Data note
Is grading a Pokémon card worth it?
Data as of · 49,448 backtested card submissions · Published
€57all-in cost per card at PSA Frankfurt, batch of 10
Rarely, if the aim is profit. Grading one card at PSA’s Frankfurt office costs about €57 all-in in a batch of 10 and takes about 5 months, so a raw card bought for €50 on Cardmarket has to come back as a graded card that sells for about €124 just to break even. In our backtest of 49,448 card submissions, grading cards worth under €50 raw near-mint lost money at the median.
The numbers
| Raw NM price | You pay: card, shipping and grading | Graded sale needed to break even | Multiple of the raw price |
|---|---|---|---|
| €20 | €78.06 | €91 | 4.6× |
| €50 | €108.06 | €124 | 2.5× |
| €100 | €158.06 | €178 | 1.8× |
| €250 | €308.06 | €341 | 1.4× |
| €500 | €558.06 | €612 | 1.2× |
What this means for a collector
- Below €50 raw, grading lost money at the median in every version of our test. The grading cost alone is more than the card.
- The only band that made money was raw near-mint cards worth €200 or more, and mostly because graded EX cards rose sharply in 2025: entries from 2025 made +63% at the median, against +12% for 2021–24.
- Under stricter assumptions (prices checked against real sales, today’s lower PSA 10 rates and a real near-mint purchase price) every price band lost money at the median.
- The grade you get back decides the result. A copy that comes back one grade lower than expected usually turns a paper profit into a loss.
- PSA 10s are harder to get than population reports suggest. In two EX sets we could check, copies graded since 2020 got a PSA 10 at half the rate of the report for ex cards (0.50×), 0.73× for holo rares and 0.87× for commons.
What grading returned, 2021–2026
Each backtested trade buys a card raw at that month’s price, pays the grading cost, waits 5 months and sells the expected mix of grades at that later month’s prices, after Cardmarket’s selling fees.
| Raw NM price | Trades | Median return | Trades that made money | Median return, stricter assumptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under €5 | 30,107 | −65% | 5% | −67% |
| €5–20 | 9,405 | −55% | 8% | −61% |
| €20–50 | 4,234 | −32% | 20% | −44% |
| €50–200 | 4,703 | −8% | 42% | −28% |
| €200–1,000 | 938 | +27% | 76% | −14% |
| Over €1,000 | 61 | +43% | 90% | −12% |
Method and limits
How we measured it
- Grading cost: PSA’s Frankfurt office, Standard service at the launch price of €49.99 per card, plus inbound shipping, insurance and a box (€18.18 per parcel) and an assumed €45 insured return parcel, shared over a batch of 10, and €0.25 of sleeves and holders: €56.56 per card. Turnaround is about 5 months.
- Break-even is the Cardmarket sale price at which what you receive for the graded card covers the raw card and the grading cost. It does not depend on any particular card.
- Backtest: 49,448 card submissions of 1,224 cards, entry months from February 2021, each sold 5 months later. The mix of grades comes from PSA’s population report for each card. The main assumptions were written down before any result was computed.
- Stricter assumptions: graded values checked against completed sales, PSA 10 rates from recent submissions, and a real near-mint purchase price from Cardmarket listings.
What it can’t tell you
- PSA Frankfurt does not publish return shipping rates; we assumed €45 for an insured parcel of 10 cards.
- Above a declared value of €900 a card needs a dearer service tier, so break-even prices are higher.
- The backtest values graded cards at PriceCharting prices. For many cheap cards those rest on few or no sales.
- Grade mixes come from today’s population reports. Recent submissions get PSA 10 less often, so the main backtest, if anything, flatters grading.
- The cards are EX-era cards (2003–2007), and the results are medians over many cards. A copy you have inspected may do better or worse; this note does not say whether to grade a particular card.
Sources
- EverySlab analysis: grading returnsBacktest and break-even analysis of 25 October 2026 over 1,224 EX-era cards, with a written plan made before any result.
- EverySlab fee table, version 2PSA Frankfurt grading prices, parcel costs and Cardmarket selling fees used for the break-even, as of 26 October 2026.
- PSAPSA services and prices, including the Frankfurt office, accessed 25 October 2026.
- What does it cost to buy and resell a card in the EU?The Cardmarket fees and shipping behind the break-even.
- What is a PSA 8 really worth?How a PSA 8 compares with raw, PSA 9 and PSA 10.
How to cite
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with this credit:
EverySlab, 'Is grading a Pokémon card worth it?', 2026-10-25, https://everyslab.com/notes/is-grading-worth-it