CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN DEMANDS FTC INVESTIGATION INTO COLLECTORS HOLDINGS’ ATTEMPT TO MONOPOLIZE TRADING CARD GRADING

Congressman Pat Ryan Demands FTC Investigation into Collectors Holdings’ Attempt to Monopolize Trading Card Grading 

Through acquisitions of PSA (2021), SGC (February 2024), and now Beckett (announced December 2025), Collectors has consolidated over 80% of grading volume, leaving only one significant independent competitor

Collectors’ dominance is compounded by vertical integration; it controls grading capacity, pricing analytics through CardLadder, and participates in buying and selling graded cards—creating severe conflicts of interest 

WASHINGTON, DC  – Today, Congressman Pat Ryan wrote to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew N. Ferguson, demanding an antitrust investigation into Collector Holdings’ monopolistic practices. Through acquisitions of PSA (2021), SGC (February 2024), and now Beckett (announced December 2025), Collectors has consolidated over 80% of grading volume, leaving only one independent competitor Collectors’ dominance is compounded by vertical integration; it controls grading capacity, pricing analytics through CardLadder, and participates in buying and selling graded cards—creating severe conflicts of interest.

“Even my four and six year old boys, who just started their collections, know this behavior is wrong. Attempts to corner the trading card market are not only deeply unpopular, they are unethical," said Congressman Pat Ryan. "Kids, collectors and local card stores,  shouldn’t have to worry that the system is stacked against them, and the FTC needs to step in before this hobby is controlled by one powerful company.” 

Investigatory Questions

The Commission should investigate:

• Monopolization: Whether Collectors acquired SGC and Beckett specifically to eliminate competition, and whether internal documents reveal a deliberate strategy of monopolization.
• Serial Acquisition Pattern: Whether Collectors’ systematic roll-up strategy violates Section 5 of the FTC Act as conduct that inherently produces the cumulative harms the antitrust laws were designed to prevent.
• Regulatory Evasion: Whether Collēctīvus Holdings functioned as a pass-through entity to evade merger scrutiny, and the extent of Collectors’ involvement in the 2024 acquisition of Beckett.
• Good-Faith Representations: Whether the post-acquisition marginalization of SGC was contrary to representations made at the time of the merger, and if those actions warrant a court-ordered divestiture or unwinding of the deal.
• Erosion of Competition: How the elimination of independent rivals has directly impacted consumer pricing, service quality, and turnaround times across the industry.
• Price and Policy Coordination: What safeguards, if any, prevent Collectors from coordinating pricing, grading standards, and competitive behavior across its three nominally "independent" brands.
• Barriers to Entry: What structural barriers now prevent new competitors from entering the market, specifically regarding the control of the limited labor pool of professional graders.
• Market Manipulation: How vertical integration — controlling the grading process, the pricing data through CardLadder, and the marketplace itself — creates unique opportunities for market manipulation and unfair self-dealing.

Read Congressman Ryan’s full letter here. 

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