How Does Pokémon Card Grading Work?

If you're new to Pokémon card collecting, you may have heard collectors talk about grading their cards. If you'd like to have yours graded too, it's worth understanding what actually happens once you send your card to a grading company.

Why Grade

Before we break down how grading works, let's talk about why you'd grade a card in the first place. There are three main reasons.

• Higher value: graded cards command a premium over their raw versions. To illustrate the difference, take Mew ex from Paldean Fates. A Near Mint raw copy runs about $996, while the PSA 10 sits at roughly $3,193 — about 3.2× the raw price.
• Collection: not every collector wants to sell their graded cards. Some just want to admire the collection, preserve its condition, or trade with other collectors who share the same passion.
• Verify authenticity: grading also confirms whether your card is genuine. Because the card is examined by a third party and then sealed in a tamper-evident slab, you and any future buyer have documented proof that it was authenticated.

Raw vs PSA 10 on the same cardMew exPaldean Fates · #232$969 · PSA 10 $3,055Live market value · 22 Sept 2026 · high confidenceView live price on CardTrack →

It's worth being clear about the flip side, though: a grade is not free money. The fee, the postage and the sleeves all come out of whatever premium the slab earns you, and on a cheap card that maths doesn't work.

What Graders Assess

So what exactly are graders looking for when they examine your card? They inspect four things: centering, corners, edges, and surface.

• Centering: how evenly the card's artwork and borders sit within the card. If there's a noticeable shift — the artwork pushed towards one border — it won't receive a high score. Graders evaluate the front and the back.
• Corners: graders assess whitening, dents, bends, and other forms of wear. If you're aiming for the highest grade, even the tiniest visible damage matters.
• Edges: the entire perimeter of the card. Wear, chipping, or whitening lowers the score even if the card is well centered and the corners are clean.
• Surface: scratches, scuffs, dents, stains, print lines and other marks all count, as do printing imperfections that came straight out of the pack.

Two things to keep in mind. Pokémon cards can carry manufacturing defects from the factory, and graders take those into account rather than ignoring them. And the grade reflects the card as a whole — excellent centering won't save a card that has noticeable surface scratches or corner wear.

The Label

Once your card has been graded, it comes back to you in a protective plastic slab — this is why collectors call a graded card a 'slab' — with a label at the top.

The label is the graded card's identification. Its design and contents vary between graders, but generally it carries the card name, set, card number, and grade. Some companies also include the card's language, release year, or a special designation.

The most prominent part of the label is the grade itself: the numerical assessment assigned after evaluation. PSA, for example, uses a 1-to-10 scale, where 10 is the highest and 1 the lowest. Each number also carries a condition description — Excellent, Near Mint, Gem Mint and so on — which gives collectors a quicker read on the card's overall condition.

After Grading

Once your cards are back, the first thing to do is verify the grade. Find the certification number on the label, go to the grader's website and enter it — or simply scan the barcode on the slab. This confirms the slab and the card inside it match what the grader's own records say.

The next step is deciding whether to sell or keep it. If you're primarily a collector, it goes into the collection. If you're thinking about selling, check the current market value first, because the assigned grade changes it substantially — you can look up any card, raw and graded, with our Pokémon Card Value Checker.

Higher grades are generally more desirable and more valuable, but grading never guarantees a selling price. The set, the rarity, recent sales, demand and even which Pokémon is on the card all feed into what a buyer will actually pay. When you do come to sell, it's worth reading up on how to get the most for your cards first.

And if you're still deciding whether to send anything in at all, these are the best Pokémon cards to grade right now — and here's the fuller argument for whether grading is worth it.

FAQ

How Much Is the Grading Fee for One Card?

It depends on the company and the service tier. CGC's Economy tier is $20 per card with a 90-working-day turnaround; PSA's Regular tier is $79.99 per card. Turnaround and the maximum insured value per card move with the fee, so the cheapest tier isn't always the right one. For the full breakdown, read our guide to how much it costs to grade a Pokémon card.

What Happens If You Submit a Fake Card?

It won't be graded. The card is returned to you unslabbed, and you generally won't get the grading fee back — you've paid for the examination either way. Check your card against the common signs of a fake before you pay to send it anywhere.

Can a Damaged Pokémon Card Be Graded?

Yes. A damaged card still gets a number — it just sits at the bottom of the scale, with heavy creasing, warping or gouging landing it at a PSA 1 (Poor). What won't get a numeric grade is an altered card: trimming, recolouring, cleaning or resurfacing gets flagged and the card comes back without a condition grade at all.

Can I Remove the Graded Card from the Slab?

You can, but there's a real risk of damaging the card while doing it. Collectors who crack slabs are usually doing it to resubmit a card they think was under-graded, hoping for a higher number the second time — that's a gamble, since you pay the fee again and there's no guarantee the new grade beats the old one.

How Long Does It Take to Grade a Pokémon Card?

It depends on the company and the tier you pick, and the spread is wide. PSA's Walk-Through tier estimates 7 to 10 business days; CGC's WalkThrough estimates 2 working days. Economy and bulk tiers at both companies run to 90 days or more. If you want the practical version — forms, packing, postage — we've written up the full submission process step by step.