What is card grading?
Card grading is the process of sending a card to a company that authenticates it, assigns a condition grade on a published scale, and seals it in a tamper-evident holder with a label and a certification number. The card can no longer be handled, and it can no longer be argued about. That second part is the entire commercial point.
An ungraded — "raw" — card is sold on a description. Two reasonable people will look at the same card and disagree about whether a corner is soft or whether the centring is acceptable, and a buyer paying four figures on a photograph is taking that disagreement as risk. A graded card replaces the description with a number that a third party is accountable for, and buyers pay a premium for that certainty.
It is worth being precise about what that number is and is not. A grade is one company's opinion, recorded under magnification by people who do this all day, published against criteria anyone can read. It is not a measurement, it is not a valuation, and it is not portable — the same card sent twice can come back differently, which is why a resubmission industry exists at all.
What does a card grade actually measure?
Four things: centring, corners, edges, and surface. Every one of the four companies weighs those same four attributes, and Beckett publishes a score for each of them separately on its label. It is worth knowing them individually, because they are also exactly what you should check yourself before deciding to submit anything.
- Centring — how evenly the image sits inside the borders, front and back. Measured as a ratio, and graded on both sides: Beckett's published scale(beckett.com , opens in a new tab) requires 50/50 across the front and 60/40 or better on the back for its top tier. This is the most common reason a card that looks flawless does not get a top grade, and it is a printing defect you cannot do anything about.
- Corners — sharpness under magnification. A corner that reads as sharp to the eye is often visibly soft under a loupe.
- Edges — chipping, whitening, and roughness along the cut. Dark-bordered cards show edge wear far more than white-bordered ones, which is why the same physical condition grades lower on some sets than others.
- Surface — print lines, scratches, indentations, gloss, and any handling marks. Surface issues are the hardest to spot at home and the most common unpleasant surprise.
How do PSA, BGS, CGC and SGC differ?
They differ in three ways that matter to you: the granularity of the scale, whether the component scores are published, and which labels buyers compare for your exact card. Each company publishes its own scale. None of those scales is a shortcut past the condition of your card.
| Company | Scale | Top grades | Strongest reputation in |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) | 1–10, with half grades from 1.5 to 8.5 and deliberately no 9.5, plus qualifier labels such as OC (off-centre) or MK (marked) | PSA 10 Gem Mint | US sports cards and modern Pokémon. The largest grader by volume and the default in most US price conversations. |
| BGS (Beckett Grading Services) | 1–10 in half-point steps, plus four published subgrades for centring, corners, edges and surface | BGS 9.5 Gem Mint, BGS 10 Pristine, and a black label for a Pristine 10 with all four subgrades at 10 | Modern sports, particularly basketball, and anywhere a buyer wants to see the subgrades. The black label carries a large premium. |
| CGC Cards | 1–10 in half-point steps, with two distinct designations at the top | CGC 10 Pristine, described by CGC as flawless under 10x magnification, and CGC 10 Gem Mint where one criterion falls short of Pristine | Trading card games, especially Pokémon, where it has a strong and growing following. Comes from a comic-grading lineage. |
| SGC (Sportscard Guaranty Company) | 1–10 in half-point steps | SGC 10 Gem, SGC 10 Pristine | Vintage and pre-war sports cards. Its black-matted holder is a deliberate presentation choice for old cardboard and it is widely trusted in that market. |
Read the scales yourself before choosing; each company publishes its own, and they are short. PSA's grading standards(psacard.com , opens in a new tab), Beckett's grading scale(beckett.com , opens in a new tab), CGC Cards' grading scale(cgccards.com , opens in a new tab), and SGC's grading scale(gosgc.com , opens in a new tab) are the authority on what each number means — not this page, and not a forum post.
One structural difference deserves attention because people trip over it constantly. PSA runs half grades from 1.5 to 8.5 and stops: there is no PSA 9.5. Beckett, CGC and SGC all use half points right through the top of the range. So on a PSA label the step from Mint 9 to Gem Mint 10 is a cliff with no rung in between, which is a large part of why that particular gap is so expensive.
The subgrade difference is worth dwelling on too. Beckett publishes its four component scores on the label, so a BGS 9.5 tells a buyer why it is a 9.5 — a 9.5 with a 9 in centring and 10s elsewhere is a different card from one with a 9 in surface. PSA publishes only the overall number. Neither approach is better; they suit different buyers, and that is part of why the same physical card can be worth more in one company's holder than another's.
Why does the same grade sell for different amounts?
Because of liquidity and habit, not accuracy. The same card at the same nominal grade routinely sells for different amounts depending on who graded it, and for most US sports and modern Pokémon the PSA copy has sold highest for years. Nothing about the cardboard changed; the market for the label did.
