It’s PSA’s Version of Musical Chairs

Change is the motto at PSA nowadays. To quote Steve Sloan, who until last month served as the third-party grader’s president, “We’ve seen more changes than any of us could have ever imagined: record numbers of daily submissions; the temporary suspension of service levels; the hiring of hundreds of new employees; capacity growth to over 40,000 cards processed per day; and a change in company ownership resulting in a shift from a public company to being privately held.”

         This quote comes from a letter Sloan wrote customers when he announced he had accepted a new position with PSA’s parent company, Collectors Universe, to become its first-ever chief marketing officer. This move isn’t completely surprising when you consider that his background before becoming president was in marketing and product innovation.

         The new PSA president is Kevin Lenane, who has been working as PSA’s vice president of product for less than a year. His company, Genamint, was purchased earlier this year by PSA to help it implement technology in its grading practices. PSA knows it has to improve efficiency, quality assurance, and turnaround times. If nothing else, Ned Turner, the man in charge of Collectors Universe, is sending a clear signal that it’s full steam ahead on the technology front.

         Now that he’s in this position, you would think Lenane would be sweating just a little bit. His first priority has to be digging PSA out of its current backlog of cards that still need to be graded. Even though PSA is number one in the field, it can’t grow if it’s continually playing catch-up. Although I have no insider knowledge, that’s probably going to take another six months. At least.

         I’m sure that Turner promoted Lenane because he felt he would give PSA fresh ideas to pursue, most likely focusing on preventing fraud through technology. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and Turner is giving Lenane the opportunity to shine. It will take time to see if he can meet Turner’s expectations.

         “PSA appears to be a company in regression right in the middle of a maelstrom as it pertains to their grading practices,” writes one Net54baseball forum member when this news first broke. “This does not look good for their supposed iron grip in the grading race.”

         I say it’s too soon to jump to such a conclusion.

         Acquiring Genamint and promoting Lenane is PSA’s response to all of the card doctoring problems this industry has experienced for way too long now. It has to do something or it will slowly lose credibility and customers.

         Because PSA has been around for so long, it has to deal with the role humans play in every graded card. When the company began in 1991, the graders it employed had grade definitions to adhere to. But at times they could be a bit generous (dare I say lax?) with the final grade assigned a card. Back then most of these cards were vintage. Such cards are now labeled over-graded. Put another way, PSA 8s from the early 1990s might be graded PSA 7s (or even lower) today. This can all be summed up in one word: inconsistencies.

         Using Genamint technology and promoting Lenane to the top spot at PSA might just be Turner’s way of eliminating the inconsistency madness. It has to stop somehow. Let’s give Lenane a chance to put his fingerprints on the company’s future.