Card Grading Cost Comparison 2026: PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC

Why this report exists

Grading fees and turnarounds drift a few times per year. Service tiers come and go. Declared value bands move. Bulk submission windows open and close. Any single price chart you find elsewhere is probably already out of date by the time you read it. This report is dated at the top, updated on a set cadence, and written to tell you how to think about the cost of grading in 2026, not just what the current headline fee is. If a specific dollar figure differs from the grader’s own fee schedule by the time you read this, the grader’s schedule wins and we encourage you to send a correction. We will re-date this page when the next meaningful fee cycle lands.

Our approach at HobbyCardIndex is plain: we do not grade cards, we do not own a grading business, and we do not accept paid placement. We track sold listings and population reports. That means we see when a PSA 10 Mahomes rookie trades at a four times premium over a PSA 9. It also means we see when a SGC 10 on the same card trades at a different multiple, and we can quote the spread honestly. This report uses those public signals, not proprietary valuations. For the full methodology see our K-Shape 2026 report, which explains how we handle outliers, volume, grade separation, and dated quotes.

Once you have a fee number in hand, the next question is whether the specific card you are holding clears the break-even math. Our grade-or-hold decision framework runs the per-card screen in ten binary questions and tells you when a submission is a defensible trade and when it is fee exposure without upside.

Scope and caveats

We cover the four widely accepted card graders in 2026: PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), BGS (Beckett Grading Services), SGC (Sportscard Guaranty Corporation, now part of the Collectors family), and CGC Cards (Certified Guaranty Company’s cards division). We do not cover private authentications, slabbed but unread custom work, or obscure graders whose slabs do not trade at scale in the public market.

Three things to hold in mind before you compare any fee:

1. Declared value drives the tier. Every grader asks you to assign a declared value to each card before submission. The declared value decides which fee tier applies and how much insurance coverage the grader carries in transit. If the card actually comps above its declared value at the time of grading, graders will bump the fee rather than reject the card, so do not under-declare to save money.
2. Posted turnarounds are targets, not guarantees. Every grader publishes a business-day turnaround per tier. Those targets hold during normal months and slip during submission surges such as the 2020 pandemic wave or seasonal rookie-class pushes. Plan for overages.
3. Shipping is not grading. The fees in this report are pure grading and slab fees. Your all-in cost includes inbound shipping in team bags and card savers, outbound return shipping with insurance, and the fee the grader charges to ship back at higher declared values. Budget at least ten to fifteen dollars per package for inbound and twenty to fifty for return depending on declared value.

The comparison table (all four graders, value tier)

The table below summarizes the value tier most hobbyists use for cards they believe will comp between roughly one hundred and five hundred dollars graded. All figures are rounded per-card list prices, not including shipping, as of the publish date at the top of this page. Declared value caps and the exact tier names change a few times per year.

PSA fees and tiers in 2026

PSA remains the most widely recognized slab in the sports card market, and that recognition supports a persistent PSA 10 premium on modern flagship cards (see our PSA 10 guide for how that premium is structured). PSA’s current tier ladder in 2026 runs roughly as follows, in ascending order of speed and price:

• Bulk (minimum count required): the cheapest option, used by dealers and large submitters. Per-card pricing is low but the queue runs long, sometimes several months in surge periods, and the declared value cap is tight.
• Value: roughly twenty-five dollars per card, declared value up to about five hundred dollars, target turnaround around forty-five business days. The most common tier for modern rookie cards that may grade PSA 10.
• Regular: declared value up to about one thousand five hundred to two thousand five hundred dollars, mid-tier fee, mid-tier speed.
• Express: declared value up to about two thousand five hundred to five thousand dollars, target a few weeks, fee roughly triple the Value tier.
• Super Express: higher declared value bands, target about ten business days, fees escalate steeply.
• Walk-Through: highest declared value bands, target a few business days, fees can exceed several hundred dollars per card and reach four figures for unlimited declared value submissions.

PSA also runs targeted promotions (Spring Specials, Sneak Peek weeks, set specials, and member-only discount windows) that lower Value-tier pricing by a few dollars for eligible submitters. If you are a Collectors Club member and your cards are modern, paying attention to those windows saves real money across a bulk order.

BGS fees and tiers in 2026

BGS is the premium-feel grader. The slab is thicker, the label is distinctive, and the sub-grade system (centering, corners, edges, surface) is unique to Beckett. Many collectors believe a BGS 9.5 with high sub-grades reads better on shelf than a PSA 9, and a BGS 10 Pristine or Black Label commands a category-leading premium on high-end modern cards. See our BGS grading guide for the full breakdown.

BGS pricing in 2026 tracks these bands:

• Standard: the entry point, roughly twenty-eight to thirty-five dollars per card depending on promotions, declared value up to about five hundred dollars, target thirty to forty-five business days.
• Economy: a thinner sub-grade option that saves a few dollars but foregoes the full four-axis sub-grade display. Collectors who want the BGS slab for presentation generally skip this tier.
• Express: higher declared value caps, target a few weeks.
• Premium, Super, and Immediate: the high-end ladder, with fees that can exceed a thousand dollars per card on unlimited declared value submissions.

