Collector Culture: Grading Cards

Jesse Haynes

You’ve bought into a break of your favorite product and landed some nice cards. 

Now, to get top value for your haul, you’ve got to make important decisions: should you sell now, hold, or submit them for grading?

In this post, we’ll look at grading cards: the value it creates, the associated cost, the different options, and more. 

What does it mean to have cards graded?

If you’re using sports card breaks as an introduction to card collecting, grading might be a new concept to you. 

Fear not, it’s just as simple as it sounds: you send your card to a reputable company, who grades it on a 1-10 scale and puts it in a protective slab. While the exact qualifications differ among companies, the cards are graded on surface, corners, edges, centering, and overall look, in some order. 

There are three major grading companies: Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Beckett Grading Service (BGS) and SGC Grading.

There are a handful of grading startups as well, given the demand and backlogged waitlist from the major players in the industry.

Also, note that while PSA is the most preferred grading company among collectors, they are also taking a hiatus from almost all submissions because of an extensive backlog. 

The value of grading your cards

Getting cards graded can significantly boost their value if they score well. 

Consider this: a Zion Williamson 2019 base Prizm rookie sells for about $120. A PSA 10 version of the same card sells for about $500—that’s over a 4x increase.

With cards that are a few years older, the difference between raw and graded is even greater. The Nikola Jokic Donruss base rookie from 2015 sells for about $90 raw and right at $1,000 as a PSA 10—over a 10x increase.

Going further back—into the 90s and beyond—the difference is even greater. 

So with that in mind, it’s apparent that grading can significantly boost the value of your cards… but at what cost?

The costs of grading your cards

Grading your cards is expensive. It keeps getting more expensive, too. 

While PSA is no longer accepting any card grading (cheaper than $300/card), before their grading hiatus the cheapest cards graded for $20/card, and that was if you had paid $100/year for the annual “Collectors Club” membership. 

Beckett’s prices are equally expensive. There’s no annual membership with BGS, but economy-level grading will cost $35/card and take 10+ months to return your card. Bumping it up to standard grading level will cost you $50/card, but get your card returned in only 7+ months (if you read that will a little sarcasm, good.)

SGC is the cheapest of the three, and they can return cards in 20-25 days for $30/card. More of their prices can be found here.

So… should you grade your cards?

In short, it depends. 

You definitely shouldn’t grade every card. The potential return on investment is only worthwhile for some rookies, inserts, or parallels. 

It boils down to this: you must decide if the upfront costs are worth the potential payoff for a good grade. To determine the exact value of your different possibilities, do a “sold item” listing on eBay for different grades. 

And, of course, use your eyeballs and common sense. If you can see a bend, crease, damaged edge or significant surface scratch on the card, then no, you probably don’t want to grade it. Since grading is 100% based on condition, it further emphasizes the value of storing cards safely. Here’s a post we wrote about protecting cards to help you. 

That said, if you determine the potential payoff can be worth the costs of grading, you should give it a try—at least once. In addition to boosted value, graded cards are protected long-term, have great eye appeal, and make an awesome addition to any collection.