PSA vs CGC vs BGS Grading Fees 2026: Prices and Wait Times

PSA vs CGC vs BGS used to be a three-way price fight. In October 2026 it is barely a fight: CGC grades a Pokémon card from $17, PSA's cheapest open tier is $59.99, and Beckett only accepts Express submissions at $79.95. All fees below were read from each company's own pricing page or submission form on October 9, 2026.

TL;DR: As of Oct 9, 2026: CGC Bulk $17 (25-card minimum, 150 working days), CGC Economy $20 (90 days). PSA Value is paused, so PSA starts at Standard, $59.99 and 90 to 100 business days. Beckett has paused Base and Standard; Express is $79.95 with a 15 business day estimate. Paying more mostly buys speed and a higher insured value.

PSA vs CGC vs BGS: which is cheapest right now? (quick answer)

CGC is the cheapest of the three by a wide margin. Its Economy tier costs $20 a card and its Bulk tier $17 if you send at least 25 cards. PSA's lowest open tier is $59.99, three times the CGC Economy fee. Beckett's only open tier, Express, is $79.95. If you want the fastest result for under $100 a card, CGC Express ($100, 5 working days) and Beckett Express ($79.95, 15 business days) are the two options.

Key Takeaways

• Cheapest: CGC Bulk at $17 (25 cards minimum) or CGC Economy at $20.
• PSA Value is paused. PSA's cheapest open tier is Standard at $59.99, 90 to 100 business days.
• Beckett is Express only at $79.95 while Base and Standard are paused and Beckett.com is offline.
• Declared value matters. Each tier has a value cap, and CGC moves underdeclared cards to a higher tier at your cost.
• Turnaround times are estimates. CGC says so in capital letters: they are "NOT guaranteed."

Overview: what changed in 2026

Three things changed this year, and all three push prices up for anyone grading a handful of cards.

CGC raised its two cheapest tiers. Per CGC's March 2026 announcement, the company "will update its fees for its bulk grading tier to $17 and its economy grading tier to $20," effective March 24, 2026, for US card submissions.

PSA paused its Value tier. The PSA trading card grading page shows a notice reading "Value Services Are Temporarily Paused," which leaves Standard as the entry point.

Beckett went mostly dark. Beckett.com and the Beckett app "remain temporarily offline," per the Beckett grading page. CardGrade.io, a grading tools site that tracks fees, dates the outage to 7:00 p.m. CT on September 9, 2026. Beckett has also paused its Base and Standard submissions, so only Express is open.

PSA grading fees and turnaround (October 2026)

PSA's five open tiers run from $59.99 to $599 a card. The price buys two things: a faster estimated turnaround and a higher maximum insured value per card. The Standard tier caps the insured value at $1,000, so a card worth more than that has to go in a higher tier.

The extras change by tier. Priority and above return the graded card "inside a fitted sleeve protector." Express and above add Grader Notes, which PSA says "detail card defects and clarify the outcome." Every PSA card goes in what the company calls a "sonically sealed, tamper-evident case" with a grade from 1 to 10.

Screenshot: psacard.com trading card grading page, October 9, 2026

CGC grading fees and turnaround (October 2026)

CGC is the low-cost option, with the most tiers. Bulk at $17 is the cheapest grading fee of the three companies, but it needs at least 25 cards (they can be a mix of games) and carries the longest estimate, 150 working days.

The Standard tier is the odd one out. At $55, it costs less than PSA Standard and promises an estimate of 10 working days instead of 90 to 100. CGC's own services and fees page says those turnaround times "are estimates only and are NOT guaranteed."

Two details can change your bill. Paid members get a discount: "Associate and Premium members save 10% on grading. Elite members save 20% on grading." And if CGC decides a card is worth more than you declared, it "will move the collectible to the appropriate higher tier and the additional charge will be the responsibility of the submitter."

Screenshot: cgccards.com services and fees page, October 9, 2026

GODEEPER: How to judge a card's condition yourself before you pay to grade it. Pokemon Card Condition Guide →

BGS (Beckett) grading fees right now

Beckett is open for one tier only. Its temporary submission form lists "EXPRESS: $79.95/card (15 Business Days)" and notes that "all services include subgrades unless otherwise indicated." So even at $79.95, each Express card comes back with subgrades.

The Beckett grading page explains the gap: "we've temporarily paused Base and Standard card grading submissions." Beckett says it will reopen a tier when it can meet the estimated turnaround again, and it runs a waitlist for Base and Standard.

Screenshot: beckett.com grading page, October 9, 2026

Paying works differently while Beckett.com is offline. "Payment information is not collected through the temporary submission form," and Beckett will "confirm your final order total and send you an email" after it reviews the order.

What Base and Standard will cost when they reopen is not known. The last published prices, per CardGrade.io, were $17.95 for Base with subgrades (75+ business days) and $34.95 for Standard (45 business days). Treat those as history until Beckett publishes new ones.