BGS ran through a multi-year restructuring under CSG and Beckett Media ownership transitions between 2020 and 2024. Turnaround has been inconsistent during that period. In 2026, the brand is stable again, but collectors still report wider variance in quoted versus actual turnaround than at PSA or SGC. If you need a hard deadline, pay for a higher tier rather than relying on the target.

SGC fees and tiers in 2026

SGC has two things going for it in 2026 that matter to value-conscious submitters. First, the Tuxedo-label slab is a category standard for pre-war and vintage cards, where collectors trust SGC more than any other brand. Second, SGC’s published turnaround has generally been shorter than PSA’s at comparable tiers for several years. See our SGC grading guide for the vintage positioning.

SGC’s 2026 ladder is cleaner than PSA’s or BGS’s:

• Bulk: modest per-card price, count minimum applies, longest queue.
• Standard: roughly twenty-two to twenty-five dollars per card, declared value up to about one thousand five hundred dollars (higher than PSA Value and CGC Standard at the same tier price), target twenty to twenty-five business days.
• Express: declared value up to a few thousand dollars, target a week or so.
• Walk-Through: highest tier, declared value unlimited, target a few business days, fees escalate with declared value.

The Standard tier declared value cap is the quiet advantage. A SGC Standard submission of a card valued at twelve hundred dollars avoids the step-up to Express that would trigger at PSA. For 1990s modern cards and vintage singles in the four-figure range, SGC Standard often beats PSA Value on math before you get to turnaround.

CGC Cards fees and tiers in 2026

CGC Cards is the newest of the four majors, launched in 2020 as an extension of the longstanding CGC comics brand. The slab has caught on fastest in the Pokemon and TCG categories, where CGC Cards now competes directly with PSA in collector preference. See our CGC grading guide for the TCG positioning and the Pristine 10 tier.

CGC Cards tiers in 2026:

• Bulk: low per-card fee, count minimums apply, longest published queue.
• Standard: roughly twenty-two to twenty-five dollars per card, declared value up to about four hundred dollars, target fifteen to twenty-five business days.
• Express: declared value up to a thousand or more, target about ten business days.
• Walk-Through: highest tier, declared value unlimited, target a few business days.

CGC Cards runs category-specific promotions more aggressively than the other three graders, particularly around Pokemon set releases. If you submit Pokemon cards and watch the CGC social channels, you can often catch a Pristine 10 tier discount window or a sub-grade add-on for free. The declared value cap at Standard is lower than SGC’s, so for cards valued above four hundred dollars you step up to Express sooner.

The break-even math (when grading actually pays)

Every dollar you spend on grading needs to come back in the graded sale price, plus a margin for your time, your risk of a lower grade than you hoped for, and your risk that the market moves against you while your cards are in the queue. Here is the formula we use in should I grade this card:

Break-even graded sale price equals raw sale price plus grading fee plus inbound and outbound shipping plus eBay and payment processing fees on the graded sale plus your required margin for risk and time.

A worked example clears this up faster than any formula. Suppose a raw 2020 Prizm Justin Herbert base rookie trades at roughly forty dollars in a graded-market-ready state (centered, sharp corners, clean surface) in April 2026. PSA Value fee is twenty-five dollars, inbound shipping is ten dollars split across a twenty-card order so two dollars allocated here, return shipping is about ten dollars with insurance, eBay and payment fees on a graded sale run around thirteen percent all in. That is a thirty-seven dollar all-in cost on top of the forty-dollar raw value. To break even before any margin for time or risk, the card needs to sell graded at roughly eighty-seven dollars after fees, meaning a PSA 9 sale price of about one hundred dollars or a PSA 10 price that clears the same threshold.

In 2026 the 2020 Prizm Herbert base PSA 10 comps near the two hundred to two hundred fifty dollar range and the PSA 9 sits near the fifty to seventy dollar range. If your estimated PSA 10 probability is fifty percent, your expected value per attempt is roughly one hundred thirty to one hundred sixty dollars after fees, a profitable attempt. If your PSA 10 probability is twenty percent, the math gets thin. Below twenty percent, you are paying for the chance of a home run, not an expected profit. That is a legitimate play if you enjoy the gamble, but call it what it is.

Category-specific guidance

The break-even math bends by category. A few patterns we see repeatedly across sold listings:

• Modern flagship rookies with deep parallel ladders (Prizm, Chrome, Bowman Chrome): PSA 10 over PSA 9 multiples often run two to four times on the base and five to ten times on numbered parallels. Grading math works on cards valued around thirty dollars raw and up for the base, and on any numbered parallel at twenty dollars raw and up. See our parallel guide for how parallels compound the multiple.
• Vintage singles (pre-1980): grading is almost always worth it at any meaningful raw value because raw vintage trades at steep condition-risk discounts. The base SGC or PSA fee recovers quickly on cards over about fifty dollars raw.
• Junk-wax-era cards (1987 to 1994): almost never worth grading as commons. Only star rookies with a PSA 10 that already sells above about one hundred dollars clear the math. See our 1990s card hub for what in that era actually trades.
• Pokemon and TCG: grading math usually works on modern chase cards (alt arts, full arts from Scarlet and Violet) and on vintage WOTC-era singles. Commons from the base Sword and Shield or Scarlet and Violet eras often cannot clear fees unless the PSA 10 or CGC Pristine 10 premium is already known to the hundreds.
• Soccer and hockey rookies: thinner graded markets mean longer holds and wider bid-ask spreads. Only grade if the PSA 10 or SGC 10 for the specific card trades at published and recent volume at your break-even point.

