Best Dragon Vault Cards to Grade
The Dragon Vault cards worth grading, ranked by expected profit per submission — every grade outcome weighted by how often the card actually receives it — after current grading fees. The PSA 10 best case is shown on every row but does not decide the order. Top pick: Rayquaza at an expected +$769.
Ranked by expected profit 9
| # | Card | Raw | PSA 9 | PSA 10 | Cost | Best case | Gem rate | Expected | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expected +$769 per submission: 3.9% of 633 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($15,609), and a PSA 9 ($850) still clears the $1,234 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $59 | $850 | $15,609 | $1,175 | +$14,375 | 3.9% | +$769 | 633 high |
| 2 | Expected +$503 per submission: 2.8% of 216 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($15,000), and a PSA 9 ($499) still clears the $1,253 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $84 | $499 | $15,000 | $1,169 | +$13,747 | 2.8% | +$503 | 216 high |
| 3 | Expected +$496 per submission: 10.6% of 207 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($5,500), and a PSA 9 ($135) still clears the $686 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $12 | $135 | $5,500 | $674 | +$4,814 | 10.6% | +$496 | 207 high |
| 4 | Expected +$184 per submission: 5.5% of 237 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($3,800), and a PSA 9 ($204) still clears the $424 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $17 | $204 | $3,800 | $407 | +$3,376 | 5.5% | +$184 | 237 high |
| 5 | Expected +$55 per submission: 11.6% of 181 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($314), and a PSA 9 ($230) still clears the $98 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $15 | $230 | $314 | $83 | +$216 | 11.6% | +$55 | 181 high |
| 6 | Expected +$35 per submission: 9.9% of 142 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($202), and a PSA 9 ($200) still clears the $88 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $6 | $200 | $202 | $82 | +$114 | 9.9% | +$35 | 142 high |
| 7 | Expected loss −$9 per submission: 0% of 111 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($6,500), and a PSA 9 ($550) still clears the $711 you have in it. Confidence high on that sample. | $27 | $550 | $6,500 | $684 | +$5,789 | 0% | −$9 | 111 high |
| 8 | Expected loss −$47 per submission: 16.3% of 49 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($135), and only a PSA 10 covers the $89 you have in it — a 9 loses money. Confidence medium on that sample. | $8 | $30 | $135 | $81 | +$45 | 16.3% | −$47 | 49 medium |
| 9 | Expected loss −$76 per submission: 0% of 72 graded copies came back PSA 10 ($3,000), and a PSA 9 ($160) still clears the $405 you have in it. Confidence medium on that sample. | $6 | $160 | $3,000 | $399 | +$2,595 | 0% | −$76 | 72 medium |
Expected = every grade outcome weighted by its share of the card's graded population, minus the raw price and the grading cost (PSA tier fee for the graded value plus ~$20 round-trip shipping, fees as of 2026-09-26). Best case is the PSA 10 leg alone. Gem rates come from a self-selected population — collectors grade their cleanest copies — so read them as an upper bound. Raw is a blended market price, not a sale of your copy. Full method and filters on the grading index.
How to read the Dragon Vault ranking
Every Dragon Vault card listed here clears one bar: its PSA 10 price beats its raw price by more than the cost of grading it. 9 cards from the set pass. 9 of them (100%) have a gem-rate sample of at least ten graded copies in the population reports, and 6 of those keep a positive expected value once every grade outcome is weighted by how often the card actually receives it.
The order is expected profit, not the PSA 10 best case, which rewards the widest raw-to-gem gap whether the card gems one time in two or one in fifty. Here the top row, the Rayquaza from Dragon Vault, gems 3.9% of the time across 633 graded copies: +$769 is what a long run of submissions would average, $14,375 is what one lucky copy returns.
The median gem rate across the sampled Dragon Vault cards is 5.5%. Roughly one submitted copy in 18 came back PSA 10, and most rows here still cover raw price plus fee at PSA 9, so the PSA 9 price does most of the work. Of the 9 ranked cards, 8 still cover raw price plus fee at PSA 9, 1 needs a 10 to break even and 3 lose money on expectation. 7 rest on a hundred or more graded copies.
Before you submit a Dragon Vault card
Grading pays on condition. The four things every grader scores — centering, corners, edges and surface — can be checked at home before paying a fee, and a copy that is visibly off-centre or has a whitened corner will not gem whatever the population says. Those gem rates come from a self-selected population of clean copies, so a random copy does worse.
The cost column assumes a PSA submission at the tier covering the card's PSA 10 value, fees as of 2026-09-26, and raw is CardTrack's blended near-mint price, not a sale of your copy: pay more, or hold a lighter copy, and the break-even moves against you. Test a card with your own numbers in the ROI calculator, see the printings that fail the bar on the Dragon Vault card list, or see how gem-mint premiums run across the whole catalogue on the PSA premium index.