For most Pokémon cards, a CGC 7.5 to PSA 8 crossover is a fee problem before it is a grading problem. On five of the seven cards in our break-even table, PSA’s fee is so large next to the price step from PSA 7 to PSA 8 that the crossover would need to succeed more often than the population data suggests it can.
No grader publishes crossover success rates, so the odds below are Pokemon Pricing’s estimate from the two companies’ population reports. The prices are PSA’s own average-price figures from archived PSA pages. Put together, they show where a mid-grade crossover can pay and where it cannot.
As of October 23, 2026: the cheapest PSA service open to new orders is Standard at $59.99 per card, insured to $1,000, with an estimated 90 – 100 business days. The Value services built for cheap cards stopped accepting submissions on June 2, 2026. A crossover that misses its minimum still costs the full fee.
Why CGC 7.5 to PSA 8 is a different kind of decision
At the top of the scale, a crossover chases a price jump worth thousands. Down here the jumps are small. The archived PSA page for Base Set Unlimited Mewtwo listed an average PSA 7 at $52.94 and an average PSA 8 at $76.77, a step of $23.83. The fee alone is more than twice that. No success rate fixes that arithmetic.
So the useful question is not just how likely the card is to cross, but how likely it has to be for the fee to make sense. That break-even share is the fee divided by the price gain. Hold it next to the population estimate and the answer is usually obvious.
Where CGC 7.5s land on PSA’s scale
Our method: rank a card’s CGC numeric slabs, take the band CGC 7.5s fill, and see which PSA grades fill the matching band on PSA’s ranking. CGC counts are live, read October 23, 2026; PSA counts are from archived PSA pages dated by month. A population band is not a forecast for your copy, and people who pay to cross usually send their best-looking cards, so treat these as a rough guide.
| Card | CGC 7.5 band, top % of CGC slabs | PSA 8+ covers (snapshot) | Share of the band at PSA 8 or better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Set Unlimited Charizard | 32.9% to 43.3% | 26.6% (Mar 2026) | None; the band sits on PSA 7 |
| Base Set Unlimited Mewtwo | 47.2% to 58.8% | 46.0% (Jun 2025) | None; the band sits on PSA 7 |
| 1st Edition Blastoise | 39.1% to 47.6% | 40.1% (Oct 2025) | 11% |
| 1st Edition Venusaur | 36.6% to 47.4% | 44.6% (Jul 2025) | 73% |
| Evolving Skies Umbreon VMAX 215 | 96.1% to 97.3% | 96.3% (Jun 2025) | 13% |
| 151 Charizard ex 199 | 96.3% to 98.4% | 96.8% (Apr 2025) | 21% |
| Van Gogh Pikachu (SVP 085) | 96.3% to 97.8% | 95.4% (Jan 2026) | None; partly PSA 7, partly lower |
| Japanese Base Set Charizard | 27.7% to 34.7% | 45.6% (Jun 2025) | All of it (5% at PSA 8.5) |
The Eevee Heroes Umbreon VMAX 095, which we use elsewhere, has no CGC 7.5s at all, so it drops out here.
Two patterns stand out. On the big English vintage cards, Unlimited Charizard and Mewtwo, CGC 7.5s line up with PSA 7s: PSA’s 7-or-better line sits at 43.7% on Charizard and 63.6% on Mewtwo, beyond the bottom of the CGC 7.5 band. On the modern cards, 7.5 is a rare low grade at both companies and only a thin slice of the band reaches PSA 8. The Japanese Base Set Charizard is again the exception, with every CGC 7.5 sitting where PSA 8s sit.
PSA 7.5 is nearly empty
PSA’s standards allow a half point for high-end cards “between PSA 2 and PSA 9”, but few cards get one. PSA’s pages print whole grades only; deriving the half grades from the Pop Higher column gives 123 PSA 7.5s on Unlimited Charizard against 1,542 CGC 7.5s, and 10 on Mewtwo against 844 at CGC. A CGC 7.5 at PSA will almost always come back a whole number.
