Card Grading 101: Should You Get a Card Graded?

"Should I get this graded?" is one of the first questions almost every collector eventually asks, and it doesn't have one right answer — it depends on the card. Grading means sending a card to a third-party company that examines it, assigns it a numeric grade, and seals it in a tamper-evident hard plastic case called a "slab," with the grade and a certification number printed right on the label. PSA is the name most Canadian collectors run into first, alongside other graders like BGS and CGC, but this guide isn't about the mechanics of submitting — it's about the decision that comes before that: is this particular card actually worth grading in the first place? If you've already decided yes and you're grading from Canada, our PSA submission guide covers the three routes collectors here actually use to get a card into a slab.

Reading the 1–10 Scale

Graders score a card from 1 to 10 based on centering (how symmetric the borders are around the image), corner sharpness, edge condition, and surface quality. A 10 is as close to perfect as the card gets — sharp corners, dead-on centering, no visible flaws under close inspection. A 9 usually has one small, sometimes barely visible flaw that keeps it just off perfect. Grades in the 7–8 range are still sharp, presentable cards with a flaw or two you'd notice if you looked, and anything below a 5 is a well-worn card that's still collectible but priced like what it is. The part that catches people off guard is that the scale isn't linear in value — the jump from a 9 to a 10 is often a much bigger price jump than the jump from a 7 to an 8, because a true 10 is so much rarer.

Raw vs. Slabbed: Why the Number Matters

A "raw" card is one that hasn't been graded — its condition is whatever the buyer and seller agree it is, based on photos or an in-person look, with no independent third party backing that up. A slabbed card has an independent grader's number attached to it, which is exactly what a buyer is paying for: certainty. A raw card described as "near mint" might really be a 7, an 8, or a 9 — nobody but the buyer's own judgment is confirming it either way. A slabbed 9 doesn't need arguing for — the label settles the question before anyone asks it. That certainty is genuinely worth something to buyers, which is why a graded copy of a card usually sells for more than an equivalent raw copy — but grading costs money and takes time, so it only makes sense to chase that premium on cards where the math actually works out.

The Math: Is This Card Worth Grading?

We're not going to hand you a dollar figure here, since grading fees, shipping, insurance, and card values all change over time and vary card to card — but the logic behind the decision doesn't change. Weigh the card's estimated raw value against the full real cost of grading it: the submission fee itself, shipping both ways, insurance on something worth submitting, and your own time. Then weigh that against the realistic upside if it grades well, and the real risk that it comes back lower than you hoped — at which point it's sealed in a slab you didn't necessarily want, on a card you can no longer sell as simply "raw." The rule of thumb most experienced collectors use: there needs to be a meaningful gap between what the card is worth raw and what it would be worth graded well, with enough room left over after costs that a slightly lower-than-hoped grade still doesn't leave you worse off. That math almost never works out for a card that's already showing obvious wear — grading doesn't fix condition, it just certifies it.

Doing a Condition Self-Check First

Before you spend anything on grading, check the card yourself the way a grader would. Look at centering first — hold the card at arm's length and see whether the border is roughly even on all four sides, or noticeably off to one side. Check the corners under good light for any softness or rounding, run your eye along the edges for chipping, and look across the surface for scratches, print lines, or wax stains from the pack it came in. A loupe (a small handheld magnifier collectors use for exactly this) makes surface flaws much easier to spot than eyeballing it under a regular lamp. If a card looks clean on all four of those fronts, it's a real candidate. If it's already showing a soft corner or a visible crease, save yourself the submission fee.

Which Cards Are Usually Worth Grading

In general, grading tends to make the most sense for rookie cards of star players, low-print-run inserts and parallels (special cards printed in far smaller numbers than a set's regular base cards), genuinely vintage cards in unusually strong shape for their age, and anything that already commands real money as a raw card. Common veterans, base cards from recent sets, and anything with a low raw value to begin with almost never clear the bar, no matter how sharp the corners look, simply because there isn't enough room between the raw price and a realistic graded price to cover the cost of finding out. When in doubt, that value gap — not how nice the card looks sitting in your hand — is the number that actually matters.

If You'd Rather Not Ship It Yourself

If the idea of packing and shipping cards across the border puts you off entirely, 10 shops in our directory currently list grading services — which typically means they'll handle the submission on your behalf; call ahead to confirm their current process. Our PSA submission guide covers that route alongside the other two Canadian collectors actually use.

Grading Isn't Your Only Option

Grading is one tool, not a requirement — plenty of collectors buy, sell, and trade raw cards their whole lives without ever submitting one. If you're weighing whether to grade a card at all versus just selling it as-is, our collection triage guide walks through both paths side by side.

Notice something here that doesn't line up with what you're seeing on an actual card? Let us know.