Quick answer
CardSpicy sells graded cards, so the state of the grading queue is not background news to us. As of early October 2026 the cheapest way into a PSA slab is $59.99 a card, the four PSA Value tiers have been shut since 2 June, and Beckett has again stopped taking Base and Standard submissions, leaving Express as its only open service. The mechanism behind both is the same: submissions have outrun capacity, and the operators are rationing access rather than queue time.
Nothing here is a recommendation about grading a card. This page records what is open, what it costs and how long it takes, as published.
PSA: what is open, and what it costs
PSA’s US service menu was reshuffled twice between June and September 2026. Two tiers were renamed and one was reopened, so any older list you find is likely to be wrong in at least three places.
| Service | Price | Published turnaround | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $59.99 | 90–100 business days | Open since 14 September 2026; cheapest tier available; insured value to $1,000 |
| Priority | $79.99 | 70–80 business days | Open; this is the tier previously called Regular |
| Express | $199 | 20–30 business days | Open; repriced on 9 September 2026 |
| Super Express | $349 | 10–15 business days | Open |
| Premier | $599 | 7–10 business days | Open; this is the tier previously called Walk-Through |
| Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus, Value Max | — | — | Paused since 2 June 2026; no reopening date |
The practical effect of the June pause was abrupt. The entry price for a single card went from roughly $22 to $79.99 overnight, and it has since settled at $59.99 with the September reopening of Standard. Standard also queues behind existing Value and Bulk submissions, so its published estimate is an estimate rather than a commitment.
The backlog, and the number that reopens the cheap tiers
PSA has said it will bring the Value tiers back once its active backlog falls below 5 million cards. That figure is the one to watch, and the trend is published often enough to check.
| Date | Active backlog |
|---|---|
| Late July 2026 (peak) | 12.4 million cards |
| 25 August 2026 | 10.9 million cards |
| 8 September 2026 | 9.9 million cards |
| 22 September 2026 | about 9.0 million cards |
That is a fall of roughly 900,000 cards in the two weeks to 22 September, and about 3.4 million cards, or 27 percent, below the late-July peak. It is real progress and it is still a long way from 5 million. On the published threshold, the cheap lanes are not close to reopening and no date has been given for them.
PSA has added capacity in parallel: it says grading capacity is up nearly five-fold since 2021, with a new facility in Plano, Texas that opened in July 2026 and a European facility in Frankfurt, backed by a reported $200 million investment. New capacity is what makes the backlog number fall; it does not by itself reopen a tier.
Beckett: Express only, and no date for the rest
Beckett’s position is more restrictive than PSA’s. It stopped accepting new Base and Standard submissions in late September 2026, less than two weeks after bringing both back, and has not announced a date for them to return. Collectors are directed to a waitlist instead. Express, listed at $79.95 a card with a 15-business-day estimate, is the only tier still taking new orders.
Separately, beckett.com and the Beckett mobile app were offline while the company works on what it describes as digital infrastructure improvements. Between the closed tiers and the offline tooling, the current practical choice for a Beckett submission is Express or waiting.
If a card is not worth the Express fee after fees, shipping and insurance are added, the honest outcome is to keep it raw. Our cost-versus-value breakdown of a grading decision walks through that arithmetic, and the comparison of the three main graders covers where the labels actually differ.
Why the queue got this long
Because 2026 was the busiest year the hobby has had. Industry-wide, about 3.5 million cards were graded in June 2026, an all-time record and up roughly 65 percent year on year. PSA alone accounted for 2.50 million of them.
The annual picture is similar. PSA graded 19.26 million cards in 2025, up 26 percent, which was roughly 72 percent of the more than 26 million cards graded by a major authenticator that year. Behind it, CGC accounted for about 18.4 percent, SGC about 5.3 percent, Beckett about 3 percent and TAG about 1.6 percent. Trading card games — mostly Pokémon, One Piece and Magic — made up about 71 percent of everything graded.
Record submission volume is exactly what produces a record queue, and a queue is managed either by hiring and building, which takes quarters, or by raising prices and closing tiers, which takes effect immediately. In 2026 the operators did both.
