PSA Grading Tiers Explained: Fees, Caps and Turnaround 2026

PSA grading tiers are priced by the value you declare for the card, not by the card itself. As of September 2026 the open tiers run from Regular at $79.99 per card with a $1,500 cap to Premium 1 at $999 with a $25,000 cap. The four Value tiers, $24.99 to $64.99, have been paused since June 2, 2026.

What are the PSA grading tiers in 2026?

PSA offers nine named service levels for trading cards in 2026, and five of them can be ordered today. Each level pairs a per-card fee with a maximum declared value and an estimated turnaround, so a more expensive card must go through a more expensive tier. The table below reflects PSA's menu as tracked on August 8, 2026 by the CardGrade tier tracker.

Above Premium 1, PSA quotes Premium 5 and Premium 10 for cards declared at $100,000 and $250,000 or more, priced case by case. The turnaround column is PSA's estimate from the day an order enters the grading system, so mail time in each direction and the intake queue sit on top of it. Trackers that time real orders put Regular closer to 45 to 60 business days door to door in mid-2026.

Two caveats on the caps. PSA raised Regular from $74.99 to $79.99 on February 10, 2026, per Yahoo Sports' report on the increase, and it has changed caps and turnarounds twice more since. Check the tier line on the submission form on the day you submit, because that line, not any blog table, is the number PSA holds you to.

How much is PSA grading right now?

PSA grading costs $79.99 per card at minimum as of September 2026, because Regular is the cheapest tier accepting new orders. Add return shipping, the insurance surcharge on anything declared above $499, a Card Saver and a sleeve, and one card realistically costs $95 to $110. A card declared above $1,500 starts at $149 on Express.

The all-in number matters more than the sticker. PSA charges return shipping by declared value, roughly $20 to $25 for orders under $500 and $50 or more once an order passes $10,000. Insurance runs about 2 percent of declared value above the first few hundred dollars. On a ten-card Regular order the shipping spreads thin and the per-card cost lands near $85; on a single card it does not.

For whether that $95 to $110 is money well spent, the 3x rule and worked examples in our grading economics post cover the decision. This post is about picking the right tier once you have decided to submit.

What does PSA declared value mean?

Declared value is your honest estimate of what the card will sell for after it is graded, in the grade you expect. PSA uses it for three things: to assign the service tier, to set the insurance on the card while it is in PSA's building and in transit, and to decide whether to upcharge you after grading. It has no effect on the grade itself.

The mistake is declaring raw value. A 1989 Upper Deck Griffey rookie sells for $75 to $125 raw as of June 2026, but a PSA 10 has sold for $4,900 to $5,100. If you believe the card is a 10 candidate, the honest declared value is the PSA 10 price, which puts it on Super Express, not Regular. Declaring $100 does not save you $269; it defers the bill to after grading.

PSA's own guidance during the Value pause, quoted in Sports Illustrated's May 29, 2026 piece, was to submit any card that will be worth more than $1,500 after grading, and to treat the declared value as a prediction of the outcome. The PSA 9 vs PSA 10 price gap for your card tells you how wide that prediction has to be.

What happens if PSA upgrades your tier?

If a card grades higher than expected and its market value passes the cap of the tier you paid for, PSA moves it to the correct tier and bills the difference before the card ships. A card submitted on Regular at $79.99 that comes back worth $3,500 is re-tiered to Super Express at $349, an upcharge of $269.01. The grade stands either way.

PSA evaluates the card's value after grading using recent sold prices for that grade and its own population data. You get an email listing the new tier and the amount due; the card is held until it is paid. There is no negotiation step, though PSA support will discuss a bump that looks wrong when you can show comps at the lower price.

Three practical points follow from this:

• Upcharges hit on the upside, not the downside. A card that grades poorly and is worth less than you declared is not refunded down to a cheaper tier.
• The upcharge buys nothing extra. Your card already waited the slower tier's turnaround, so you pay Express or Super Express pricing for Regular speed.
• The cheapest honest path for a real 10 candidate is to declare the 10 price up front. You pay the same fee and get the faster queue.

