Card Grading Costs Compared: PSA vs CGC vs BGS vs TAG

Grading a trading card means paying a company to judge its condition, give it a score and seal it in a tamper-evident case. The four names you'll see most for Pokémon and sports cards are PSA, CGC, Beckett (BGS) and TAG. This guide compares what each charges as of October 10, 2026, the limits and extra fees behind those prices, how their grading scales differ, and how to decide whether a card is worth grading.

Grading prices change often, and several services were paused when we checked. Confirm the price on the grader's own page before you submit.

Prices at a glance#

The main tiers for a single trading card, as listed on October 10, 2026. The "max value" is the most a card can be worth for that tier (for TAG, it's the insurance cap per card, since TAG doesn't upcharge by value); turnaround is the grader's own estimate.

PSA and CGC also offer higher tiers for very valuable cards. Sources for every figure are listed below the guide.

PSA#

PSA is the largest grader: it graded about 19 million of the 26.6 million cards graded by major companies in 2025. When we checked, its cheapest tiers, Value and Value Bulk, were temporarily paused, so the lowest open price was $59.99 for Standard.

• Membership: the Collectors Club costs $149 a year, or $199 for Premium. PSA says you don't need it to submit. Its bulk pricing for members was paused too.
• Upcharges: if PSA decides a card is worth more than you declared, you pay the difference to the right tier.
• Shipping: you pay shipping both ways, and you insure the package on the way in.
• Scale: 1 to 10 with half points, one overall grade, no subgrades.

CGC#

CGC has the lowest listed entry price of the four: $17 a card in its Bulk tier, with a 25-card minimum, a $500 value cap and a long wait of about 150 working days. Members get 10–20% off.

• Upcharges: a card worth more than declared moves to a higher tier, and you pay the difference.
• Scale: 1 to 10 with half points. CGC separates a Pristine 10, near-perfect under magnification, from a Gem Mint 10.
• Subgrades: CGC dropped them for new submissions in 2023.

Beckett (BGS)#

When we checked, Beckett's website and app were offline for maintenance, and its Base and Standard services were paused. The only open option was Express at $79.95 a card through a temporary form, with insurance charged at $1.50 per $100 of declared value.

Beckett is known for subgrades: separate scores for centering, corners, edges and surface, included on its form. Its top label, the Black Label, goes to a Pristine 10 with all four subgrades at 10. Check Beckett's own site once it's back for current tiers and prices.

TAG#

TAG is newer, and it grades differently: every card gets a score from 100 to 1,000 alongside the familiar 1–10 grade. A Pristine 10 is 990–1,000, and a Gem Mint 10 is 950–989. There's no 9.5.

• Prices: from $59.95 for Standard, as listed in TAG's help center on September 30, 2026. Its BASE tier was listed without a price.
• No upcharges: TAG says it doesn't charge more if your card turns out to be worth more.
• Shipping: its submission kit includes prepaid inbound shipping.
• Limits: TAG doesn't currently grade Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and doesn't offer a crossover service for cards already graded elsewhere.

The costs on top of the fee#

The per-card price is only part of the bill:

1. Shipping to the grader, with insurance.
2. Return shipping and insurance, usually charged when your order ships back.
3. Upcharges if the card is worth more than you declared (PSA and CGC).
4. Membership, if you join for discounts.
5. Supplies: sleeves and semi-rigid holders. PSA asks for each card in a penny sleeve inside a semi-rigid holder, not a toploader.
6. Time: months of waiting at the cheaper tiers, with your money tied up.

Is a card worth grading?#

Grading pays off only when the graded card will sell for clearly more than the raw card plus every cost above. A simple check:

1. Look up what the card sells for ungraded and at each likely grade. PriceCharting shows separate prices for each grade.
2. Be honest about condition. Centering, corners, edges and surface all count, and most cards don't earn a 10.
3. Add up the full cost of grading that card.
4. Compare the likely graded price, at a realistic grade, with the raw price plus costs.

If the numbers only work at a perfect 10, the card is a gamble. A card that comes back at a 7 or 8 can be worth less than you paid to grade it.

Once you've picked a grader, our step-by-step guide to submitting cards for grading covers packing and shipping, and our guide to pricing trading cards helps you judge whether a card is worth the fee.

Choosing a grader#

There's no single right choice. A few questions help:

• What do buyers of this card pay most for? Sold prices by grader tell you how the market values each label.
• How many cards are you sending, and how fast do you need them? Bulk tiers are cheapest but slowest.
• Do you want subgrades or a detailed score? Beckett gives subgrades, and TAG gives a 1,000-point score.
• Is your card eligible? TAG doesn't take Yu-Gi-Oh!, and services open and pause often.

Graded slabs are faked too; our guide to spotting fakes covers how to check one. For selling graded cards and what each platform charges, see our guide to where to sell trading cards, and for the bigger picture, our guide to reselling Pokémon cards. The Pokémon & TCG and sports cards niches list cook groups and tools for both markets.