For most cards, PSA is the right choice because a PSA holder sells for the most money and sells fastest. BGS (Beckett) is the choice when you believe a card is flawless and want a shot at a Black Label 10, which outsells a PSA 10, or when a buyer specifically wants subgrades. CGC is the budget and speed option: it grades strictly, turns cards around quickly, and charges the least, but a CGC 9 or 10 sells for less than the same number from PSA on most cards. The decision is rarely about which company grades "best." It is about which label the buyers for your particular card pay the most for, and whether the expected graded price minus the fee beats the raw price.
As of late 2026, basic grading runs roughly $20 to $25 per card at PSA's slowest tiers, $15 to $25 at CGC, and $20 to $30 at BGS before subgrades, with every company charging much more for cards declared at higher values and for faster service. For a card worth $20 raw, no grade pays. For a card worth $100 raw that might come back a 10, grading usually pays. For a card worth $1,000 raw, grading always pays, and the choice of company starts to move the result by hundreds of dollars.
Quick answer
- PSA: highest resale on most cards, largest buyer pool, mid-range fees. Default for Pokemon, modern sports and vintage.
- BGS: subgrades, Black Label and Pristine 10s that sell above a PSA 10. Best for pack-fresh modern cards you expect to be perfect.
- CGC: lowest fees, fast, strict. Good for bulk, for cards you want slabbed cheaply, and for buyers who value the stricter grade.
How to choose, step by step
- Price the card raw and graded before anything else. Look up recent sales for the card in PSA 9, PSA 10, BGS 9.5, BGS 10 and CGC 10 on the marketplaces that show completed sales. The gaps between those labels for your card, not the company's reputation in general, make the decision. The is grading worth it guide walks through this math for Pokemon.
- Grade the card yourself honestly. Check centering with a ruler or a centering tool, look at all four corners under a loupe for whitening, run a finger along the edges for chipping, and tilt the surface under a lamp for scratches, print lines and dents. If the card is clearly a 7 or 8, the company choice barely matters and PSA's buyer pool wins. If it is a plausible 10, the choice matters a great deal.
- Match the company to the card's market. Vintage sports buyers trust PSA and SGC. Modern Pokemon buyers pay the most for PSA 10s, with BGS Black Label as a rare premium tier. Modern sports buyers accept PSA and BGS roughly equally, with BGS strong on thick patch and autograph cards. Comic and TCG crossover buyers are familiar with CGC.
- Decide whether subgrades help or hurt. BGS prints four subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) on the label. A 9.5 with four 9.5s and a 9.5 with a 9 in centering sell differently, and a buyer can see exactly where the card falls short. That transparency helps a strong card and hurts a weak one. PSA and CGC print one number, which hides the detail.
- Pick the service tier by declared value. Every company requires you to declare a value, and the fee tier follows it. Under-declaring a valuable card saves a few dollars and leaves you underinsured if the package is lost. Declare honestly.
- Count the turnaround and the shipping. Slow tiers take weeks to a few months depending on backlog; fast tiers take days and cost several times as much. Shipping and insurance both ways typically add $15 to $40 per submission.
- Consider a crossover or a regrade only with a reason. Moving a BGS 9.5 to PSA to chase a 10, or a CGC 10 to PSA, works sometimes and fails often, and each attempt costs a fee. Do it when the price gap between labels is large and the card is strong on all four points.
The three companies compared
| PSA | BGS (Beckett) | CGC Cards | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1991 | 1999 | 2020 (CGC comics since 2000) |
| Scale | 1 to 10, half points below 9 | 1 to 10 in half points | 1 to 10 in half points |
| Top grade | PSA 10 Gem Mint | BGS 10 Pristine; Black Label 10 (all subgrades 10) | CGC 10 Gem Mint; CGC 10 Pristine above it |
| Subgrades | No | Yes, four on the label | Optional, for a fee |
| Lowest fee, late 2026, about | $20 to $25 per card | $20 to $30 per card, subgrades extra | $15 to $25 per card |
| Typical slow turnaround | Several weeks to a few months | Several weeks to months | Days to a few weeks |
| Resale, same number | Highest on most cards | Black Label and 10 above PSA 10; 9.5 roughly at or below PSA 10; 9 below PSA 9 | Below PSA for 9 and 10; Pristine 10 commands a premium |
| Strictness, general view | Moderate | Strict on 10s, moderate below | Strict across the board |
| Holder | Light, clear, red label for Pokemon and TCG, flip label | Thick, heavy, label color tells the grade | Clear with a blue or black label; UV protective |
| Strongest markets | Vintage and modern sports, Pokemon, most TCG | Modern sports, patch and auto cards, Pokemon Black Label hunting | Bulk Pokemon and TCG, budget slabs, comic crossover buyers |
SGC deserves a mention beside these three. It grades on a 1 to 10 scale, charges low fees, turns cards around quickly, and its black-core holder is well liked by vintage sports collectors, where an SGC grade sells close to PSA. For modern Pokemon it sells below PSA.
