Charizard VMAX (#020/189) and the full-art V cards led by Tyranitar V (#088) are the Darkness Ablaze cards worth sending to PSA. Most of the rest of the set — the Secret Rare VMAX cards and nearly every common or uncommon — don't clear the cost of grading. Darkness Ablaze is a Sword & Shield-era expansion that released August 14, 2020, with 189 standard-numbered cards plus 12 Secret Rares for 201 total, according to PokeGuardian's set list. That fixed lineup is what this breakdown works through, card by card, to separate the ones that pay for grading from the ones that don't.
Table of Contents
- Charizard VMAX Is the Clear Choice
- Which Full-Art V Cards Are Worth Grading
- Why the Secret Rare VMAX Cards Usually Aren't Worth It
- Why Most Commons and Uncommons Don't Clear the Fee
- A Practical Checklist Before Submitting
Charizard VMAX Is the Clear Choice
Charizard VMAX is the single most valuable and most commonly graded card in the set. A PSA 10 copy sells for roughly $143 to $167, against a raw (ungraded) price of about $44, per sales data from Card Codex and Dittobase. That gap of roughly $100 comfortably clears PSA's grading fee under any service tier.
The one caveat: a Gem Mint 10 isn't a rare outcome for this card. PSA's own population reports show roughly 22,000 to 23,500 PSA-10 copies out of about 30,500 to 30,700 total graded — over 70% of submissions already come back a 10, according to population data tracked by Pikawiz. That high pass rate is good news for anyone submitting a clean copy: the odds favor a top grade, so the risk of a disappointing PSA 9 is lower than it is for most cards in the set.
Which Full-Art V Cards Are Worth Grading
Below Charizard VMAX, the full-art V cards are the strongest tier for grading economics. Tyranitar V (#088) stands out, with a PSA 10 value around $114 against a raw price far below that figure, clearing even PSA's higher fee tiers, per grading-calculator data from Pokeprices.io.
A step below Tyranitar V, Houndoom V (#021), Scizor V (#183), and Salamence V (#185) each carry PSA 10 values around $60 to $68. Pokeprices.io's calculator flags this tier as still profitable after a standard grading fee, though the margin is tighter than with Tyranitar V or Charizard VMAX, per Pokeprices.io's Houndoom V data.
- Tyranitar V (#088): strongest margin among the full-art Vs
- Houndoom V (#021), Scizor V (#183), Salamence V (#185): profitable, but closer to breakeven
- Any full-art V not listed here should be checked individually before submitting, since values vary card to card
Why the Secret Rare VMAX Cards Usually Aren't Worth It
The Secret Rare VMAX tier sits just below Charizard VMAX in rarity but well below it in price. Butterfree VMAX (#190), Eternatus VMAX (#192), Scizor VMAX (#193), and Salamence VMAX (#194) all trade in a tight band of roughly $10 to $16 raw, according to Eyevotcg's ranking of the set's top chase cards. That raw price ceiling limits how much a PSA 10 result can add, and it runs straight into PSA's current fee structure.
PSA restructured its U.S. pricing in September 2026: the new Standard tier costs $59.99 per card with a 90-to-100 business day turnaround, sitting below Priority at $79.99 (70-80 days), with Express, Super Express, and Premier running $199 to $599 for faster service, per ICv2's report on the changes. A card worth $10 to $16 raw would need its PSA-10 price to exceed $60 just to break even at the cheapest tier — a bar this group of Secret Rares doesn't clear.
Why Most Commons and Uncommons Don't Clear the Fee
The same $59.99 floor rules out nearly every common and uncommon in Darkness Ablaze. Cards like Parasect (#004) and Purrloin (#106) net only about $5 to $30 even at a PSA 10, according to Pokeprices.io's card-level pricing data.
Any card whose PSA-10 premium over raw value sits below roughly $60 fails to clear the fee even on a perfect grade — a bar most of the set's non-chase cards don't reach. The downside risk compounds the problem. A PSA 9 — a common outcome, not a rare miss — brings even less return: Pokeprices.io lists PSA 9 values as low as $2 to $10.56 for commons such as Purrloin (#106) and Parasect (#004), far under the $59.99 Standard fee, so a grading submission on a marginal card can produce a net loss rather than a modest gain, per Pokeprices.io's Purrloin data.
- Commons and uncommons: PSA 10 value typically $5-$30, well under the grading fee
- A PSA 9 on these cards can land as low as $2-$10.56
- Grading only makes sense here if the raw card has unusual demand not reflected in typical common/uncommon pricing
A Practical Checklist Before Submitting
Before sending any Darkness Ablaze card to PSA, check it against this short list: Among every card in the set, only Charizard VMAX and the full-art V cards — Tyranitar V, Houndoom V, Scizor V, Salamence V, and Crobat V — show enough PSA-10 premium over raw and PSA-9 pricing to reliably justify the current $59.99-and-up PSA grading fee. The Secret Rare VMAX tier and virtually all commons and uncommons in Darkness Ablaze fall short of that bar, per the combined pricing and fee data from Card Codex, Eyevotcg, and Pokeprices.io.
- Is the raw-to-PSA-10 price gap bigger than the grading fee you'll pay? At Standard tier, that means a gap above $59.99.
- Does the card have a PSA 9 price that still beats the fee, in case the grade comes back a notch lower?
- Is the card on the short list that clears both checks: Charizard VMAX, Tyranitar V, Houndoom V, Scizor V, or Salamence V?
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