PSA, BGS, PCA, CCC: grading prices and turnaround in 2026

🕐 Reading time: 17 min

Summer 2026 reshaped the grading landscape. PSA paused its four economy services on 2 June, then opened its Frankfurt facility to European Union collectors on 15 September. Beckett, bought in December 2025 by PSA's parent company, closed and then reopened its entry-level services in the United States, before pausing them again on 24 September, while its website and European submissions remain offline.

Here is the real situation of the four graders that matter: who they are, their official prices, their stated turnaround times, and what you can actually order from Europe today.

PSA, the reference grader, now open from Europe

PSA was founded in 1991 in the United States and reports more than 65 million items certified. Its slab resells better than any other, across all categories. PSA gives a single overall grade, with no subgrades, and the 10 Gem Mint is the top of its scale.

PSA is coming out of the biggest capacity crisis in its history. On 28 May 2026, the company announced the suspension of its four economy services, effective 2 June: Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max. Its queue had reached 14 million cards in June. It was down to about 9.9 million in early September, and PSA ties the reopening of the Value services to a 5 million target, with no date.

On 14 September, PSA reorganised its services. The new Standard costs $59.99 per card for 90 to 100 business days. The former Regular is now called Priority, at $79.99 for 70 to 80 business days. Express rises to $199 for 20 to 30 days, Super Express costs $349, and the Walk-Through becomes Premier, at $599 for 7 to 10 business days.

These turnaround times are targets, not commitments. A card sent in March 2026 on a Value service announced at 95 business days was still waiting after four months, with no return date. Count in months, not weeks.

For reference, the paused services cost the following before closing, after a price increase on 10 February 2026: Value Bulk $24.99, Value $32.99, Value Plus $49.99, Value Max $64.99.

Where PSA works. Six grading facilities worldwide, including a full site in Plano, Texas, since July, Tokyo in Japan, and Frankfurt in Germany, which has been grading cards since 12 August 2026. It is the first step of an investment announced at 200 million dollars. PSA also has offices in Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

PSA Europe open to collectors since 15 September

This is the most important change of the autumn. Until September, the Frankfurt facility only accepted authorised dealers. Since 15 September 2026, any collector living in the European Union can send cards there in their own name, with a free PSA account. The parcel no longer crosses a customs border, either way, and you pay in euros.

Frankfurt offers every service available worldwide. European prices: Standard at €59.99 for 80 to 90 business days, Priority at €79.99 for 70 to 80 days, Express at €199. As of 28 September, the first two are shown at introductory pricing, €49.99 and €69.99, with no announced end date. Super Express at €349 and Premier at €599 complete the range, and all three fast services quote 25 to 30 business days from Frankfurt.

To see what a PSA slab looks like in hand rather than in a photo, our PSA graded cards are on the shop.

BGS, subgrades, and a service at a standstill in Europe

Beckett has published card price guides since 1979 and launched Beckett Grading Services in 1999. It gives four detailed subgrades for corners, edges, centering and surface. This precision built its slab's reputation with demanding collectors: the 9.5 is labelled Gem Mint, and above it come the 10 Pristine and the highly sought-after Black Label, when all four subgrades are 10.

Beckett now belongs to the same group as PSA. On 15 December 2025, Collectors, PSA's parent company, announced the acquisition of Beckett. BGS remains an independent brand, with its own grading teams, and Collectors already owned SGC since February 2024.

In the United States, the published prices are: Base at $14.95 without subgrades or $17.95 with them, Standard at $34.95, Express at $79.95, Priority at $124.95. Base and Standard were paused on 5 August, reopened on 15 September through a temporary form, then paused again on 24 September, with a waitlist. Express remains open. The beckett.com website has been offline since 9 September for an infrastructure overhaul.

Beckett Europe: submissions unavailable

Since January 2025, Beckett has run a grading facility in Germany, its first outside the United States. As of 28 September 2026, online submissions to Beckett Europe are unavailable during the website maintenance. Orders already received are still being processed. No restart date has been announced.

Here are the conditions that applied before the interruption, recorded on 12 August 2026. They give an idea of what to expect when it reopens, with no guarantee they will return unchanged.

• Only two services, against four in the United States. Base at €22.95 for more than 75 business days, Express at €89.95 for 15 business days, subgrades included in both, whereas the US Base at $14.95 does not include them.
• Only trading card games are accepted. The checkout refused sports and non-sports cards, returned ungraded with a handling fee. Pokémon and One Piece go through.
• Vintage cards must go under a service that includes subgrades, without actually receiving them.
• No crossover service in Europe. Submissions are limited to the European Union.
• Relabel and Recase from €10.95, plus a free review of an already graded card.