What the label does to the price
The table below shows approximate sale ranges for one widely traded example, the 1999 Base Set Charizard (unlimited, English), as of late 2026. The shape of the gaps is what to take from it; every card has its own numbers.
| Grade | Approximate sale range |
|---|---|
| Raw, played to near mint, no grade | About $150 to $500 |
| PSA 7 | About $400 to $600 |
| PSA 8 | About $600 to $1,000 |
| PSA 9 | About $1,500 to $3,000 |
| PSA 10 | About $6,000 to $12,000 |
| BGS 9 | About $1,000 to $1,800 |
| BGS 9.5 | About $2,000 to $4,000 |
| BGS 10 Pristine | About $15,000 to $30,000 |
| CGC 9 | About $800 to $1,500 |
| CGC 10 | About $3,000 to $6,000 |
| CGC 10 Pristine | About $8,000 to $15,000 |
Two things stand out. The same physical card can be worth a few thousand dollars more or less depending only on the label, so for a near-perfect card the company choice is a real decision. And the biggest jump by far is from 9 to 10, so the honest question before paying any fee is whether the card is a 10 candidate, as the first edition Charizard guide explains for the rarest version. The same pattern holds for sports cards: a Michael Jordan rookie or a Mickey Mantle sells for a modest premium in PSA 6 or 7 and for multiples at PSA 9, with PSA 10s in another world entirely.
When grading pays and when it does not
Grading pays when the graded price minus the fee, shipping and the risk of a low grade is more than the raw price. In practice that works out to a few rules of thumb. Modern cards under about $30 raw almost never pay; the fee eats the premium even at a 10. Modern cards from $50 to $200 raw pay only if the card is a strong 10 candidate, because a 9 on a modern card often sells for little more than raw. Vintage cards from $100 upward almost always pay at any grade, because buyers of vintage want authentication and the grade in hand, and even a PSA 4 on a 1950s card sells better than the same card raw. High-value cards of any era should always be graded before sale; a raw card worth thousands is hard to sell for full value because the buyer is taking all the risk.
Grading also has non-price reasons. A holder protects the card, settles the authenticity question, and makes a sale simpler. For an inherited collection, grading the ten best cards and selling the rest raw is usually the right split, and the old baseball cards guide covers which vintage cards are worth that treatment.
Common mistakes
- Grading everything. The most expensive mistake. A box of modern commons and uncommons costs more to grade than it will ever sell for, in any holder.
- Choosing the company by fee alone. A $5 saving at submission can cost $50 to $500 at sale if the cheaper label sells for less on that card.
- Assuming a 9.5 is a 10. A BGS 9.5 is often called the equivalent of a PSA 10, but on most cards it sells for less than a PSA 10 and more than a PSA 9. Check the sales for your card rather than relying on the equivalence.
- Sending a card with a flaw you hoped the grader would miss. They do not miss it. A visible scratch, a dinged corner or whitening on the back caps the grade, and the fee is paid either way.
- Cleaning or pressing a card before submission. Cleaning leaves residue and scratches, and pressing can crack the gloss. Graders see both, and altered cards come back with an "altered" or "evidence of trimming" note that makes them nearly unsellable.
- Cracking a slab to resubmit without a plan. Every resubmission costs a fee and can come back lower. Only crack a holder when the card is strong on all four points and the price gap justifies the risk.
What to photograph
- The front straight on in even daylight, filling the frame, so centering can be measured against the borders. This is the photo that most often settles whether a card is a 10 candidate.
- The back straight on, for the same reason; back centering is the quiet killer of 10s.
- All four corners close up, ideally with a loupe or a phone macro, to show whitening or softness.
- The surface tilted under a single lamp, which shows scratches, print lines and dents that are invisible straight on.
- The edges along each side, looking for chipping and whitening.
- Any existing holder label with the serial number readable, so the grade can be checked against the company's database.
How WorthPic reads a card photo before grading
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. It identifies the card, the set, the printing and the edition markings, then looks at what the photos show about condition: the centering against the borders, visible corner wear, edge chipping and any surface scratches or print lines that show in the light. It describes that condition in plain words and gives an honest value range for the card as it is, which is the raw number you need before deciding whether grading pays at all. It will say whether the card looks like a candidate for a top grade or whether a visible flaw rules that out, and it says plainly when a decisive detail is not in the frame, such as the back, a corner in shadow or a surface that needs a tilted shot. WorthPic identifies and estimates. It does not assign a grade, and no estimate from a photo replaces the in-hand examination that PSA, BGS or CGC perform. Use it to decide which cards are worth sending and roughly what to declare, then let the grader settle the number.
When to send it in
Send a card for grading when it is worth $100 or more raw and passes your own honest check, when it is vintage and worth $50 or more, or when you are about to sell at a price where an ungraded card would scare buyers off. Choose PSA by default; choose BGS for a flawless modern card where a Black Label is realistic or where the buyers want subgrades; choose CGC for bulk slabbing, for speed, or when the buyer pool for that card treats CGC on par. If you are unsure whether a card is real, grading answers that too, since all three companies authenticate before grading and return counterfeits ungraded. A local card shop can give a quick opinion on grade and company before you pay a fee, and a group submission can lower the per-card cost.