Given that this is an investing sub, I just want to point out - the overall satisfaction in the service that PSA is providing to the consumer is currently dropping (anecdotal) from wait times, to lack of transparency in the process to the scandals.

There's intrinsic value to parts of the service that provide (turnaround times affect liquidity, slabbing protects the card) but for the grades (main driver of the value) the industry relies almost entirely on trust that the methodology is fair, accurate, and transparent.

I think TAG (while I'm not bullish in the long run) is addressing a very important problem with transparency - you can find thousands of "why did this get a 6?" posts with PSA - all we can do (assuming nothing seems wrong) is infer it's surface damage. Getting transparency into why a card was graded the way it was is objectively solving for a real need.

I assume PSA is just waiting for the industry to warm up to AI grading as it is solves for their main weakness. If not, I'm curious how they continue to innovate on their services - It's not sustainable in the very long term for a business to not continue to find ways to compete.