What we see on our own submissions

Something you will not find on their website. We regularly grade with Beckett Europe, and of our last 60 cards sent to the German facility, none came back as a 10.

This is a record of our own stock, not a market statistic. It is still worth knowing before sending a card you expect to reach the top grade. On a piece meant for resale, the difference between a 9.5 and a 10 is often counted in hundreds of euros, and you pay the same grading price either way.

The German insurance, mandatory and proportional

If the German facility reopens under the same conditions, the €22.95 price will not be what you pay. Beckett Europe adds mandatory insurance calculated on the card's declared value. This does not appear anywhere on their pricing page. You only discover it when filling in the submission form.

We recorded the rate on 12 August 2026 for four different declared values. It is 1.65% of the declared value, with a €1.65 minimum. The minimum therefore covers anything worth less than €100. German VAT at 19% is included in this amount, as in the grading price.

These totals do not include shipping, either way. This billing is fairer than a flat fee. On a modest card you pay €1.65, where CCC applies 2% with no visible minimum and PCA charges €19.90 for return shipping as long as the order stays under €200. On a €1,000 card, however, the German insurance alone costs more than a PCA Classic grading.

One paid option is worth knowing. Grading a signed card pulled from a pack and licensed costs €5 more. Beckett does not grade unlicensed autographs at all.

Beckett's subgrades make more sense with the slab in hand. Our BGS graded cards show the four subgrades on the label.

PCA, the first French grader

PCA, for Professional Cards Authenticator, was registered in Paris in March 2015, and its service started in 2016 according to the company. It is the oldest French grader. What sets it apart is control: every card is graded three times, by three different experts, to check that the scale is applied consistently. Above its 10, Neuf Sup', PCA awards a 10+ Collector.

Its prices depend on two things, the value you declare for the card and the speed you choose. Here are the official prices for a card declared between €1 and €249, which covers most of a collection. They have not changed since 12 August.

• Classic, six months. €10.90 per card from ten cards, otherwise €12.90.
• Fast, one month. €19.90 per card.
• Fast+, one week. €49.90 per card.
• Excelsior, one day, in person at the workshop. €149.00 per card.

Three higher declared-value bands exist, €250 to €999, €1,000 to €9,999, and over €10,000, with prices rising accordingly.

The ratio to remember. In Classic from ten cards, PCA costs about a fifth of PSA Standard in Frankfurt, €10.90 against €49.99 at introductory pricing. You pay for that gap with six months of waiting, and a lower resale value on the international market.

The first French grader's slab is best judged in hand rather than in a photo. Our PCA graded cards are on the shop.

CCC, speed and subgrades, near Paris

CCC, for Certificateur de Cartes de Collection, is a project launched in 2020 by a team of engineers and registered in June 2021 in the Paris area. It reports more than 120,000 cards graded across fourteen games. Its workshop accepts drop-off in person, five minutes from Paris.

CCC was built around justifying its grades. Four subgrades included on every card, printed on the label. The GradeReport, an online certificate that locates the defects found. And two levels above the 10: the Gold Label, when one subgrade is 9.5 and the other three are 10, and the Black Label, when all four are 10, with no announced quota on these labels.

Its pricing works by declared-value band. Speed is bought as an option.

• Card worth €1 to €50. €20 per card, GradeReport optional at €4.90.
• Card worth €51 to €100. €23, GradeReport optional at €3.50.
• Card worth €101 to €500. €27, GradeReport included.
• Card worth €501 and more. €31, GradeReport and HD scans included.

Careful, not every speed is open at all times. CCC opens and closes its services depending on its workload. On 12 August 2026, in the order checkout, the Economy and Express services were greyed out, and only Super-Express and Ultra-Express could be selected: the first price actually available for a card under €50 rose to €20 plus a €20 option, so €40, for a return within three business days. This availability is random: CCC switches its services on from time to time, with no published schedule.

This availability appears nowhere on the pricing page. You find out when you place the order. CCC announces reopenings on its social media, and its Instagram account remains the best place to be alerted.

CCC's four subgrades can be read directly on the label. Our CCC graded cards show you the result before you send yours.

The displayed price is not the price paid

Options are added to the base prices, and two of them are only included above a certain declared value.

• GradeReport, the detailed grading report. €4.90, included only if the value exceeds €100.
• Post-grading scans. €3.00, included only above €500.
• Monochrome label, black CCC logo. €1.00.
• Insurance covering the card up to its declared value. 2% of that value.

