That's one of the many reasons why the grading craze annoys me and has sometimes deterred real, committed collectors. I get why those companies have had to change so much; it's impossible to not have problems or make changes when millions of cards are coming in all the time. I just wish that, instead of ten million people sending in 2020 prizms, there'd be enough room for everybody and that hobbyists could get their stuff slabbed/protected. Instead of waiting a year while the quarter billion Zions take priority.
I hate to say this but I kind of have enjoyed seeing the flood of slabs bite some people in the ass (just saw a dude posted an HGA grading video where he had submitted all of those late 80s Fleer cards of guys like Steve Kerr, Scottie Pippen, etc. and gotten 8/8.5s for the majority due to surface) and it's like these people clearly don't understand sports cards themselves especially in chasing the 10s. Your shitty early 80s and late 80s cards aren't gonna fucking 10 like today's ultra-modern stuff. God forbid they get 9s *gasp* and I can't wait for the price point of 9s to start tanking harder as people panic and escape the hobby trying to just break even and not go broke.
A smart collector knows if their card is an 8, 9, or a 10. They don't need Joe Grader to tell them for $200. The short-term flippers have really upended the market in terms of slabs being about the grade and not about slabbing/protection like
@SFH is talking about. They also don't understand the grading when, like BGS, a card can only be 0.5 higher than its lowest subgrade. I've started looking more at 8s-9s of BGS that have fantastic subgrades but by virtue of having that 8 Corners or 8.5 Surface subgrade, the card's overall grade is low.
It also amazes me the premium these people put on the grades compared to raw, especially when they try to argue pop counts matter only for certain cards to literally fly in the face of that argument.
Luka Doncic 2018 Base Prizm PSA 10 (nearing 19,000!!!!!) = $777.50 on 10/3
Luka Doncic 2018 Base Prizm SGC 10 (Probably not 19,000) = $570 on 10/3
Luka Doncic 2018 Base Prizm Raw (ya donkey! Tens of thousands) = $165 on 10/3
So... you're paying over $600 more, for a base card, that's literally almost 19,000 PSA 10s (never mind any other grading company, PSA 9, etc.) when you could overspend for a raw card at a fraction of the cost.