Which grader is best for Pokémon cards?

PSA dominates Pokémon — it has the largest market, the highest gem-card slab premium (often 1.5-3× over equivalent BGS/CGC slabs), and the most-buyer-recognized label. CGC and BGS are credible alternatives with lower turnaround and lower fees, but their slabs sell at a discount to PSA on the resale market. SGC and TAG are niche for Pokémon.

Which grader is best for MTG?

BGS historically dominated MTG due to the subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) on the hard plastic slab. CGC has gained share recently with faster turnaround and aggressive pricing. PSA is growing in MTG but isn't the default the way it is in Pokémon. SGC is a credible option for older MTG (pre-Modern) at lower fees.

Is PSA always worth the higher fee?

Not always. The platform's grading optimizer computes net profit per grader for each card by multiplying gem-rate probability × that grader's per-grade comp price, then subtracting the grader's fee + return shipping + eBay sales fee. The 'best grader' answer depends on the card. Run any card through cardboardassets.com/tools/grading-optimizer/.

How do CGC's prices compare to PSA?

CGC's grading fees are typically 20-40% lower than PSA at equivalent service tiers (Express, Walk-Through, etc.). But CGC slabs sell at a 20-40% discount to PSA slabs on the resale market for the same card at the same grade. The net economics depend on the card's gem-rate and whether the savings on the fee outweigh the resale discount.

What is BGS Pristine 10 / Black Label?

BGS Pristine 10 (also called Black Label) requires all four subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) to be 10.0. Pristine 10 cards command an exceptional premium — often 5-10× over a standard BGS 9.5. The gem rate for Pristine 10 is typically 1-3% even on otherwise high-quality cards.

PSA vs CGC vs BGS: Which Grader Pays Most?

Sending a raw card to a grading company is a one-way trip — you pay a fee, you wait weeks-to-months, and the card comes back with a number that determines whether you made money or lost it. The four-and-a-half big graders — PSA, CGC, BGS, SGC, plus TAG for the AI-graded niche — all charge different fees, work at different speeds, and produce slabs that sell for different premiums on the resale market.

This page lays out the comparison at the level of detail that actually changes the grade-vs-don't-grade decision. Every number is sourced from graders.json (the platform's grading-economics config) and population reports — the same data the grading optimizer uses to compute net profit per card.

Side-by-side comparison

Each grader sells multiple service tiers (Express, Regular, Bulk). The table below uses the default tier Cardboard Assets picks for EV math — typically a middle-of-the-road tier appropriate for sub-$5,000 cards. For high-value or extremely-time-sensitive submissions, the higher tiers shave weeks at higher cost.

Grader	Default tier	Fee per card	Turnaround	Pop-report quality
PSA	—	$25	65 business days (varies by tier)	Best — public Population Report, free lookup by cert
CGC	—	$25	30 business days	Good — public Population Report, free cert verification
BGS	—	$50	20 business days	Good — subgrade-level reporting on each slab
SGC	—	$30	30 business days	Decent — public lookup, thinner historical depth
TAG	—	$25	30 business days	Limited — newer, no widely-trusted public pop reports

Sales fee

Every comparison assumes you list the graded card on eBay. eBay's final-value fee on trading cards is 13.25% of the sale price plus a flat $0.30 per transaction. The optimizer toggles this on by default — most flippers sell on eBay.

Fees + turnaround

Grading fees aren't the whole cost. Net cost-per-card is:

fee + return shipping + your-time-cost

Return shipping is paid by you (typically $5–$15 per card depending on insured value). Time-cost depends on the card's depreciation rate — a card likely to drop 10% in a quarter punishes slow turnaround. PSA's Bulk tier is the cheapest fee but can take 90+ business days; for a card actively trending down that's a real cost.

Gem rate by grader

Gem rate is the percentage of submissions that come back graded at the grader's gem-mint top grade — PSA 10, BGS 9.5/10/Pristine 10, CGC 10/Pristine 10, SGC 10 Pristine, TAG 10. The higher the gem rate on a card, the better the expected grading math becomes. See the gem-rate explainer for how the calculation changes the EV.

