What is card grading?

Card grading is the process of submitting your sports card to a third-party service to verify the quality of your card. It's similar to a jeweler verifying the value of a diamond necklace or a watch. The third party services that grade cards will encapsulate your card in a case, or what's known as a slab.

What does it cost to have a card graded?

PSA Grading Cost Per Card

Value: $25/card. Value Plus: $40/card. Regular: $75/card. Express: $150.

Is it worth getting a card graded?

In nearly all circumstances, a graded card is worth more than its raw counterpart. There might be some minor exceptions to this. For example, if a card is returned from a grader labeled as questionable authenticity, we could theoretically say that the card values are approximately equal.

What does a Grade 7 card look like?

A PSA NM 7 is a card with just a slight surface wear visible upon close inspection. There may be slight fraying on some corners. Picture focus may be slightly out-of-register. A minor printing blemish is acceptable.

What does a Grade 9 card look like?

A PSA Mint 9 is a superb condition card that exhibits only one of the following minor flaws: a very slight wax stain on reverse, a minor printing imperfection or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 60/40 to 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

Card Grading Behind the Scenes

How rare is a PSA 10 card?

Earning a PSA 10 grade on average is quite hard, but is highly dependent on a card's age, scarcity, and condition sensitivity. Newer cards generally have a higher probability of earning a PSA 10, since a collector will immediately protect a card after pulling from a pack.

How hard is it to get a 10 on a graded card?

For a card to earn a 10, the edges of a card must be flawless to the naked eye and virtually perfect when looked at under magnification. The final criteria looked at by card graders is the surface of the card. A card's surface is susceptible to loss of glossiness, wax stains, scratching, and printing defects.

How much is a PSA 10 worth?

Using the PSA Price Guide, a PSA 10 of this card is valued at around $375,000. In comparison, a PSA 9 drops down to around $20,000.

How rare is a BGS 10?

BGS 10s are extremely rare (impossible for older cards) and is comparable to Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) comic book grading, which has many a relatively high number of 9.8 grades and very few perfect 10s.

Why are PSA 10 so expensive?

Why are PSA 10 Graded Pokémon Cards so Expensive? PSA 10 Pokémon cards tend to be some of the most expensive on the market. This is partly due to the rarity, and the difficulty in obtaining a Gem Mint 10/10 grade. For example, we'll look at the Charizard V (154/172) found in the 2022 Brilliant Stars collection.

Is PSA grading free?

Now in terms of pricing, PSA's most basic service level costs $20 per card with a minimum submission of 20 cards worth up to $199 in declared value. On the other hand, their most elite service costs $600 per card, worth up to $9,999 in declared value.

Is it better to sell cards graded or ungraded?

Graded cards are generally worth more than their counterparts that aren't graded because graded cards have been examined, authenticated, and assigned a condition by an expert. Thus, a card deemed to be gem mint is going to be valued higher than one that looks mint in “raw” condition. This makes sense.

Can you grade cards for free?

Now with that out of the way, let me rephrase that as you probably can't get cards graded for free. And most likely not in the way you're thinking. But there are cheap grading options, and ways to minimize your costs. Card grading is a service, just like dining out is a service provided by restaurants.

What is the cheapest way to get cards graded?

Of the major grading companies, BGS currently offers the cheapest card grading service, which is $18 to grade a single card at the “Base” level. This is $2 less than CSG's “Economy” level, $5 less than PSA's “Value” service, and $4 less than SGC.

How much did a PSA 10 Charizard sell for?

PSA 10 Recently Sold for $420,000

What is this?

What is the rarest PSA card?

The most expensive Pokémon card is the Pikachu Illustrator which sold for $5.275 million in July 2021. It's the true Holy Grail of Pokémon card collecting and only one PSA 10 is known to exist.

How many PSA 10 exist?

The 1961 Topps Baseball set has a gem rate of just 0.3%, making PSA 10s rare despite the large population (just 1,024 total PSA 10s). The most popular and highest graded card in the set is the #300 Mickey Mantle, which received just 2 gems out of 8,321 cards submitted.

What is the highest grade you can get on a card?

Numeric Grades. A Perfect 10 is a card that has received the grade of Pristine 10 with all four sub-grades being 10. This “quad 10” is the best a card can be.

Is Beckett or PSA better?

Beckett Grading Services has a lot more bells and whistles than PSA: they offer color-coded tags for the cards based on their grade (gold is a 9.5 or 10, for example), they award subscores so you can see exactly how your cards faired in their four subcategories, and they have a “Black Label” offering for the rare ...

Can you grade your own cards?

Yes, you can self-grade your own cards to practice, however the card will still be considered a raw and ungraded card by others, and should be listed on auction as such, until it is graded professionally and encased by one of the grading companies.

Which is better PSA 1 or PSA 10?

The Trading Card Authentication & Grading Process

If your cards pass authentication, PSA grades the condition of each card on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being best. PSA encapsulates each card in its own sonically sealed, tamper-evident case.

What is the most expensive PSA 10?

As of August 2022, the most expensive Pokémon card is a Professional Sports Authenticator grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card that social media personality and boxer Logan Paul purchased for $5.275 million, according to Guinness World Records. A PSA grade of 10 means the card was in perfect condition.

Why did my card get a PSA 9?

A Mint 9, as defined by PSA, is a card that is in “superb condition” and has only one minor flaw. This flaw can be a range of things, but most commonly PSA will grade a card a Mint 9 if there is simply a “minor printing imperfection”.