May 2026 Grading Volume Shows Why Pre-Screening Matters Before You Submit

GemRate's latest grading recap is not just a hobby activity report. It is a reminder that card grading has become a high-volume decision market, where every collector is competing against a flood of other submissions, population growth, and constantly shifting company capacity.

The GemRate blog says overall grading activity in May 2026 dipped below the 3 million card mark, landing at 2.95 million cards. That was down about 145,000 cards from April, or roughly 5% month over month, but still up 20% year over year. On a per-business-day basis, GemRate says activity was actually up 5% compared with April, because May had fewer business days.

That distinction matters. A headline dip can make it sound like grading demand cooled off. The per-day view says something different: collectors are still submitting at a massive pace. If you are deciding whether a card is worth grading, the environment has not suddenly become quiet or forgiving. It is still crowded.

GemRate's company-level numbers make that clear. PSA graded 2.07 million cards in May, down 7% from April but up 25% year over year. CGC graded 641,000 cards, down 7% month over month and up 12% year over year. Beckett graded 145,000 cards, up 49% from April and up 145% year over year, which GemRate notes was a record high. TAG graded 52,000 cards, up 8% month over month and 40% year over year. SGC graded 48,000 cards, down 4% from April and down 67% year over year.

For a submitter, those numbers are less about company bragging rights and more about submission discipline. Millions of new slabs entering the market each month means raw-to-graded upside is harder to win by guessing. You are not just asking, "Can this card gem?" You are asking whether this specific copy can stand out after grading fees, shipping, turnaround time, and population growth.

That is where pre-screening becomes practical instead of optional. Before you send a card to PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC, TAG, or another grading company, you want to catch the flaws that usually separate a profitable submission from a disappointing one: centering, corner whitening, edge chipping, surface scratches, print lines, wax marks, dimples, and back-side issues that are easy to miss when you only look at the front.

If a card is likely to land as a 10, grading can still create a meaningful value jump. If the same card is more likely to land as an 8 or 9, the math can change quickly. That is especially true in categories where modern print runs are large and population reports keep expanding. GemRate's recap reinforces the scale of that expansion: even in a "down" month, the industry still processed nearly 3 million cards.