Comparison · July 5, 2026
PSA vs CGC for Japanese Pokémon cards: the July 2026 market check
PSA's cheapest open tier is $79.99. CGC starts at $17. Here is what the market actually pays for the same Japanese cards in each slab.
The cheapest PSA service you can order right now costs $79.99 a card. CGC starts at $17. On the same Japanese card, a PSA 10 currently sells for about ×1.6 what a CGC 10 brings. So the question is whether that slab difference covers the fee difference, and here is where it stands as of July 5, 2026.
What the market pays
The table compares the same Japanese cards in both slabs, using SlabVerdict’s tracked prices. That coverage is deepest on the VSTAR Universe set, so most of these pairs come from there. Prices come from recent graded sales, the same figures behind our Market Movers page.
A card only makes the list if it had recent sales as both a PSA 10 and a CGC 10. Cards with too few sales are left out, because a gap built on two sales is noise.
| Card | PSA 10 | CGC 10 | Gap (×) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altaria (194/172) | $23.50 | $19.77 | ×1.19 |
| Hisuian Goodra (196/172) | $51.50 | $26.00 | ×1.98 |
| Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR (234/172) | $81.41 | $50.00 | ×1.63 |
| Mewtwo VSTAR (221/172) | $221.65 | $262.50 | ×0.84 |
| Pikachu (205/172) | $779.88 | $197.62 | ×3.95 |
Across the 77 pairs with recent sales in both slabs, the median PSA 10 sold for about ×1.6 the CGC 10. The gap ran from ×0.6 to ×7.1. On 6 of those cards, the CGC 10 actually brought more.
What caught my eye: Pikachu’s PSA 10 runs ×3.95 the CGC 10, yet on Mewtwo VSTAR the CGC 10 sells for more. The premium is a big-card story, not a rule.
The gap used to be wider. Reports from 2020–21 put PSA 10s at two to three times CGC 10 values on modern Pokémon (CardGrade, Jun 2026). The table shows what is left of that on Japanese cards.
Two things drove the narrowing. CGC built real recognition for Japanese cards over those years, so its slabs found a deeper pool of buyers. The raw supply of gradable Japanese cards grew as well, which pulled both slabs toward the same base. What is left is a premium that shows up on the cards collectors actively chase, and fades on the rest.
One caveat runs through all of this. Most of these pairs come from a single set, VSTAR Universe, so the numbers describe that market more than Japanese cards as a whole. A newer set, with a thinner CGC population, could read differently. As more sets build graded sales on both sides, this check will widen.
What grading costs right now
| Service (as of Jul 5, 2026) | Fee per card | Published turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| PSA Regular | $79.99 | 40–50 business days (estimate) |
| PSA Value Bulk · Value · Value Plus · Value Max | temporarily paused since Jun 2 | — |
| CGC Bulk (25-card minimum) | $17 | ~120 business days (reported) |
| CGC Economy | $20 | ~65 business days (reported) |
| CGC Standard | $55 | — |
| CGC Express | $100 | — |
Sources: PSA Value pause (PSA); PSA February update (PSA); CGC fees, effective March 24 2026 (CGC, CGC news); CGC turnarounds as reported by CardGrade. Blank cells mean no corroborated figure, not fast service.
Two moves sit behind that table. PSA folded its TCG bulk service into one $24.99 Value Bulk tier on February 10. Then it temporarily paused the whole Value family on June 2, making Regular the current entry point (PSA). CGC raised its Bulk and Economy rates on March 24 and still takes cards without a membership fee.
PSA frames the pause as temporary. It ties reopening to working down a submission backlog, which it puts near five million cards over roughly the next four months (PSA).
The queue counts as much as the fee. PSA Regular quotes 40 to 50 business days. CGC Bulk runs far longer, near 120. A faster slab reaches buyers sooner, while a slower one keeps your card off the market as prices move.
The how-to (forms, declared values, shipping for Japanese cards) lives in our guide: PSA vs CGC for Japanese cards. That guide covers the process. This article covers what the market pays right now.
Scales, slabs, and pop reports
PSA grades in whole points, 1 to 10. CGC grades in half points. Both publish pop reports, a public count of how many copies each company has graded per grade. Check them before you submit, because scarcity per label is part of the price.
The counts also move over time. A card that looks scarce in a CGC 10 today can shift as more copies come back graded. Reading the pop report next to the price is how you catch that early.
Both companies grade Japanese cards. Whether they judge those cards differently is a separate question, and this piece does not answer it. We measure what buyers pay, not how graders grade.
Is a CGC 10 worth less than a PSA 10?
On the Japanese cards we track, mostly yes: the median gap runs ×1.6, and it is wider on some cards than others.
The label is part of what you buy. A slab sells to the buyers who know it. The bigger that crowd, the higher the bids and the faster the sale.
Population does the rest. The same card can be far rarer in one slab than the other. Buyers pay for scarcity per label, not per card.
That is why the premium tracks the card, not the company. A card a large PSA crowd chases carries a wider gap. A card both crowds treat the same carries almost none. The table is a map of which cards have a PSA crowd, and which do not.
None of that grades the grading. It is what the market pays today. The number has moved before, and the narrowing since 2020–21 is the proof. The table shows it is not one number even now.
Reading the gap
If you are submitting. The fee gap is real: $79.99 against $17. The queue is part of the cost too. Your card sits off the market while it waits, and prices can move meanwhile.
That wait is not free. A card in a long queue is a card you cannot sell, at a price that can drift either way before the slab comes back. On a thin-premium card, the queue alone can decide the call.
Whether the premium pays for that is a per-card call, not a company call. Take Mew: a PSA 10 sells around $189.99, a CGC 10 around $156.99. Grading to PSA costs $79.99. CGC’s $17 is its Bulk rate, at a 25-card minimum, while a single card runs $20 at Economy.
At the Bulk rate, the PSA 10 nets $110 after fees and the CGC 10 nets $139.99. So on this card the CGC 10 comes out about $30 ahead. Our grading ROI tool runs that call for any card we track, at today’s prices.
If you are buying. The same table reads the other way. A wide gap means the same card’s CGC 10 has been selling for less than the PSA 10. Whether that makes it the better buy is your call, if the card itself is what you’re after.
A narrow gap means the label costs almost nothing extra. The table tells you which case you are in, card by card.
A big-name chase card usually sits at the wide end. A quieter card often sits near even, where the label barely matters.
Fees and premiums both moved more this year than in most years. This check is dated July 5. When the numbers move again, the next check carries them, and this one stays as written.
— Steve