The break-even table
The table sets a $59.99-or-higher fee against the gap between PSA’s archived average PSA 7 and PSA 8 prices. We picked the PSA tier by the PSA 8 average, since PSA prices the job on the slab’s post-grading value. Its FAQ says that when an item’s graded value exceeds the tier’s insured maximum, “PSA will upgrade the service level for that item (not your entire order).” All figures are our arithmetic on PSA’s published numbers. They leave out shipping, insurance, selling costs and the months a card spends at PSA.
| Card (PSA snapshot) | Avg PSA 8 | Avg PSA 7 | Step | Tier by PSA 8 value, fee | Success rate needed | Population share at PSA 8+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Charizard (Mar 2026) | $860.33 | $550.87 | $309.46 | Standard, $59.99 | 19.4% | None |
| Unlimited Mewtwo (Jun 2025) | $76.77 | $52.94 | $23.83 | Standard, $59.99 | 252% (cannot pay) | None |
| 1st Ed. Blastoise (Oct 2025) | $2,725.80 | $1,697.54 | $1,028.26 | Super Express, $349.00 | 33.9% | 11% |
| 1st Ed. Venusaur (Jul 2025) | $1,550.00 | $1,223.75 | $326.25 | Express, $199.00 | 61.0% | 73% |
| Umbreon VMAX 215 (Jun 2025) | $689.44 | $640.00 | $49.44 | Standard, $59.99 | 121% (cannot pay) | 13% |
| 151 Charizard ex (Apr 2025) | $224.69 | $151.91 | $72.78 | Standard, $59.99 | 82.4% | 21% |
| Japanese Base Charizard (Jun 2025) | $384.33 | $300.66 | $83.67 | Standard, $59.99 | 71.7% | All |
Only two cards clear their own bar on paper: 1st Edition Venusaur, where the population share of 73% beats the 61.0% needed, and the Japanese Base Set Charizard, where the whole band maps to PSA 8 or better against a 71.7% requirement. Everywhere else the population estimate falls short of the break-even rate, often far short. On Mewtwo and the Umbreon, the fee is larger than the step itself, so even a guaranteed success loses money against PSA’s averages.
We left the Van Gogh Pikachu out of the table. Its archived PSA 7 average ($88.93) is far below its own most recent PSA 7 sale on the same page, which suggests the average is distorted by a few odd sales. The population data gives its CGC 7.5s no overlap with PSA 8 in any case.
What this table cannot tell you
PSA averages are not your card’s price. A clean, well-centered 7.5 may sell above the PSA 7 average; a PSA 8 may sell below the PSA 8 average. We also have no CGC 7.5 sale prices for these cards, so the table compares PSA grade with PSA grade and does not price the value of the PSA label itself. If you set a minimum of 7 rather than 8, you are buying that label swap, and the gain is the gap between your CGC 7.5’s price and a PSA 7’s, which you will need recent sales of your own card to estimate.
Centering at mid grades
PSA 8 needs front centering of “approximately 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse”; PSA 7 relaxes the front to 70/30. CGC’s scale lists “For sports and non-sports cards, centering should be 70/30 or better” for its 7, with no centering number for Pokémon at 7.5. A CGC 7.5 that earned its grade on a light crease or edge wear but has good borders is the one with a real path to PSA 8. One that is already 70/30 off-center is capped at PSA 7 no matter how clean the surface is.
CGC 7 and below
The arithmetic only gets harder further down. On the archived Unlimited Charizard page, an average PSA 6 was $381.95 and an average PSA 7 $550.87, a step of $168.92, so a Standard-tier crossover from CGC 6.5 aiming at PSA 7 needs to succeed 35.5% of the time. On most cheaper cards the fee simply outweighs any one-grade step. Below 7, the reasons people still cross are non-financial: a matched PSA set, a registry, or a preference for one holder.
Fees and the alternatives
On October 23, 2026, PSA’s fee schedule began at $59.99 for Standard with $1,000 of coverage, stepped through $79.99 and $199.00, and reached $349.00 for Super Express, whose coverage stops at $5,000. The rule for misses is blunt: “Full grading fee is charged even if item does not meet minimum grade.” The card itself is safe: “If your item doesn’t meet the minimum grade, it is returned to you in the original holder.”
CGC’s own Bulk tier costs $17 a card (25-card minimum, cards to $500) and Economy $20 (to $1,000), but those prices buy a CGC slab, not a PSA one. TAG says it “does not currently offer a Crossover submission service to the public”. The remaining route is cracking the slab and sending the card raw, which costs the same PSA fee without the fallback; the crack-and-resubmit comparison weighs that option, and our 2026 PSA cost guide tracks the fee changes.
