Is it worth grading?

How the calculator works

1. Your card. Search the name and number, like “Umbreon VMAX 215”, and pick it from the list. Signed in, you can pick a raw card from your collection instead. Every card page also has a “Grade it?” box that opens the calculator on that card.
2. The printing. Where a card comes in more than one, say 1st Edition, Shadowless and Unlimited, or holo and reverse holo, choose the one in your hand. No price goes in until you do.
3. The prices. The raw price and every PSA grade with enough matched sales behind it go in from sold listings, each with its sales count and the date of the latest sale where we hold one. A grade we can’t price says “Not enough sales” and stays empty. It never borrows the price of the grade next to it. Any figure can be typed over: the price checker has the full sales record if you want to check one.
4. The fee. PSA sets the service level by what the card is worth once graded, so each grade is charged the level its own slab price needs. Send a card in too low and PSA moves it up and bills the difference. Type your own fee if you’re sending through a group sub or a bulk deal.
5. Shipping and selling fees. $25 for shipping both ways and 13% in selling fees unless you change them.
6. Your odds, if you want them. Put your own chance against each grade, as percentages that total 100, and you get an expected gain. Leave them empty and each row is a plain what-if.

The headline is the break-even grade: the lowest grade at which the slab leaves you more than selling the card raw today. On a modern chase card that is often the 10 and nothing else. On a vintage holo it can be a 7 or lower, which is why the calculator shows every grade and not only the top two.

Coming from the AI card grader with an estimated range? The grades in that range are marked, so you can read off what each would leave you. An estimate from photos is not a set of odds, so the calculator doesn’t treat it as one.

The break-even sum

Grading pays when the graded price, after selling fees, beats the raw price after selling fees by more than the grading fee and shipping. Turned round, the graded price you need is:

raw price + (grading fee + shipping) ÷ (1 − selling fee)

At the Standard level that is the raw price plus $98. A card worth $100 raw has to sell for about $198 in its slab before grading has made you a cent.

Today’s example: Charizard ex 199/165 from 151 is $415 raw, $360 as a PSA 9 and $1,425 as a PSA 10. A 10 goes in at PSA’s Priority level ($79.99) and makes you $774 against selling raw. A 9 is billed at Standard ($59.99) and loses you $133.

PSA 9 against PSA 10

On modern cards nearly all the gain is in the 10. These are today’s prices, with the gain against selling raw after the PSA fee for each grade’s own service level, $25 shipping and 13% selling fees.

Gem rate is the share of PSA-graded copies that got a 10. It is the pop report for the card, not the odds for your copy. 6 of these 6 cards lose money as a 9. That is why the grade you expect matters more than anything else: a card that’s a coin-flip for a 10 is a very different bet from one that’s a near-certain 9.

Working out your odds

Be harder on the card than you want to be. A grader will be.

• Centering first. Outside 55/45 on the front, a 10 is off the table whatever the rest looks like. Measure it with the card centering tool.
• Then corners and edges, front and back. The back of a Pokémon card shows every white speck against the blue. The AI card grader scores each one from a photo.
• Then the surface, tilted under one light. Holo scratches and print lines are the usual reason a clean-looking card comes back a 9.
• Use the gem rate as a ceiling. If 30% of graded copies are 10s, and people only send their best, a copy you’ve found nothing wrong with is still no better than an even bet.

PSA fees used (September 2026)

PSA sets the service level by the card’s value after grading. Send a card in too low and PSA moves it up and bills the difference. Full details, which levels are closed, and CGC’s prices are in PSA grading cost.

When grading is worth it, and when it isn’t

Usually worth it

• The card has a real chance of a 10, and the 10 sells for several times the raw price.
• It’s vintage, where a 7 or an 8 is a good grade and the slab proves the card is real.
• You’re keeping it, and the protection matters more to you than the sums.

Usually not

• The card is worth under about $50 raw. The fee is more than the card.
• It only pays as a 10 and you can already see a flaw.
• The PSA 10 has few recorded sales. A price from two sales is not a price you can count on getting.
• You need the money soon. Cards sent at the cheapest level are away for months.

Mistakes that cost money

• Using asking prices. A PSA 10 listed at $900 that sells at $600 is a $600 card. If you type over a price, type a sold one.
• Forgetting the selling fee on both sides. You pay it on the raw sale too, so only the difference counts. The calculator does this for you.
• Assuming a 10. Read the rows below it too. If the sums only work as a 10, they don’t work for a card with a flaw you can already see.
• Ignoring the wait. A modern card’s price can fall a long way in the time it’s away, as more copies get graded.

Next

• Is it worth grading Pokémon cards? The judgment calls the sums can’t make.
• How to get a Pokémon card graded, step by step.
• The PSA grading scale explained: what each grade means.
• Selling once it’s back? The selling calculator shows what’s left after eBay’s fees.