Which Grading Company Is Right for Your Card: Route by Card Type, Not Price Chart
Price is now a narrow band across all four graders. What actually decides the question is which slab the resale market premiums on your specific card, whether the tier you need is open, and whether your card's declared value even qualifies.
A collector pulls a raw modern rookie from a binder, checks the market, and opens four browser tabs to compare grading prices. Three of the tiers he is looking at are either closed, inaccessible to his card's declared value, or require a minimum he cannot meet. The price comparison he just ran was almost entirely irrelevant.
The cheapest open tier at each grader right now runs from $17 to $79.95 — a narrow enough band that price alone almost never decides the question. What decides it is which slab the resale market pays a premium for on that specific card, how long you can wait, and whether the tier you need is actually open. Apply those filters in that order, and the decision usually makes itself.
Apply the Declared-Value Ceiling First
Every tier has a declared-value ceiling, and it is the first thing that removes options from the board. A card you declare at $2,000 cannot use PSA Standard ($1,000 ceiling), PSA Priority ($1,500 ceiling), CGC Bulk ($500 ceiling), CGC Economy ($1,000 ceiling), or SGC Standard at $50 ($1,500 ceiling). The tiers that can legally take it are PSA Express at $199, PSA Super Express at $349, PSA Premier at $599, CGC Express at $100, and SGC Expedited at $150. That is the real menu for a mid-to-high-value card, and it looks nothing like the full pricing board.
For cards under $500 declared value, the full board opens up. For cards between $500 and $1,500, most of it does. The ceiling is not a fine-print detail. It is the primary filter, and most collectors apply it last.
Where Each Grader Actually Stands Right Now
PSA's Value tier is paused. Standard at $59.99 is the entry point, with a $1,000 declared-value ceiling and a 90-100 business day turnaround. Priority at $79.99 clears $1,500 declared value and runs 70-80 business days: a tier that was previously called Regular and has seen its turnaround roughly double. Express at $199 handles up to $2,500, Super Express at $349 up to $5,000, and Premier at $599 up to $10,000.
Beckett's Base and Standard tiers are closed with no published reopening date. BGS Express at $79.95, with a 15 business day turnaround, is the only service available, accessed through a temporary submission form while beckett.com is offline. The BGS subgrade play is now a single-tier, premium-price proposition.
CGC runs Bulk at $17 (25-card minimum, $500 ceiling, 150 working days), Economy at $20 ($1,000 ceiling, 90 days), Standard at $55 ($3,000 ceiling, 10 days), and Express at $100 ($10,000 ceiling, 5 days). CGC members save 10-20% across tiers. The 25-card minimum on Bulk is a real wall for a small submission: if your stack is under 25, Economy at $20 is your floor.
SGC offers Standard at $50 ($1,500 ceiling, 40-plus business days), Standard at $85 ($3,500 ceiling), and Expedited at $150 ($3,500 ceiling, 2-3 days). SGC's $50 floor is the cheapest open single-card submission in the market right now, but the 40-plus day turnaround is a real number, not an estimate.
Route by Card Type
Modern rookie with strong PSA liquidity: PSA Standard at $59.99 is the play if you can wait 90-100 business days. The resale premium on a PSA 10 for a high-demand rookie justifies both the wait and the price. PSA population drives secondary market pricing in this segment more than any other grader, and that gap is widest on cards with active collector bases and thin PSA pop counts.
Vintage card where condition nuance matters: BGS subgrades have historically been the argument for Beckett on vintage, because a 9.5 with a 10 centering subgrade tells a buyer something a straight grade cannot. With Base and Standard closed, BGS Express at $79.95 is the only path in. Confirm the temporary submission form is live before building a submission around it.
Pokemon card: PSA commands the clearest liquidity premium in that market. A PSA 10 on a high-demand Pokemon card consistently trades above equivalent CGC grades. CGC is a credible second option where PSA population is already saturated and the price differential between a PSA 10 and a CGC 10 has compressed.
Small stack of mid-value raws under $500 declared value: CGC Economy at $20 with a 90-day turnaround is the value play. If you have 25 cards, Bulk at $17 saves a few dollars per card. If your stack is smaller than 25, Economy is your floor and it is still a competitive price for a 90-day return.
Single high-value card above $2,000 declared value: PSA Express at $199 or Super Express at $349 are the tiers that can take it, with 20-30 and 10-15 business day turnarounds respectively. SGC Expedited at $150 works if the card's secondary market supports SGC liquidity: which it does for vintage sports cards more than for modern rookies or Pokemon.
The declared-value ceiling is the hidden filter that most collectors apply last. It should be applied first.
The Beckett Acquisition and What It Means Now
The only thing a collector can act on today is what Beckett publishes: Express at $79.95, one tier, one access point, and a website that is not fully operational. Plan submissions accordingly.
The Decision, Compressed
Run the declared-value ceiling against every tier before you look at price or turnaround. Eliminate any tier that is closed or that your card's value exceeds. From what remains, route to the grader whose slab the resale market for that specific card actually premiums. If the market is PSA-dominant, PSA Standard or Express depending on value. If the market is indifferent between CGC and SGC, CGC Economy or SGC Standard wins on price for lower-value cards. If you need subgrades and the card justifies $79.95, BGS Express is the only door open.
All prices and tier statuses above are as of 25 September 2026. Confirm every tier is open and every declared-value ceiling clears your card before submitting. These numbers move without notice.
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