CGC Grading Fees 2026: Every Tier and Price for Sports Cards

CGC grading fees 2026 start at $17 a card for a 25-card Bulk order and run to $300 for WalkThrough, with the tier set by what your card is worth. This guide lists every CGC Cards tier with its turnaround as of October 10, 2026, the member prices, the rules that change the bill, and how the same cards price out at PSA and SGC.

TL;DR: As of October 10, 2026, CGC Cards charges $17 (Bulk, up to $500, 25-card minimum), $20 (Economy, up to $1,000), $55 (Standard, up to $3,000), $100 (Express, up to $10,000) and $300 (WalkThrough, up to $100,000) per card, with turnaround from 150 working days down to 2. Members save 10% or 20%. On listed fees, CGC is the cheapest of the three graders we track at every value we compared, from $20 against $50 at SGC and $59.99 at PSA for a $1,000 card.

CGC grading fees 2026: how much per card? (quick answer)

CGC's price depends on the declared value of each card. For most modern cards the relevant tiers are Bulk at $17 (25 or more cards worth up to $500 each) and Economy at $20 (up to $1,000), as listed on CGC's fee page on October 10, 2026. Shipping and optional add-ons are not in these figures.

Key Takeaways

• Five value tiers: $17 Bulk, $20 Economy, $55 Standard, $100 Express, $300 WalkThrough, plus Unlimited Value at $300 + 1% of fair market value.
• Turnaround in working days: 150, 90, 10, 5 and 2, all estimates that CGC says are "NOT guaranteed."
• Bulk needs 25 cards, and they "may be a mix of different types/games."
• Members pay less: 10% off for Associate and Premium, 20% off for Elite.
• Declare honestly: CGC moves an undervalued card to the higher tier and bills the difference.
• Against PSA and SGC: CGC's listed fee is lower at every value we compared on October 10, 2026.

Overview: CGC Cards and how its tiers work

CGC Cards grades trading cards, including sports cards, and returns them in what it calls an "archival, durable and crystal-clear CGC Cards holder." Its sports card page says each card is "inspected by at least two professionals." The label shows the card, the grade, a certification number and a QR code.

You pick a tier by the card's value. CGC's declared value policy calls the declared value "the submitter’s best estimate of the current FMV of the collectible," and the fee page sets a maximum value per tier. Turnaround is listed in working days, and CGC says the figures "reflect the estimated number of working days to complete a submission delivered to our facility today."

Image: CGC Cards (About CGC page)

The last price change came in the spring. CGC announced that "On March 24, 2026, CGC® will update its fees for its Bulk grading tier to $17 and its Economy grading tier to $20 for card submissions." Those are still the listed prices as of October 10, 2026.

Analysis: CGC grading fees 2026, tier by tier

Here is CGC's card grading table as listed on cgccards.com on October 10, 2026, with the member columns from CGC's printed fee chart.

Two more card lines sit in the same table: Jumbo Card at $20 with no value cap and 120 working days, and the ReHolder service at $10 and 20 working days for a card already in a CGC or CSG holder, where "The grade assigned to the card will not change." For Express, WalkThrough and Unlimited Value, CGC asks you to mark each side of the shipping box with EX, WK or UV.

The grading fee calculator runs these tiers, and PSA's and SGC's, for your own card value and count.

GODEEPER: How CGC fits next to PSA, SGC and Beckett, including what each grader has open right now. Sports Card Grading 2026: PSA vs SGC vs CGC vs Beckett →

Analysis: CGC vs PSA vs SGC on the same card

Is CGC cheaper than PSA and SGC? On listed per-card fees, yes, at every declared value below. The table takes the lowest open tier at each grader for one standard-size card, free-member prices, before shipping, all read on October 10, 2026.

Chart: RookieDesk, from the CGC, PSA and SGC price pages (October 10, 2026)

Three caveats keep this from being a simple ranking. PSA's Value tiers are paused, with the page showing "Value Services Are Temporarily Paused," so Standard is its lowest open tier; our PSA grading fees guide covers every PSA tier. PSA's FAQ adds that "any item with a Max Insured Value of $1,000 or more is subject to a Premium Item charge in addition to the authentication price," which is not in the table. SGC's prices changed in September, and our SGC grading fees guide has its full table. And the turnaround labels differ: CGC lists working days, while PSA and SGC list business days.

Analysis: memberships, declared value and add-ons

Memberships. CGC's join page lists "paid yearly memberships" at $39 for Associate, $159 for Premium and $329 for Elite, and the fee page says "Associate and Premium members save 10% on grading. Elite members save 20% on grading." Free members can still submit at the listed price. On our arithmetic, a $39 Associate membership pays for itself on a single 25-card Bulk order ($1.70 saved a card, $42.50 in total) or after 20 Economy cards ($2 a card).

