A failed crossover means the grader decided your card would not reach the grade you asked for, so it never opened the slab: the card comes back in the same holder, with the same label and grade, and at PSA and CGC you still pay the full grading fee. Nothing about the card changes. Only your bank balance does.
That is the whole downside, and it is smaller than it sounds when people say a crossover “failed”. The card is not downgraded, not cracked and not marked. It is a paid no.
As of October 23, 2026: PSA returns a failed crossover in its original holder and charges the full fee for your tier (from $59.99); CGC does the same at its tier price (from $17 in Bulk); Beckett’s archived 2025 FAQ says only the review fee is charged, which equals its grading fee; SGC does not publish what happens; TAG has no crossover service at all.
What a failed crossover means at each grading company
The rules differ in who sets the bar and what you pay, so the same card can fail at one company and never be tested at another.
| Company | What counts as a miss | Where the card goes | What you pay on a miss |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | Below the minimum grade you wrote (required on every card) | Back to you in its original holder | Full grading fee for your tier |
| CGC | CGC expects a lower grade than the other company’s label | Back to you in its original holder | Full grading fee for your tier |
| Beckett (2025 FAQ snapshot) | Graders not confident your minimum will be reached | Back in the submitted holder, with a note | Review fee only, which Beckett sets equal to its grading fee |
| SGC | Not published | Not published | Not published; crossovers share the raw grading price table |
| TAG | No crossover service; TAG does not crack other companies’ slabs | ||
Read the Beckett row with care. It comes from an archived copy of Beckett’s FAQ captured in March 2025, because the live site could not be read. That copy says the $3 cracking fee is added only when a card is removed, so a miss saves only those three dollars. Paying the review fee still means paying what grading costs.
None of the published rules makes a failed crossover free. SGC is the gap: its pages do not say what a miss costs, so ask before you send.
What comes back in the box
PSA’s crossover page is short on this point: an item below the minimum “is returned to you in the original holder.” CGC says the same in its own words. The label, the certification number and the grade the other company gave are untouched, because the slab was never opened.
What you learn from the miss varies.
- PSA: grader notes come free with crossover orders at Express ($199.00) and above, according to PSA’s FAQ. Below Express, PSA does not say you get a reason.
- Beckett: the archived FAQ says the card is returned “with a note describing why the minimum grade was not reached.”
- CGC: its fee page does not mention an explanation for a returned CrossOver.
A one-line reason is worth more than it looks. “Centering” tells you the card will miss again anywhere that uses similar tolerances; a vague result tells you nothing about whether a second try is sensible.
Why crossovers fail
No grader publishes failure reasons in aggregate, so this list is drawn from the published standards rather than from counts.
The minimum was a hope, not a match
At PSA you choose the bar. Put a 10 in the minimum box for a card that wears a CGC 9 label and you are asking PSA for an upgrade, and a no is the likeliest answer for most cards. That is a failed crossover only in name; the card was never at risk of crossing at its current grade.
The two scales draw lines in different places
PSA’s 10 allows roughly 55/45 front centering and its 9 roughly 60/40. CGC publishes numeric centering below Gem Mint 10 only for sports and non-sports cards, not for Pokemon, so a CGC 9 has no stated centering number to compare with PSA’s. A card that sat comfortably inside one company’s grade can sit just outside the other’s.
The grade is formed through plastic
Every crossover is graded inside the old case. Beckett is the one company that says outright what can go wrong once a case is opened: “On occasion, a flaw may be completely hidden by the existing holder, and once cracked out, the card cannot be crossed.” It calls this exceedingly rare and says it does not crack a case unless it is reasonably confident of your minimum. The FAQ does not say what happens to a card in that position.
The card has a problem beyond grade
Beckett’s archived FAQ adds that a card that appears altered, restored or counterfeit is charged the review fee and returned in its original holder “along with an explanation.” Rare, but it is the most serious kind of miss.
What a run of failed crossovers costs
These are our worked examples on the published prices read October 23, 2026 (Beckett’s from its archived FAQ). They leave out shipping and insurance, which you also pay on every round trip.
| Scenario | Fees paid for an unchanged card |
|---|---|
| Two PSA attempts at Priority ($79.99 each) | $159.98 |
| Two PSA attempts at Express ($199.00 each) | $398.00 |
| One PSA Standard attempt, then one at Priority | $139.98 |
| Three cards at PSA Standard, none crossing | $179.97 |
| Two CGC attempts at Standard ($55 each) | $110 |
| Beckett, for comparison, when a card does cross | Tier fee plus a $3 cracking fee |
Whether PSA’s Standard tier accepts crossovers is not stated on PSA’s pages; check the form before planning around it. Our PSA crossover guide lists every tier and its value cap.