Which grader for which card type?

We do not believe in a universal answer. The right grader depends on the card, the category you sell into, and your time horizon. A simplified matrix:

What actually changed between 2024 and 2026

The grading market moves. Five trends are worth knowing before you read headline fee numbers:

1. PSA retired the sub-$20 bulk tier for Collectors Club members in 2024. The cheapest published per-card grading path at PSA is no longer under twenty dollars for most submitters. This pushed price-sensitive collectors toward SGC and CGC Cards at the Standard tier.
2. SGC raised declared value caps at Standard in late 2024. A card valued at twelve hundred dollars now fits at SGC Standard where it would have required Express before. That changed the math for 1990s modern and mid-tier vintage submissions.
3. CGC Cards gained credibility in Pokemon. Through 2022 and 2023, CGC Pristine 10 cards traded at meaningful discounts to PSA 10 on the same Pokemon chase. In 2026, on several high-volume Pokemon chase cards, CGC Pristine 10 trades within five to fifteen percent of PSA 10.
4. Turnaround variance widened. All four graders post target turnarounds. All four graders missed those targets during the 2020 pandemic surge, and intermittently during 2022 and 2023. In 2026, posted targets are generally closer to reality than they were in 2021, but variance is still higher than pre-2020 baselines.
5. BGS stabilized. After several difficult years under changing ownership, BGS is again a reliable third choice for collectors who want a specific slab aesthetic. Turnaround is still the weakest of the four, but the grading itself is consistent.

How we track graded market prices

Everything above rests on sold-listing data, not asking prices. We pull sold listings from eBay in near real time, dedupe and deseasonalize them, and split prices by grader and grade so we can compare a 2020 Prizm Herbert PSA 10 to a SGC 10 directly. Because we split by grade and grader, we can quote a PSA 10 over PSA 9 multiple honestly, and we can show when a SGC 10 trades at a different multiple than the PSA 10 on the same card. For the full methodology, see K-Shape 2026.

If you want to poke around, the sets directory and players directory list thousands of cards with public PSA 10, PSA 9, and raw price references on the individual card pages. We hold premium analytics behind a paywall (per-user alerts, collection-value drilldowns, forward-looking price signals), but all catalog identity, last-known public sale prices, and population-count references are free to read.

Practical submission checklist

If you have decided to grade, a short checklist before you ship:

1. Re-read your cards honestly. Use the should I grade this card checklist to pre-grade each candidate. Edge wear, centering, and print lines are the top three reasons PSA 10 attempts become PSA 9 results.
2. Pick the right tier. Match the tier to the card’s realistic declared value, not its aspirational value. Under-declaring costs you insurance and triggers grader bump-ups. Over-declaring costs you fee dollars with no offsetting benefit.
3. Batch to hit a bulk minimum. If you have twenty or more modern cards that fit the Bulk tier, the per-card savings often exceed a hundred dollars across an order. Never pay the Value tier fee on a card that qualifies for Bulk.
4. Use team bags and card savers, not penny sleeves alone. Graders reject or hold submissions with inadequate packaging. See our storage guide for the supply hierarchy.
5. Insure the return package at the correct declared value. Graders insure during grading, but you need to confirm return shipping covers the graded value. Claims on lost slabs are a painful cost.
6. Log everything before it ships. Submission numbers, declared values, tier names, and the date the package left your door. This matters if you need to dispute a grade or track a missing package three months later.
7. Watch for targeted promotions. PSA Spring Specials, SGC holiday windows, and CGC Pokemon promotions shift break-even math by a few dollars per card. On a hundred-card order those dollars compound.

Bottom line

In 2026 the four major graders sit within a tight fee band at the Value tier most hobbyists use. The differences that matter are turnaround, category fit, and slab preference in the segment you sell into. SGC wins on turnaround and declared-value caps. CGC Cards wins on Pokemon-specific liquidity. BGS wins on high-end modern when the submission is likely to land at Pristine or Black Label. PSA wins on liquidity and brand recognition across the widest range of card types. None of them are so much cheaper than the others that price alone should drive the decision.

Grading pays when the math pays. Run the break-even on the specific card, the specific tier, and the specific PSA 10 or equivalent probability you can honestly assign. If the math clears, grade. If it does not, sell raw. If you want to skip the math on a case-by-case basis, build it once for your five most common card types and reuse the template. We update this report each time a grader announces meaningful fee or tier changes, so check back before your next bulk submission.