Short answer
For a stack of 25 or more cards worth under $500 each, CGC Bulk is the lowest per-card fee we found. For a handful of cards, CGC Economy at $20 is cheapest. SGC Standard at $50 and PSA Standard at $59.99 cost more but carry different resale weight. Whichever you pick, the biggest saving is not the tier. It is not paying to grade cards that come back a 7 or 8.
Cheapest open tier by company (checked October 18, 2026)
| Company | Cheapest open tier | Price per card | Minimum | Max value per card | Estimated turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CGC | Bulk | $17 | 25 cards (games can be mixed) | $500 | 150 working days |
| CGC | Economy | $20 | None listed | $1,000 | 90 working days |
| SGC | Standard | $50 | None listed | $1,500 | 40+ business days |
| PSA | Standard | $59.99 | None listed | $1,000 | 90 to 100 business days |
| TAG | Standard | $59.95 | None listed | $1,000 insured | 45 business days |
| Beckett (BGS) | Could not verify | See Beckett | n/a | n/a | n/a |
A few notes on that table.
- PSA paused Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max for new submissions on June 2, 2026. Its Collectors Club page still lists bulk pricing from $24.99 per card, marked temporarily paused.
- TAG lists a Base tier (60 business days, $500 insurance cap) in its help center as of September 30, 2026, but no price for it, and its pricing page says Value and Bulk services remain paused. We left Base out of the table rather than guess.
- Beckett blocked our requests to its pricing and availability pages on October 18, 2026. Check Beckett's own site for current tiers and status before you count on a price.
- Turnaround is an estimate at every company, not a guarantee.
Hidden costs: shipping, insurance, membership and upcharges
The per-card fee is only part of the bill. These are the costs that make a cheap tier less cheap.
- Return shipping. PSA's domestic card chart starts at $19.99 for 1 to 4 cards insured up to $2,000, $24.99 for 5 to 9 cards and $29.99 for 10 to 19 cards. CGC prices return shipping by card count, value and destination, so check its submission form for your order.
- Inbound shipping. You pay to mail cards in, and PSA's own insurance covers only shipments made on PSA's accounts. Budget for postage, a new box and supplies.
- Membership. CGC lets anyone submit with a free account. Its paid tiers ($39, $159 or $329 a year) take 10% or 20% off grading. PSA Collectors Club costs $149 or $199 a year, and its bulk pricing perk is paused right now.
- Value upcharges. If a grader decides a card is worth more than your tier allows, it moves the card up a tier and bills the difference. CGC says this on its fees page. A $17 Bulk card that turns out to be worth $800 is no longer a $17 card.
- Add-ons. CGC charges $8 extra for a custom label and $5 for a pedigree. They are optional, but they add up across 25 cards.
Bulk vs single submissions
Return shipping is charged per package, so small orders pay more per card. Here is what 10 cards look like at the two cheapest open PSA and CGC options, before inbound postage.
| Order | Grading fees | Return shipping | Per card before inbound postage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 card, PSA Standard | $59.99 | $19.99 | $79.98 |
| 10 cards, PSA Standard | $599.90 | $29.99 | $62.99 |
| 10 cards, CGC Economy | $200 | Varies (see CGC form) | $20 plus shipping |
| 25 cards, CGC Bulk | $425 | Varies (see CGC form) | $17 plus shipping |
CGC Bulk only makes sense if you really have 25 cards worth grading. Padding an order with filler cards to hit the minimum means paying $17 each to slab cards you would not otherwise grade. Ten good cards on Economy at $200 beats 25 cards on Bulk at $425 when 15 of them are filler.
Bulk tiers are also the slowest. CGC's 150 working days is roughly seven months on the calendar. If you plan to sell into a hot release, the price can move a long way before your slabs come back.
When the cheap slab loses money at resale
The cheapest grade is not always the best value, because buyers do not pay the same for every label. On many modern Pokémon and sports cards, a PSA 10 sells for more than the same card in another company's 10. How big that gap is depends on the card, so look up sold prices for your exact card in each slab before you choose.
Here is an illustration with made-up round numbers. Say a card sells for $40 raw, $70 in a CGC 10 and $120 in a PSA 10.
- On CGC Economy, you pay $20 plus a share of shipping, call it $25. A CGC 10 at $70 nets about $45 over the fee, or $5 more than selling raw.
- On PSA Standard in a 10-card order, you pay about $63 per card. A PSA 10 at $120 nets about $57 over the fee, or $17 more than selling raw.
- If either card comes back a 9 and the 9 sells for about raw price, both lose money. The PSA one loses more.
That is before selling fees, which take a further cut. The point is that the right grader depends on the spread between raw and graded prices for your specific card, not on the fee alone. Our PSA vs CGC guide covers the resale side in more detail, and PSA grading cost has every PSA tier and shipping band.
How to skip cards that will not grade well
A $17 fee on a card that comes back a 7 is wasted money, and it is wasted 25 times over on a bulk order full of weak cards. The cheapest submission is the one you trim before you mail it.
- Check centering first. It is the most common reason modern cards miss a 10, and you can measure it at home. Use the free card centering calculator on a straight photo.
- Look at the back. Edge whitening and corner wear on the back are easy to miss when you only admire the front.
- Tilt it under a light. Scratches, print lines and dents show up at an angle that you won't see head-on.
- Run the money. Put your expected grade and sold prices into the is my card worth grading calculator. If the card only profits at a 10, it needs to look like a 10.
Binder AI can speed up that sort. You photograph the front and back, and it returns a grade estimate on the PSA, BGS or TAG scale with centering, corners, edges and surface subgrades and written condition notes. It also shows eBay sold prices and a graded value table, so you can see the raw to graded spread in the same place. Its grades are estimates, not official grades. The app is free to download, and grading is included in a subscription of $1.99/week, $3.99/month or $24.99/year on the website ($4.99/month or $29.99/year in the App Store).
Sources, checked October 18, 2026: CGC services and fees, CGC membership, SGC services and pricing, PSA trading card grading, PSA Value tier pause, PSA Collectors Club, PSA postage rates, TAG available grading services, TAG pricing. Beckett's pricing page could not be loaded on this date.
