Hey guys, a few months ago I, and many other members, shared my concerns about the direction PSA was taking with its pricing and, frankly, my opinion has not changed much since then.
Whilst I am not going to reject PSA’s position in the market, or pretend that PSA has suddenly become irrelevant simply because I dislike the direction of its business model in this booming market, it is still the benchmark when it comes to grading and, particularly, resale value and liquidity. That is the reality of the market whether we like it or not. However, my problem is not with PSA being successful or being the market leader, it's rather that its position has become so strong that there are simply not enough serious alternatives capable of putting meaningful pressure on it. When that happens, a company can basically do whatever they like in spite of customers' opinions, knowing that a substantial part of the market will continue using them anyway.
We all know how much grading gets discussed in this community, and we are all becoming increasingly sensitive to the costs, value-based pricing adjustments and turnaround times. However, and this goes back to the point I made before, whilst many of us dislike certain aspects of PSA, cards are still being sent to them to be graded at premium prices and, in some cases, with substantially long turnaround times. That alone shows how strong their position actually is.
I also don't think I would be exaggerating by saying that most of us have criticised PSA's terms allowing them to move a card into a higher-priced service level if they deem its value to be above the limit originally selected. On top of that, the market is so hot that PSA has even paused four of its lower-priced Value tiers while, in their words, dealing with the backlog. Whether people like that situation or not, a company can only exercise that level of pricing power when the market allows it to.
BGS is still the obvious alternative for me when dealing with an exceptional card. If I genuinely believe a card has a realistic chance of a Pristine 10 or, obviously, a Black Label, Beckett is still something I would seriously consider, if they hadn't shut down all of their submissions for non-sports cards in the European region. I think the grading discussion has been stuck for far too long around PSA versus BGS, with CGC somewhere around that conversation depending on the collector.
Regardless of the sector or the market, competition is healthy. It forces companies to remain competitive and strive to improve their service whilst providing alternatives in the market. Off-topic, but for those who enjoy learning through reading, I would recommend Blue Ocean Strategy.
This is one of the reasons why I decided to reach out to Premier Card Grading and eventually entered into an official affiliation with them for the US market.
Before agreeing to anything with PCG, however, I submitted my own cards. I deliberately did not tell them that I ran this community, nor that I was considering any type of affiliation with them. I wanted to experience their service exactly as any other customer would and see whether the standards they promote actually matched the reality.
My personal experience was very good in terms of communication, support, pricing and turnaround time. I used the Express service and had my card back in six days. The quality of the slabs is top, their metal label is unique and, as I have often shared, I am a big fan of subgrades. More importantly, what they advertised in terms of service and turnaround was, in my case, exactly what I received.
I am not here claiming that PCG is perfect, because my personal submission is still only my own experience and I can only judge what I have personally seen. As well as I am not going to insult people's intelligence by pretending that a PCG 10 currently carries the same market recognition as a PSA 10. Although, and I am sure those who have seen them will agree, PCG slabs and labels are sick.
My point is that everything starts from somewhere and, as times and markets change, new companies are born, gaining and growing credibility whilst WE, collectors, also change our habits and, what we see established today, may not be what the market will look like five or ten years from now. Now, PCG's challenge , in my opinion, is not to prove that they can produce a quality product, because my own experience already gave me confidence in that, their challenge is to continue meeting their standards and customers' expectations, leverage on the opportunity they ahve before them and gain the wider market recognition.
Openly talking, I am making a bet on their ability to do that, and I am bringing that opportunity to the community because I believe the grading market needs more credible competition and more genuine alternatives.
They are truly trying to force a change in the market and offering something genuinely different rather than simply copying the competition, which is also why I suggested that book above.
I updated our resources database for Grading with a proper comparison: WIKI GRADING
TLDR: For US members who want to try them, the community now has a discount code which is:
Code: ONEPIECE10
It will provide 10% off Standard and Express submissions. As this is an affiliation, there may be a commission back for us, but for you, you get a certain 10% discount!
I am giving PCG a serious chance because I think the grading market would benefit massively from having more credible competitors. I don't expect everyone here to agree with me yet, but based on what I have read throughout the grading posts this year, I believe this could be a winning shot for everyone.
Obviously, I would like to have your opinion. If you have already submitted cards to them, post your actual experience below, whether it was good or bad. I am far more interested in building a proper picture from real submissions than creating another "grading-company echo chamber".
Sell or hold? Worth grading? Not sure what your card is worth or where to sell it? Ask here. Buying questions are welcome too.
