If you have looked up PSA 10 vs CGC 10 value this year, you have probably seen a tidy number. On modern Pokémon, the premium a PSA 10 gets over a CGC 10 has supposedly shrunk to 5 to 10 percent. That would matter a lot if you are deciding where to send a stack of modern hits while PSA's cheapest tiers are closed. But as far as we can trace it, the number comes from one February 2026 price pair on one card, repeated by three websites. Sold data we checked on Sep 10, 2026 shows a much wider gap on every card we looked at.
Below: where the number came from, what current comps say, where CGC does come out ahead, and a card-by-card method for choosing a grader.
Where did the 5 to 10 percent figure come from?
It comes from a single data point. Card Chill's Mar 2, 2026 article said the gap had narrowed to "a mere 5-10% for modern cards," down from a historical 25 to 30 percent. Its evidence was "internal tracking" of the Mega Lucario ex special illustration rare (SIR): a PSA 10 at $1,078 against a CGC Gem Mint 10 "consistently clearing $980," based on February 2026 sales. That is a gap of about 10 percent. The article names no external sales database.
TheCardShopFinder repeated the same $1,078 and $980 pair on Apr 22. Misprint repeated it again on Jun 8. It called the modern gap "roughly 5 to 10 percent" and the vintage gap "a stickier 15 to 20 percent," and described both as "mid-2026 market conditions and a card-by-card range rather than fixed rules." Neither site cites new sales for the pair. So the number that reads like mid-year data is really a February number that has been passed along three times.
Three months earlier, the same publisher said something very different. Misprint's Mar 18, 2026 piece put PSA's grade-10 premium over CGC at 18 to 29 percent on modern chase cards, 22 to 30 percent on semi-vintage, and 40 to 70 percent on true vintage and Base Set era cards. Be careful with that article's example prices too. It lists a Prismatic Evolutions Umbreon ex SIR PSA 10 at $270 to $320, while sold-listing aggregators put the #161 SIR PSA 10 in the thousands.
Is a CGC 10 the same as a PSA 10?
Not quite, and the difference matters when you pull comps. Under CGC's current grading scale, the old CGC Gem Mint 9.5 became "CGC Cards Gem Mint 10," and Perfect 10 is a retired grade. CGC's top grade is now Pristine 10, which requires 50/50 centering and flawless color and registration. Gem Mint 10 allows centering up to about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back.
So when people compare a PSA 10 with a "CGC 10," they are usually comparing PSA's top grade with CGC's second tier. If a price guide or eBay search lumps Pristine 10 and Gem Mint 10 sales together as "CGC 10," the average will overstate what a standard CGC 10 sells for. Track the two separately.
How much more is a PSA 10 worth than a CGC 10 right now?
On the four cards we checked, a lot more. PokeInvest's eBay sold-price averages on Sep 10, 2026 showed PSA 10 copies selling for roughly 70 to 214 percent more than CGC 10 copies. None of the four came close to 5 to 10 percent.
| Card | PSA 10 | CGC 10 | SGC 10 | BGS 10 | Raw | PSA premium over CGC 10 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Mega Lucario ex #179 SIR (Mega Evolution) | $373.47 | $219.89 | $224.00 | $728.25 | $181.61 | about 70% | | Umbreon ex #161 SIR (Prismatic Evolutions) | $5,610 | $2,312 | $3,366 | $8,334 | $1,350 | about 143% | | Pikachu ex #238 SIR (Surging Sparks) | $937.08 | $365.00 | $562.00 | not listed | $281.81 | about 157% | | Charizard #4 (Base Set) | $12,218 | $3,892 | $7,331 | $15,884 | not listed | about 214% |
Source: PokeInvest card pages, eBay sold data, checked Sep 10, 2026. Premium is the PSA 10 price divided by the CGC 10 price, minus one.
Three things stand out. First, Mega Lucario, the card behind the 10 percent claim, now shows a gap of about 70 percent. Its PSA 10 price has also fallen from about $1,078 in February to about $373, so the February pair says little about today's market on either side. Second, prices are moving quickly: PokeInvest shows the Umbreon PSA 10 down $1,286 over the last 30 days. Third, SGC 10 sits between CGC 10 and PSA 10 on every card in the table, and BGS 10 sits above PSA 10 wherever it is listed.