Are the PSA Value tiers still paused?

Yes. PSA paused Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max on June 2, 2026 and had not reopened any of them as of September 5, 2026. The stated reason is a backlog that reached more than 10 million cards in late May and 12.4 million on July 28, against a reopening target of 5 million active units.

The pause was announced on May 29 and reported by Baseball America. PSA's initial estimate was four to six months to reach the 5 million threshold, but the July 28 figure was higher than the June 30 figure, which is why most trackers now expect reopening in late 2026 or the first quarter of 2027 rather than October. PSA publishes a backlog tracker on its site; it is the only source that will say when.

Orders already in the Value queue before June 2 are still being processed at their original price and turnaround. New submissions from GameStop, which had been routing through Value Bulk, moved to $79.99 on the same day; our GameStop PSA grading guide covers what that program looks like now.

What are the Collectors Club and bulk rules?

Value Bulk requires a paid PSA Collectors Club membership, $149 a year for Standard and $199 for Premium, and a minimum of 50 cards per order since May 18, 2026. Before that date the minimum was 20 cards. None of this can be used today because the tier is paused, but the rules will apply again when it reopens.

The 50-card minimum was announced alongside PSA's $200 million capacity plan and the extension of Value Bulk turnaround to 140 to 160 business days, per Sports Illustrated's May 14, 2026 report. At $24.99 a card, a minimum Value Bulk order is $1,250 before shipping, which is a real commitment for a collector who used to send 20 cards at a time. PSA extended every active membership by three months at no charge as compensation for the pause.

Membership also comes with a submission voucher, $50 on Standard at the time of writing, and monthly member specials that have historically included discounted tiers. If you expect to send 50 or more cards in the twelve months after Value tiers return, the $149 pays for itself on the first order. If you send five cards a year, it does not, and every open tier is available without it.

Which PSA tier fits which card?

The right tier is the cheapest one whose cap is above the card's realistic graded value. Working from the September 2026 menu:

1. Under $150 raw and unlikely to reach $500 graded: hold the card until Value tiers reopen, or do not grade it. At $79.99 plus shipping, most of these lose money in any grade.
2. Realistic graded value $500 to $1,500: Regular at $79.99. This is the tier for clean modern rookies, mid-tier vintage and most Pokemon holos worth grading at all.
3. Realistic graded value $1,500 to $2,500: Express at $149. Declaring low to save $69 invites an upcharge and the slower queue.
4. Realistic graded value $2,500 to $5,000: Super Express at $349, 10 to 15 business days.
5. $5,000 to $10,000: Walk-Through at $599, also the tier PSA staffs at major shows for same-week service.
6. Above $10,000: Premium 1 at $999 up to $25,000, then Premium 5 and 10 by quote.
7. A card you are not sure about: pre-screen it first. Measure centering, check corners and surface under a loupe, and compare with the PSA 10 requirements. A scan with SnapCard's grading estimate gives a condition read on the PSA scale next to recent sold prices for the card, which is exactly the information the declared value line asks for.

Package the card in a penny sleeve inside a Card Saver 1, never a toploader, and write the submission line number on the holder; our card shipping guide covers the box. Once the slab comes back, the cert number on the label is the card's permanent record, and our post on PSA cert lookup explains what that record shows.

Bottom line

PSA grading tiers are set by declared value, and in September 2026 the cheapest open tier is Regular at $79.99 with a $1,500 cap, followed by Express at $149, Super Express at $349, Walk-Through at $599 and Premium 1 at $999. The Value tiers from $24.99 have been paused since June 2 and will stay paused until PSA's backlog falls to 5 million cards. Declare the price of the grade you expect, pick the tier whose cap covers it, and accept that an honest declared value costs the same as an upcharge but gets the faster queue.