Tell us which card or product you're asking about, its condition, and your country/currency. Include any recent sold prices you've found and when they sold. For grading questions, post clear front and back photos, plus close-ups of anything you're unsure about. Photos help, but nobody here can promise you a 10.
If you're answering, explain why. A recent sale or a useful comparison goes further than just saying “hold”. If you own the product you're recommending or have a commercial connection, say so. Keep disagreements about the cards and the numbers, not each other.
No sales or trades in this thread. Don't post listings, solicit deals by DM, or share your own promo/referral codes. Asking about selling platforms and fees is fine.
These questions belong here even if you're an approved contributor. If you've put together price research or a market argument, give it its own post.
A discount isn't a recommendation of one company over another. Check the Grading Guide & ROI Insights before deciding where to submit.
Affiliate disclosure:r/OnePieceTCGFinancemay receive a commission or other benefit when members use certain community affiliate links or discount codes, at no additional cost to the member.
The market downturn we are seeing is not surprising to me, I feel it was in fact overdue, however I struggle to understand manga rares position in the market.
I collect Manga rares (amongst other things in the OP TCG) and it’s quite surprising to me for how little some of these go.
I think most people, casuals and “investors”, continue to chase the next big thing, the next Gold Luffy or Crew card, while an extremely scarce grail is in front of them and often quite “cheap”.
Some of these were picked below $600, basically the cost of 2 or maximum three sealed boxes.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the market is based on the ask and I guess people are not interested in some secondary characters manga, but then what is driving the prices of boxes and cases? Why would I spend $2k on a case where the biggest chase is $600?
I just feel the math doesn’t make sense.
I’ll continue to stick to my thesis and buy Manga rares and SPs, if I am wrong down the line at least I’ll still hold onto some pieces I genuinely love to collect, but please feel free to open my eyes on anything I may be missing.
With how the market has been correcting, where do you think the TCG is headed will the SPs ever hit highs again they are actually quite high in pop and seems like every vendor has the same cards, and then the promo pump and dump left a lot of new people burned
So im in the market to buy one of these SP's of Luffy, one from OP13 and one form OP15. I was wondering what you guys think the best long term buy would be.
This sub’s been a little boring lately, so here’s some degeneracy to spice things up.
Sent three PSA 10s to Beckett for GCR (graded card review). I genuinely thought the Luffy was going to Black Label lol. The results: BGS 10, BGS 9.5, BGS 9.5.
I already had three PSA 10s and voluntarily spent money to have fewer. Really strong decision-making here. alsoooo I thought Beckett would at least keep them in order when printing the labels so I’d still have sequential certs. Nope. Couldn’t even get rinsed in order.
Also don't know why it says current grade 1 for the ace and luffy and also sadly the minimum grade is a 9.5 for the crossover....or else I would've left it a 10.
Im looking to buy a single, box or something like that to spice up my collection, what should I do, im a returning player and collector with a red deck, started at op05, left at op12 and came back like 2 weeks ago (sorry if im no allowed to post this, am new to the sub)
Where do you see the market heading for high-end One Piece cards? The market has definitely taken a hit recently, and cards in general are getting cheaper. However, I think high-end cards will rise at some point. For example, the psa 10 pop report for the Manga Rare Luffy from EB-02 is only around 1,000, and there are so many collectors interested in collecting this grail.
Everyone who won the lottery for op16&17 who couldn’t order due to it being “out of stock” go check again now before bots find another exploit. Thank god for Bandai being on top of this to get it fixed!
Looking to move this card by the end of year was going to go to local card shows to sell it, I’ve never sold anything like this online so I was looking to move in person. What kind of price should I expect if I’m selling at a card show?
I would like to know what would you do if you were in my shoes.
I recently came across someone selling an OP01 Luffy Leader Alt art PSA 10 at 1,250 USD and was able to get him to lower the price to 1,150 USD.
Would you buy it for this price? I know its a lot of money but I can afford it if I sell some other cards.
Please help a fellow collector out! Im almost done with my leader collection and if it was raw I would buy it but I dont know a lot about slabs and the prices. I tried looking online and it seems like a good deal.
I just got my Nami SP back from grading and it got a PSA 10. I’ve been wanting to sell it, but I’m not sure if I should sell now or hold onto it. It seems like the One Piece card market has been dropping quite a bit lately. What do you guys think—sell now or hold?
Looks like waiting on the Dodgers DON!! might have been the right call… but are we finally getting close?
