Cardhound surveyed 100 vintage collectors in May of 2026 asking questions about the future of vintage collecting. Specifically, the survey asked questions about technology, social media, and AI, and what the hobby might look like in 5 years. If you want to take the survey, it’s right here. I’ll be breaking down the results one category at a time. First up, card grading. I decided to start here because the results from the survey are at odds with the card collecting community in general.
Grading Sets Records
Let’s start with hobby-wide data. Card grading is breaking records just about every month lately. PSA recently announced a $200 million expansion project–raising prices, expanding turnaround times, and hiring like crazy to meet ceaseless demand for grading services. PSA graded 2 million cards in 2020, and 19 million in 2025. 2026 will surpass 20 million. It’s hard to fathom. Data, as always, via Gemrate.
TCG Leads the Way
Baseball is not the volume leader–and in fact, sports as a category is 2nd place to TCG (trading card game cards). Pokemon cards outpace any and all other categories in terms of current grading volume. Here’s an isolated look at TCG volume which follows the same upward trend:
Vintage Collectors Not On Trend?
So now, let’s take a look at the survey.
Vintage collectors were asked whether they see themselves submitting even more cards for grading within the next 5 years. Here’s the breakdown of responses:
As you can see, about 85% of vintage collectors don’t plan to follow the volume trend, with over half submitting close to zero.
The Obvious Follow-Up Question . . .
So, if this result holds for vintage collectors in general (it’s an admittedly tiny sample), why would vintage not follow the trend?
A few theories / contributing factors:
- The demise / slow-down of SGC, which was gaining vintage market share like crazy before being bought out
- Per-card price is too high to justify lots of vintage grading activity–such as registry set building
- Vintage does not have the same “urgency” as modern in terms of card values–some are likely waiting it out
These motivations can be informed by responses to another question about collecting goals.
Almost half of vintage collectors who took the survey are in “downsize” mode–many likely selling already-graded cards to upgrade to higher-end graded cards.
Interesting that the exact same percentages of respondents (14.6%) are “submitting more” and also “stockpiling.” There is probably lots of overlap here, as one good way to build a collection is to buy raw in bulk and grade.
The Role of AI
Another question asked respondents about the likely role of AI in card grading 5 years from now. Here are the responses:
Interestingly, even old-school vintage collectors don’t see “status quo” holding up for another 5 years. Almost half think that grading will be heavily or entirely AI based–within just the next 5 years. This seems like a stretch given that PSA’s process is currently 0% AI. PSA’s press release mentions hiring over 1,000 new graders–but does not explicitly mention AI at all.
Stay tuned for more posts about the survey data–and if you want your voice to be included in future posts, take the survey here.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoy our content please join the mailing list (scroll down on the home page).
