Loading...
PSA price hikes, longer turnaround windows, and record grading volumes make AI pre-grading essential. Learn how CardGrade.io helps you choose smarter PSA submissions, predict gem rates, and protect your grading budget.
In short: AI pre-grading works by cutting your submission list down to only the cards most likely to reach your target grade — raising your PSA 10 hit rate while cutting costs on cards that would have come back as 8s and 9s. With PSA's cheapest open tier now at $79.99 per card, screening before you submit is more important than ever.
Submitting cards to PSA without pre-screening is like buying lottery tickets as a retirement strategy. You might get lucky, but the math doesn't favor you.
The average collector submits cards they think will grade well based on eyeball inspection. Some of those cards come back as PSA 10s. Many come back as 8s and 9s. A few come back as 7s or worse. Every card that falls short of your target grade represents wasted submission fees, wasted time, and a card that may now be worth less slabbed than it was raw.
AI pre-grading changes the equation. By screening cards before submission, you eliminate low-confidence candidates and concentrate your budget on cards most likely to achieve top grades. Here's the case study math on how that works.
Take a realistic scenario. A collector named Alex has 25 Pokemon cards pulled from recent Scarlet & Violet sets. They all look sharp to the naked eye. Alex wants to submit all 25 to PSA at the Value service level.
Cost of submitting all 25 cards:
Based on industry data, only about 30-40% of modern Pokemon cards submitted to PSA receive a Gem Mint 10. Another 35-40% receive PSA 9. The remainder fall at PSA 8 or below.
Applying those rates to Alex's 25 cards:
For most modern cards, the price difference between a PSA 10 and PSA 9 is significant. A PSA 10 Iono SAR from Paldea Evolved might sell for $250+, while the PSA 9 sells for $80. A PSA 10 Charizard ex from Obsidian Flames might fetch $150, but the PSA 9 goes for $60.
The cards that came back as PSA 8 or PSA 7? Many of those are worth less slabbed than they were raw, once you factor in the submission cost. Alex spent $27.99 per card to get a grade that adds minimal (or negative) value.
Now take the same scenario, but Alex runs all 25 cards through CardGrade's AI pre-grading first.
Pre-screening cost:
The AI flags 17 cards with high confidence for PSA 9 or above. Of those, 8 cards show strong PSA 10 potential (tight centering, no visible defects). The remaining 8 cards show issues: off-centering beyond 55/45, minor corner whitening visible in high-resolution photos, or surface imperfections.
Alex decides to submit only the 8 strongest PSA 10 candidates, plus 4 of the high-confidence PSA 9 cards that have significant value in a PSA 9 holder. That's 12 cards total.
Cost of submitting 12 screened cards:
Savings vs. unscreened approach: $377
But the savings go beyond raw submission fees. The screened batch has a higher hit rate. Instead of 8 out of 25 cards earning PSA 10 (32%), Alex's screened batch might yield 6 out of 12 at PSA 10 (50%), because the worst candidates were filtered out before submission.
Let's put real numbers on this. Assume Alex's 25 cards are a mix of modern Pokemon hits:
Unscreened submission (25 cards, $735 total cost):
| Result | Count | Avg. Raw Value | Avg. Graded Value | Net Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 8 | $40 | $150 | +$880 |
| PSA 9 | 10 | $40 | $55 | +$150 |
| PSA 8 | 5 | $40 | $35 | -$25 |
| PSA 7 | 2 | $40 | $25 | -$30 |
| Total | 25 | +$975 |
Net profit after submission costs: $975 - $735 = $240
Screened submission (12 cards, $358 total cost):
| Result | Count | Avg. Raw Value | Avg. Graded Value | Net Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 6 | $50 | $175 | +$750 |
| PSA 9 | 5 | $45 | $65 | +$100 |
| PSA 8 | 1 | $35 | $40 | +$5 |
| Total | 12 | +$855 |
Net profit after submission costs: $855 - $358 = $497
The screened approach generates more than double the profit from less than half the submissions. Alex's unsubmitted cards remain raw and can be sold, traded, or re-evaluated later. Nothing is lost by not submitting them.
Every card submission has a break-even point: the minimum grade needed for the slabbed card to be worth more than the raw card plus submission fee.
At PSA's current $27.99 Value tier, the formula is:
Break-even: Graded value > Raw value + $27.99 + proportional shipping
For a card worth $30 raw:
For a card worth $10 raw:
The lower the raw card value, the more critical it is that the card earns a PSA 10. A $10 raw card that comes back as PSA 9 barely covers the submission fee. Pre-screening prevents you from spending $28 on a card that was never going to return enough value to justify the cost.
