The grader matters as much as the grade
A grade is only worth what the resale market will pay for that company's slab. Take a Michael Jordan or Shohei Ohtani rookie card. In a slab from a grader the market recognizes, PSA or Beckett for example, buyers pay for the slab as well as the card. In a slab from a grader the market does not recognize, the same card is worth less, and a buyer may buy the slab, cut the card out and resubmit it to a grader the market does recognize.
The score shows which side of that line each grader sits on. It does not measure how accurate or consistent a grader's grades are. We do not test that.
Resale Standing
Every scored grader shows a Resale Standing, taken from the market acceptance part of the score. It describes the US resale market. A grader can have a real following elsewhere and still read Regional or Raw value here; its scorecard says where it is trusted.
| Standing | Market acceptance score | What it means on a high-value card |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | 90 and above | The slab itself adds to the price. Buyers pay more for this label. |
| Accepted | 55 to 89 | Sells normally, with some discount to the top labels. |
| Emerging | Awarded by rule | Not carried by eBay's guarantee or the major auction houses, but sold in volume at a meaningful share of PSA's price. |
| Regional | 25 to 54 | Trusted in one market and discounted outside it. |
| Raw value | under 25 | On a high-value card, expect a buyer to cut it out and regrade it. |
Emerging is the one standing that is not read off a score. A grader that would otherwise read Regional or Raw value is Emerging when it is not covered by eBay's guarantee or carried by the major auction houses, grades at least 40,000 cards a month on GemRate, and its slabs sell for at least 50% of PSA's price across at least 5 matched cards. Those thresholds were fixed before any sold-price data was collected, so they cannot be fitted to a result. Until a grader has that evidence, it is not Emerging.
Five parts, weighted
The score is the weighted sum of five parts, each scored from 0 to 100. Market acceptance carries 60 because it is the argument of this site. Pricing carries 10 because cheap grading from a grader nobody recognizes is the mistake this site exists to prevent. Who owns a grader is reported on every scorecard but is not scored.
- 60 Market acceptance
- 15 Trust and verifiability
- 10 Holder and label
- 5 Turnaround and access
- 10 Pricing
Who the market actually tracks
Market acceptance is the heaviest part of the score because a slab is only as easy to sell as the infrastructure around it: whether eBay guarantees it, whether the major auction houses carry it, and whether the services buyers use to check populations and prices include it. Here is that picture for the graders at the top of the market.
| Grader | eBay Authenticity Guarantee | Major US auction houses | GemRate | SportsCardsPro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | Covered | Standard inventory | In Universal Search | Graded prices shown |
| BGS (Beckett) | Covered | Standard inventory | In Universal Search | Graded prices shown |
| CGC | Covered | Standard inventory | In Universal Search | No graded prices |
| SGC | Covered | Standard inventory | In Universal Search | No graded prices |
| TAG | Searchable, not covered | Not standard inventory | Not in Universal Search | No graded prices |
The first two columns are scored facts, read from the same data as each grader's score. The last two are shown for context and are not part of the score today.
Checked on 5 October 2026.GemRate Universal Pop Report:Universal Search combines the pop reports of PSA, Beckett, SGC and CGC.SportsCardsPro price guide:Graded prices are shown for Grade 7 to 9 (PSA or BGS), Grade 9.5 (BGS), PSA 10 and BGS 10, and no other grader.
What the slabs sell for
A grader's infrastructure says whether a slab can be sold easily. What it sells for says whether it is worth selling. Sold prices are compared with a PSA 10 of the same card.
| Grade | Median sold price vs a PSA 10 | Cards compared | In the score |
|---|---|---|---|
| TAG 10 | 110% | 1,948 | Yes |
| TAG Pristine 10 | 410% | 57 | Shown for context |
| CGC 10 | 40% | 11,164 | Yes |
| CGC Pristine 10 | 84% | 5,622 | Shown for context |
| BGS 9.5 | 49% | 1,570 | Yes |
| BGS 10 | 150% | 502 | Shown for context |
| BGS Black Label | 820% | 223 | Shown for context |
Source: TCGCharts, updated 4 October 2026, pokémon cards only, sold prices over the last 24 months. For each card, printing and language, the median sold price of a grade is divided by the median PSA 10 price of the same card, and each grade needs at least 3 sales. The figure shown is the median of those ratios across cards.Its methodology.
The score uses each grader's Gem Mint grade, the same rule for everyone. We have no equivalent sample for sports cards yet, so a grader's sports numbers may differ. A rarer grade can sell for more because it is rarer: the table says what a seller gets, not why.
The cap
No grader can score more than 25 points above its market acceptance part. Speed, price and presentation cannot make up for a slab the market will not pay for. Where the cap applies, the scorecard says so.
How each part is scored
Each part starts from facts we can check. Every fact is worth a fixed number of points, and a part's facts add up to 100. The number after each option below is its points. A fact we could not verify earns nothing and is marked unverified on the scorecard.
