How to get Pokémon cards graded, step by step

The decision about whether to grade at all is arithmetic and belongs elsewhere. This page is the mechanics: what each grader requires, what the form is for, how the parcel should look, and why the wait is longer than the number on the tier suggests.

The five stages, in order#

1. Step 1

   Create an account

   Free at CGC, with paid memberships from $39 a year that discount grading and authentication. Some tiers elsewhere are members-only, so check before planning a submission around a price.

2. Step 2

   Choose the tier

   Tiers are set by the card's value and the turnaround you want. Value is not a formality — it is the field that decides which tier you are allowed to use.

3. Step 3

   Complete the submission form

   The online form tells the grader which cards are in the box and which services you want. The parcel without the form is a box of cards nobody can match to an order.

4. Step 4

   Pack the cards

   Each card sleeved and in a semi-rigid holder, cards immobilised as a block, the block padded away from the walls of the box. Follow the grader's own packing page — they differ in detail.

5. Step 5

   Ship with tracking and insurance

   Mark the box as the grader instructs: CGC asks for EX, WK or UV in large bold letters on each side for its faster tiers. Then wait, because the order cannot be changed once it is in transit.

Declared value chooses the tier#

Every tier caps the value of the cards it will accept, and the cap is the tier’s real definition.

Declaring a value to fit a cheaper tier is a false economy: a card that grades into a higher value band has to be moved to the tier it belongs in before it is released, and the value you declared is also the value that is insured while the card is out of your hands.

What the grader actually does with the card#

PSA publishes its process in three stages, and the order of them explains the outcomes that are not numbers.

Authentication comes before grading. A card that fails it does not get a low number — it gets no number at all.

The codes that come back instead of a grade, and what each of them means, are listed in PSA vs BGS vs CGC.

The clock starts later than you think#

PSA states that a service level’s estimated turnaround begins when the order is received and scanned into the facility — not when you post it — and that the times are estimates only, are not guaranteed, and may change rapidly without notice as conditions change. CGC says the same about its own estimates.

That gap between posting and scanning is invisible in every quoted turnaround, and it is why a “70 to 80 business day” tier routinely means most of a year in practice once postage, receiving and return shipping are added.

Costs the fee does not include#

The whole of it belongs in one calculation before the box leaves the house: the grading ROI calculator takes fees, shipping and supplies together and compares the result against selling the card raw. Current fees and turnaround by grader are in the cost comparison, which also lists which tiers were closed to new submissions when we last checked.

Before you pack anything#

Two checks save the most disappointment. Measure centering, because it caps the grade before a grader sees the card and it is the one attribute you can measure at home. And judge condition against the marketplace standard rather than against hope — a card you would sell as Lightly Played is not a card that comes back a 10. What the card is worth either way is the value question.

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.