Pokémon Card Grading Guide for UK Collectors

To get a Pokémon card graded from the UK, you pick a grading company, create the submission on its website, put the card in a clear penny sleeve and a semi-rigid holder, and post it to the grader or to one of its approved submission centres. The grader checks the card is genuine, grades its condition on a 1 to 10 scale, seals it in a numbered holder and posts it back. CGC's London office and Ace Grading in Banbury are the routes confirmed as open to UK submitters on 17 October 2026. PSA access from the UK is unconfirmed, for the reasons set out below. TCG Emporium does not submit cards for anyone, so this guide is about doing it yourself.

What grading does and does not tell you

A grade answers two separate questions. The first is identity: PSA describes authentication as verifying that a card is genuine, and says grading only happens after that. A card PSA judges not genuine is never put in a holder, and the fee still applies. The second is condition, scored against the company's published standards for corners, edges, surface and centring.

The condition part is an opinion, and PSA says so. Its grading standards describe most of grading as objective but admit a small subjective element, usually around centring and eye appeal, where the grader makes a judgement call. Two companies can look at the same card and give it different numbers, and the scales are not interchangeable.

What a grade does not tell you is what a buyer will pay, or that the card will grade the same if you crack it out and send it again. Nobody can promise you a grade before the card is in front of the grader, including the grader.

Choose a grading route from the UK

CGC Cards. CGC runs a London office through Certified Collectibles Group International UK Limited at 69 Southampton Row, open to visitors by appointment only. Collector members can submit directly to London or to CGC in the United States. Without membership, you can submit through an Official Submission Center or a CGC Cards Authorized Dealer. CGC appointed Sports Cards Direct as a UK Official Submission Center in 2024, and points out that these centres and dealers are independent businesses.

PSA. In April 2025 PSA paused direct submissions to its US facilities from every country outside the United States because of US tariffs, and said customers who sent cards anyway would pay any tariffs, duties and taxes. PSA said it was working on a way for customers outside the US, Japan and Canada to submit through PSA Authorized Dealers. No UK dealer or published dealer list could be verified on 17 October 2026. Since 15 September 2026 PSA has accepted submissions for local grading in Frankfurt, but only from collectors in the European Union, which the UK is not. PSA announced in December 2025 that it plans a UK Receiving Center in the Greater London area with pricing in pounds. No notice that it has opened was on PSA's site when we checked on 17 October 2026, so check psacard.com before you choose.

Ace Grading. Ace is a company registered in England and Wales, based in Banbury. You register on its site, create the submission, and post the parcel inside the UK. Its two cheapest levels are for AceSelect members only.

Beckett. Beckett grades Pokémon cards with four subgrades. Its pricing page was not available when we checked on 17 October 2026, so it is not in the table below.

Compare current fees and total costs

These are the fees and limits each company published, checked on 17 October 2026. They change often, so read the company's own page on the day you submit. PSA fees are in US dollars per card. CGC fees are the London office's, shown excluding VAT. Ace fees are as listed on its pricing page.

The fee per card is rarely the whole bill. Add your postage there, the return postage, and VAT where it applies. CGC's London office charges 20% VAT to a UK private individual whose cards are graded in the UK. If you send cards through a dealer or submission centre, add its own service charge on top.

The tier limit matters as much as the fee. If PSA decides a card is above the maximum insured value of the level you chose, its terms let it charge an adjusted fee at a higher level. CGC says the same: it will move the card to the right tier and bill you the difference. PSA also charges the fee on most cards it returns without a grade, which is covered below.

Inspect condition before deciding

Look at the card under a bright light, ideally with a loupe. Check the four corners for whitening or softness, the edges for chips, the surface for scratches, print lines and dents, and the borders for centring. Our condition standard sets out the words we will use for raw cards, which is a reasonable place to calibrate your eye.

The top grades are strict. PSA's grading standards page defines each grade from 1 to 10. Its Gem Mint 10 asks for four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss, with centring no worse than about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back. CGC reserves its Pristine 10 for a card with 50/50 centring that is virtually flawless.

Your own assessment is a filter, not a forecast. The same goes for phone apps and AI tools that score a card from a photograph: they see the image, not the card, and no grader is bound by them. Use them to rule cards out, not to decide what grade you will get.

Prepare the submission without altering the card

Do not try to improve the card. PSA's standards list Altered Stock, which covers crease or wrinkle pressing, scratch removal, enhanced gloss and any foreign substance on the surface such as cleaning spray or wax. A separate code covers evidence of cleaning. A card flagged for either comes back without a numeric grade, and PSA still charges the grading fee.

Each card goes into a clear penny sleeve and then a semi-rigid holder. PSA asks for clear sleeves rather than solid or opaque ones, and for standard cards its semi-rigid holders must be 3 5/16 by 4 7/8 inches. It does not want toploaders, tape, pull tabs or sticky notes. Ace asks for the same clear sleeve and semi-rigid holder. CGC does not return sleeves, card savers or other storage materials sent in with cards, so do not send anything you want back. Sleeves are covered in our accessories section.

Pack, submit and track the order

Create the submission online first, because the form sets the order of the cards and gives you the number for the outside of the parcel. PSA's shipping guide asks you to stack the cards in the exact order of the form with item 1 on top, place the stack between two pieces of cardboard held with two or three rubber bands, and wrap it inside a new box. The printed form goes inside, the seams are sealed with packing tape, and the tracking label from your confirmation page goes on the outside with its barcode visible. Ace asks for the same order, the slip inside the parcel and the submission number taped to the outside. CGC asks you to mark the tier on each side of the box for some tiers, for example EX for Express.

The parcel is your responsibility until the grader signs for it. Our guide to posting Pokémon cards covers packing and choosing a tracked, insured service.

Turnaround figures are estimates. PSA's terms state that any estimated turnaround is not guaranteed and runs from when the package arrives. CGC counts working days, excluding weekends and public holidays, and an order will not show in its Submission Tracking until the contents have been checked in. CGC also says an order cannot be changed or cancelled once it is in transit.

Understand the returned grade and certification

Every graded card comes back sealed in a holder with a label showing the grade and a certification number. The number is what you check. PSA, CGC and Ace each run a certification lookup on their own sites, and CGC's also works by scanning the QR code on the back of the label.

When you look a number up, confirm the card name, set, card number and grade in the lookup result match the label, and that the label matches the card inside. Fake and tampered holders exist, and the checks we will run on slabs before listing them are on our authenticity page.

The number on the label means something different at each company. Our guide to PSA grades explains each PSA grade and the qualifiers that can appear next to it.

Questions about grading companies and alternative tools

Is PSA better than CGC? They use different scales, and a grade from one is not the same thing as the same number from the other. PSA gives one grade from 1 to 10. CGC also runs 1 to 10 with half grades, and places Pristine 10 above Gem Mint 10. Choose on what you can verify today, which is access from the UK, fee, tier limit and turnaround.

How does Beckett differ? Beckett gives four subgrades for centring, corners, edges and surface alongside the overall grade. Its Black Label is reserved for a Pristine 10 where all four subgrades are 10.

Can I move a card from one company to another? CGC offers a CrossOver service for cards already in a PSA, Beckett or SGC holder. It only removes the card if it expects the same or a higher grade, and charges the full fee either way.

Does TCG Emporium grade or submit cards? No. We are not an authorised dealer or submission centre for any grader, and we do not offer a grading service.

If you would rather buy a card that has already been graded, our graded cards section is where slabs will be listed when we open, each one checked on the grader's own site first.