NoPSAMay Update: Six Days In, Alternative Grader Volume Up 15% and PSA 10 Premiums Are Softening

The #NoPSAMay boycott has gone from a hashtag to a full-scale grading market disruption, and at six days into May the data is already telling a story. Collectors are pulling submissions, alternative graders are gaining volume, and PSA 10 secondary-market premiums are softening for the first time in years. Here is what we know on the ground as of today.

What Triggered #NoPSAMay

The movement crystallized in April 2026 around three connected grievances:

• The December 2025 Buyback Scandal — allegations that PSA upgraded card grades internally after buying cards back from collectors, then resold them at the inflated grades. This is the issue that flipped a slow-burning grievance into an organized boycott.
• Q1 2026 fee hikes — the base Value Bulk tier moved to $24.99 per card for Collectors Club members, and PSA quietly removed the standalone TCG Bulk service that high-volume Pokemon submitters had relied on.
• Turnaround time slippage — collectors report that even premium tiers are running multiple weeks longer than posted estimates.

What Collectors Are Asking For

The #NoPSAMay coalition has surprisingly specific demands rather than just venting:

• Predictable, flat-rate service tiers without surprise reclassifications
• Implementation of Grader Notes for all service levels, not just the premium tiers
• Strict separation between PSA's grading arm and any owned-inventory selling — explicitly preventing PSA or its parent company from buying, regrading, and reselling slabs

The Market Impact So Far

Even at six days in, the boycott is already showing measurable pressure on PSA pricing power:

• Secondary-market PSA slab listings on eBay are down roughly 10-20%, with modern Pokemon seeing the steepest declines
• Alternative grader volume is up roughly 15%, with SGC and TAG absorbing the shifted submissions
• PSA 10 premiums over PSA 9 are compressing in a way they have not since 2022

The most telling data point is not the slab pricing — it is the growing comfort collectors have submitting modern cards to SGC and TAG. Five years ago that would have been unthinkable for resale.

The Counter-Argument

It is worth noting that PSA's volume is not collapsing. The company processed over 2.2 million cards in April, a record month even with the price hikes and the boycott rumblings building. Some of that is committed pre-boycott submission backlog clearing through the system, but it also reflects how thoroughly PSA still dominates the certified-card resale market. A boycott is most effective at the margin — and the margin is exactly where SGC and TAG are picking up share.

What This Means If You Submit Cards

For active submitters, the practical question this month is whether to wait it out, send to PSA anyway, or diversify across graders. Three things to watch:

• Whether PSA issues any policy response by the end of May — concessions on Grader Notes or buyback rules would meaningfully reduce the boycott momentum
• Whether resale premiums on SGC and TAG slabs continue to close the gap with PSA — they have been narrowing all spring
• Whether the #NoPSAMay movement transitions into a longer organized push, or fades after May ends

Either way, this is the most credible challenge to PSA's market position in a decade. Whatever happens to grading premiums over the next 30 days will set the baseline for the rest of 2026.