A concrete example. A Japanese card declared at €25, which matches a recent alternate art. The base price is €20. If the Economy service is closed, as on 12 August, you take Super-Express, €20 more. The GradeReport is not included under €100, count €4.90 if you want it. Insurance adds €0.50. Total, €45.40 to grade a €25 card, plus return shipping.

Keep this in mind before you start. On a modest card, grading now costs more than the card itself, whatever the grader. So you are not looking for the cheapest option. You are looking to know whether the expected grade justifies the spend, and that is what the €6.90 Pre-Grading is for.

These prices have gone up by €3 per band since the start of the year. On 12 January 2026, the same services cost €17, €20, €24 and €28. The increase ranges from 10.7% on the top band to 17.6% on the bottom band. Pricing by declared value is not new, however, it already existed in January, as did the Crossgrade.

The turnaround included in this price is stated as within 25 business days. The options speed it up. Express at €5 per card for under 10 business days, Super-Express at €20 for under 3 days, Ultra-Express at €40 for the same day. On top come HD scans at €3, the monochrome label at €1, and insurance at 2% of the declared value.

Two services deserve a closer look. The Crossgrade, at €20 per card whatever the value, lets you have a card already slabbed elsewhere regraded, with the GradeReport included from €100 of declared value. The Pre-Grading, at €6.90 per card, gives you an estimated grade before you commit to a full grading. It saves you paying for a full grading on a card that will not go above 8.

Crossover is not a French exclusive

PSA offers the same principle under the name Crossover, with very different mechanics you need to know before committing. PSA assesses the card through its current slab. You must state a minimum acceptable grade on the form. If PSA grades the card at that level or above, it comes out of its slab and goes into a PSA slab. Otherwise it comes back to you in its original slab.

Here is what costs money. PSA charges the grading fee in every case, including when the card does not cross. If you accept any grade, write 1 in the minimum grade column. PSA also offers two related services, Review and Reholder.

Beckett also offers crossover from its US headquarters, but not from its European facility, which is closed to submissions anyway. At CCC, the Crossgrade has a single price and the lab is in the Paris area, which remains the simplest option from France.

The table, by service level

Comparing each grader's cheapest service makes no sense, since they do not deliver the same service. Here the graders are compared at similar speed. US prices are in dollars, European prices in euros, excluding shipping and insurance. PSA Europe means the Frankfurt facility, open to European Union collectors since 15 September.

Economy, several months of waiting

Standard, about one to three months

Express, one to six weeks

Fastest, one to ten days

Two takeaways. In the economy bracket, PSA's European door changes things for valuable cards: €49.99 at introductory pricing, with no customs and no transatlantic shipping, against $79.99 and a shipment to the United States this summer. For a modest card, however, PCA Classic remains by far the cheapest, at €12.90 per card or €10.90 if you group ten, at the cost of six months of waiting. Beckett offers nothing from Europe any more.

In the fast bracket, CCC remains the cheapest and fastest while its express services are open: €40 for a return within three business days, where PCA asks €49.90 for one week and PSA Europe €199 for five to six weeks.

This table is dated. Prices and openings now change from one month to the next. Always check on the grader's website, and in the order checkout rather than on the pricing page, before preparing a submission.

The first criterion is the card's language

Before comparing prices, ask yourself one question. What language is the card in? Our position at Dojo TCG comes down to two rules.

A French card is best graded by a French grader. The market for French cards is a French market. The buyer looking for it speaks French, knows PCA and CCC, and is not put off by a French slab. You will not recover the extra cost of an American slab at resale, because international collectors do not look for French cards.

A Japanese, English, Korean or Chinese card is worth more with PSA or BGS. These cards trade on a global market, where your buyer may be in Tokyo, Los Angeles or Singapore. The premium of the American slab is real there, because it is recognised everywhere and international prices are set on these slabs.

Nothing stops you from grading Japanese or English cards with PCA or CCC. If you keep the card, if you resell it in France, or if the cost and turnaround of a PSA service put you off, that choice is perfectly sound. The rule above optimises a resale, it forbids nothing.

How to choose, in practice

A card under €30. PCA Classic, at €12.90 per card or €10.90 when grouping ten cards, six months of waiting. It is the cheapest, and the slab is recognised in France. Beckett Europe, which was the only alternative for an international slab at this price, is at a standstill, and the cheapest PSA service costs two to five times the card.

