Grade it or
skip it?
Every grading decision comes down to five lines of honest numbers. This is the worksheet we run at our counter — the whole decision on one page: what your card is worth raw, what it sells for graded, what grading really costs, and the rule that tells you whether to send it or skip it.
The decision in five lines
Five lines, in your notes app, for every candidate: RAW / G10 / G9 / G8 / COST, plus your honest odds at each grade. Never submit a card whose five lines you haven't written down. Here's how each line gets filled:
Name, set, collector number, variant, language. A holo and a reverse holo with the same art are different cards with different prices — get this wrong and every line after it is fiction. (Our pricing guide walks the full identification method.)
Not what you paid, not the highest asking price — what copies in your card's condition have actually sold for recently. Look it up free in the Best TCG Card Finder, and condition-adjust: a soft corner means your raw value is the price of copies like yours, not the headline number.
Same method, three more lookups: recent sold prices for your card at a 10, a 9, and an 8. If a grade barely ever sells, that's information too — thin markets pay slowly.
The fee on the tier sheet is not your cost. Add shipping both ways, insurance, sleeves and holders, and any value-based upcharge — the full build-up is in the cost box below. At today's prices, plan on $45–$55 a card.
Weight the graded prices by your honest odds — say 50% at a 10, 35% at a 9, 15% at an 8 — then subtract COST. Grade only when what's left beats RAW plus a cushion: the math must still work if your grade estimate turns out one grade too optimistic. If it only survives perfect foresight, it isn't a decision — it's a lottery ticket with extra steps.
From our counter: what grading really costs
People ask us at the counter what a submission really costs, so here's the honest build-up. Take ten cards on PSA Value at late-2026 prices:
| Grading fee, per card (PSA Value) | $39.99 |
| Return shipping — $29.99 for a 10–19 card order, insured to $2,000, split across the box | ≈ $3.00 |
| Shipping your box to the grader — $10–$25 per order, split across the box | $1.00–$2.50 |
| Penny sleeves + semi-rigid holders | ≈ $0.25 |
| Typical total, per card, all-in | ≈ $45.50 |
About $44 a card if you ship lean, up toward $52 if you insure everything and ship cautiously — which is why the smart planning figure is $45–$55 per card, not the $39.99 on the tier sheet. Small orders get punished: ship a two-card box and each card carries freight like it's traveling alone. Declaring into a higher insurance bracket raises the return shipping too ($44.99 for the up-to-$12,500 bracket), and a card that grades above its tier's declared-value cap can draw an upcharge on top.
The four condition gates
The math only matters if the card can earn the grades in it. Graders judge four things — and your card's ceiling is its worst gate, no matter how perfect the other three are. Check all four under a lamp and a loupe before anything leaves your house.
Measure the borders, front and back. If the front is worse than about 60/40, a Gem Mint 10 is unlikely — the factory already chose this card's ceiling.
All four, front and back, under magnification. Whitening, dings and fraying are where pack-fresh goes to die.
Read all four sides under light. Chipping, silvering and dings show up here first — especially on dark borders.
Sweep the card at an angle, front and back. Print lines, scratches, dimples and fingerprints hide in flat light and glow at an angle.
Write down your ceiling — the worst gate's honest grade — and then your expected grade: ceiling minus one. Feed those odds into Line 5, not the ones you were hoping for.
A worked example
Example only — round, made-up numbers so you can follow the arithmetic. Run your own cards through the identical steps with real prices from the Finder.
Say a modern chase card: RAW = $30. Graded sales: G10 = $200, G9 = $60, G8 = $35. It batches with nine other cards, so COST = $50. Your pre-grade is honest — clean corners, decent centering — so your odds are 50% at a 10, 35% at a 9, 15% at an 8.
- Expected graded value: 0.50 × $200 + 0.35 × $60 + 0.15 × $35 = $100 + $21 + $5.25 = $126.25
- Minus COST: $126.25 − $50 = $76.25 — comfortably ahead of the $30 it sells for raw.
- The cushion check — suppose your eye was one grade too optimistic and the real odds are 35 / 45 / 20: expected value $104, minus cost = $54. Still ahead of raw.
Verdict: grade it. The decision survives your own fallibility. Flip it around and you get the skip: if that same card's numbers only worked at a 10 — say the 9 sold for $35 — the honest answer is to sell it raw and keep the $50 fee in your pocket.
Go deeper
The full pricing method behind Lines 1–3: identify the exact card, judge condition honestly, and read live sold prices. Read the pricing guide →
The send-it-or-skip-it test in essay form — value thresholds, the four gates, and the cases where raw sells better. Read the grading guide →
Questions from the counter
How much does it cost to grade a card, all-in?
More than the fee on the tier sheet. At late-2026 PSA Value pricing, the $39.99 fee plus return shipping (about $3 a card on a ten-card order), shipping your box out ($1–$2.50 a card), and sleeves and holders (about $0.25 a card) lands near $45.50 a card — plan at $45–$55, and replace the figures with today's before you submit.
When is grading a Pokémon card worth it?
When the math survives a grade lower than the one you hope for: expected graded value, minus your all-in cost, beats the raw value plus a cushion. If it only works at a perfect 10, it isn't a decision — it's a gamble.
What condition does a card need to be worth grading?
It has to pass all four gates — centering, corners, edges, surface — because the ceiling is the worst gate. Front centering worse than about 60/40 makes a Gem Mint 10 unlikely no matter how clean the rest looks.
If it comes back a 9, do I still win?
That's the 10 test, and you run it before you submit, not after. If a 9 still beats selling raw, send it. If only a 10 pays, you're gambling — and inexpensive cards fail this test almost every time, because at current fees a cheap card can't pay for its own grading even when it gems.
Where do I check what my card is worth raw?
Recent sold prices, not asking prices. The Best TCG Card Finder does it free with live market prices — search or scan the card, then condition-adjust the number to your copy.
Line 2 is one search away
Every decision on this page starts with what your card is worth raw, today. Check it free in the Finder, then run the five lines.
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