The $1.28 Million Celebrini Sale + Can PSA Fix the Grading Crisis? + What Happens to 11 Million Cards?

Macklin Celebrini just made hockey card history. We watch the final moments of the Gold Outburst 1/1 Young Guns auction live as the card sells for an astonishing $1.281 million with buyer’s premium, immediately putting it among the most expensive hockey cards ever sold. But the heart of this episode is grading. Clark Kim of the Cards To The Moon podcast joins Jeremy for a deep conversation about the current state of the grading industry and a basic question that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: is the way we grade millions upon millions of cards actually sustainable? PSA has an enormous backlog, lower-priced submission tiers have been restricted, grading costs have risen, and millions of cards continue to flow through the system. So what happens when PSA eventually catches up? Could that supply affect the market? And with PSA dramatically increasing its grading capacity, what happens after the backlog is gone and all of that capacity needs to be filled? Clark also proposes a completely different approach involving technology and pre-grading, leading to a broader discussion about whether there is a better way to determine which cards are actually worth submitting. Then there is the strange economics of modern grading itself. Why can a raw card sometimes sell for more than a PSA 9? Why are collectors willing to pay enormous premiums for a PSA 10 when the physical difference between a 9 and a 10 can be virtually impossible to see? And are collectors simply grading far too many cards? We also get into undergraded vintage cards, buying the card instead of the number on the holder, the opportunities created by inconsistent grading, and why Jeremy would much rather find a gorgeous card trapped inside a low-grade slab than gamble on submitting it himself. Plus, what exactly does “vintage” mean anymore, and where should the vintage era actually end? Check out The Hobby Spectrum at thehobbyspectrum.com and take the assessment to discover where you fit in the hobby. Try AuctionWire at auctionwire.ai and use promo code SCL to receive two free months. Check out Card Ladder and use promo code SCL. Buy Pops and Comps: Truths, Insights, and Psychology Behind the Numbers That Drive the Sports Card Market, available now on Amazon. And, as always, subscribe to Sports Cards Live on YouTube, turn on notifications, and if you enjoy the podcast, follow, rate and review Sports Cards Live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices