How to Submit Cards to PSA: A Beginner’s Guide

The popularity of sports card grading continues to rise, and PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) remains at the forefront of this booming industry.

According to data from @gemrate, in August 2024 alone, PSA graded an astonishing 1.4 million cards, averaging over 50,000 cards graded per day!

Collectors have flocked to PSA for many reasons, but the one consistent one is that PSA-graded cards offer the most return on investment amongst all grading companies.

When deciding which cards you should be grading, there are a few steps to follow for the best results. This guide explains the step-by-step process of how to submit your cards for grading through PSA.

Evaluating Which Cards To Submit For Grading

Card evaluation is the most crucial step. Collectors must decide which cards to grade based on estimated condition and the potential value.

The key here is to determine the best-case scenario versus the worst-case scenario for the grades you might get back.

If a card costs more to grade than the estimated value increase of the estimated graded value versus the ungraded (or raw) value, submitting a card for grading makes no sense.

So, how do we make these decisions?

1. Examine The Card’s Condition

The first step is to examine your card. I recommend using a bright light and a magnifying glass to explore every nook and cranny of the card, including the corners, borders, edges, and surface.

2. Guesstimate The Grade

The second step is to look up other graded examples of your card to try and estimate a grade. I like to play it conservatively, as it is better to be surprised rather than disappointed after PSA sends you back your grading results.

To find other graded examples, use eBay or PSA’s APR data to examine other recent sales of graded cards in the specific condition ranges of your estimates.

3. Track Your Progress

If you are submitting multiple cards, it also makes sense to have a tracking spreadsheet. I’ve created a sample spreadsheet that you can use to track and evaluate your grading submissions.

Get The All Vintage Cards Grading Tracker Google Sheet Here (note you must File–>Copy and edit on your own).

I like to record my cost, along with an estimated grading range and an estimated value range. I then determine the estimated grading fees and see if it will be worth it for you to grade.

4. Determine Potential Value

Next, look up the value of specific examples based on the grades you might receive (based on your estimates) using either eBay completed item sales or PSA APR results.

5. Weight Costs Versus Value

Refer to your tracker to see what each card costs you to buy before sending it out for grading. Determine the estimated grading fee cost and see if it will be worth it for you to grade or not.

I highly recommend checking out our Sports Card Grading Cost Calculator for assistance.

One way to compensate for some of your losses from grading fees and costs is to assign a higher value of the grading costs to your higher-graded, higher-value cards received back from a submission.

Prepping Your Cards To Submit For Grading

If you’ve determined that your card(s) are worthy of a PSA grading submission, it’s time to prepare your cards for submission.

Some collectors or buyers who submit cards for grading like to wipe down their cards before sending them out. Before getting ready, I usually ensure that a card isn’t covered in dust or has any noticeable, removable particles. A soft microfiber cloth applied with a light touch to remove dust from the card is a good idea.

Before mailing your cards, they must be placed into the right protective holders. PSA recommends individually placing each card in a penny sleeve and a semi-rigid holder. While I’ve submitted cards to PSA using just regular plastic top-loaders, PSA highly encourages semi-rigid use, specifically the Card Saver 1, as shown below.

Grading Costs & What Service Level To Choose

Determining potential grading costs is one of the most significant factors when submitting cards for grading.

This step follows our previous discussion about whether a card is worth grading.

PSA’s pricing tiers for card grading are shown below:

There are a few caveats and discussion notes about the pricing shown above. The first two tiers: Trading Card Bulk and Value Bulk grading services– require a PSA Collector’s Club Membership which costs $149 or $199 per year and can be worth it if you expect to submit many cards for grading. PSA also offers frequent specials for Collector’s Club members, making it a worthy investment.

The cost of grading can vary depending on the turnaround time you choose and how quickly you want to receive your card back from grading. I recommend making bulk submissions and waiting patiently to receive your cards back from grading.

The chart above provides the cost for grading, along with what is known as a ‘Declared Value’ and expected turnaround times. A ‘Declared Value’ is your estimate of the card value after grading. This is just an estimate used for PSA to determine the insured costs for return shipping.

A key thing to be aware of is that PSA can assess an “Up Charge Fee” after grading. This means the declared value was too low compared to the estimated value for the card post-grading.

This just happened to me on a recent submission. I submitted a 1985 Star ROY Michael Jordan Card to PSA at the ‘Regular’ grading level, costing me $74.99. The declared value for this grading tier maxes out at $1500. So, if I believe that Jordan is worth between $1000 and $1500, this would be the appropriate grading tier.

However, this Jordan was graded a PSA 8, and PSA emailed me asking if I was okay with an upcharge (an additional $100 was needed) since the Jordan card value was over $5,000, not $1500.

