NoPSAMay Boycott Picks Up Steam: Why Collectors Are Walking Away From PSA This Month

A grassroots movement called #NoPSAMay has gained real momentum this week, with collectors across Pokemon, sports, and TCG communities pledging to skip PSA submissions for the entire month of May 2026. The boycott is a reaction to a year of mounting frustration with Professional Sports Authenticator on three fronts: rising fees, slow turnaround times, and a string of grading consistency questions that have shaken trust in the industry's largest grader.

What is driving the boycott

NoPSAMay did not start with one viral post. It is the cumulative result of a string of issues that have been compounding since the start of the year:

• Another fee hike — PSA raised prices on its Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, Value Max, and Regular service tiers earlier this year, with each level taking a flat $5 bump. For a card with a market value of $75 to $100 that is likely to come back as a PSA 5 or 6, the grading bill can now eat 35 to 45 percent of the card's value.
• Turnaround creep — Value Bulk has stretched out to 95 business days in some submission queues, well beyond what submitters were quoted.
• Trust questions — A string of regrade and buyback fraud allegations has worked its way through hobby media this spring, and the secondary market noticed. PSA-slabbed listings on eBay have softened roughly 10 to 20 percent, with modern Pokemon taking the largest hit.

Where collectors are sending cards instead

The early sentiment data suggests volume is shifting rather than disappearing. Beckett and SGC have both seen reported submission increases of roughly 15 percent, and CGC continues to take more modern Pokemon market share thanks to its Pristine 10 designation. None of those companies are without their own challenges, but right now they are the obvious alternatives for collectors who still want a slab.

A nice raw EX-MT card is often a better buy than paying a $35 grading premium for a PSA 6 holder. That math has finally caught up with the hobby.

Will it actually move the needle?

PSA processes roughly 90,000 cards per day. A one-month grassroots boycott is not going to dent that volume on its own. What NoPSAMay is doing instead is forcing public conversation around pricing, transparency, and grading standards at a time when collectors have more credible alternatives than they have had in years. If the boycott pulls even a few percentage points of submission volume out of PSA's queue and into competitor pipelines, the long-term competitive pressure changes.

Should you skip PSA in May?

That depends entirely on what you are submitting. High-end vintage in PSA holders still commands a premium most other graders cannot match. For modern bulk and mid-tier Pokemon, the math has clearly shifted toward Beckett, SGC, and CGC. If you have been on the fence, this is the month to test a competitor and see how their service stacks up before you go back to PSA out of habit.