Beckett Grading Announces Price Increases

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Pre-War Cards

Facing backlogs, the popular third party grading company is increasing the prices of some of its services

Recently, the president of SGC explained that the company was going to a two-tiered system for card grading turnaround times due to major backlogs with demand through the roof. Thursday, it was Beckett’s turn to address their own card grading backlogs.

Vice President of Beckett Grading and Authentication Jeromy Murray issued a letter seen on the company’s Twitter page.

Please see below for an update regarding our 2 and 5 Day services from our VP Jeromy Murray. pic.twitter.com/IjOAhEibNt

— Beckett Grading (@beckett_grading) July 30, 2020

The long and the short of it is that Beckett will be raising the prices for its 2-Day and 5-Day levels of grading, effective Monday, August 3. Exactly what the new pricing will be is not mentioned in the letter. Current rates, according to the company’s website, are $125 per card for 2-Day grading ($50 for the less detailed grading without sub-grades) and $100 per card for 5-Day grading ($40 for grading without sub-grades).

Like SGC, Beckett is certainly behind on its grading. According to the estimated times on their website, they are considerably behind, actually.

The service times for their 2-Day and 5-Day service levels are not too bad. Beyond that, though, like the other grading companies, they are struggling to keep up. 10-Day submissions, for example, are currently taking approximately six to eight weeks, according to the site. 30-Day submissions are taking approximately 20 weeks. And while there is no promise for the non-guaranteed level of service even when backlogs do not exist, the eight-month wait on those cards is certainly staggering.

How much the increase is will obviously be a focal point. But it will also be interesting to see if the raised prices deter collectors and companies using those services.

One thing to point out is that the price for 2-Day service is not much more than the price for 5-Day service. I’ve got zilch to base this off of but my hunch is that people willing to fork over $100 for a card to have it returned at the 5-Day level would be just as willing to pay an extra $25 to have it back in the 2-Day window. And those 2-Day submissions are certainly putting a strain on the graders.

But here’s the thing. If you are using Beckett and are in need of getting your stuff back quickly, there’s really no other option. If this were something else besides card grading, consumers might go to the next fastest option. But in that case, you’re looking at the 10-Day submissions, which are currently taking six to eight weeks. There’s just nothing that’s even comparable to the 2-Day and 5-Day turnarounds.

Sure, some folks submitting at the 2-Day or 5-Day level might stop and go that route. But most people/companies using that short turnaround service are probably ones that cannot afford to wait that long — so they’ll either look elsewhere or simply fork over more money. And if it’s the latter, that won’t really fix the backlog issue unless more resources are added, such as additional staff.

It’s a complicated problem but as I’ve said before, it’s one that grading companies would rather have than not. Demand is so high right that they cannot keep up and that beats the alternative.

Unfortunately, the flip side is that’s not great news for collectors.