As of mid-October 2026, the cheapest card grading service still open per card is CGC Bulk at $17. It requires at least 25 cards ($425 in fees), caps declared value at $500 per card and estimates 150 working days. The next open options are TAG (from $39.95), SGC ($50), PSA Standard ($59.99) and Beckett Express ($79.95).
Most of the low-cost grading tiers have closed. PSA has had its Value tiers paused since June 2. Beckett paused its Base and Standard tiers a second time in late September, so Express is the only Beckett tier taking new orders. For a collector holding a stack of $20 to $50 cards, the old math no longer works. Every price and status below is dated to October 2026, and these have been changing week to week. Check each grader's own page before you ship anything.
Cheapest open tier at each major grader (October 2026)
| Grader | Cheapest open tier | Price per card | Max value per card | Estimated turnaround | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CGC | Bulk | $17 | $500 | 150 working days | 25-card minimum; can mix card types and games | | TAG | Not published here | From $39.95 | Not published here | Not published here | Five service levels advertised | | SGC | Lowest tier | $50 (effective Sept. 2) | Not published here | More than 40 business days | Per Sports Illustrated | | PSA | Standard | $59.99 | $1,000 (insured) | 90 to 100 business days | Queued behind existing Value and Bulk orders, per Heavy | | Beckett | Express | $79.95 | Not published here | 15 business days | Base and Standard paused |
Shipping, return shipping, insurance and handling fees are not included in this table. They add to every number above, so price them separately.
CGC Bulk: the lowest fee, with conditions attached
CGC's official services and fees page lists Bulk at $17 per card, with a $500 maximum value per card and an estimated 150 working days. Bulk requires a minimum of 25 cards, and CGC says those cards "may be a mix of different types/games." That means one order can hold Pokemon, sports and other cards together, which makes the minimum easier to reach.
The minimum is where the cost adds up. Twenty-five cards at $17 comes to $425 in grading fees before shipping or membership costs. If you only have six cards worth grading, Bulk is not really a $17 option for you.
The $500 per-card cap is not a problem for low-value cards, since the cards this article is about sit far below it. The real cost is time: 150 working days is the longest published wait in the table. CGC also says its turnaround times are estimates, not guarantees.
The other CGC tiers, from the same page:
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Economy: $20 per card, $1,000 max value, estimated 90 working days. The 25-card minimum on CGC's page is attached to Bulk.
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Standard: $55 per card, $3,000 max value, estimated 10 working days.
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Express: $100 per card, $10,000 max value, estimated 5 working days.
For only $3 more per card, Economy cuts the estimated wait by 60 working days. CGC also gives members discounts on grading: 10% off for Associate and Premium members and 20% off for Elite members. Whether a membership pays for itself depends on its cost and how many cards you send, so do that math before you sign up.
PSA: Value is paused and Standard is the new floor
PSA paused Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max effective June 2, 2026, according to Baseball America. Baseball America quoted PSA's explanation: "This pause is a deliberate, structural defense of the future we are building, not a retreat from it." In that same period of coverage, Baseball America reported PSA's cheapest open tier as Regular at $79.99 per card.
On September 14, PSA opened a Standard tier at $59.99 per card. It has a $1,000 maximum insurance value and an estimated 90 to 100 business days, covering "imaging and grading of a card," according to ICv2. Two details from Heavy's September 22 reporting matter for anyone deciding whether to use it. Heavy reported that Standard orders queue behind existing Value and Bulk submissions. It also reported that PSA has said Standard is not a replacement for the paused Value tiers.
Here is what the pause costs you. Heavy's October 6 report put PSA's pre-pause prices at $32.99 per card for Value and $24.99 for Value Bulk. In Heavy's example, 20 cards at Standard cost $1,199.80, compared with $659.80 at the old Value price, a $540 difference.
When could Value come back? Heavy put PSA's active backlog at 8.2 million units on October 6, down from 9 million on September 22. PSA's target for possibly reopening cheaper services is 5 million, so 3.2 million units remain. No return date has been announced. Heavy paraphrased PSA as saying that keeping up its current pace "would put the company in position to assess reopening additional service tiers in the coming months." That language describes an assessment. It does not commit to a reopening.
Beckett: Express only, for now
Beckett's lower tiers have opened and closed twice in two months. Base and Standard were paused starting August 5 and reopened on September 15. Heavy reported on September 26 that both had been paused again, leaving Express as the only option for new submissions. Beckett's statement, as quoted by Heavy: "To help us focus on existing orders and maintain estimated turnaround times, we've temporarily paused Base and Standard card grading submissions." Beckett added: "Service availability will continue to adjust based on our ability to consistently meet estimated turnaround times."
