Collectors

Collectors is an American company built around the authentication and grading of collectibles. Its best-known businesses are Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which evaluates trading cards and autographs, and Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), which evaluates coins. The company previously operated as Collectors Universe before adopting the shorter Collectors name.

PCGS began grading coins in 1986. Its approach helped establish third-party grading as a standard part of the coin market: a submitted coin receives an assessment of authenticity and condition, then is sealed in a tamper-evident holder bearing its grade and identifying information. PCGS uses the 70-point numerical scale familiar to coin collectors. A coin’s grade can have a substantial effect on its sale price, particularly when small differences in condition separate common examples from scarce ones.

PSA began grading trading cards in 1991. It authenticates cards, assigns condition grades on a scale from 1 to 10, and encapsulates them in labeled holders. Those labels carry certification numbers that buyers can use to check a card’s recorded details. PSA’s work is especially visible in the markets for baseball cards, Pokémon cards and other collectible trading cards. PSA also maintains population reports showing how many examples of a particular card it has graded at each level. Collectors use those figures to gauge the apparent scarcity of a card in a given grade, while recognizing that submissions are not a complete count of all surviving cards.

The company also operates PSA/DNA, which authenticates autographs and memorabilia. This is a different judgment from grading a card’s physical condition: an autograph service assesses whether a signature is genuine. Across these businesses, Collectors’ role is to provide a documented third-party opinion that can accompany an item when it changes hands.

Collectors Universe was taken private in 2021 by an investor group led by Nat Turner, with backing that included Cohen Private Ventures and D1 Capital Partners. Turner became the company’s chief executive. Collectors subsequently expanded beyond grading, acquiring the sports-memorabilia auction house Goldin in 2021. In 2024, eBay acquired Goldin from Collectors; as part of the same announced transaction, Collectors acquired eBay’s trading-card vault business.

These moves connected Collectors’ established grading services with storage and other parts of the collectibles trade. Even so, PSA and PCGS remain the clearest examples of what makes the organization distinctive: their holders, grades and certification records are widely used when specific cards and coins are bought, sold or displayed.