Card Grading

The Four Things PSA Looks at When Grading Your Card

When PSA cracks open your submission and puts your card under the magnifying loupe, they are evaluating exactly four attributes: centering, corners,...

How Whitening on Card Backs Destroys PSA Grades

Whitening on card backs is the single most common reason Pokemon cards fail to achieve a PSA 10 grade, and the financial penalty is...

What Centering Does to Your Pokémon Card Grade

Centering is one of the most impactful sub-grades in Pokémon card grading, and poor centering alone can drop your final grade by one to...

The Grading Threshold: Which Cards Jump Most in Value From 9 to 10

Trophy and tournament cards see the most dramatic value jumps from PSA 9 to PSA 10, routinely commanding premiums of ten times or more,...

Why PSA 9 Charizard Sells for $2,000 While PSA 10 Sells for $40,000

The roughly 20x price gap between a PSA 9 and PSA 10 Charizard from the Base Set comes down to one brutal reality: population...

This Card Has a PSA Pop of 1 — Here’s What That Means for Price

A PSA Pop of 1 means that out of every copy of that card ever submitted to PSA for grading, only one has received...

How Population Reports Change the Value of a Pokémon Card

Population reports change the value of a Pokemon card by quantifying scarcity at each grade level, turning abstract rarity into a concrete number that...

What Happens If PSA Grades Your Card Lower Than Expected?

If PSA grades your card lower than expected, you are stuck with three options: accept the grade and sell at a reduced value, crack...

CGC Pokémon Grading: Is It Cheaper Than PSA and Just as Trusted?

Yes, CGC is cheaper than PSA for Pokémon card grading — and it is becoming increasingly trusted, though the two services are not interchangeable.

Is BGS 9.5 or PSA 10 Worth More? The Data Tells a Clear Story

PSA 10 is worth more than BGS 9.5 in almost every meaningful scenario. The data across sports cards and Pokémon cards consistently shows PSA...

What PSA Grade Does Your Card Need to Be Worth Grading?

For modern Pokémon cards, your card generally needs PSA 9 or PSA 10 potential to justify the cost of grading, and the raw card...

PSA Grading Cost by Service Level: Every Tier Explained

PSA grading costs range from $24.99 per card at the Value Bulk tier all the way up to $599 per card for Walk-Through service,...

How Long Does PSA Grading Take in 2025 — And Is It Worth the Wait?

As of early 2026, PSA grading takes anywhere from 25 to 65 business days depending on your service tier — but those numbers don't...

PSA vs BGS vs CGC: Which Grading Company Should You Use in 2025?

For most Pokemon card collectors in 2025, PSA is still the default choice if your primary goal is maximizing resale value.

How to Check Pokémon Card Prices in 5 Minutes or Less

The fastest way to check a Pokémon card's price is to pull out your phone, open a free scanner app like PokeScope or Dragon...

The Pokémon Card Bubble: Are We in One Right Now?

No, we are not in a Pokémon card bubble — at least not in the way most people mean when they use that word.

Pokémon Card Market Crash of 2022: What Happened and Where Prices Are Now

The Pokémon card market crash of 2022 was a sharp correction following two years of unprecedented speculative mania, with some cards losing 60% or...

Is Pokémon Card Collecting a Real Investment or Expensive Nostalgia?

Pokémon card collecting is a real investment, but only if you treat it like one — and most people don't.

Prerelease Raichu: The Card That Was Never Supposed to Exist

The Prerelease Raichu is a Base Set Raichu card that accidentally received a green "PRERELEASE" stamp during a 1999 print run of Jungle expansion...

PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator: Why Only One Copy Exists in This Grade

Only one Pikachu Illustrator card has ever received a PSA 10 Gem Mint grade because the card was never meant to survive three decades...

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