Best Pokémon cards to grade
Ranked by expected profit per submission — every grade outcome weighted by how often the card actually receives it in the PSA population — after current grading fees. The PSA 10 best case is on every row, but it no longer decides the order: a card that gems one time in twenty is not a better bet than one that gems one time in three. Top pick: Gengar VMAX at an expected +$560.
What makes a card worth grading
The table below applies one formula to CardTrack's catalogue, but the same four questions work on any card, including ones outside our top 100:
1. Is the price gap big enough? The PSA 10 (or 9) value has to clear the raw price and the grading fee with real room to spare — a card whose graded price barely covers the cost of submitting it has no margin for a lower-than-hoped grade.
2. Is there enough population to trust a gem rate? A rate built on a handful of graded copies is closer to a guess than a measurement — CardTrack requires at least 10 graded copies before ranking a card by expected profit at all, and flags the confidence band on every row that qualifies.
3. Does the card actually gem often enough? A high PSA 10 price on a card that rarely gems is not a better bet than a lower price on a card that gems reliably — that is the entire reason this page ranks by expected profit rather than best case.
4. Is the specific copy actually clean? None of the above says anything about the card in your hand — a population's gem rate describes other people's submissions, not yours. Check centering, corners, edges and surface with the AI card grader or the centering calculator before you submit.
Categories that tend to be worth grading
A few broad groups are the usual candidates: vintage holos (Base Set and early WOTC-era cards, where age itself commands a premium once slabbed); modern chase cards (Special Illustration Rares, alt arts and other high-demand pulls from recent sets); and 1st edition and low-print promos (scarce by print run rather than by age). Measured across the 4,399 cards in the index, the raw-to-PSA-10 gap is widest in the Classic (2004–2010) era, where the median PSA 10 sells for 39.6× raw, and narrowest in the Current (2020–) era at 9.6×. None of that is a guarantee for any single card — a beat-up copy from a good category is still a beat-up copy — but it's a reasonable place to start filtering the table by era or price above.
How to use the table
The default order is expected profit, which is the honest one. Switch the sort to best case only if you want to see the PSA 10 jackpots regardless of how often they happen, to gem rate if you care more about certainty than size, or to expected ROI if you are comparing a cheap card against a dear one and want the return per dollar tied up. The raw-price band is the most useful filter: set it to what you are willing to spend, and the era and set filters narrow the list to cards you can actually find. For one card at your own odds, the grading ROI calculator runs the same formula with the inputs exposed.
Every row carries the same five numbers — raw price, PSA 9 and PSA 10 prices, the grading cost for the ten, and the gem rate with its sample from the PSA population report — plus a one-line reason for its position. Read the sample before the gem rate: a 40% rate on 12 graded copies is a coin toss dressed up as a statistic, and the confidence label says so. The minimum-graded-copies filter removes those rows in one step.
Across the whole population of 4,399 cards with a raw price of $5 or more that clear the fee at a PSA 10, 4,149 have a measurable gem rate, and 2,568 (62% of those) come out ahead once every grade is weighted by how often it happens. By era, the positive-expected-value cards are led by Modern (2011–2019) with 908, then Classic (2004–2010) with 767, then Vintage (1999–2003) with 624. The difference between the first figure and the last is the gap between "could pay" and "is expected to pay" — the PSA 10 premium index measures the first, the gem rate supplies the second — and it is the reason the page ranks the way it does.
