In short: Grading one card costs $59.99 at PSA Standard or $20 at CGC Economy before postage. Round-trip postage and insurance runs about $25 a box, so a single card sent alone is $84.99 all in, while ten cards in one box are $62.49 each. The fee is spent whatever grade comes back, which is why the graded copy has to sell for enough to cover the raw sale plus the fee.
Start with the published fee, then add what it leaves out
Both companies charge per card and both set the price by the value you declare, not by how good the card is. PSA's cheapest open tier is Standard at $59.99 a card, for cards insured up to $1,000, quoted at 90 to 100 business days. CGC's cheapest is Bulk at $17 a card, which needs 25 cards in the submission and runs 150 working days. As of 2026-09-19 PSA's Value services are paused, so Standard is the floor there.
Every figure in the table comes from the two companies' own service pages, read on 2026-09-19. Fees move. Check the tier the week you pack the box.
Run your own card through the cost calculator
Sources: PSA: Trading Card Grading services and fees, CGC Cards: services and fees
| Service | Fee per card | Max declared value | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Standard | $59.99 | $1,000 | 90 to 100 business days |
| PSA Priority | $79.99 | $1,500 | 70 to 80 business days |
| PSA Express | $199.00 | $2,500 | 20 to 30 business days |
| PSA Super Express | $349.00 | $5,000 | 10 to 15 business days |
| PSA Premier | $599.00 | $10,000 | 7 to 10 business days |
| CGC Bulk, 25-card minimum | $17 | $500 | 150 working days |
| CGC Economy | $20 | $1,000 | 90 working days |
| CGC Standard | $55 | $3,000 | 10 working days |
| CGC Express | $100 | $10,000 | 5 working days |
| CGC WalkThrough | $300 | $100,000 | 2 working days |
| CGC Unlimited Value | $300 plus 1% of fair market value | Unlimited | 2 working days |
The value you declare picks the tier before speed does
Read the third column again. A card you value at $2,500 cannot go through PSA Standard however long you are willing to wait, because Standard insures to $1,000. The ceiling forces the price. At PSA the ladder runs $59.99, $79.99, $199.00, $349.00 and $599.00 as the ceiling climbs from $1,000 to $10,000, and cards above $10,000 go to premium options. At CGC the same card at $3,000 is a $55 Standard submission, and one at $10,000 is a $100 Express submission.
CGC may move a card to a higher tier if it judges the fair market value to be higher than the value you declared, so a hopeful declaration is not a discount. CGC also charges a few extras worth knowing: ReHolder is $10, Pedigree is the tier price plus $5, and CrossOver is charged at the tier price even when the card comes back in its original holder. The Error service, required for any card with a printing error, carries no extra fee. Associate and Premium members save 10% on grading, Elite members 20%.
What the fee buys is a sealed case and a checkable number
For the money, the card is authenticated before it is graded, then sealed in a tamper-evident case with the grade and the cert number printed on the label. PSA prints that on its LightHouse label. The case is the product as much as the grade is, because it is what lets a buyer pay a graded price for a card in a photograph they cannot handle.
That is also why a slab travels better than a raw card. A buyer reading a listing can check the cert number against the grader's own lookup, which is work they cannot do on a raw card at any price. The lookup is public.
A $120 card at PSA Standard costs $84.99 sent on its own
Take a raw card you would list at $120. PSA Standard is $59.99. Round-trip postage and insurance on the box is $25. Send that card by itself and the all-in is $59.99 plus $25, which is $84.99. Put ten cards in the same box and the $25 splits to $2.50 a card: 10 times $59.99 is $599.90, plus $25 is $624.90, which is $62.49 a card. Same tier, same wait, $22.50 a card cheaper.
Now the sale side. eBay's final value fee on trading cards is 13.25% of the total amount of the sale up to $7,500, and that total includes the shipping you charge the buyer and the sales tax. Sell the raw card at $120 and the fee is $15.90, plus a $0.40 per-order fee on orders over $10.00, so you keep $103.70. Say the graded copy sells for $420. eBay takes $55.65 and $0.40, you keep $363.95, and after $62.49 of grading the card cleared $301.46 against $103.70 raw.
