What a PSA 10 is worth: the grading premium by era, price and grading company

The figure is the ratio of two UltraBall prices for the same card on Oct 14, 2026: its PSA 10 price over its ungraded (Near Mint) price. A card is included when both are built from recent sales: at least 5 ungraded sales and 3 PSA 10 sales in the last 90 days, an ungraded price of $1 or more, and a PSA 10 price taken from sales rather than filled from a price guide. That gives 3,516 cards. Their median PSA 10 sells for 16.4× the ungraded copy; for half of them the multiple is between 7.4× and 41.2×.

A multiple is not a return on grading. Grading costs money and time, most submissions do not come back a 10, and the cards in this report are the ones people chose to grade and sell, not every card that could be graded. The premium describes what the market pays for the top grade; it says nothing about the odds of getting it.

The multiple climbs steeply with age. Cards from the current eras (Scarlet & Violet, Sword & Shield, Sun & Moon and Mega Evolution) carry 9× to 12×. Wizards of the Coast cards from 1999 to 2003 carry 40.0×. The highest are the mid-2000s eras: Diamond & Pearl 321× and Platinum 329×. Few copies from those years survive in gem condition, so a PSA 10 is scarce while ungraded copies are not.

By the card’s ungraded price, the multiple is highest at both ends: 21.2× for cards under $10, 11.2× for $10 to $50, then rising again to 31.6× for cards worth $1,000 or more ungraded. A PSA 10 carries a value of its own however cheap the card, so over a few-dollar ungraded copy the multiple is large; at the top end the ungraded price is high, but a gem copy is scarcer still.

At the other extreme, 5.6% of cards have a PSA 10 worth less than three times the ungraded copy.

For the 2,764 cards with both a PSA 9 and a PSA 10 price from sales, the PSA 10 sold for a median 4.9× the PSA 9 (half between 3.1× and 9.5×). The PSA 9 itself sold for 4.1× the ungraded price across 3,898 cards. So most of a top grade’s value sits in the last point. The step is smallest for the newest era (2.6× for Mega Evolution) and largest for older cards (16.6× for Black & White).

Each grading company’s top grade sells at its own price. Pairing the same card’s sales in each grade with its PSA 10 sales from Jul 15, 2026 to Oct 12, 2026 (at least three sales of each, 3,246 pairings in all), a CGC Gem Mint 10 sold for a median 38% of the PSA 10, closer to a PSA 9 (22% of a PSA 10) than to a PSA 10. CGC’s higher Pristine 10 sold for 96% of a PSA 10, and a TAG 10 for 100%: level with PSA. A BGS 9.5 sold for 51% and an ACE 10 for 58%.

The CGC split matters. CGC’s 10 comes in two labels, Gem Mint and Pristine, and the sale records hold both under the same grade; this report separates them by whether the listing title names Pristine. Pooled together they would read as a single figure that describes neither.

The cards whose PSA 10 sells for the largest multiple of an ungraded copy worth $10 or more, and those with the largest dollar gap. A card is listed only with at least 5 PSA 10 sales in 90 days and a PSA 10 price within twice its own 90-day sales median, so no single outsized sale puts a card here.