Card Grading Companies Compared
The major trading card grading companies are PSA, Beckett (BGS), SGC, CGC, TAG and DCM Grading. The first five are mail-in services: you ship the card, it is graded, and it comes back sealed in a slab. On their cheapest open single-card tiers, published prices run from $20 (CGC Economy) to about $80 per card, with published turnarounds from 15 to 100 business days. CGC Bulk is $17 a card, but only on a 25-card submission. All figures were checked October 8, 2026. DCM is photo-based, grades in about 60 seconds for $2.99 a single card or as low as $0.66 a card with the VIP package, and the card never leaves your hands.
Updated October 2026. Figures last checked October 8, 2026; each row shows its own check date. Business days throughout, shipping excluded. Sources are linked under the table.
The comparison table (October 2026)
Every figure below is a published number from the grading company or a dated third-party roundup. Prices are per card on the cheapest tier open as of each row's check date and exclude shipping and insurance.
| Service | Cheapest open tier | Published price | Published turnaround | Method | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Checked October 8, 2026 | Standard (Value services paused) | $59.99 | 90 to 100 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| Beckett (BGS) Checked October 8, 2026 | Express (Base and Standard paused) | $79.95 | 15 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| SGC Checked October 8, 2026 | Standard | $50 | 40 or more business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| CGC Checked October 8, 2026 | Economy | $20 | 90 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| TAG Checked August 24, 2026 | See published tiers | Published on TAG’s site | Published on TAG’s site | Human graders, machine-assisted | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab plus a digital report. |
| DCM Grading Checked October 8, 2026 | Single credit (packs go lower) | $2.99 | About 60 seconds | Computer-vision AI | No mail-in. Digital grade and report, plus a printable label you apply to a holder you already own. |
Notes on each service
- PSA: PSA lists Value services as temporarily paused. Standard covers cards up to $1,000 insured value. Priority is $79.99 (up to $1,500, 70 to 80 business days), Express $199 (up to $2,500, 20 to 30 business days), Super Express $349 (up to $5,000, 10 to 15 business days) and Premier $599 (up to $10,000, 7 to 10 business days). PSA reported a backlog above 12 million cards in late July 2026. Minimum: None listed. Checked October 8, 2026.
- Beckett (BGS): Base and Standard are temporarily paused, with a waitlist open. Beckett first paused them on August 5, 2026 after a reported 102 percent year-over-year rise in submissions. While Beckett.com is offline, submissions go through a temporary Beckett submission form. Minimum: None on Express. Checked October 8, 2026.
- SGC: Standard covers cards up to $1,500 declared value. Expedited (2 to 3 business days) runs from $150 (up to $3,500 value) to $3,750 for cards valued at $100,000 or more. Minimum: None listed. Checked October 8, 2026.
- CGC: Economy covers cards up to $1,000 value. Bulk is $17 per card but requires a 25-card submission, with about 150 working days and a $500 maximum value. Standard is $55 (10 days), Express $100 (5 days) and WalkThrough $300 (2 days). CGC lists turnarounds as estimates, not guarantees. Minimum: None. Checked October 8, 2026.
- TAG: We do not restate TAG pricing or turnaround here because we do not have a dated published figure we can source. Check TAG directly for current numbers. Minimum: Varies by tier. Checked August 24, 2026.
- DCM Grading: Packs bring the per-grade cost down: 5 for $9.99, 20 for $19.99, 150 for $99. A DCM grade is not a slab from one of the companies above and is not registry-eligible. Minimum: None. Two free grades to start.. Checked October 8, 2026.
Sources
- PreGradeCards, "CGC vs PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs TAG", August 15, 2026
- PreGradeCards, "Beckett pauses grading", August 2026
- PSA submission updates
- Beckett grading status notice
- Beckett card grading submission form (temporary)
- PSA trading card grading services and pricing
- SGC card grading services and pricing
- CGC Cards grading services and fees
- TAG Grading, published services
Grading company pricing and service availability change often. The linked sources are the place to confirm a current figure.
What the table does not show
Backlogs. PSA's own updates page reported a backlog above 12 million cards in late July 2026, and as of October 8, 2026 PSA's services page lists Value services as temporarily paused. Beckett paused its Base and Standard tiers on August 5, 2026 after a reported 102 percent year-over-year rise in submissions, and as of October 8, 2026 they remain temporarily paused with a waitlist open. Published turnarounds are estimates, not guarantees.
Faster tiers. Every mail-in service sells faster tiers at higher prices. As of October 8, 2026, CGC Standard is $55 for 10 days and CGC Express $100 for 5, SGC Expedited (2 to 3 business days) starts at $150, PSA Express is $199 for 20 to 30 business days and PSA Super Express is $349 for 10 to 15. Those tiers make sense for cards worth several hundred dollars and up.
