosystem easier to steer, and that’s where quiet control starts to matter.
Meanwhile, Collectors (PSA’s parent company) quietly acquired SGC, eliminating its closest rival. Add in the PSA Vault, their “Offers” buyback program, and a flood of influencer-backed marketing through CardHQ and Geoff Wilson, and it’s clear:
PSA’s not just playing Monopoly, they’re playing Monopoly on a Risk board. They’ve bought every property, built hotels on your favorite grading tiers, and now they’re marching across the hobby like it’s global conquest. Every collector roll just lands back on “Pay PSA $200.”
💸 The Hobby Tax Nobody Voted For
Geoff Wilson (Sports Card Investor) made headlines bragging about paying PSA a $4,000 upcharge because his card “gained $50K in value.” But PSA didn’t improve the card, they just decided it was too nice for the price you paid.
Imagine ordering a $10 pizza and getting a call mid-bake: “Actually, the cheese melted too perfectly. That’ll be $80 more.” That’s PSA’s upcharge logic.
Collectors are calling it a success tax, you’re penalized for owning a card they think is valuable, even if it tanks before you get it back. There’s no refund, no subgrades, no transparency. Just a bill.
🧠 The Monopoly Loop
You send a card to PSA.
PSA grades it and sets a “market value.”
That value feeds Card Ladder (owned by PSA).
PSA offers to buy or sell the card for you through their vault.
PSA profits again on eBay transaction fees.
** And that’s the hidden cost most collectors miss. Every card that stays in PSA’s Vault or moves through their controlled channels is a card pulled out of local show circulation, cutting off LCSs and independent sellers from the lifeblood of the hobby. It centralizes inventory, inflates scarcity, and keeps everyday collectors one step further from organic trading.
It’s not a market. It’s a closed economy, where every road leads back to PSA. They’ve built a system where your success fuels their margins, and your trust keeps the machine spinning.
⚖ No Taxation Without Transparency
Collectors are waking up. NEO showed the eBay data. Tarver broke down the ethics. Boston Card Hunter explained how to “game the system.”
And we, the collectors, are left deciding whether to keep feeding the beast or join the rebellion.
The PSA Tea Party isn’t about burning slabs, it’s about reclaiming the hobby. We want grading as a service, not a stock exchange. We want comps that reflect the market, not the manufacturer. We want transparency, not taxation.
The hobby doesn’t belong to corporations. It belongs to the collectors who built it, one trade, one show, one story at a time.
Until next time, keep sippin’ and rippin’. ☕🔥
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