Pokemon Card Grader PSA Faces Class Action Lawsuit For "Misleading" Practices

Pokemon Card Grader PSA Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Alleging It's Manipulating The TCG Market Published Jul 31, 2026, 5:42 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. PSA is in a tough spot right now. As the Pokemon Trading Card Game's popularity surges and thousands see it as a great investment opportunity (at the expense of others), grading submissions have skyrocketed. Coupled with the rise of new TCGs like One Piece, Riftbound, and Lorcana, the company is struggling to keep up. The company recently increased the turnaround time across all tiers before closing the lowest tiers to catch up on its backlog, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new grading facilities, yet it is still struggling. These struggles are now being compounded further as a new RICO class action lawsuit has been launched in the state of Baltimore that alleges PSA sold consumers "manufactured uncertainty" and "engineered and monetized reliance by selling more than a mere abstract opinion." PSA Grading Faces A Class Action Lawsuit In Baltimore This new lawsuit was filed by Plaintiff Nicholas Funk, who, on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of consumers, is suing Collectors Universe, Inc. (PSA) and Collectors Holdings, Inc. According to the lawsuit, PSA has marketed its grading as objective, impartial, expert, and standardized. The complaint argues that it is actually subjective, inconsistent, financially conflicted, manipulated to maximize revenue, and designed to preserve market reliance on PSA. The first point Funk raises concerns the quality of the PSA graders, the guidelines they follow, the training they receive, and the deadlines they meet. "PSA markets its graders as experts, but its own filings and materials reveal a far different system. PSA does not even require prior professional grading experience, specialized training, or certification for card-grader positions. Instead, it hires individuals without grading backgrounds and trains them internally..." he alleges. "Plaintiff further alleges... that PSA's grading outcomes are adversely affected by production quotas, pressure from short review windows, undisclosed changes to grading criteria, inconsistent application of published standards... Each of these issues adversely impacts the reliability and objectivity of card grading. PSA tells consumers that grading is criteria-based, standardized, and reliable, but its grading process relies heavily on a subjective 'eye appeal' override that is neither fixed, measurable, nor properly disclosed... Rather than define 'eye appeal' through objective condition criteria, PSA defines it by asking: 'What will the market accept for this particular issue?'" The complaint also alleges that PSA supplements its grading workforce with temporary contractors during periods of high submission volume, contributing to inconsistent grading. It also alleges that PSA has a vested interest in managing the population grades, specifically GEM Mint 10s, that it hands out, helping it manipulate the cards' market value. "Plaintiff alleges that PSA manages gem-mint populations (PSA's highest score) by retaining ratio-based grading practices, heightened scrutiny of cards that feature premium players or characters, and other concealed grading practices... A limit placed on a card's grade for any reason is not an objective determination. It is not even a good-faith subjective opinion. It is a commercially managed output, calculated to preserve scarcity, support pricing, and extract fees from the market that PSA created and from which Defendants themselves benefit downstream," the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit argues that limiting the number of Gem Mint 10 grades in circulation helps preserve scarcity, increasing the value attached to PSA 10s and encouraging collectors to continue submitting cards in pursuit of the highest grade. The lawsuit alleges that PSA's inconsistency is profitable, saying, "Shifting criteria, undisclosed subjectivity, and inconsistent grading create repeat demand, which preserves dependence on the PSA's credential, thereby generating additional revenue through resubmissions, crossovers, and cracking. Stable, transparent, and consistently applied grading would reduce that repeat demand." PSA has not yet responded publicly to the allegations. As with any newly filed civil complaint, the claims represent the plaintiff's allegations and have not been tested in court. Franchise Pokemon Original Release Date October 20, 1996 Player Count 2 Age Recommendation 6+ Length per Game Variable Franchise Name Pokemon