What the market now looks like
One structural change sits underneath the operational one. Collectors Holdings, PSA’s parent, closed its acquisition of Beckett in December 2025 and now controls roughly 80 percent of the US card grading market. A class action filed in April 2026 seeks to have those acquisitions unwound, and the company filed a motion to dismiss in June. We take no view on the litigation and record it because it is part of why the two largest graders behave as they do at the same time.
One grader moved against the trend. SGC, acquired by Collectors Holdings in early 2024, fell about 19 percent from May and about 75 percent year on year on the last clean per-grader breakdown available. A market with one dominant grader, a formerly competing grader going quiet and a challenger losing volume is a different market from the one card collectors were used to, and it is worth knowing which of those you are submitting to.
What this changes for a decision
Three things, and they are all about cost rather than outlook. First, the floor has moved: a $22 submission is not available, so a card that only made sense at the old fee may no longer make sense at $59.99. Second, the money is tied up for longer, and the published estimates on the cheap tiers are measured in business days counted in the nineties, which is most of a year of waiting. Third, a lower-tier reopening is a dated event, and the date is a number rather than an announcement: 5 million cards.
Our guide to reading a graded label covers what the slab actually tells you once it arrives, and the population report guide covers the figure that decides whether a card is scarce in the grade you are chasing. Neither of those changes when a fee does.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest PSA tier right now?
Standard, at $59.99 a card, with a published turnaround of 90 to 100 business days and a maximum insured value of $1,000. It reopened on 14 September 2026 and is the only tier near the old entry pricing. The four Value tiers have been paused since 2 June 2026.
When will PSA’s Value tiers come back?
PSA has said the Value tiers reopen once its active backlog falls below 5 million cards. The backlog was about 9 million on 22 September 2026, down from a late-July peak of 12.4 million. No reopening date has been announced, and new Standard orders queue behind existing Value and Bulk submissions.
Is Beckett still accepting submissions?
Only through Express, at $79.95 a card with a 15-business-day estimate. Beckett stopped taking new Base and Standard submissions in late September 2026, less than two weeks after bringing them back, and is directing collectors to a waitlist. Its website and app were also offline for infrastructure work.
Why are grading fees so much higher than last year?
Because submission volume set records in 2026 and the operators rationed access instead of extending queues. About 3.5 million cards were graded industry-wide in June 2026 alone, up roughly 65 percent year on year, and PSA paused every tier under $80 on 2 June rather than let the queue grow further.
Does a longer queue change what a card is worth?
It changes what grading costs and how long your money is tied up, which is a different question from what a card is worth. The two interact when you decide whether to submit, and our cost-versus-value breakdown sets that arithmetic out. CardSpicy does not make price claims.
Sources
Sources and scope
- PSA published service tiers and turnaround estimates, read September and October 2026 — prices, business-day estimates, insured values and the June pause of the Value tiers.
- PSA statements on its active backlog, covering late July, 25 August, 8 September and 22 September 2026, and the 5-million-card threshold for reopening the Value tiers.
- PSA capacity statements — the Plano, Texas facility opened in July 2026, the Frankfurt facility, and the reported investment figure.
- Beckett submission notices, late September 2026 — the pause on Base and Standard, the waitlist, the Express price and turnaround, and the offline website and app.
- Industry grading-volume aggregation for 2025 and for June 2026 — totals, per-grader shares, and the trading card game share of graded volume.
- Reporting on the Collectors Holdings acquisitions of Beckett and SGC, the resulting market share, and the April 2026 class action with the June motion to dismiss.
- Our own pages on grading costs, grader comparison and population reports, used for the internal links only.
- Scope note: fees, turnaround estimates and backlog figures are published by the operators and change frequently. This page records them as at early October 2026 and quotes no card prices.
Grading prices, tiers and turnaround estimates change without much notice. Check the operator’s own service page before submitting anything, and read a fee as a cost rather than as a signal about value.
Related reading
- Is It Worth Grading Your Cards? A Cost-versus-Value Breakdown
- PSA vs BGS vs CGC: Which Grader, and Why It Matters
- Grading Guide: How to Read a PSA, BGS or CGC Card
- The PSA Population Report, Explained
- PSA 10 vs PSA 9: The Price Gap on Simplified Chinese Cards
- Grading One Piece Cards: What Changes the Answer
- Grading Naruto Cards, and Why the Answer Is Short
- The Collector’s Library
Where to go next
- The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
- The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).