Ranked by expected profit11 matching
| # | Card | Raw | PSA 9 | PSA 10 | Cost | Best case | Gem rate | Expected | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expected +$560 per submission: 53.4% of 26,533 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($2,130), and a PSA 9 ($900) still clears the $1,050 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $810 | $900 | $2,130 | $240 | +$1,080 | 53.4% | +$560 | 26,533 high |
| 2 | Expected +$137 per submission: 60.1% of 20,294 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($630), and only a PSA 10 covers the $356 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $270 | $294 | $630 | $86 | +$274 | 60.1% | +$137 | 20,294 high |
| 3 | Expected +$74 per submission: 63% of 12,880 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($414), and only a PSA 10 covers the $267 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $183 | $225 | $414 | $84 | +$147 | 63% | +$74 | 12,880 high |
| 4 | Expected +$53 per submission: 63.6% of 5,620 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($318), and only a PSA 10 covers the $178 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $95 | $88 | $318 | $83 | +$140 | 63.6% | +$53 | 5,620 high |
| 5 | Expected +$51 per submission: 43.6% of 14,072 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($390), and only a PSA 10 covers the $179 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $95 | $110 | $390 | $84 | +$211 | 43.6% | +$51 | 14,072 high |
| 6 | Expected +$37 per submission: 43.7% of 19,661 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($352), and only a PSA 10 covers the $164 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $80 | $84 | $352 | $84 | +$188 | 43.7% | +$37 | 19,661 high |
| 7 | Expected +$29 per submission: 59.5% of 14,520 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($222), and only a PSA 10 covers the $126 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $44 | $60 | $222 | $82 | +$96 | 59.5% | +$29 | 14,520 high |
| 8 | Expected +$23 per submission: 50% of 2,670 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($220), and only a PSA 10 covers the $112 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $30 | $56 | $220 | $82 | +$108 | 50% | +$23 | 2,670 high |
| 9 | Expected +$17 per submission: 40.7% of 1,209 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($222), and only a PSA 10 covers the $93 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $11 | $45 | $222 | $82 | +$129 | 40.7% | +$17 | 1,209 high |
| 10 | Expected +$8 per submission: 55.5% of 7,535 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($165), and only a PSA 10 covers the $99 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $17 | $35 | $165 | $82 | +$67 | 55.5% | +$8 | 7,535 high |
| 11 | Expected loss −$31 per submission: 46.1% of 5,333 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($130), and only a PSA 10 covers the $110 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence high on that sample. | $29 | $39 | $130 | $81 | +$20 | 46.1% | −$31 | 5,333 high |
How the ranking works — and where it can mislead
Expected profit = (gem rate × PSA 10) + (PSA 9 rate × PSA 9) + (sub-9 rate × the card's own sub-9 prices) − raw price − grading cost. Best case is the PSA 10 leg alone. Grading cost is the PSA tier fee for the graded value plus roughly $20 round-trip shipping, at fees as of 2026-09-26; the paused PSA Value tier is excluded and membership is not included.
Population selection bias. Gem rates are the share of the graded population at PSA 10 (PSA population report; CGC's when PSA has fewer than 10 copies). That population is self-selected: collectors grade their cleanest copies, and near misses get cracked and resubmitted, so it overstates what a random raw copy would achieve. Read a gem rate as an upper bound, and read it against its sample — confidence is high from 100, medium from 30, low from 10 graded copies; under 10, the card is shown as best-case only rather than ranked.
Prices. Raw is CardTrack's blended near-mint price for the exact printing; PSA 9 and PSA 10 come from the card's graded price ladder, with a PSA 9 estimated at 0.4× the 10 when the ladder has no 9. Where the ladder has no price for a lower grade, that leg is valued at raw. None of this is a sold price for your copy — it is a model of what the market has paid, and grading outcomes are not guaranteed.
PSA isn't the only option. This table's figures are all PSA, since PSA 10s typically carry the strongest resale premium for Pokémon — but CGC and BGS grade on the same 1–10 scale at different prices per card (PSA from $59.99, CGC from $20, BGS from $79.95), and none of the three requires a paid membership to submit. See the full fee and turnaround comparison before choosing.
PSA grading standards
Centering is the one criterion PSA publishes as a hard number, so it is the only part of a grade you can check yourself before paying. The ratios below are the widest border PSA allows at each grade — a card is judged on its worse axis, and the reverse is graded too. Meeting the centering limit does not earn the grade: corners, edges and surface all still have to hold up.