PSA vs CGC vs BGS side by side

Chart: SetPulls. Source: psacard.com, cgccards.com and Beckett's submission form, October 9, 2026

Here is PSA vs CGC vs BGS on the cheapest open tier from each company, with the closest match on speed:

CGC owns the cheap-and-slow corner and the fast end. PSA's open tiers sit higher on price at every speed. Beckett's single tier lands in the middle.

Analysis: is grading worth it for a modern card?

For most modern cards, the fee decides the question. Take Mew ex 152/128, a Special Illustration Rare from 30th Celebration. Its TCGplayer market price was $80.76 on October 9, 2026. Here is each company's cheapest single-card fee as a share of that price:

• CGC Economy, $20: about 25% of the card's value.
• PSA Standard, $59.99: about 74%.
• Beckett Express, $79.95: about 99%.

Shipping both ways comes on top. You also cannot count on a 10. The Pokémon Company itself won't help value the result: its support site says it "does not maintain or track any information on the secondary market value of our products." If you are deciding which pulls to grade at all, the odds in our 30th Celebration pull rates breakdown show how common each rarity is.

The top grades are not the same either. CGC's Pristine 10 needs a card that is "virtually flawless to the naked eye" with "centering is 50/50," and gets its own label; a CGC Gem Mint 10 is a card where "one of the grading criteria does not meet the requirements of a Pristine 10." PSA's Gem Mint 10 allows centering "not to exceed approximately 55/45 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the" back, per the PSA grading standards. CGC also uses half grades such as Mint+ 9.5.

You can change your mind later, within limits. CGC's CrossOver service evaluates "a card in a PSA, Beckett* or SGC holder" for a CGC holder. It only moves the card if CGC expects the same grade or higher, and the full fee applies either way.

Grades are not fixed between submissions, and collectors know it. In a thread on r/PokemonTCG, one reply pointed out that "the original post shows the same exact card going from a 6 to a 10":

Another reply was harsher: "This is deliberate, they know their customers are gamblers so they make grading a gamble too." That is one collector's view, not evidence of how PSA grades, but a regrade from 6 to 10 shows how much a single submission can swing.

GODEEPER: The full collecting picture: condition, grading, storage and spotting fakes. Pokemon Card Collecting Guide 2026 →

Our take

This take uses only the fees and policies cited above. In the PSA vs CGC vs BGS choice on price alone, CGC wins easily in October 2026: $20 Economy or $55 Standard in 10 working days beats anything PSA or Beckett has open. PSA makes sense when the card is valuable enough that a PSA 10 is what buyers will ask for, and $59.99 is a small slice of its value. Beckett is worth it only if you specifically want subgrades and can pay $79.95 a card. For a card under about $100, grading at PSA or Beckett eats most of its value, so either send it in a CGC bulk batch or keep it raw.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheapest, PSA, CGC or BGS? CGC, by a wide margin, as of October 9, 2026. Its Bulk tier costs $17 a card with a 25-card minimum, and Economy costs $20. PSA's cheapest open tier is Standard at $59.99 because Value is paused, and Beckett only takes Express at $79.95.

How long does PSA grading take in 2026? PSA estimates 90 to 100 business days for Standard ($59.99), 70 to 80 for Priority ($79.99), 20 to 30 for Express ($199), 10 to 15 for Super Express ($349) and 7 to 10 for Premier ($599). These estimates come from PSA's pricing page on October 9, 2026.

Is Beckett grading open right now? Only Express is open. Beckett paused Base and Standard and takes Express at $79.95 a card, 15 business days, through a temporary submission form. Beckett.com and the Beckett app are still offline, and Beckett emails the final order total after it reviews each submission.

What is the difference between a CGC Pristine 10 and a PSA 10? A CGC Pristine 10 needs 50/50 centering and a card that is virtually flawless to the naked eye, and it gets a special label. PSA's Gem Mint 10 allows front centering up to about 55/45 and back centering up to about 75/25, per PSA's grading standards.

Is it worth grading a modern Pokémon card? Only when the fee is small next to the card's value. Mew ex 152/128 traded at $80.76 raw on October 9, 2026. A $20 CGC Economy fee is about 25% of that, while PSA Standard at $59.99 is about 74%, before shipping costs.

Related Reading

• How to spot fake Pokemon cards: check a card is real before paying anyone to grade it.
• 30th Celebration card list and chase cards: the Special Illustration Rares most likely to be worth grading.
• Pokemon TCG release dates 2026-2027: the next sets, and the next wave of submissions.

References

• PSA: trading card grading services and pricing
• PSA: grading standards
• CGC Cards: services and fees
• CGC Cards: Bulk and Economy fee update, March 2026
• CGC Cards: grading scale
• Beckett: grading services status
• Beckett: temporary card grading submission form
• CardGrade.io: BGS grading cost breakdown
• Pokémon Support: what are my cards worth?
• TCGplayer: Mew ex 152/128
• r/PokemonTCG: PSA regrade thread