The aggregators disagree
Do not treat any single site as an index. CollectorWorth, using sales from around March 2026, shows Pikachu ex #238 at $1,059.48 for PSA 10 (including a PSA 10 sale of $1,067.38 on Mar 31) and $750.70 for CGC 10. That is a premium of about 41 percent, compared with about 157 percent on PokeInvest's Sep 10 figures. For Umbreon ex #161, CollectorWorth shows PSA 10 at $4,383.88 and CGC 10 at $2,053.43, about 113 percent, with CGC 10 sales of $2,600.00 on Mar 18 and $2,233.97 on Mar 29.
Part of the difference is timing, and part is sample size, since there are fewer CGC 10 sales to average. These tools are also noisy. CollectorWorth showed a Base Set Charizard PSA 10 value of $911.72 in search snippets, which is clearly wrong. Read every number in this article as a spot check on a stated date, not a benchmark.
Is CGC Pristine 10 worth more than PSA 10?
Sometimes it is, on modern chase cards, and that part of the narrowing story holds up. CollectorWorth's Umbreon ex #161 page shows a CGC Pristine 10 value of $7,040.90 against $4,383.88 for PSA 10, about 61 percent higher. That was the strongest evidence in our research that CGC's top grade can outsell PSA's.
Watch out for weaker versions of the claim. Card Chill's Pristine example, a Mega Mewtwo Y ex Pristine 10 listed at $1,200 against a PSA 10 around $900, is an asking price, not a sale. Pristine also requires 50/50 centering and flawless color and registration. Count it as a possible upside when you decide, not as the result you expect.
Two other parts of the story also hold up. CGC is cheaper and faster to submit to while PSA's Value tiers stay paused (fees below). And a PSA 10 is not scarce on big modern cards. PokeInvest lists PSA 10 populations of 12,978 for Mega Lucario #179 (about twice its PSA 9 population of 6,202), 10,540 for Pikachu #238 and 6,379 for Umbreon #161. Despite that supply, PSA 10 still sells well above CGC 10 on all three.
Why does the PSA premium persist?
Sold data does not tell you why buyers pay more. These are the likely reasons, and anyone who sells regularly will recognize them.
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More buyers. More buyers search for and bid on PSA slabs, so a PSA 10 is easier to sell quickly near its comp. With fewer CGC sales, the gap between what buyers offer and what sellers ask is wider.
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Set builders. Collectors building graded sets in PSA's registry need PSA slabs, which keeps steady demand under popular cards.
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Crossover doubt. Buyers looking at a CGC 10 wonder whether it would get a 10 from PSA. When they are not sure, they pay less.
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Vintage habits. The older end of the market still leans heavily toward PSA, as the Charizard numbers below show.
Does the gap hold on vintage Pokémon?
We found nothing that supports a 15 to 20 percent vintage gap. PokeInvest's Base Set Charizard #4 page showed PSA 10 at $12,218 (population 488) against CGC 10 at $3,892 on Sep 10, a premium of about 214 percent. In other words, the CGC 10 sold for roughly a third of the PSA 10 price, and only modestly above a PSA 9 at $2,850. SGC 10 was $7,331 and BGS 10 was $15,884.
Card Chill and TheCardShopFinder both say a CGC 10 1st Edition Charizard struggles to sell for even 40 percent of a PSA 10 price. Even Misprint's own March range for vintage was 40 to 70 percent. We could not find any sales data behind the 15 to 20 percent figure.
What does PSA and CGC grading cost in September 2026?
Fees are where CGC has its clearest edge right now.
PSA paused its four Value tiers on Jun 2, 2026: Value Bulk ($24.99), Value ($32.99), Value Plus ($49.99) and Value Max ($64.99). CardPulse reported the queue was near 10 million cards after a 20 percent jump in submissions. It gave a reopening target of about 5 million cards and a timeline of up to four months. Heavy reported on Sep 9 that all four Value tiers remain paused and that PSA's menu changes on Sep 14.
| Grader | Tier | Price per card | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | PSA | Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, Value Max | Paused | Paused since Jun 2, 2026 | | PSA | Standard (new) | $59.99 | Launches Sep 14; 90 to 100 business days; $1,000 max value | | PSA | Priority (formerly Regular) | $79.99 | 70 to 80 business days; $1,500 cap | | PSA | Express | $199 | Up from $149 | | CGC | Bulk | $17 | US card submissions, effective Mar 24, 2026 (CGC) | | CGC | Economy | $20 | US card submissions, effective Mar 24, 2026 | | CGC | Standard | $55 | Reported; raised from $45 in January 2026 |
If you are waiting for PSA's Value tiers to come back, check PSA's Backlog Tracker directly. Secondhand updates on the backlog keep circulating, but we could not confirm them on PSA's own pages.
