PSA’s cheapest open tier is $59.99 (psacard.com/pricing, Oct 26, 2026). For a lot of raw cards, that fee is more than the card is worth. Here’s how to tell if yours is the exception.
PSA 9 price is 1.5x the grading cost + card cost, in my opinion.
Should you grade right now? The short answer
My rule
Grade a card only if its projected PSA 9 value is at least 1.5x the raw price plus the grading fee. If the card is for your own collection, skip the math.
The cheapest PSA tier open today is Standard at $59.99 (psacard.com/pricing, Oct 26, 2026). PSA’s Value tiers have been paused since June 2, 2026 (PSA backlog tracker).
That fee is the first hurdle. Three of the five popular cards I checked sell raw for less than $59.99: Flagg at $19.99, Skenes at $5.00, and Caleb Williams at $7.31 (SportsCardsPro and PriceCharting, Oct 26, 2026). None of the five clear the 1.5x bar at a PSA 9.
Grade for a realistic PSA 10, not a hoped-for 9. At today’s fees, a 9 rarely pays.
What grading costs in 2026
PSA
| Price | Cards worth up to | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| $59.99Standard | $1,000 | 90-100 business days |
| $79.99 | $1,500 | 70-80 business days |
| $199 | $2,500 | 20-30 business days |
| $349 | $5,000 | 10-15 business days |
| $599 | $10,000 | 7-10 business days |
| Currently unavailable | ||
| Value Bulk and Value | n/a | Listed as "Currently Unavailable" |
Source: psacard.com/pricing, .
Standard opened Sept 14, and PSA works those orders after existing Value and Bulk orders (PSA). Through Nov 20, PSA is taking $10 off Speed-Run and adding free Light Cleaning (@PSAcard on X, Oct 19).
CGC
| Tier | Price | Cards worth up to | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk25-card minimum | $17 | $500 | 150 days |
| Economy | $20 | $1,000 | 90 days |
| Standard | $55 | $3,000 | about 10 days |
| Express | $100 | $10,000 | 5 days |
| WalkThrough | $300 | $100,000 | 2 days |
Source: cgccards.com services and fees, .
CGC raised its Bulk and Economy prices on Mar 24.
SGC
SGC (via RookieDesk, a secondary source, Oct 10, 2026):
- Standard: $50 for cards up to $1,500, 40+ business days
- Cards up to $3,500: $85 Standard, or $150 Expedited (2-3 days)
Beckett
Beckett (beckett.com/grading, Oct 26, 2026):
- Base: $14.95, or $17.95 with subgrades, 75+ business days (sold out)
- Standard: $34.95, 45 days (sold out)
- Express: $79.95, 15 days (open)
TAG
TAG reopened its Value tier on Oct 21 at $29.95 a card, with a 10-card minimum, 90 business days, and limited capacity (@TAGgrading on X, Oct 21).
PSA’s Value pause and backlog: what’s true
PSA ties reopening the Value tiers to getting the backlog down to 5M, not to a date. On June 2, PSA estimated “5-6 months to reach our target of bringing the backlog down to 5 million units.” On Oct 20, it said “existing orders will be prioritized ahead of new submissions.”
PSA's grading backlog
From PSA's own tracker. The dashed line is the 5M target for reopening Value. As of
Source: PSA backlog tracker,
PSA’s backlog, from its own tracker (read Oct 26, 2026):
- July 28: 12.4M, the peak
- Sept 8: 9.9M
- Oct 6: 8.2M
- Oct 20: 7.2M
A few claims going around are wrong:
- The Value tiers are not open.
- 5M is a backlog target, not a card value.
- The backlog never hit 15M.
- Any reopening date, like “about 6 weeks,” is a guess.
How long PSA takes right now
Standard takes 90-100 business days, and PSA gets to it after existing Value and Bulk orders. Faster tiers run from 70-80 business days down to 7-10 (psacard.com/pricing, Oct 26, 2026).
For comparison, CGC Standard takes about 10 days, and SGC’s $50 tier takes 40+ business days (sources above).
The math: the 1.5x rule on five real cards
Prices are raw, PSA 9, and PSA 10 (SportsCardsPro and PriceCharting, Oct 26, 2026). “Needed” is what a PSA 9 has to be worth to pass: 1.5x the raw price, plus the $59.99 fee.
| Card | Raw | PSA 9 | PSA 10 | Needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooper Flagg2025-26 Topps Chrome #251 | $19.99 | $49.43 | $292.97 | $89.98 |
| Wembanyama2023-24 Prizm #136 | $65.35 | $98.50 | $351.50 | $158.02 |
| Skenes2024 Topps Chrome Update #USC88 | $5.00 | $21.92 | $102.78 | $67.49 |
| Caleb Williams2024 Prizm #301 | $7.31 | $34.00 | $297.82 | $70.96 |
| Charizard ex151 SIR #199 | $298.19 | $359.99 | $1,288.33 | $507.28$527.28 at the $79.99 tier |
Source: SportsCardsPro and PriceCharting, . Needed is 1.5x the raw price, plus the grading fee.
