Card grading cost comparison: PSA, BGS, CGC and SGC, priced today

Four companies grade the bulk of trading cards, and on 21 August 2026 two of them had their cheapest tiers switched off: PSA’s entire Value ladder was unavailable, and Beckett’s Base and Standard services were sold out with reopening expected on 15 September. The cheapest fee anyone could actually book that day was SGC at $15 per card.

Every number below was read off the grader’s own page on that date. Fees in this hobby move several times a year — PSA raised five of them in February 2026 — so treat this as a dated snapshot, not a price list.

Entry tiers, and whether you can book them#

PSA: the cheap tiers are switched off#

PSA’s service page carries a banner reading that Value services are temporarily paused due to extraordinary demand, and marks Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max as Currently Unavailable. Those four are the tiers most collectors mean when they talk about sending in a stack of cards.

Two details worth carrying away. PSA raised prices on five service levels on 10 February 2026 — Value $27.99 to $32.99, Regular $74.99 to $79.99, and three more by the same five dollars — so older quotes are wrong in a predictable direction. And PSA’s own February notice put Regular at 25 business days while the live service page quoted 70–80 business days for the same tier when we read both on 21 August 2026. Where a grader’s announcement and its order form disagree, the order form is the one that ships your cards back.

A published turnaround is an estimate the grader is free to revise while your cards sit in its building.

BGS: cheapest list price, and you cannot use it#

Beckett publishes the lowest headline fee of the four. It is also the one you are least likely to be able to book.

The site-wide banner states that Base and Standard are temporarily paused to manage increased demand, with reopening expected on 15 September. Extras are priced separately: an autograph card adds $5, an oversized card $8, relabelling starts at $9.95, and a $3 fee applies to any 10 where subgrades are added.

One note on where to look. The page at beckett.com/grading carries the full fee table and the grading scale; the page at beckett.com/grading/pricing rendered nothing for an anonymous visitor when we checked. If a BGS quote you find elsewhere disagrees with the first of those, trust the first.

CGC: the flat ladder with nothing switched off#

CGC publishes six tiers and, on the date we checked, none of them were closed.

Bulk takes a mix of different games in one submission and needs 25 cards; Economy has no minimum. A pedigree note on the label costs the tier fee plus $5, and CGC will evaluate a card already sealed by PSA, Beckett or SGC for crossover, returning it untouched in its original holder if it would not match or beat the existing grade.

Read against PSA, the comparison is stark: CGC Standard at $55 and ten working days is both cheaper and roughly seven times faster than PSA Regular at $79.99 and 70–80 business days.

SGC: cheapest at the bottom, expedited-only higher up#

SGC’s standard-size table is unusual in shape. Under $1,500 declared value it charges $15 per card on a 75-plus-day service and offers no expedited option at all. At $3,500 the standard service costs $85 and expedited $150. From $7,500 upward only expedited exists: $250, then $500 at $20,000, $1,000 at $50,000 and $2,000 at $100,000. Above $100,000 the fee is $3,750 plus $375 for each additional $10,000 of declared value.

That shape rewards exactly one behaviour — sending inexpensive cards and waiting — and prices everything else at a premium.

Fee is the smaller half of the cost#

What this means for a submission today#

If the goal is the lowest cost per card, SGC at $15 and CGC Economy at $20 are the only entry tiers open, and both ask for months of patience. If the goal is speed, CGC Standard at $55 and ten working days undercuts every comparable option. If the goal is resale in the holder buyers pay most for, that is PSA at $79.99 and a 70–80 day wait, and the premium has to clear the gap.

The mechanics of actually sending the cards — account, form, packing, and when the clock starts — are in how to get cards graded.

Which of those three is right depends on your card’s raw price — which comes from completed sales, not from a guide, as what a card is worth explains — the graded price it might reach, and every one of those costs. Run them through the grading ROI calculator; the reasoning behind the inputs is in is it worth grading Pokémon cards, and the difference between the four grading scales themselves is in PSA vs BGS vs CGC. Before any of it, be sure the card is what you think it is: condition and centering decide the grade you are paying to find out.

TCG Valuer is an independent site and app. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, PSA, Beckett, CGC or SGC. Product names are used descriptively to identify the cards and services being discussed.