The numbers that matter are the second and third attempts. Each one costs the same as the first, and if the first was refused for a reason you cannot see, the next is not obviously more likely to succeed. Our break-even guide does the price side of that math.
Your options after a failed crossover
- Keep the card as it is. It is in the same slab with the same grade it had before. The fee is spent, but nothing else is lost.
- Sell it in its current holder. A failed attempt leaves no mark on the slab or the label. Buyers see the grade they would have seen anyway.
- Send it again with a lower minimum. If a CGC 9.5 missed PSA 10, a minimum of 9 asks a different question, one with a different price answer. Our CGC 9.5 to PSA 9 page looks at whether that trade is worth paying for.
- Try a different company. CGC accepts PSA, Beckett and SGC slabs; PSA accepts other companies’ slabs without listing them. A miss at one company is not a verdict from all of them, but every attempt carries its own fee.
- Crack the slab and submit raw. This is the one option that can damage the card and permanently gives up the existing grade. We compare it in crossover vs crack and resubmit, and our older guide on alternatives to breaking a slab covers the gentler routes.
Failed vs crossed lower: two different outcomes
People use the word for two results that are not the same, and the difference decides whether you lost a fee or lost a grade.
A true miss is the case this page is about. The bar was not met, the case stayed shut, and the old grade survives. You can still sell the card as exactly what it was.
A cross at a lower grade only happens when you told the grader to accept one. At PSA that means a minimum of 1, which PSA describes as accepting any PSA numerical grade. At CGC it means marking the order CROSS AT ANY GRADE. Either way the old label is destroyed, and the card now carries the new company’s lower number. That is not a failed crossover in the grader’s terms: the service did exactly what the form asked.
The second outcome is the one to avoid by accident. Before sending a valuable card, read your submission form line by line and confirm that every minimum grade, or every CGC crossover instruction, is what you meant. A typed 1 where you meant 9 turns a paid miss into a permanent downgrade, and no grader reverses a result you asked for.
Beckett’s archived FAQ shows the protection working the other way too: its graders will not grade below your requested minimum, but if a card earns more than the minimum, it gets the higher grade.
Lowering the chance of a failed crossover
- Set the minimum at the grade you would happily own. At PSA, a minimum equal to the current grade tests whether the card holds its number; anything higher is an upgrade attempt and should be priced as one.
- Look at the borders through the case. If the left and right borders are visibly unequal, a PSA 10 is out of reach whatever the current label says.
- Pay for a reason when the card is valuable. At PSA the jump to Express buys grader notes along with speed; for a card already in that value band, you are paying for Express anyway.
- Give SGC a minimum. SGC’s price page warns that crossovers sent without a minimum grade take longer; it publishes no failure rule beyond that.
None of the five companies publishes how often crossovers fail. The estimates in our crossover grading hub are built from population reports and labelled as ours for that reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if a crossover fails?
The grader does not open the slab. Your card is returned in its original holder with its original grade and label, and PSA and CGC still charge the full grading fee for your tier.
Do you get your money back if a PSA crossover fails?
No. PSA keeps the whole tier price when a card misses its minimum, the same as when it crosses.
Does a failed crossover lower my card’s grade?
No. The card is graded inside its current slab and is only removed if it meets the bar, so a miss leaves the existing grade unchanged.
Will PSA tell me why my crossover failed?
PSA includes grader notes on crossover orders at Express level and above. Its pages do not promise an explanation at lower tiers.
Can I resubmit a card after a failed crossover?
Yes, to the same company with a different minimum grade or to another company that accepts the slab. Each attempt is charged in full.
Is a failed crossover free at Beckett?
Not in practice. Beckett’s archived 2025 FAQ says a miss is charged only the review fee, and that the review fee equals the published grading fee for the level.
Sources
- Crossover — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Trading Card Grading: pricing and services — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Help and Support FAQ — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Grading Standards — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Services and Fees: CGC Grading — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- CGC Cards Grading Scale — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Grading FAQ (archived copy) — Beckett via the Wayback Machine, snapshot March 26, 2025, read October 23, 2026
- Card Grading Services and Fees — SGC, read October 23, 2026
- Does TAG offer a Crossover/Regrading Service for other third-party slabs? — TAG Help Center, March 31, 2026, read October 23, 2026
No grading company publishes crossover pass rates. Any crossover odds on this page are Pokemon Pricing’s estimate, labelled as one, built from the published grading standards and population reports on the dates shown. Fees, populations and sale prices change; check the grading company’s current price list before submitting. This article is collector information, not investment advice. Pokémon and all card names are trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and GAME FREAK inc.; Pokemon Pricing is not affiliated with them or with any grading company.