For Charizard ex, $507.28 is the bar at $59.99. A PSA 10 would be worth more than Standard’s $1,000 cap, though, so this card has to go in at $79.99, which raises the bar to $527.28.
All five fail at a PSA 9 and pass at a PSA 10. That’s before shipping, insurance, and selling fees. If you read the rule as 1.5x of the raw price and the fee together, you get the same results.
PSA vs CGC vs SGC vs Beckett vs TAG
GemRate’s September recap (Oct 1, 2026) counted 3.52M cards graded, up 62% from a year earlier. That count leaves out Beckett.
- PSA: 2.46M, up 58%
- CGC: 962k, a record
- TAG: 50k
- SGC: 46k, down 24%
Beckett posted on X on Oct 20 that “Phase 1 of Beckett’s digital service restoration is underway.”
PSA 10 odds, gem rates, and reading a pop report
CardTrack (PSA data through Oct 13, published Oct 17, 2026):
- 36.1% of 16.07M English Pokemon PSA grades are 10s.
- Charizard ex 151 #199: 27.4% of 105,341 graded are 10s.
CardTrack also says what that number doesn’t tell you: “A gem rate describes the slabs that exist, not the probability that a given raw copy will grade 10.”
Flagg #251:
- 30.3% PSA 10 rate across 17,701 graded, as of Oct 26 (Summit Sports Cards)
- PSA 10 pop went from 4,212 on Aug 27 to 5,274 on Oct 16 (The Grail Report, Oct 24)
Older cards can be a lot harder. The 1990 Pro Set Emmitt Smith rookie has 931 graded since Jan 2025 and 2 PSA 10s, by @JunkWaxHeroes’ own count on X (Oct 4).
On reading a pop report, PSA’s Joe Orlando calls it “a tally of every single card we have ever graded” and says it does “not represent ALL CARDS IN EXISTENCE.” A “+” marks a half grade, and a “Q” marks a qualifier (Ballcard Genius).
Mistakes that cost you a grade
- Centering: a PSA 10 needs about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back, plus “four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss” (psacard.com/gradingstandards, Oct 26, 2026).
- Cleaning: sprays or wax can get a card sent back as altered, and you still pay the fee.
- Packing: put each card in a penny sleeve inside a semi-rigid holder. Don’t use toploaders or tape. Stack the cards in the order they’re listed on your form, and ship in a new box (PSA ship guide).
Is it safe to ship cards to PSA after the FedEx theft?
Start with the fine print: PSA “is not liable for any damage or loss that occurs during the shipping process” (PSA ship guide).
On Oct 13, 2026, 6,451 items were stolen from a FedEx truck after pickup in Santa Ana. PSA deactivated the certs and refunded the fees. It says return-label insurance pays fair market value up to the declared max (PSA theft update, Oct 23, and @PSAcard on X, Oct 23).
So declare honest values. Payouts stop at what you declared (@GivnerAriel on X, Oct 24).
Here’s what other collectors are saying:
- @itsgeoffwilson summarized the payout terms on Oct 23 and said “99.9%+” of returns arrive safely. That’s his own figure, not PSA’s (his Oct 23 post). On Oct 25 he went further: “Now may be the SAFEST time to submit” (his Oct 25 post).
- @CardPurchaser suggested splitting submissions into smaller shipments and looking into collectibles insurance (Oct 17 post on X).
- One Reddit user flagged the trip back: “Ironically, you getting your slabs returned is the riskiest thing you could do with them. PSA has to start allowing us to select USPS to return ship.” (u/PSA_Card_Pop_Control, r/psagrading, Oct 20)
After the slab: selling fees and buying safely
Grading isn’t the last cost. On Sep 30, 2026, @MorgenHatton shared their own numbers from an eBay sale of an Arch Manning PSA 10 for $159.99. The fees came to $40.13, or 25.1% of the price, and $16.07 of that was an optional ad fee (their post on X). Build selling fees into your math before you submit.
Buying a slab? Check its cert on PSA’s cert lookup before you pay. That matters most for Wembanyama slabs. On Oct 25, @SportsCardInv said Wembanyama is on the most-stolen list (post on X).