PSA — historically the tightest grader. Pokémon vintage gem rates often sit in the 1-5% range; modern Pokémon ex/SIR cards 5-15%. MTG vintage gem rates similar.
BGS — comparable to PSA on the 9.5 line; much lower for Pristine 10 (1-3% even on clean cards).
CGC — generally regarded as slightly more lenient on 10s than PSA on modern cards, comparable on vintage. CGC's Pristine 10 is rarer than the standard 10.
SGC — gem rates broadly similar to PSA. Better-known in sports; improving in TCG.
TAG — AI-graded; gem rates trend higher (some submissions report 20%+ 10-rate). The label hasn't translated into resale premium yet.

The platform pulls gem-rate data from public pop reports where available. The current snapshot is hand-verified for the 16-card detail set; the comp pipeline expands this as data lands. See how the comp pipeline works.

Slab premium on resale

A PSA 10 of any popular Pokémon card sells for more than a CGC 10 of the same card. The reason is liquidity — buyers default to PSA because PSA dominates Pokémon auction comps, so the next buyer-of-buyer also defaults to PSA. Network effects compound.

Approximate slab-premium ratios at the gem-mint top grade, based on eBay sold-listings comps:

Comparison	Modern Pokémon	Vintage Pokémon (WOTC)	Modern MTG
PSA 10 vs CGC 10	PSA +15-40%	PSA +30-80%	~Even
PSA 10 vs BGS 9.5	PSA +20-50%	PSA +40-100%	BGS +0-20% (older MTG)
BGS 9.5 vs BGS Pristine 10	Pristine 10 +200-400%	Pristine 10 +400-800%	Pristine 10 +250-500%

These ratios are directional, not deterministic — they shift with each set's individual buyer pool. For the actual current sold-listing data per card, run any card through the optimizer; it pulls real eBay sold comps per grader.

Decision framework

Which grader pays most for your card depends on three things:

Game. Pokémon → default to PSA. MTG → default to BGS or CGC. Sports → PSA (Beckett used to dominate vintage sports but PSA has overtaken).
Card value. Under $200 raw → cheapest fee (CGC bulk, SGC) usually wins. Over $1,000 raw → highest gem-card slab premium (PSA, BGS Pristine 10) wins because the slab premium dollar value swamps the fee delta.
Card condition. If you suspect it grades a 10 — go to the grader with the highest top-grade slab premium. If you suspect a 9 — go to the grader with the smallest 9-vs-10 cliff (typically CGC or SGC).

The grading optimizer compresses all of this into a single per-card "best grader" answer. Pick any card, see net profit by grader, and pick the highest. The math is exposed — you can override if your copy of the card is unusually clean.

Frequently asked questions

Which grader is best for Pokémon cards?: PSA dominates Pokémon — it has the largest market, the highest gem-card slab premium (often 1.5-3× over equivalent BGS/CGC slabs), and the most-buyer-recognized label. CGC and BGS are credible alternatives with lower turnaround and lower fees, but their slabs sell at a discount to PSA on the resale market. SGC and TAG are niche for Pokémon.
Which grader is best for MTG?: BGS historically dominated MTG due to the subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) on the hard plastic slab. CGC has gained share recently with faster turnaround and aggressive pricing. PSA is growing in MTG but isn't the default the way it is in Pokémon. SGC is a credible option for older MTG (pre-Modern) at lower fees.
Is PSA always worth the higher fee?: Not always. The platform's grading optimizer computes net profit per grader for each card by multiplying gem-rate probability × that grader's per-grade comp price, then subtracting the grader's fee + return shipping + eBay sales fee. The 'best grader' answer depends on the card. Run any card through cardboardassets.com/tools/grading-optimizer/.
How do CGC's prices compare to PSA?: CGC's grading fees are typically 20-40% lower than PSA at equivalent service tiers (Express, Walk-Through, etc.). But CGC slabs sell at a 20-40% discount to PSA slabs on the resale market for the same card at the same grade. The net economics depend on the card's gem-rate and whether the savings on the fee outweigh the resale discount.
What is BGS Pristine 10 / Black Label?: BGS Pristine 10 (also called Black Label) requires all four subgrades (centering, corners, edges, surface) to be 10.0. Pristine 10 cards command an exceptional premium — often 5-10× over a standard BGS 9.5. The gem rate for Pristine 10 is typically 1-3% even on otherwise high-quality cards.