A card between €30 and €200. CCC becomes interesting here, at €20 or €23 per card, €40 or €43 if only Super-Express is open, for a return within three business days, subgrades included. PCA Fast, at €19.90 for one month, remains cheaper if you are not in a hurry. If the card is going to leave France, PSA Standard in Frankfurt, at €49.99 introductory pricing, gives you the slab that resells everywhere. Allow about four months.

A card over €500. The PSA premium justifies the cost and the wait. On sought-after pieces, the price gap between a PSA slab and another far exceeds the cost of grading, and direct submission to Frankfurt now removes the middleman and customs.

You are aiming for a grade above 10. Only CCC, with its Gold and Black Label, PCA with its 10+ Collector, and BGS with its Pristine and Black Label, offer one. PSA stops at 10 Gem Mint.

An already graded card that disappoints you. CCC's €20 Crossgrade lets you try for a new grade without starting from scratch.

Further reading

• Pokémon card grading explained, for the basics.
• Should you grade your Pokémon card?, to decide before you pay.
• Card conditions explained, because a card misjudged before sending costs you.
• Our graded cards, by grader: PSA, BGS, PCA and CCC, to compare the slabs for real.

What this period changes

During summer 2026, the French graders were the only option for a card under €70. The autumn reshuffled the deck: PSA settles in Europe and accepts individual collectors, while Beckett temporarily disappears from the continent.

Another shift weighs on the long term. With PSA, SGC and now Beckett, the Collectors group brings together three of the world's major graders. Facing it, PCA and CCC remain independent, and many French collectors will have discovered them out of necessity this summer. They will now judge them on results, next to a PSA that has become accessible.

Frequently asked questions

How much does PCA charge to grade a Pokémon card?

For a card declared between €1 and €249, PCA charges €10.90 per card in Classic from ten cards, €12.90 below ten. The stated turnaround is six months. Faster services cost €19.90 for one month, €49.90 for one week, €149 for one day in person at the workshop.

The price then rises with the declared value, across four bands. Here is the full grid, recorded on 12 August 2026.

Three things stand out in this grid. The ten-card discount only exists on the first two bands. Above €1,000 of declared value, grouping your submissions no longer lowers the price. Excelsior is only available in person at the workshop, you cannot order it remotely. Finally, on the top band, the gap between Classic and Fast narrows. €79.90 against €149, less than double to go from six months to one month. On the first band, the ratio is one to two and a half.

Options. Subgrades cost €5 per card, whatever the service. That is the equivalent of Beckett's four subgrades, which it charges $3 for, about €2.60, and which Beckett Europe included at no extra cost. PCA therefore charges about double for the same service. Return shipping is €19.90, free once the order exceeds €200, which happens quickly when grouping ten cards. Return postal insurance is calculated on the declared value and becomes mandatory above a certain amount.

How much does CCC grading cost?

CCC charges according to the card's declared value. €20 up to €50, €23 from €51 to €100, €27 from €101 to €500, €31 above €501. Speed is paid separately, €5 more per card for ten business days, €20 for three days, €40 for the same day.

Is PSA still accepting cards in 2026?

Yes. The four economy services, Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max, have been paused since 2 June 2026. Still open are Standard at $59.99 for 90 to 100 business days, Priority at $79.99, Express at $199, Super Express at $349 and Premier at $599. From the European Union, the same services can be ordered in euros from the Frankfurt facility.

Do you need to send your cards to the United States to get them graded?

No. PCA and CCC work in France, and since 15 September 2026 PSA accepts direct submissions from European Union collectors at its Frankfurt facility, with no customs or import VAT. Beckett Europe, in Germany, is closed to submissions for now.

Which grader for a €20 card?

PCA Classic, grouping ten cards, brings the cost down to €10.90 per card, at the cost of six months of waiting. No PSA service makes sense at this value, the cheapest costs nearly three times the card, and Beckett Europe is at a standstill.

What is CCC Grading?

CCC, for Certificateur de Cartes de Collection, is a French grader based in the Paris area, launched in 2020. It grades each card out of ten with four subgrades included (centering, corners, edges, surface), provides a GradeReport locating the defects, and awards two labels above 10, the Gold and the Black Label. Its prices start at €20 per card depending on declared value.

Who owns Beckett (BGS)?

Collectors, PSA's parent company, announced the acquisition of Beckett on 15 December 2025. BGS remains an independent brand, with its own grading teams. Collectors has also owned SGC since February 2024.

Article updated on 28 September 2026. Prices and turnaround times taken from the official PSA, Beckett, PCA and CCC Grading websites, founding dates from the French company register. US prices are in dollars, excluding shipping, customs and insurance.