While the upcharge is annoying and really just for PSA to make more money on grading, most accept it, realizing that they have a card now worth more than expected.

Here’s the actual email from PSA:

I am writing on behalf of PSA regarding submission #12377893 (attached). This submission contains one or more item(s) that do not qualify for the submitted fee due to their graded value. We understand that you had no way of knowing the grade(s); however, when the value does exceed the limit for the fee you originally selected, we must make the proper adjustments.
 

PSA notes that if you refuse the upcharge to the new service level, they will return the card to you ungraded, and you will be charged for the original grading service level for when you submitted the card.

Using PSA’s Online Submission Center

Everything in terms of grading will be done online. PSA has made it relatively easy to get your cards submitted for grading. Once you are ready to submit your grading order, head over to PSA’s website here.

Click the big blue ‘Start’ button to start building your submission. Here, you will see the ‘Submission Center,’ which will list any recent submissions and allow you to enter a new one. Here we would click on the blue button for a ‘New Submission’.

Next, we choose what we are submitting, which is very straightforward for a standard trading card. See below:

Once you have clicked ‘Select and Continue’, you are taken to a page to choose your ‘Submission Type’, which can be one of the following: Grading, Grading Dual Auto Service, Review, Crossover, or Reholder.

For this article we will just focus on the regular ‘Grading’ submission.

Next, you can choose your grading service level. These are the same options I’ve illustrated in the Costs section above, and this is a good snapshot. PSA has a recommended ‘Value Plus’ tier for $40 with a max declared value of $500. A ‘Value’ tier costs only $25 but has a longer turnaround time (45 days versus 20 days). Note that there are also ‘Bulk’ and ‘Specials’ tabs since I am a Collector’s Club member.

Once you’ve chosen your grading service level, you will enter the cards you plan to submit for grading. PSA has great search functionality, which allows you to type a few letters of the card and bring up a drop-down menu for selection.

Once you’ve proceeded to Checkout, your screen will look like this. For one card at the $40 service level, I’m also assessed a $19.99 return shipping charge based on my declared value. You can purchase a prepaid label with PSA (usually FedEx) or ship it yourself. I typically ship on my own since I like sending USPS. PSA also gives you the option to send to PSA Vault for storage.

Packaging Your Cards To Send To PSA

Once you have your pile of cards to be sent out for grading, it’s best to stack all flimsy semi-rigid holders on top of one another and mail them out in a medium-sized bubble mailer envelope or small box.

The next step is to create a ‘cardboard sandwich’ with two pieces covering the cards’ stack. I recommend separating into piles of about 10-15 cards for a big stack. Light rubber bands or blue painter’s tape are excellent ideas for holding the whole thing together. I usually wrap the entire thing in bubble wrap and package it in the mailer or box.

One of the most challenging decisions when mailing a package of cards to be graded is determining how much insurance you should purchase. Some collectors hesitate to ship costly cards in the mail to submit for grading because they fear the mail will be lost or damaged.

My best advice is to add a signature confirmation to your package, which will give you $500+ insurance. USPS also offers the ability to purchase additional insurance on some packages.

Registered mail via USPS is the safest and most secure way to send a package. However, it can take much longer than any other shipping service.

If you have a costly card worth $5,000+, you might also consider grading it on-site at a National Sports Card Show Convention as an alternative.

PSA Group Submissions?

When submitting your cards for grading, one alternative option is to go through a PSA Submission Group.

This is better known today in the sports card hobby as a PSA Subber or PSA Sub-Group.

You follow all of the other steps above except that instead of mailing your cards to PSA directly or starting your own grading submission form online, you will mail them to the PSA Subber instead.

Several breakers do PSA Bulk Submissions that you can send your cards to, Facebook Groups, and card store owners as options to choose from.

Once you decide which sub-group to send your cards to they will ship them out with other people’s cards in a bulk submission to be graded. The PSA Sub-Group will then charge you for the grades once they are completed and you will pay them to receive your cards back from grading.

One potential benefit of submitting your cards through a bulk submitter is that you’re more likely to receive better overall grades. This is not confirmed, but some believe that PSA gives favor to its larger, returning customers who do a lot of business with PSA. This has been an ongoing rumor for years with numerous grading companies.

Conclusion

PSA-graded cards are the most popular and valuable in the hobby today. Many star baseball players like Bobby Witt Jr and Mike Trout are affiliated with PSA in some capacity.

Grading your cards with PSA will add much value depending on which cards and grades you receive. You have to evaluate each card and ultimately decide if the card is worth sending in.

Following the steps above directly should provide a smooth and easy process. Once you receive your cards back from grading, protect them with Slab Mab cases or PSA-graded sleeves.

This will prevent your slabs from getting damaged or scratched.