Grade or Hold: the 60-second checklist (free PDF)

Five questions, in order. Stop at the first "no". A two-page checklist that walks you through the grading decision the way our calculator does it: is the card worth 2.5× the cheapest fee you can actually use, what does the graded card really sell for, what is your honest chance of a 10, does the expected gain clear the bar, and can you afford the wait.

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What is on it

• The September 2026 fee table for PSA, CGC, TAG and Beckett, updated for PSA's new $59.99 Standard tier (launched 14 September), including which PSA tiers are paused and what the cheapest active option costs.
• How to pull real graded sold prices in two minutes, and what to do when the market is too thin.
• A gem-rate adjustment table: what centering, whitening and surface flaws do to your chance of a 10.
• The expected-value formula with a worked example: the same card, +$51 through CGC Economy, +$11 through PSA Standard and −$8 through PSA Priority.
• The cost of waiting, and when to hold raw instead.

Want the arithmetic done for you across 50 cards with every fee editable? That is the Grading ROI Calculator. Want every card in a set priced with a grade-worthy shortlist? Set Value Sheets.

Fees verified 15 September 2026 (checklist v1.1). GradeWorthy is not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Nintendo, PSA, CGC, TAG, Beckett, eBay or TCGplayer. A decision aid, not financial advice.