The PSA alternative · Your cards stay with you
A PSA alternative for card condition analysis at home. Get a DCM grade, four subgrades and a detailed report from front-and-back photos, usually in about a minute.
No credit card required. No mailing. Digital assessment and printable labels; physical authentication and encapsulation are separate services.
The evidence behind the grade
Start with the card. See its four subgrades, then open the actual report to examine the condition analysis and reasons behind the result.
Centering · what we inspect
Compare the borders and alignment on the front and back of the card.
10 / 10Recorded centering subgradeThese are recorded results. The inspection descriptions explain the criteria; the linked report contains this card’s findings.
Compare your grading budget
Compare a DCM digital assessment pack with PSA’s Standard service. Choose the outcome that suits your collection.
20 digital assessments. Reports and printable labels included.
Physical authentication, grading and encapsulation. Estimated 90–100 business days as of October 8, 2026.
USD grading fees only. Shipping, taxes, promotions and first-purchase bonuses excluded. Bar lengths use the same zero-based scale. Different services and outputs; DCM grades do not predict PSA grades. Standard’s maximum insured value is $1,000 per card. PSA services and pricing ↗
Try DCM with 2 Free Credits →Two different journeys
Your card stays on your desk. Receive a digital grade and condition report, then choose how to use it.
Usually about a minute per analysis. Photo quality and processing conditions can affect timing.
Choose this path when you want physical authentication, a sealed PSA holder or PSA-specific certification.
Standard: estimated 90–100 business days as of October 8, 2026. Shipping adds time. Estimates are not guaranteed.
Make the result useful
01 / Keep
Document condition, create Heritage labels and keep your cards and reports together in your collection.
Explore reports and labels →02 / Consider
Review condition evidence before deciding whether physical grading fits your goals. DCM grades do not predict or guarantee PSA results.
See the grading standard →03 / Sell
Bring your card details and documented condition into an eBay listing with InstaList. Review your listing before publishing.
Explore InstaList →Choose the outcome you need
| What matters to you | DCM | PSA Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Your card | Stays with you; front-and-back photos required | Physical submission required |
| Price | $2.99 for one credit; one-time packs and optional membership available | $59.99 per card |
| Timing | Usually about a minute for a digital analysis | Estimated 90–100 business days, plus shipping |
| Condition evidence | Centering, corners, edges and surface subgrades with written analysis | PSA grade and certification; four subgrades are not printed on the standard label |
| Value thresholds | No card-value-based pricing bands | $1,000 maximum insured value per card on Standard |
| Output | Digital report, customizable printable labels and collection tools | Physical authentication, grading and sealed holder |
| Shipping | No shipping for the assessment | Shipping and applicable charges are additional |
DCM uses its own published standard. A DCM assessment is not PSA certification or a substitute for physical authentication. Understand photo-based grading limitations. PSA services and pricing, checked October 8, 2026 ↗
Start with two cards
Experience your own card report. No payment card required and no automatic subscription.
Create Your Free AccountStart with one credit for $2.99, or choose a larger pack. Unused credits never expire.
Compare All Pricing →70 credits each month, member savings and a heart emblem. Or $449/year for 900 credits upfront, about $0.50 per included grade.
Explore Membership →Prices in USD before applicable taxes. Card Lovers is recurring; annual is billed $449/year. Signup credits are separate from eligible pack bonuses. Basic reports, labels and collection tools do not require membership.
Your questions, answered
For a grade you can have today on a card that never leaves your hands, DCM is a photo-based option for documenting card condition at home. It grades against a published rubric covering centering, corners, edges and surface, returns a whole-number grade from 1 to 10 with four subgrades and a written reason for every deduction, and costs $2.99 for a single card, as low as $0.66 a card with the 150-credit VIP package. Mail-in grading from PSA, Beckett, SGC or CGC remains the right call when the card is valuable enough that a sealed, serialized slab changes what a buyer will pay.
No. DCM is photo-based: you take front and back photos with your phone, upload them, and the grade comes back in about 60 seconds. Your cards never leave your hands, so there is no packing, no insured shipping in either direction, and no return-shipment window where the card exists only as a tracking number.
DCM costs $2.99 for a single grading credit, $19.99 for 20, or $99 for 150. Card Lovers Annual is $449 for 900 credits upfront. As of October 8, 2026, PSA lists Standard at $59.99 per card with a $1,000 maximum insured value, and lists its Value services as temporarily paused. These are different services: DCM provides a digital assessment and printable labels; PSA provides physical authentication, grading and encapsulation. Shipping and applicable taxes are additional to PSA grading fees.
DCM typically returns a digital assessment in about a minute, although processing time varies. As of October 8, 2026, PSA lists Standard at an estimated 90–100 business days and Priority at an estimated 70–80 business days. PSA estimates are not guarantees, and shipping adds time to the physical submission journey.
No. DCM grades every card with the same protocol, whether it is a ten-cent base card or a four-figure chase, and there is no minimum submission size. Mail-in services structure their pricing around declared value and service level, and their budget tiers are the first to be paused when submissions spike, as happened at both PSA and Beckett in the summer of 2026.
Yes, all four, on every grade, at no extra cost. Centering, corners, edges and surface are each scored, with the final result determined by DCM’s published grading standard and three-pass consensus process. Among the mail-in graders, Beckett prints subgrades on the label at every tier while PSA, SGC and CGC do not as standard.
No, and we do not claim it can. Where a buyer specifically wants a sealed PSA slab in hand, that is what they want and nothing else substitutes for it. What a DCM grade does do is document the condition of a raw card with four subgrades, a defect log and a public verification page a buyer can check by scanning the label, which is a stronger listing than a raw card in a sleeve with no record at all.
DCM Optic runs three independent evaluation passes over every card and takes the median as the grade. Corners, edges and surface zones are re-examined on magnified crops, every deduction is logged with a written reason, and each grade carries an image confidence letter from A to D plus an uncertainty range. The rubric is published at /grading-standard and the limitations are published at /grading-limitations.
Start with two free credits. See the condition, explore the report and decide what comes next.