| Grade | Front | Back | What the card looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 GEM-MT | 55/45 | 75/25 | Effectively flawless to the naked eye. Four sharp corners, clean edges, full original gloss and no staining. A minor printing flaw can survive if it does not hurt the card's overall look, but wear cannot — this is the grade where centering is tightest and most 10 attempts fail. |
| PSA 9 MINT | 60/40 | 90/10 | Mint to the eye, with one small permitted flaw: a faint surface imperfection, a tiny printing blemish, or slightly off-white borders. Corners and edges still look sharp. The usual difference between a 9 and a 10 is centering or a single point of very light wear. |
| PSA 8 NM-MT | 65/35 | 90/10 | Very light wear that needs looking for. Typically one slightly fuzzy corner, a minor surface mark, or minimally off-white borders. Still presents as a clean card at arm's length. |
| PSA 7 NM | 70/30 | 90/10 | Light wear that is visible without hunting for it — slight fraying at a corner or two, minor surface wear, or a small loss of gloss. No creasing. |
| PSA 6 EX-MT | 80/20 | 90/10 | Obvious but modest handling. Corners show visible rounding, edges show wear, and the surface may have lost some gloss. Colour is still strong and the card is free of creases. |
| PSA 5 EX | 85/15 | 90/10 | Clearly played. Rounded corners, noticeable edge wear and some surface scuffing, with colour beginning to dull. Still whole and presentable. |
| PSA 4 VG-EX | 85/15 | 90/10 | Well handled. Corner rounding is pronounced, surface wear is easy to see, and a very light crease may be present without dropping the card further. |
| PSA 3 VG | 90/10 | 90/10 | Heavy handling. Rounded corners, dulled colour, scuffing or scratching, and light creasing. The card reads as used rather than collected. |
| PSA 2 GOOD | 90/10 | 90/10 | Substantial wear throughout — heavy corner rounding, creasing, surface damage or writing. Intact and identifiable, but plainly worn. |
| PSA 1.5 FR | 90/10 | 90/10 | Severe wear, stopping short of destroyed. Heavy creasing, major surface loss or damage, but the card is complete with no missing pieces. |
| PSA 1 PR | — | — | The floor. Extreme damage — major creasing, staining, tears, missing paper or pieces. Graded so the card can be authenticated and slabbed at all, not because condition is being certified. |
Qualifiers
When a single defect is the only thing holding a card back, PSA can grade it with a qualifier — a slab reading PSA 8 (OC) rather than dropping to a 6. Qualified cards usually trade below an unqualified card of the same number, so the letters matter when you are pricing one.
- OC — Off-Centre: Centering is outside the tolerance for the grade the card would otherwise earn.
- ST — Staining: A stain the card is otherwise clean enough to have avoided.
- PD — Print Defect: A flaw introduced when the card was printed, not by handling.
- OF — Out of Focus: The image itself was printed soft — a manufacturing fault, not wear.
- MK — Marks: Ink or pencil marks on the card.
- MC — Miscut: Cut outside the intended borders at the factory.
Grade criteria and centering tolerances are published by PSA. Summaries here are ours. See the official PSA grading standards for the authoritative text.
Grading FAQ
Which Pokémon cards are worth grading?
The cards whose expected graded value — PSA 10, PSA 9 and lower grades each weighted by how often that card actually receives them — beats the raw price plus the grading fee. Right now that is led by Gengar VMAX (Fusion Strike) at an expected +$560 per submission.
How is expected grading profit calculated?
Expected value = (gem rate × PSA 10 price) + (PSA 9 rate × PSA 9 price) + (sub-9 rate × the card's own sub-9 prices) − raw price − grading cost. Rates come from the PSA population report (CGC when PSA has fewer than 10 copies); the grading cost is the PSA tier fee for the graded value plus roughly $20 round-trip shipping, at fees as of 2026-09-26.
Why is a card with a huge PSA 10 price not at the top?
Because a PSA 10 price only matters as often as the card gems. A card with fewer than 10 graded copies has no measurable gem rate, so it is listed separately as best-case only rather than ranked above cards with evidence.
Are gem rates reliable?
They are the share of the graded population at PSA 10, and that population is self-selected: people grade their cleanest copies and crack-and-resubmit near misses. Treat the gem rate as an upper bound for a random raw copy, and weight the sample size — the confidence label on each row reflects it.
How much does grading cost right now?
PSA's cheapest bookable tier, Standard, is $59.99 per card for slabs up to $1,000 and quotes 90–100 business days, as of 2026-09-26. Every cost on this page adds round-trip insured shipping — $20 flat plus 1% of the declared value — and looks the tier up on the graded value, so a card whose PSA 10 crosses a tier's cap pays the next tier's fee. The grading cost guide has the full PSA, CGC and BGS tables.