How and why to get Pokemon cards graded | PSA and Beckett

The importance of get Pokemon cards graded.

As we reported in our article The price of your Pokemon card collection, a Pokémon card condition is determined by its grading – this is the process by which a card is certified as real, rated on a scale of one to ten, and sealed in a transparent box known as a slab, protected for all eternity against sticky fingers and the elements. Grading is a billion-dollar industry dominated by three American players – PSA, Beckett and CGC – and a good rating from one of these big firms can send a card’s value soaring with time.

The key factors to get a high grade on Pokemon cards.

Corners: This refers to the condition of the corners. Anything like whitening, nicks, or unsymmetrical cutting can affect the grade of a card.
Centering: How well centered the artwork on the card is. Grading services tend to be stricter with centering on the front of the card, compared to the back. They will also work off certain centering ratios to determine the grade of the card.
Edges: refers to the condition of the edges of the card. Again, whitening, nicks and edgewear can affect the grade.
Surface: refers to the condition of the surface of the card. Scratches, nicks print lines and even holographic bleed can affect the grade.

How to grade Pokemon cards if you live in UK.

For UK citizens, it can be hard to send their valuable Pokemon cards oversea to USA. For this reason, a European/UK citizen may opt to grade their Pokemon card collection without an expensive US priority mail shipping. For this reason, you can give a try to the following UK-based grading company:

treefroggrading.com: TFG grading system is designed to eliminate grading discrepancies to give a true score of your cards against the four main criteria. Cards that score an average of 9.5 or above, are certified with the respective ‘Bravo 9’ or ‘Alpha 10’ grades, earning the prestigious blue and pink frogs. Check their website for more information about the grading process.
pcg.com: They grade Pokemon, Topps, Sports Cards, Football Cards, Baseball Cards, Stickers, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic and virtually all other TCG too. The cards will be protected and complimented in our gold secure cases with a gold security features. PGC graded cards look superior to PSA, BGS, CGC or any other established card grading company in the USA. At PGC (The Professional Grading Company), they grade cards in as little as 72 hours using some of the most advanced card case security features in the world.
majestygrading.com:the submission costs can vary from £9.99 to £26.99 with no minimum card depending on the time you want to wait your Pokemon cards to return.

Why to choose Beckett (BGS) grading instead of PSA.

Beckett has a more in-depth process, giving subgrades for the four key factors mentioned above. Their range runs from a ‘Poor 1’ to a ‘Pristine 10’.

Interestingly, they also have an elite level above that called a ‘Black Label Pristine 10’ for cards that score 10 for all the subgrades. Top graded Beckett cards (Pristine 10 or Black Label 10) command a higher premium over the more basic PSA 10.

How to submit your Pokemon cards to Beckett grading.

Sign up and create a new account.
Download and fill in Gaming Submission Form.
Under ‘Ship to‘ column you have to write down your details (name, address, email).
Choose a shipping method (i.e. International Shipping), the costs are reported at the end of the submission form depending on the quantity of Pokemon cards to be graded.
Insert your cards detail one per row and insert their value for insurance purpose.
Insert your payment details and send your order! In the submission form an order ID is provided!

Which are the estimated turnaround time to get your cards graded at Beckett?

You can find the updated turnareound time at the following link. At the time of writing, only Premium submission are accepted which correspond to $125-250/card due to their growing backlog. For this reason, you had better send to grade only high valuable Pokemon cards.

How to grade your Pokemon or TGC card collection with PSA.

A very wide range of TGC cards can be graded at PSA and BGS, not only Pokemon. PSA is perhaps the most popular option for grading Pokémon Cards. They mark their cards with red grade labels and are incredibly reliable, but somewhat slow as well. Because of their popularity, their wait times have grown significantly.

The submission process to PSA is very similat to that of BGS. As first step, create/sign in to your PSA account to get accessed to the submission center.
Choose the card type you want to grade and the type of service (‘Grading’).
Select the service level (i.e. Express or Premium or higher)
Insert your card item details.
Provide shipping details and payment method.

Which are the estimated turnaround time to get your card graded at PSA?

PSA have been working over the past few months to tackle their huge backlog of cards to be graded. As of July 2021 they were able to open up their most expensive service for ‘Express Grading’. This costs $200 per card, and clearly, is only worth it for cards of considerable value.You can find the updated turnaround time to get your cards graded at the following communication link of PSA website.

What is the value of my Pokemon card collection after grading?

The worth of your Pokemon card (or in general TCG card) depends on the rate you obtained on the grading process. You can get an idea of the grading standards of PSA at the following link. In fact, you can match the condition of the Pokemon card to be graded with the possible rating you can receive. In general, the worth increase of a graded Pokemon card may vary and can reach up 1000% of the ungraded version. By inserting the card detail (set, expansion, year and grade) you can get an appraisal of your graded Pokemon card collection at this website link.