Guide

PSA Grading Cost & Profit Calculator

PSA grading costs $39.99 a card at Value (90-100 business days) and goes up to $599 at Premier (7-10 business days). Which tier you need depends on what the card is worth once it's graded. PSA's Value Plus, Value Max and bulk tiers are closed to new submissions right now.

Worth-grading calculatorPSA · BGS · SGC · CGC · about 30 seconds

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Why are you grading it?

PSA tiers and prices

PSA's prices per card and posted turnaround times, as of October 2026, from the lowest open tier up.

Tier	Price	Card value up to	Turnaround
ValueCards up to $500 · 90-100 business days	$39.99	$500	90-100 business days
StandardCards up to $1,000 · 70-80 business days	$59.99	$1,000	70-80 business days
PriorityCards up to $1,500 · 50-60 business days	$79.99	$1,500	50-60 business days
ExpressCards up to $2,500 · 20-30 business days	$199	$2,500	20-30 business days
Super ExpressCards up to $5,000 · 10-15 business days	$349	$5,000	10-15 business days
PremierCards up to $10,000 · 7-10 business days	$599	$10,000	7-10 business days

PSA's Value Plus, Value Max and bulk tiers are closed to new submissions right now. We'll add them back here when PSA reopens them.

At a glancePer card

Cheapest open PSA tierValue · 90-100 business days$39.99

Fastest PSA tier we offerPremier · 7-10 business days$599

Our pre-grade and prepPlus $1 data entry when we submit for you+$10

Which PSA tier you need

You declare what the card will be worth once it's graded, which can be a lot more than you paid for it, and the tier has to cover that value. If you send a card at Value and it comes back worth more than $500, PSA moves it up to the tier that covers it and bills the difference, so declaring low doesn't save money on a card that grades well. Any tier above the one you need only shortens PSA's posted time, and costs more up front.

What grading really costs, door to door

The PSA fee is only part of the cost to grade a card. Through GradingPrep, one card at Value in a box of 10 comes to about $60.

One card, door to doorPSA Value · box of 10

Pre-grade and prep$10
PSA Value fee$39.99
Data entry$1
Your shipping to usWhole box, split 10 ways$1.20
Insured shipping to PSAWhole box, split 10 ways$3.23
PSA return shippingWhole box, split 10 ways$4.50

Estimated total$59.92

Shipping gets cheaper per card the more cards share the box. If you're selling, the marketplace takes its cut on top: eBay charges 13.25% on trading cards. You don't need your own PSA account when we submit for you.

How PSA compares to BGS, SGC and CGC

PSA isn't the cheapest grader right now: CGC's Bulk tier is $15 a card. The same card sells for different prices in each grader's slab, so the cheapest grader isn't always the best deal.

Grader	Cheapest tier	Fastest tier	Door to doorOne card, door to door
PSACheapestValue $39.9990-100 business daysFastestPremier $5997-10 business days	Value: $39.9990-100 business days	Premier: $5997-10 business days	$59.92
BGS (Beckett)CheapestExpress $79.9515 business daysFastestExpress $79.9515 business days	Express: $79.9515 business days	Express: $79.9515 business days	$105.68
SGCCheapestStandard (<$1,500) $5040+ business daysFastestExpedited (<$3,500) $1502-3 business days	Standard (<$1,500): $5040+ business days	Expedited (<$3,500): $1502-3 business days	$66.67*
CGCCheapestBulk $1580 business daysFastestWalk-Through $3002 business days	Bulk: $1580 business days	Walk-Through: $3002 business days	$31.67*

Door to door is one card at the cheapest tier in a box of 10: our $10 pre-grade and prep, the grading fee, $1 data entry and a share of the shipping, plus Beckett's insurance for BGS. PSA and SGC tiers have card-value limits. BGS fees are paid at checkout, before the cards ship. *Not counting SGC and CGC return shipping, which we don't estimate yet.

Grading to sell vs. grading to keep

If you're selling, grading makes sense when the slab, after grading costs and selling fees, brings in more than the raw card would today. What you paid tells you your overall profit, but that money is spent whether you grade or not.

If you're keeping it for your collection, the math is looser. You're paying for protection, a known grade, and a card that's easier to sell or insure later. If a top grade adds more value than the grading cost, it pays for itself. If not, it comes down to whether those are worth the cost to you.

Either way, the expensive mistake is paying to grade a card that comes back a 6. A $10 pre-grade and prep looks for the soft corner or surface scratch before the card goes to the grader.

Timing the market

Sports cards sell best while the sport is being played. Football peaks from the playoffs to the Super Bowl, basketball through the playoffs in the spring, baseball from Opening Day through October. PSA's posted time for Value alone is 90-100 business days, so think about where the season will be when the card is back in your hands. Pokémon and other TCGs don't follow a season. Their prices move with new sets and the holidays.

A player's value can also move a lot while the card is at the grader, in either direction. Grading a rookie mid-hype is a bet that the hype is still there when the slab comes back.

Common questions

Not covered here? Send us a message and we'll get back to you.

How much does PSA grading cost?

What happens if my card is worth more than the tier I picked?

PSA moves it up to the tier that covers its graded value and bills you the difference. A card sent at Value that comes back worth more than $500 gets billed at the tier that covers it. Declaring low doesn't save money when the card grades well.

What does grading a card cost all in?

Through GradingPrep, one card at PSA Value in a box of 10 comes to about $60: the $10 pre-grade and prep, PSA's $39.99 fee, $1 data entry, and a share of the insured shipping both ways. If you plan to sell, take the marketplace fee off the sale price too.

Is PSA the cheapest grading company?

Not right now. PSA's cheapest open tier is Value at $39.99, against BGS Express at $79.95, SGC Standard (<$1,500) at $50 and CGC Bulk at $15. A PSA slab usually sells for more, so the cheapest grader isn't always the best deal. The calculator on this page runs the same card through all four.

Is my card worth grading?

If you plan to sell, grading pays when the slab sells for more than the raw card plus everything grading cost, after selling fees. For most modern cards that means it has to come back at the top of the scale. If you're keeping it, the question is whether protection and a known grade are worth the cost to you. The calculator on this page runs both, for PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC.

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