Subgrades. Beckett prints subgrades on the label at every tier. PSA, SGC and CGC do not as standard, though CGC shows them on some services. DCM includes four subgrades on every grade.
Shipping and insurance. Add insured shipping both ways, typically $15 to $40 depending on declared value, to every mail-in row. There is no shipping row for DCM because nothing ships.
Which should you choose?
This is not one decision. It is a decision per card, and the honest version is that most collections contain a handful of cards that justify a mail-in fee and a great many that never will.
- • The card is valuable enough that a sealed slab from a recognized grader changes what a buyer pays.
- • You are building a registry set, which needs a slab from a company that runs one.
- • The buyer you have in mind specifically wants a slab in hand from that company.
- • The card is a vintage or high-dollar piece where a third-party authenticity opinion matters.
- • You can absorb the published turnaround, which on the cheapest open single-card tiers runs from 15 to 100 business days.
- • You want the grade today, on a card that stays in your hands.
- • You are grading volume: a binder, a box break, a whole shoebox.
- • The card would not clear a mail-in fee plus shipping, which is most cards.
- • You are valuing or insuring a collection and need documented condition.
- • You are listing raw on eBay and want a grade, subgrades and a written defect log in the listing.
- • You want to know which cards in the stack are worth sending out.
Most of your collection ends here. The top slice still goes out — we’ll tell you which.
Where DCM fits in this list
DCM is the only company in the table that does not ask you to ship anything. You photograph the front and back, DCM Optic runs three independent evaluation passes over the card, and the median of those passes becomes the grade. You get a whole-number grade from 1 to 10, four subgrades, a written reason for every deduction, and an image confidence letter from A to D with an uncertainty range.
The rubric is published at /grading-standard and the limitations are published at /grading-limitations. Every grade lands in a public population report, and every slab label carries a QR that resolves to a public verification page anyone can check.
DCM runs the whole loop rather than one step of it: collect, grade, value, slab and sell. A DCM grade is not a sealed slab from one of the mail-in companies and is not registry-eligible, and this page does not claim otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main card grading companies?
The main trading card grading companies are PSA, Beckett (BGS), SGC, CGC, TAG and DCM Grading. PSA, Beckett, SGC and CGC are mail-in services where human graders assess the card and return it in a sealed slab. TAG is a mail-in service that uses machine-assisted optical analysis alongside its grading. DCM Grading is photo-based: DCM Optic grades from two photos in about 60 seconds and the card never leaves your hands.
What is the cheapest card grading service?
As of October 8, 2026, the cheapest single-card tier among the mail-in graders is CGC Economy at $20 (about 90 working days), followed by SGC Standard at $50, PSA Standard at $59.99 and Beckett Express at $79.95. CGC Bulk is lower at $17 per card, but only on a 25-card submission. PSA lists its Value services as temporarily paused, and Beckett has paused its Base and Standard tiers. DCM grades a single card for $2.99, as low as $0.66 a card with the 150-credit VIP package, with no shipping or insurance to add.
Which card grading company is fastest?
Among mail-in graders, as of October 8, 2026, Beckett Express publishes the shortest turnaround on a cheapest open tier at 15 business days, followed by SGC Standard at 40 or more, CGC Economy at 90 and PSA Standard at 90 to 100. CGC Bulk is about 150 working days. DCM returns a grade in about 60 seconds because nothing ships. Published mail-in turnarounds are estimates, not guarantees, and shipping adds time on top.
Which card grading company should I use?
It depends on what the card needs to do. If the card is valuable enough that a sealed, serialized slab from a recognized third-party grader changes what a buyer will pay, or you want it in a registry, send it to one of the mail-in companies. If you want a documented grade today on cards that were never going to justify a submission fee and a wait of months, grade at home. Most collectors end up doing both.
Do any card grading companies use AI?
Yes. DCM Grading uses computer vision end to end: DCM Optic runs three independent evaluation passes on every card and takes the median as the grade, with the rubric published at /grading-standard. TAG uses machine-assisted optical analysis within a mail-in service. PSA, Beckett, SGC and CGC grade with human graders.
Do you have to mail your cards to get them graded?
Not to every service. PSA, Beckett, SGC, CGC and TAG all require you to ship the card, which means packing, insured shipping both ways, and the card being out of your hands for the length of the queue. DCM is photo-based, so there is no shipping, no insurance and no package that can go missing. The trade-off is that DCM returns a digital grade and a printable label rather than a sealed slab.
Is a grade from an AI grading company the same as a PSA slab?
No, and we do not claim it is. A DCM grade is a documented, publicly verifiable evaluation of the card against a published rubric, with four subgrades and a written reason for every deduction. It is not a sealed slab from a third-party grader and it is not registry-eligible. Where a buyer specifically wants a PSA, BGS, SGC or CGC slab in hand, that is what they want.
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