How to check the PSA vs CGC premium on your own card
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Pull sold comps for the exact card. Use the last 30 to 60 days of sold PSA 10 and CGC Gem Mint 10 sales, with the same set number and variant. Leave Pristine 10 out of the CGC column and track it separately. Asking prices do not count.
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Subtract fees and time. Deduct the fee for the tier you would actually use. Then decide what 90 to 100 business days of waiting costs you if prices are moving. Shipping and selling fees come off either way.
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Be honest about grade odds. Estimate your chance of a 10, and separately your chance of a Pristine 10 at CGC. Look up what a 9 sells for at each grader too, because you can always miss.
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Allow for liquidity. If there are only a few CGC 10 sales in your window, expect a wider gap between bids and asks and a slower sale.
Worked example: Mega Lucario ex #179
On PokeInvest's Sep 10 figures, a raw copy sells for about $182. All numbers below are before shipping and selling fees.
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CGC 10: about $220, minus the $17 Bulk fee, nets about $203. That is only about $21 more than selling raw, and it assumes the card gets a 10.
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PSA 10: about $373, minus the $59.99 Standard fee, nets about $313. The catch is a 90 to 100 business day wait once Standard opens on Sep 14.
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PSA 9: about $195, minus $59.99, nets about $135. That is roughly $47 less than selling raw today.
If the card gets a 10, PSA comes out about $110 ahead of CGC at current comps. If it gets a 9, PSA's higher fee leaves you worse off than selling raw. The PSA premium on this card is real, but so is the fee. And since the PSA 10 already fell from about $1,078 in February to about $373, you should not assume today's comp will still be there after a 90 to 100 business day wait.
When is CGC the right call?
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Cards you plan to keep. If you are not selling, the resale premium matters less than protection and cost, and CGC Bulk at $17 is less than a third of PSA Standard.
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Well-centered copies that could get a Pristine 10. On top modern chase cards, a Pristine 10 can outsell a PSA 10, as the Umbreon data shows.
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Cheap modern cards. PSA's cheapest open tier costs $59.99, which can wipe out the gain on a card worth a few hundred dollars or less. Run the worked-example math first.
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Anyone who needs a slab soon. With PSA's Value tiers paused and Standard quoted at 90 to 100 business days, CGC is the cheaper and faster option.
PSA is still the better choice for vintage, where the gap is widest, and for cards you plan to sell that have a good chance at a 10.
The bottom line
The PSA premium over CGC has not shrunk to single digits on modern Pokémon, at least not on any card we could check against sold data. It changes with the card, the date and the data source, from about 41 percent on one aggregator to more than 200 percent on vintage. CGC's real advantages are lower fees, a faster queue while PSA's clears, and a Pristine 10 that can outsell a PSA 10 on the right card. Check the premium card by card, and when someone quotes one percentage for the whole hobby, ask to see the sales.
Related reading
Sources
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TheCardShopFinder: CGC Pristine 10 Surpasses PSA 10 for Modern Pokemon Cards (Apr 22, 2026)
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Misprint: PSA 10 vs CGC 10, Which Holds Value Better? (Jun 8, 2026)
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Misprint: PSA vs CGC, Which Grading Company Sells for More? (Mar 18, 2026)
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CardPulse: PSA Pauses Its Value Grading Tiers from June 2, 2026 (May 29, 2026)
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Heavy: PSA Standard Grading, $59.99 Tier Launches as Value Stays Closed (Sep 9, 2026)
DISCLAIMER: PureGrail articles are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing on this site constitutes financial, investment, or legal advice. Collectibles are speculative assets and values can decrease significantly. Always conduct your own research before buying or selling. Past price performance does not indicate future results.