The value of pre-screening depends entirely on accuracy. A tool that correctly identifies PSA 10 candidates saves money. A tool that incorrectly rejects PSA 10 candidates costs you missed opportunities.
CardGrade's AI analyzes four grading factors:
The AI provides a predicted grade range and confidence level. A card flagged as "high confidence PSA 10" has strong indicators across all four categories. A card flagged as "likely PSA 9, centering-limited" tells you exactly why it won't reach the top grade.
This granularity matters. If the AI tells you a card is limited by centering (62/38), you can verify that with the free centering tool and make your own call. If it flags corner wear, you can inspect under magnification. The AI isn't making the decision for you; it's directing your attention to the factors that matter.
Pre-screening becomes even more valuable at scale. Dealers and high-volume collectors who submit hundreds or thousands of cards per year can dramatically reduce costs.
Consider a dealer submitting 200 cards per month:
Without pre-screening:
With pre-screening (submit top 100):
Over 12 months, that's $26,388 saved in submission fees. Yes, you get fewer total PSA 10s (660 vs 840 annually), but each PSA 10 costs significantly less to produce. And the 100 cards you didn't submit each month can be sold raw or held for future batches.
PSA's Collectors Club membership offers additional per-card discounts that stack with a pre-screening strategy. Combined with CardGrade's AI filtering, you're optimizing both the per-card cost and the per-card success rate.
Here's the practical workflow that maximizes submission ROI:
1. Initial Sort (5 minutes) Separate your cards into "potential submits" and "clearly not worth grading." Cards with obvious damage, severe centering issues visible to the naked eye, or low market value go in the reject pile immediately.
2. Centering Check (2 minutes per card) Run potential submits through CardGrade's free centering tool. Eliminate anything worse than 60/40 (PSA 9 threshold) unless the card has exceptional value at lower grades.
3. AI Pre-Grade (5 minutes per card) Upload remaining candidates to CardGrade for full AI analysis. Review the predicted grade, confidence score, and factor-by-factor breakdown.
4. Final Selection Submit cards that meet your criteria:
5. Submit to PSA (or CGC, SGC, etc.) Choose your grading company and service tier based on card value, desired turnaround, and target market. For more on choosing the right grading company, see our grading company comparison guide.
Not every card that fails pre-screening is worthless. Cards flagged with centering issues can still be submitted to grading companies that weight centering differently, or submitted with expectations set at PSA 9 rather than 10.
Cards with minor surface issues might still earn high grades if the defect is less visible in person than in a high-resolution photo. The AI errs on the side of caution, which means some borderline cards get filtered out.
The key insight: pre-screening isn't about achieving a 100% PSA 10 rate. It's about improving the rate enough that your per-card profit increases. Moving from a 32% Gem rate to a 50% Gem rate on a smaller, more targeted batch produces better financial outcomes than submitting everything and hoping for the best.
Every dollar saved on a failed submission is a dollar you can redirect toward acquiring more gradable cards or submitting more high-confidence candidates. Over time, this compounds:
Collectors who treat grading as a business rather than a hobby quickly discover that the screening step is where most of the profit margin lives. The submission is just the execution. The screening is the strategy.
If you're submitting cards to PSA, CGC, or any grading service without pre-screening, you're leaving money on the table. The process is straightforward:
The math is simple. Fewer bad submissions means more profit per card. And profit per card is the only metric that matters.
Start pre-screening your cards today →
PSA tier pricing and availability via psacard.com/info/submission-updates. Confirm current pricing before submitting.
Pre-screen your cards before submitting to PSA, BGS, or CGC. Start free 3-day trial.
Start free trialAlso available as a Chrome Extension
Grade cards while you browse
Install our free Chrome Extension — right-click any card on eBay, COMC, or TCGPlayer for instant grades.
Founder, CardGrade
Jamie Budesky is the founder of CardGrade and the engineer behind its AI vision grading pipeline. An Army veteran and IT specialist (DoD, since 2017), he writes about card grading, AI/ML grading technology, and collecting strategy — grounded in CardGrade's own grading data.
Not all AI grading apps are equal. What matters: accuracy, confidence scores, PSA/BGS/CGC predictions, market value — and why CardGrade.io is our pick.
Save hundreds on grading fees by AI pre-screening your cards before submitting to PSA, BGS, or CGC. Learn the smart submission strategy.
Everything you need to know about AI card grading — how it works, accuracy, use cases, and how to get started with CardGrade.io's free AI grading tool.