Heavy's prices for each tier:
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Express (open): $79.95 per card, estimated 15 business days.
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Standard (paused): $34.95 per card, estimated 45 business days.
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Base (paused): $17.95 per card, estimated 75 business days.
Beckett's process was also unusual this fall. Heavy's September 15 report said Beckett.com and its app were offline, so submissions were going through a temporary online form. The form accepts up to 100 cards per submission, and Beckett reviews each order before confirming the invoice. A card that earns a perfect 10 with subgrades included carries an extra $3 charge. One ownership note: Sports Illustrated reported that Collectors, PSA's parent company, acquired Beckett in December 2025.
SGC and TAG: the middle of the range
SGC raised its lowest-tier rate to $50 per card effective September 2, with turnaround described as more than 40 business days, according to Sports Illustrated. SI quoted SGC: "Effective September 2, 2026, SGC will be adjusting its offered service levels in response to rapidly increasing demand and continued expansion of estimated turnaround times."
TAG's official homepage advertises grading "From $39.95" across "5 Service Levels." TAG says it is "carefully reopening more accessible grading options while continuing to protect our turnaround times." We could not verify the details of TAG's cheapest tier, including its minimums, coverage limits and turnaround. Read TAG's current terms before treating $39.95 as your actual cost.
Should a $20 to $50 card be graded at all?
When the fee is close to the card's raw value, the question is not which grader is cheapest. It is whether grading adds money at all. The test is simple:
Expected graded sale price minus grading fee, shipping both ways, insurance and selling costs has to beat the raw sale price minus its own selling costs.
At CGC Bulk, a graded copy has to net at least $17 more than the raw card, plus your share of shipping, before you come out ahead. At PSA Standard or SGC, that gap is $50 to $60 or more. At Beckett Express, it starts near $80. For many cards in the $20 to $50 range, that rules out every tier except the cheapest. The outcome also depends on the grade you actually receive, and no one can promise that grade.
Use PureGrail's card grading break-even calculator to enter your own costs and compare net proceeds from grading against selling raw. It works only with the numbers you enter. It does not predict grades, current prices or investment returns, so base your inputs on recent sold listings, not asking prices.
Practical options while cheap tiers stay closed
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Batch into CGC Bulk. If you or a group of collectors can put together 25 or more cards that each clear the break-even test at $17, Bulk is the lowest published per-card fee. Expect a long wait, and plan your cash flow around 150 working days (an estimate, not a guarantee).
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Pay $3 more for CGC Economy. At $20 with an estimated 90 working days, Economy may make more sense if you need the cards back sooner and the extra fee doesn't change your math.
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Hold raw and wait for PSA Value. This is reasonable if PSA's resale premium is the reason you grade. Remember that PSA has set no reopening date and a 3.2 million-unit gap remains to its 5 million target. Store the cards properly while you wait.
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Sell raw. If no open tier passes the break-even test, selling raw is not a loss. It avoids paying a fee that the slab would never earn back.
Status box: open and paused tiers (as of October 2026)
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CGC: Bulk ($17), Economy ($20), Standard ($55) and Express ($100) are listed on CGC's page. No tiers are shown as paused.
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PSA: Standard ($59.99) is open as of September 14. Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max have been paused since June 2, with no return date.
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Beckett: Express ($79.95) is open. Base ($17.95) and Standard ($34.95) were paused again around September 26.
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SGC: The lowest tier has been $50 since September 2.
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TAG: Advertised "From $39.95," with a limited reopening of lower-cost options.
These statuses changed several times between June and October. Confirm with the grader on the day you submit.
Related reading
Sources
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Heavy: PSA Grading Backlog Drops Again as Value Return Gets Closer (Oct. 6, 2026)
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Heavy: PSA Backlog Falls to 9 Million as Value Card Grading Remains Paused (Sept. 22, 2026)
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ICv2: PSA Adds Grading Service Tier, Opens PSA Europe Facility
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Baseball America: PSA Temporarily Pauses All Card Grading Tiers Under $80
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Heavy: Beckett Shuts Down Base, Standard Card Grading Again (Sept. 26, 2026)
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Sports Illustrated: SGC Is the Latest Company to Raise Grading Prices (Sept. 2, 2026)
This article contains AI-assisted content and has been reviewed in our editorial workflow.
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.