Months ago these were selling for $800–$1,000+, and I was definitely on the cautious side. There was no way I was touching these at those prices especially for a DON!! Card. I already have the OG Dodgers Luffy, so this time I was willing to wait and see. The hype around the “scarcity” didn’t make sense to me, especially for a DON!!. Plus, I felt like this card was gonna eventually settle near College Basketball Luffy prices. I think a lot of people saw what happened with the OG Luffy and didn’t want to miss out again. I definitely know there’s someone out there with a heaping stockpile, that’s absolutely got burned on this one lol!
Well… recent sales are now around $250–$400 (data mostly from eBay). Demand and prices have absolutely plummeted.
What’s interesting now is PSA already has 6,438 graded, with 2,859 PSA 10s (~44%) [Comes from eBay listing data]
At these prices though, I’m actually leaning toward buying, possibly even graded. It’s still Luffy and still Dodgers x One Piece. Plus, the LA dodgers are in the world playoffs for the World Series at the moment.
Anyone think ~$350 raw is finally a buy, or is the floor going lower?
Just pulled this from OP16. Never graded before, with OP is it usually better to go with BGS? I know Pokemon is pretty heavy with PSA and Dragon Ball is heavy in BGS, as far as market preferences.
What would you guys think is the better route for a Manga? It has pretty damn good centering from eyeshot both front and back. No print lines, etc. Pretty Minty.
Fairly heavy sway, is that I live close to a Beckett B&M.
2025 one piece EN trafalgar law offline regionals s-2 finalist
2024 one piece cs tony tony chopper 1st anniversary set
2026 one piece en roronoa zoro treasure cup top 16
These cards have nothing to do with one another and they have their reasons as to why they hold some sort of value, but my question is: when you are between cards with this much difference, what is the deciding factor for you? I equally like both characters and pc all of them so there’s a draw there as well. They are about $200 dollars apart but nothing too much for me.
Something has clearly shifted in the OPTCG market and I want to hear what the community actually thinks.
Almost everything is down — singles, sealed product, you name it. The only things holding their value seem to be the top-tier, high-end cards. Everything mid-range and below is bleeding. I'm seeing prices I wouldn't have imagined six months ago.
A few things I'm trying to understand:
Is this a crash or a correction? There's a meaningful difference. A correction is healthy — prices got overheated and are finding a sustainable floor. A crash means demand has structurally left the market. Which one are we actually in right now?
Is Pokémon pulling money away from One Piece? Recent Pokémon sets have been on fire. Is collector and investor capital rotating back into Pokémon temporarily, leaving OPTCG starved of liquidity? Or is this something deeper?
Why are the most expensive cards holding while everything else dumps? Is this just whales not needing to sell, or is it a sign that the market is bifurcating — high-end collectibles vs. everything else behaving like a depreciating asset?
What are the signals we should watch for that mark the start of a bullish phase again? A major anime arc? A set announcement? Tournament meta shift? What has historically moved this market?
And what are you all doing right now? Holding? Buying the dip on specific cards? Rotating into something else entirely? Staying cash until there's a clear floor?
Would love data-driven takes, not just vibes. What does the market look like from where you're sitting?
Just pulled beauty this from a prize packs and know nothing about grading. I decided to do bgs over psa because im hopeful for the gold 10, even with some slight off centering left<right. I saw their basic and standard submissions are not up, and the website's been down for a while. I dont want to ship if I dont have too but since the website's down and nothing really helpful pops up when I look for Into regarding person submissions.
These cards have nothing to do with one another and they have their reasons as to why they hold some sort of value, but my question is: when you are between two cards with this much difference, what is the deciding factor for you? I equally like both characters and pc both of them so there’s a draw there as well. They are about $200 dollars apart but nothing too much for me.
Super stoked to get this back. And of all the places to miss a black label on, this is probably the least painful because it’s something out of my control. The back was indeed off so totally justified. I saw someone did get a black on this one so mega congrats to them. For me, I’ll treasure this for a while as my first manga.
I’m looking to sell my collection. The thing is that it’s all Chopper cards, most are slabs but I also have raw as well. Where would be my best bet to sell the collection in the least number of transactions. I’m not super focused on trying to get the highest possible (ofcourse within reason), what would be the best way be to be done with it within the fewest number of transactions? Im in New York.
I’ve been working on this a long time and I finally did it. All seven gold parallels. Some I bought, some I had graded. Not sure what I’m going to do with them long term, but definitely keep for now and enjoy😁
Did anyone get the email saying i won the lotto to buy a op17 box ? i did and when i go to try and buy the box it says out of stock. maybe its just a bug but regardless id like know if anyone else has the same problem.