Market acceptance weight 60
| eBay Authenticity Guarantee | Covered: 25; Filter only: 8 |
|---|---|
| Standard inventory at the major US auction houses | Yes: 15 |
| Sold-price parity with the leading label, same card and grade | Parity: 30; Slightly below: 15 |
| Recognised in a major US category (sports, Pokémon, Magic) | Yes: 10 |
| Recognised in a major non-US market | Yes: 10 |
| Public cert lookup that buyers and price guides can check | Yes: 10 |
Trust and verifiability weight 15
| Cert lookup | Public: 35; Limited: 15 |
|---|---|
| Years operating | 15 or more: 25; 5 to 14: 15; under 5: 5 |
| Public population report | Yes: 20 |
| Identifiable operator and disclosed ownership | Yes: 20 |
Holder and label weight 10
| Sealed, tamper-evident holder | Sealed: 35; Glued or snap: 20 |
|---|---|
| Standard footprint that fits hobby cases | Full: 25; Partial: 10 |
| Label recognised by buyers | Widely: 25; Regionally: 12 |
| Scannable cert code on the label | Yes: 15 |
Turnaround and access weight 5
| Days on the cheapest open tier | up to 30: 40; over 30 to 60: 30; over 60 to 90: 20; over 90 to 120: 10; over 120: 0 |
|---|---|
| Entry tier (open to all, narrowed, or closed) | Open: 40; Narrowed: 20 |
| Backlog figure published | Yes: 20 |
Pricing weight 10
| Tier prices published | Yes: 30 |
|---|---|
| Entry price, USD, cheapest tier any submitter can use | up to $25: 20; over $25 to $50: 15; over $50 to $80: 10; over $80: 5 |
| Limits on that tier | None: 30; Declared-value cap: 20; Minimum order: 10 |
| No price rise over 25% in the last 12 months | Yes: 20 |
"Narrowed" entry access means the grader's advertised floor tier is paused or members-only while a costlier tier is open. A minimum-order tier is a volume discount and does not count as narrowed.
Adjustments
A reviewer may move a part by up to 10 points either way for something the facts do not capture, such as unproven allegations about a grader's conduct, or an outage that stops its cert lookup working. Every adjustment is shown on the scorecard with its reason, and an adjustment without a reason is rejected.
What the score is not
- It is not a recommendation. We do not tell anyone what to buy or where to submit.
- It is not a measure of grading accuracy or consistency.
- It is not fixed. Each score carries the date it was last set.
Gem rates and grading methods
Compare shows two things the score leaves out. A gem rate is the share of cards a grader returns at its gem grade or better, from cards in sets released since 2020. For PSA, Beckett, SGC and CGC it comes from GemRate's monthly recaps. For TAG we compile it from TAG's own population report, counting TAG 10 Gem Mint and Pristine across every card graded to date. No source publishes a comparable figure for the other graders.
We show gem rates side by side and never call one grader harder. Each grader sees whatever collectors chose to send it, and "gem" is not the same grade everywhere: Beckett counts its 9.5s, CGC its Pristine and Perfect tens. Saying who grades harder would take a same-card comparison, and we have not made one.
The grading method is how a grader says its grades are set: by people; by people helped by imaging or AI; by a machine, checked by a person; or by a machine alone. We take it from the grader's own pages and describe it without ranking it, because nothing we can measure shows one method grading more accurately than another.
Worked examples
Graders as they stand today: two of the majors and one small grader. The same breakdown appears on each scorecard.
PSA86 / 100 · Premium
Market acceptance 90 / 100 (weight 60). The other four parts together 79 / 100 (weight 40).
Market acceptance
90 / 100weight 60adds 54.0
Unverified, scored as zero: Recognised in a major non-US market.
Trust and verifiability
95 / 100weight 15adds 14.3
−5 Unproven 2026 lawsuits, including a federal RICO claim, allege inconsistent grading and grade inflation.
Holder and label
92 / 100weight 10adds 9.2
−8 The frosted inner border hides a sliver of the card's edge.
Turnaround and access
40 / 100weight 5adds 2.0
−10 Backlog of about 9 million cards and all four Value tiers paused since June 2026; Standard is quoted at 90 to 100 business days.
Pricing
60 / 100weight 10adds 6.0
Weighted total 85.5, shown as 86 out of 100.
CGC67 / 100 · Accepted
Market acceptance 60 / 100 (weight 60). The other four parts together 76 / 100 (weight 40).
Market acceptance
60 / 100weight 60adds 36.0
Sold-price evidence: a CGC 10 sells for about 40% of a PSA 10 of the same card (11,164 Pokémon cards, TCGCharts). Sports cards have no equivalent sample yet.
Unverified, scored as zero: Recognised in a major non-US market.
Trust and verifiability
100 / 100weight 15adds 15.0
Holder and label
75 / 100weight 10adds 7.5
+3 Transparent on every side, so the card can be inspected from any angle.
Turnaround and access
60 / 100weight 5adds 3.0
Pricing
50 / 100weight 10adds 5.0
Unverified, scored as zero: Limits on that tier; No price rise over 25% in the last 12 months.
Weighted total 66.5, shown as 67 out of 100.
Ace Grading38 / 100 · Regional
Market acceptance 28 / 100 (weight 60). The other four parts together 53 / 100 (weight 40).
Market acceptance
28 / 100weight 60adds 16.8
Unverified, scored as zero: Sold-price parity with the leading label, same card and grade.
Trust and verifiability
65 / 100weight 15adds 9.8
−5 Elite 4 Trading and Grading, an Ace partner, formally ended its affiliation over the June 2026 price increase.
Unverified, scored as zero: Public population report.
Holder and label
57 / 100weight 10adds 5.7
+5 A clean, legible label that copies nobody.
Unverified, scored as zero: Sealed, tamper-evident holder.
Turnaround and access
65 / 100weight 5adds 3.3
+5 A 5-day Ultra tier exists at GBP 60.
Pricing
25 / 100weight 10adds 2.5
−5 Priced in GBP only, so non-UK submitters add international shipping to every figure.
Unverified, scored as zero: Entry price, USD, cheapest tier any submitter can use; Limits on that tier.
Weighted total 38.0, shown as 38 out of 100.
Method version 1.0, first published 5 October 2026. Think a score is wrong? Report it below and tell us which fact you dispute.