Certified Acceptance Corp., facing a significant backlog that the firm says “is preventing us from delivering on our goal of a one-week turnaround,” suspended its $16 “normal tier” service (coins valued $10,000 or less) for the month of June, according to a May 24 press release.

Normal tier submissions postmarked for May 31 and after will not be accepted. Customers who want to submit normal tier material during the suspension can submit through one of CAC’s other tiers for a higher price.

Demand for CAC’s service surged early this year with a hot coin market, which resulted in the $16 tier being suspended also in March due to “record backlog,” but CAC’s founder John Albanese points to CAC’s increasing popularity as the reason for the current shutdown.

Albanese notes that visits to CAC’s website are up considerably over the past year, many membership applications are being submitted, and premiums for CAC-stickered coins are attracting customers. He also points out that CAC is a small firm, which magnifies the impact of even a relatively small increase in submissions.

Albanese explained in a phone interview that “we’d have to raise prices pretty drastically to slow [demand] down. I don’t subscribe to that. I think some companies are profiteering from inflation. Our customers are already paying higher prices everywhere else. I‘m tired of higher prices. We’re sort of rebelling.”

Suspending normal tier submissions is his alternate effort to control growth. CAC often has instituted small yearly price increases but not in 2022, because, as Albanese put it, “I got personally fed up with getting gouged as a consumer.”

Albanese was hopeful that this suspension would be the last. “It’s the only thing in our toolbox that I can live with. So I hope it’s the last time.” He also shared that next year, “who knows, there might be a tiny increase” in price.

CAC’s other price tiers will remain open: re-stickering for $5; examining high value pieces — $10,000 to $25,000 — for $35; and rarities valued over $25,000, for $75.

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