For the higher grades, where the price steps are steeper, see CGC 8 to PSA 8 and the is-it-worth-it break-even page. Why the top grades pull away from the middle ones in a rising market is covered in why PSA 10s rise faster, and every grade pair is indexed on the crossover grading hub.
A checklist before paying for a mid-grade crossover
- Find the step. Look up recent sales of your card as a PSA 7 and a PSA 8 (or the grade you would accept). If the gap is smaller than the fee for the tier the card would land in, stop there.
- Find the break-even rate. Divide the fee by that gap. Our table above shows the rate needed ran from 19.4% on Unlimited Charizard to above certainty (121% and 252%) on the Umbreon and Mewtwo.
- Check the population band. If CGC 7.5s of your card sit among PSA 7s, as they do on Unlimited Charizard and Mewtwo, the minimum of 8 is unlikely to be met.
- Measure the borders. Anything worse than about 65/35 on the front is capped below PSA 8 by PSA’s own standard.
- Count the time. Standard’s estimate is 90 – 100 business days, during which the card cannot be sold.
On the archived PSA pages behind this article, the only two cards that passed every step were 1st Edition Venusaur and the 1996 Japanese Base Set Charizard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a CGC 7.5 cross over to PSA 8?
Yes, if PSA grades it 8 or better and your minimum is 8 or lower. By our population comparison that is plausible on some cards (73% of the CGC 7.5 band on 1st Edition Venusaur sits at PSA 8 or better) and not on others (none on Base Set Unlimited Charizard or Mewtwo).
Is it worth crossing a CGC 7.5 to PSA?
Usually not on price alone: the PSA 7 to PSA 8 step is small on most cards we checked. Using PSA’s archived average prices, a crossover would have to succeed 82.4% of the time on 151 Charizard ex just to cover the $59.99 Standard fee.
Does PSA give 7.5 grades?
PSA can award half grades between PSA 2 and PSA 9, but they are rare. On Base Set Unlimited Charizard we derived 123 PSA 7.5s from PSA’s Pop Higher column, against 1,542 CGC 7.5s.
What does PSA charge if a CGC 7.5 crossover fails?
The full grading fee for the tier. The card is returned in its CGC holder.
Is there a cheaper way to get a mid-grade card into a PSA slab?
Not at PSA right now: its low-cost Value services stopped taking orders on June 2, 2026. Cracking the CGC slab and submitting the card raw also costs a PSA grading fee and removes the safety net of the returned holder.
Sources
- Trading Card Grading: services and prices — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Crossover Service — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Frequently Asked Questions — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Service Level Update: May 2026 — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Grading Standards — PSA, read October 23, 2026
- Grading Scale — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- CGC Cards grading services and fees — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Does TAG offer a crossover regrading service for other third-party slabs? — TAG Grading, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Base Set Unlimited — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Base Set 1st Edition — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Evolving Skies — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Scarlet & Violet 151 — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promos — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Japanese Base Set — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Population report: Eevee Heroes (S6a) — CGC Cards, read October 23, 2026
- Auction Prices Realized: 1999 Pokemon Game Charizard-Holo (population columns) — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of March 2, 2026
- CardFacts: 1999 Nintendo Pokemon Game Mewtwo-Holo #10 (population columns) — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of June 9, 2025
- Auction Prices Realized: 1999 Pokemon Game 1st Edition Blastoise-Holo — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of October 21, 2025
- CardFacts: 1999 Nintendo Pokemon Game Venusaur-Holo 1st Edition #15 — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of July 6, 2025
- Auction Prices Realized: Evolving Skies Full Art / Umbreon Vmax #215 — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of June 26, 2025
- Auction Prices Realized: 2023 Pokemon Mew EN-151 Charizard Ex #199 — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of April 7, 2025
- Auction Prices Realized: Pokemon x Van Gogh Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of January 25, 2026
- Auction Prices Realized: 1996 Pokemon Japanese Basic Charizard-Holo #6 — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of June 20, 2025
- Auction Prices Realized: Eevee Heroes Full Art / Umbreon Vmax-Hyper #095 — PSA, archived by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine capture of July 17, 2025
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.