PSA Wait Times Are Wild Right Now — Here's a Free Way to Check Before You Pay $30 to Submit

PSA just announced 6-month wait times for standard submissions. Six months. That's a long time to wait before finding out your card came back a PSA 6.

If you're on the fence about whether to submit, here's what I'd suggest: scan it first.

There's a free app called SnapCard that looks at your card and gives you a grading estimate — kind of a pre-screen before you pay $30+ to send it off. It checks centering, corners, edges, and surface condition, same stuff the graders look at. I know it sounds gimmicky, but I've used it on a few cards now and the estimates have been pretty close to what came back.

Here's a real example from my own collection. Pulled out an early-90s basketball card that looked clean to me. Scanned it with SnapCard and it came back estimating around a PSA 7 or 8 — nothing special. I was skeptical, but I sent it in anyway thinking maybe it could surprise me. Came back a PSA 7. Right on the money.

If that app hadn't given me a heads up, I would've paid the submission fee thinking I had something better than I did. Instead, I saved the money and spent it on something actually worth grading.

The other thing the app helps with is just general card value lookup. PSA grading costs money but it doesn't tell you if the card is even worth grading in the first place. I've seen commons from the 80s and 90s that looked gorgeous but sold for $5 raw. Grading would've been a total waste.

So if you're staring at a stack of cards wondering what to do with them, start here. Download SnapCard — it's free, no subscription. Scan a few, see what the estimates say, then make a call on what to submit. It'll save you time and probably some money too.

Worth a try: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/snapcard-sports-card-scanner/id6757433755