Both sale prices are yours to supply. Pull the last ten sold listings of that exact printing raw, then the last ten of the grade you expect, and run your own two numbers through the same three lines.
Sources: eBay: selling fees for trading cards
Compute the break-even for your card before you pack the box
Grading pays when the graded sale, after fees, beats the raw sale after fees plus the grading cost. In the example that is $103.70 of raw net, plus $62.49 of grading, plus the $0.40 order fee, which is $166.59 the graded sale has to bring in after eBay's 13.25%. That needs a sale price of about $192. Send the card alone at $84.99 instead and the break-even moves to about $218.
Three inputs, one line of arithmetic. Raw price after fees, all-in cost per card, and a graded price you can find in sold listings rather than one you hope for. If the gap between the raw comps and the graded comps is smaller than the fee, the card stays raw.
Turnaround is quoted in working days and it is an estimate
PSA quotes 90 to 100 business days at Standard and 7 to 10 at Premier, and the price between those two tiers is buying the calendar, not a better grade. CGC quotes 10 working days at Standard, 5 at Express and 2 at WalkThrough, against 90 working days at Economy and 150 at Bulk. CGC states plainly that its turnaround times are working days and are estimates, not guarantees.
Time has a price of its own. A card in a grading queue cannot be sold, and a set that is hot in September may be quiet by the time a Bulk submission comes home 150 working days later. The cheapest tier is the slowest tier. That is the whole trade.
Grading turns an opinion into a number, and the number can be low
Nobody at PSA or CGC tells you what grade a card will get before you pay. Grading converts an opinion about condition into a number on a label, and that number is often below what the owner expected from looking at the card on a kitchen table. The fee is spent either way. That is the honest shape of the deal, and it is why the break-even line matters more than the headline fee.
It also settles the cheap-card question. A card worth a few dollars raw has to multiply several times over to clear $17 at CGC Bulk, let alone $59.99 at PSA Standard, and most never do. Bulk tiers exist for volume submitters sending 25 modern chase cards at once, not for a binder of $3 holos. Grade the top of the pile and sell the rest raw.
Read the condition and the comps before you pay a fee
The two numbers in the break-even line are the ones worth getting right, and both come off the card itself. CardLens matches the exact printing from a photo and shows a value range built on recent eBay sales of that printing. The sales behind the range are visible one tap below the number, so the raw side of the sum comes from what copies sold for rather than what they are listed at.
Condition works the same way. The app estimates condition on the Near Mint to Damaged scale for a raw card, and it reads PSA, BGS and CGC slab labels, so the graded copies you are comparing against are recorded with their grades instead of being eyeballed from a listing photo. Free on the App Store, with an optional premium subscription.
Questions collectors ask
How much does it cost to grade a Pokémon card at PSA?
PSA Standard is $59.99 a card for cards declared up to $1,000, and it is the cheapest open tier while Value services are paused. Priority is $79.99, Express is $199.00, Super Express is $349.00 and Premier is $599.00. Postage both ways is on top.
Is it worth grading cheap Pokémon cards?
Rarely. A $17 CGC Bulk slot or a $59.99 PSA Standard slot is paid whatever grade comes back, and eBay then takes 13.25% plus $0.40 of the sale. A card worth a few dollars raw almost never sells for enough graded to cover that.
How long does PSA grading take?
PSA quotes 90 to 100 business days at Standard, 70 to 80 at Priority, 20 to 30 at Express, 10 to 15 at Super Express and 7 to 10 at Premier. Those are business days rather than calendar days, and they are estimates.
Should I grade my Pokémon cards before selling?
Only where the graded price beats the raw price by more than the all-in cost per card. Pull sold listings for the raw card and for the grade you expect, take 13.25% plus $0.40 off each, and compare the gap with the fee.
How much does it cost to grade a Pokémon card with CGC?
CGC Bulk is $17 a card with a 25-card minimum and 150 working days. Economy is $20 and 90 working days, Standard is $55 and 10, Express is $100 and 5, WalkThrough is $300 and 2. Members save 10% or 20% on grading.
Free on the App Store
Read the card before you pay the grading fee.
CardLens estimates condition from a photo and shows a value range with the recent eBay sales behind it, so both numbers in the break-even line are yours before the box goes out.