Population reports can make the comparison more concrete by showing how many copies a company has graded at each level. Beckett's population report(beckett.com , opens in a new tab) and CGC's population report(cgccards.com , opens in a new tab) are the primary places to check those companies' own counts. They are not a census of every surviving card or a valuation: CGC explicitly warns that its report should not be used as an indicator of value or rarity.
The practical consequence is that "should I grade this?" and "who should grade this?" are the same question. Check recent sold prices for your exact card, in the grade you realistically expect, from each company. Those four numbers are usually not close together, and they should decide your submission.
Is my card worth grading?
Usually not. A workable rule: total the real cost of getting one card graded and returned, then only submit cards whose ungraded value is at least three to four times that number. Below that, a mid grade wipes out the entire gain and a low grade leaves you worse off than when you started.
The reason the multiple has to be that large is that you are paying certain costs against an uncertain outcome. Certain: a per-card fee that scales with declared value, shipping both ways, insurance, and weeks or months without the card. Uncertain: the grade, which is not the grade you hoped for often enough to matter.
When grading usually does make sense
- High-value cards you intend to sell. The premium on a well-graded expensive card comfortably exceeds the fee, and the certainty is what gets it sold at all.
- Vintage cards where authenticity is a live question. For pre-war and early post-war cards, authentication is often worth more than the condition grade.
- Cards where a top grade is genuinely plausible. Modern cards straight from a pack, well centred, with no visible surface issues — this is where the upside is largest, because a modern card's value can be concentrated almost entirely in the top grade.
- Anything you want to keep permanently. A sealed holder is good long-term protection, and "I want it protected" is a perfectly legitimate reason that has nothing to do with resale.
When it usually does not
- Common cards, however clean. A perfect copy of a card thousands of people also have perfect copies of is still a cheap card.
- Cards with a visible flaw. If you can see the problem without magnification, the grader will see it too.
- Bulk submissions of hopefuls. Sending fifty cards hoping a few come back high is a strategy that mostly funds the grading company.
- Cards you plan to keep and never sell, unless protection is the actual goal — in which case a good sleeve and a semi-rigid holder cost almost nothing.
Should I submit through a local card shop?
Often yes, if the shop answers four questions cleanly. Many shops submit on your behalf and some run dedicated submission nights. This is genuinely useful: shops often hold a dealer or bulk account with better per-card pricing than an individual can get, they package properly, and you do not have to deal with the shipping.
The four questions are: which company is it going to, which service level and declared value, who is liable if the cards are lost or damaged in transit and is that insured, and what does the shop charge on top of the grading fee. All four are reasonable and a good shop will answer them without hesitation. Get an itemised receipt for what you hand over, every time.
You can find shops that offer submissions in the grading category, and shops that run submission nights appear in our events listings. If you are choosing between shops, the checks in how to find a card shop worth the drive apply here too — a shop handling your cards for two months is a shop you should trust first.
Common questions
Is PSA better than BGS, CGC or SGC?
Not in accuracy — all four are established, competent graders. PSA is more liquid: it grades the most cards, so there are more comparable sales and buyers bid more confidently, which for most US sports and modern Pokémon has meant higher prices at the same nominal grade. BGS publishes four subgrades, which some buyers prefer. CGC has a strong following in trading card games. SGC is highly respected for vintage and pre-war sports. Check recent sold prices for your exact card and grade rather than applying a general ranking.
Is a BGS 9.5 the same as a PSA 10?
No. Both are commonly described as gem mint, but they are different companies' tiers on different scales, and they do not sell for the same amount. Beckett also grades above 9.5 — a BGS 10 Pristine, and a black label where all four subgrades are 10 — so a 9.5 is not that company's ceiling in the way a PSA 10 is.
Does PSA give half grades?
Yes, from 1.5 up to 8.5, and no further: PSA does not issue a 9.5, so the scale runs 8.5, then Mint 9, then Gem Mint 10 with nothing between them. Beckett, CGC and SGC all use half points across the top of their scales instead. That missing rung is one reason the price gap between a PSA 9 and a PSA 10 of the same card is so often a multiple rather than a margin.
How much does it cost to grade a card?
It depends on the company, the service level, and the card's declared value, and every company changes its fees more than once a year. Rather than quote a number that will be wrong, we would point you at the grader's current published price list. Budget for shipping both ways and insurance as well — on a single card those often exceed the grading fee itself.
Can a card shop tell me what grade my card will get?
An experienced dealer can point out specific problems — soft corner, off-centre back, print line on the surface — and that is genuinely valuable. They cannot tell you the grade. Grading is a human judgement made by a third party under magnification, and it varies. Treat a guaranteed grade as a warning sign about the person making the guarantee.
Does grading a card always increase its value?
No. Grading reveals condition rather than improving it. A card that comes back in a mid grade can be worth less than it was raw, because the number removes the buyer's hope that it might be better than described — and you have paid the fee either way. Grading adds value when the grade is high relative to expectations, or when authentication was the real question.