Declared value. The fee page notes say that if CGC "determines that the fair market value of a collectible is higher than the value stated by the submitter, CGC will move the collectible to the appropriate higher tier and the additional charge will be the responsibility of the submitter." The declared value policy also says "in no event will the compensation exceed the declared value listed by the submitter." A low declaration can raise the bill and lower the cover at the same time.

CrossOver. CGC evaluates cards in "a PSA, Beckett* or SGC holder" and only removes them if it believes "the card will receive a grade that is the same or higher." If not, "it will be returned in its original holder and the full grading fee will still apply." The fee is "According to Tier."

Small print. Turnaround is "NOT guaranteed," and "Orders cannot be changed or cancelled once in transit to our facility." CGC's printed chart says "A $5 handling fee applies to each submission, excluding cards," so the handling fee is not charged on card orders.

Image: CGC Cards (About CGC page)

Analysis: what the top grades mean at CGC

CGC has two 10s. "Pristine 10 is a virtually flawless card to the naked eye," with centering of 50/50, and it gets "a special CGC Cards Pristine 10 label." For Gem Mint 10, "Centering is not to exceed approximately 55/45, and reverse centering is not to exceed 75/25." If you are grading a new rookie, check the centering against those limits before you choose a tier. Our rookie cards guide explains which cards of a new player count as rookies.

Community: what collectors say about CGC turnaround

Collectors have watched CGC's queue alongside PSA's. In a May 2026 r/sportscards post titled "Where the Major Card Grading Companies Stand After PSA, TAG Pauses; CGC Delays," u/BrendanSCN summed it up: "With PSA and TAG pausing value grading and CGC extending turnaround times." (thread). Replying, u/VendettaKarma wrote: "TAG is overwhelmed. CGC is Pokémon swamped too." (comment).

Our take

Based on the price pages cited above: on listed fees alone, CGC is the cheapest of the three graders we track at every declared value we compared on October 10, 2026, and its Standard and Express tiers quote far shorter turnaround than the equivalent PSA tiers. The trade-off is the long queue at the bottom (150 working days for Bulk, 90 for Economy) and the fact that grading fees are only part of the cost. Pick the tier by honest declared value, check whether a $39 membership pays for itself on your order, and compare total cost with shipping before you send anything. RookieDesk does not predict what a graded card will sell for.

Frequently Asked Questions

The six questions above cover CGC's per-card prices, turnaround, how CGC compares with PSA, member discounts, declared value and crossovers.

How we checked this

CGC's tiers, turnaround, add-ons and notes were read on cgccards.com's grading fee page on October 10, 2026, and the member prices on CGC's printed fee chart (PDF) the same day. Membership prices come from CGC's join page, the grade definitions from its grading scale page, and the March 24, 2026 change from CGC's announcement. PSA and SGC prices were read on psacard.com and gosgc.com on October 10, 2026. The per-card comparison and the membership arithmetic are RookieDesk's calculations from those prices. Reddit quotes were checked word for word on the linked thread on October 10 during the fact check of our grading pillar. On October 13, before publication, we re-read CGC's fee page, fee chart, join, declared value and grading scale pages, PSA's and SGC's price pages and the Reddit comments: every fee, value cap and turnaround in this guide was unchanged. We have not submitted cards to CGC. Full source table: data/sources/cgc-grading-fees-2026.sources.md.

References

• CGC Cards, grading services and fees: https://www.cgccards.com/submit/services-fees/cgc-grading/
• CGC Cards, services and fees chart (PDF): https://s3.amazonaws.com/ccg-corporate-production/pdfs/services-and-fees/crd-us-cgc-grading-en-us.pdf?cb=20260324115320
• CGC Cards, membership: https://www.cgccards.com/join/
• CGC Cards, declared value policy: https://www.cgccards.com/submit/declared-value-policy/
• CGC Cards, grading scale: https://www.cgccards.com/card-grading/grading-scale/
• PSA, trading card grading services: https://www.psacard.com/services/tradingcardgrading
• SGC, services and pricing: https://gosgc.com/card-grading/services-pricing
• Reddit r/sportscards, "Where the Major Card Grading Companies Stand After PSA, TAG Pauses; CGC Delays": https://www.reddit.com/r/sportscards/comments/1trh0dy/where_the_major_card_grading_companies_stand/

Related Reading

• How to Start Collecting Sports Cards: 2026 Beginner Guide: storage and handling before a card is ready to grade.
• Numbered Cards Explained: What /99, /25 and 1/1 Mean: the serial numbers a grading label records.
• How to Read Sports Card Odds: Topps Odds Sheets Explained: how rare a card is before you decide it is worth grading.