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. In August 2026 their published base prices ran from $15 to about $80 per card, with published turnarounds from 15 to 100-plus business days. 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 August 2026. Figures last checked August 24, 2026. Business days throughout, shipping excluded. Sources are linked under the table.
The comparison table (August 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 that was open in August 2026 and exclude shipping and insurance.
| Service | Cheapest open tier | Published price | Published turnaround | Method | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | Regular (Value tiers paused) | $79.99 | 40 to 50 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| Beckett (BGS) | Express (Base and Standard paused) | $79.95 | 15 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| SGC | Standard | $15 | 40 to 50 business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| CGC | Bulk | about $15 | 100 or more business days | Human graders | Mail-in. Sealed physical slab with a serialized cert. |
| TAG | 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 | 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: Value services from $24.99 to $64.99 were listed as paused in August 2026, with a reported backlog above 12 million cards in late July. Minimum: None on Regular.
- Beckett (BGS): Base ($14.95 to $17.95) and Standard ($34.95) were paused on August 5, 2026 after a reported 102 percent year-over-year rise in submissions, with reopening estimated for mid September. Minimum: None on Express.
- SGC: No tier pauses reported in August 2026. The cheapest published base price among the mail-in majors. Minimum: None.
- CGC: The bulk rate requires a 25-card submission, so the entry cost is the bulk minimum rather than one card. Minimum: 25 cards.
- 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.
- 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..
Sources
- PreGradeCards, "CGC vs PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs TAG", August 15, 2026
- PreGradeCards, "Beckett pauses grading", August 2026
- DraftKings Network, PSA turnaround breakdown, May 14, 2026
- PSA submission updates
- CardGrade.io, BGS cost breakdown
- PSA trading card grading services and pricing
- 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 listed Value services as paused. Beckett paused its Base and Standard tiers on August 5, 2026 after a reported 102 percent year-over-year rise in submissions. Published turnarounds were set before those queues formed.
Faster tiers. Every mail-in service sells faster tiers at higher prices, from roughly $150 for a five-to-seven-day PSA Super Express to $250 or more for walk-through service at Beckett. 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 in August 2026 ran from 15 to 100-plus 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?
Among mail-in graders, SGC published the lowest base price in August 2026 at $15 per card on its Standard tier, with CGC at about $15 on a Bulk tier that requires a 25-card minimum. PSA and Beckett were both at roughly $80 on their cheapest open tiers after pausing their budget services. 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 in August 2026, Beckett published the shortest turnaround on its cheapest open tier at 15 business days, with PSA and SGC at 40 to 50 business days and CGC Bulk at 100 or more. DCM returns a grade in about 60 seconds because nothing ships. Published mail-in turnarounds are estimates made before the current queues formed, so read them as a floor rather than a promise.
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 two-month wait, 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.
Find out which of your cards are worth sending out
Two free grades to start. Two photos, about a minute, and the card never leaves your hands.
Grade Your First Card Free