Best Grading Service for Pokemon Cards

PSA is arguably the most popular grading service for collectables such as Pokemon cards. This has become the standard but there are still some things you should know before sending your cards to get graded. For one PSA is of of the more expensive grading services compared to the others on this list. The regular price for getting a card graded by PSA is $100 per card as of 2/26/22. You can get a cheaper deal at $50 per card if you join their PSA Collectors Club. The label has a simple, clean look and they only grade in whole numbers so you can either get a PSA 9 or PSA 10 but not a 9.5. If you have a very valuable card, the $100 price tag shouldn’t be an issue for this service and it becomes easily a good option but if you’re looking to grade a cheap card, you might want to look at cheaper options.

CGC is known for being a little harsh when grading cards so they rarely give 10/10 grades. This makes a CGC 10 sometimes more valuable than a PSA 10 but this mostly depends on what the buyer believes is more valuable. The standard price for grading a card from CGC is $35 per card as of 3/26/22 making it a very affordable and great option for grading Pokemon cards.

Right now BGS is the cheapest service on this list as standard grading from BGS with no subgrades runs $30 per card as of 3/26/22. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean they’re not credible, though. BGS also has a sub grading service and is known for inspecting small details and making sure the cards are high quality. They also have nice looking labels and half grades so it’s possible to get a BGS 9.5.