Inside the card-grading empire shaping the price of Pokémon cards
This photograph shows displayed collectible cards from the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) including mint rated cards featuring Pikachu graded by French card grading service PCA at an amateur collector’s appartment in Paris on March 11, 2026. Pokemon cards, bearing “little monsters” that attract children as well as adult superfans, have soared in value in recent years. Collecting Pokemon cards has become a form of investment beyond collecting, trading or playing. (Photo by Martin LELIEVRE / AFP via Getty Images)
Martin Lelievre | Afp | Getty Images
Collectors may have more grading options than ever, but many still turn to Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA — even as the industry leader works through a backlog of millions of cards.
Demand for grading — an act of verifying a card’s authenticity and condition — has grown as collectors increasingly treat trading and vintage sports cards as alternative investments.
PSA reported a backlog of 7.2 million items on Oct. 20, down from 12.4 million in July. The company suspended cheaper submission services in June to ease the backlog before reopening its Value service on Oct. 29.
Even so, some sellers would rather wait for a PSA label than send their cards to a competitor, dealers told CNBC.
“It really all comes down to secondary market values,” said Geoff Wilson, founder and CEO of CardsHQ, which operates one of the world’s largest sports card shops.
PSA-graded cards typically command higher prices than equivalent grades from competitors, Wilson said, giving collectors and investors an incentive to choose PSA in hopes of a stronger return.
The financial difference can be substantial.
A 1999 Base Set Charizard graded PSA 9 sold for about $3,440 on eBay on Sept. 29, compared with roughly $1,890 for a CGC 9 copy sold the same day, according to CNBC’s review of PriceCharting records.
That pricing gap reinforces PSA’s lead and gives its decisions about fees and submission services considerable influence over the resale market.
PSA had not responded to CNBC’s detailed questions at the time of publication. In published updates, the company has attributed service restrictions and pricing changes to demand exceeding capacity, and outlined investments intended to reduce the backlog.
The ‘gold standard’
Grading companies verify a card’s authenticity, assess its condition and seal it in a protective plastic case, known as a slab. PSA uses a 10-point scale, with its highest grade, Gem Mint 10, reserved for cards it describes as “virtually perfect.”
Like a credit rating in bond markets, a card grade gives buyers and sellers a common benchmark for assessing condition.
That can reduce friction in transactions by giving both sides a reference point based on past sales of the same card at the same grade.
That capability has helped open the trading-card market to more global participation and made cross-border transactions easier, according to an unnamed spokesperson for Singapore-based submission dealer Oxley…
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