The Complete List of Sports Cards Grading Companies [2024]

Most collectors looking to flip cards like to have graded cards in their collection. The card is protected and that grade is guaranteed to stay the same unless something catastrophic happens.

Of course, that makes it much easier to flip a card later because you don’t have to convince anyone of the condition of the card.

Others like to have their cards preserved forever, wit no intent of flipping the card. Cases and labels make the cards stand out, and you can handle them with little fear of hurting the card.

I’ll focus more on the flipping for profit side of things today as we look at the complete list of sports cards grading companies.

What’s the Card Grading Company Landscape in 2024?

The grading card landscape used to be incredibly murky.

PSA is the king of grading, yet in 2021 they completely shut down! With the card boom (thanks COVID and Last Dance), literally millions of cards were submitted to PSA. Their wait times shot up to over a year (seriously) and they shut down to catch up (except the $300 level).

Then everyone sent to BGS (generally playing second fiddle the past few years)…and BGS shut down (except the $250 level).

Then everyone sent to SGC…and they didn’t shut down. They just tripled their prices. Having been a trusted company since 1998 (typically being a leader in pre-war cards), they were quickly able to devote more resources and open back up at $30 per card.

With this chaos, new companies jumped in. HGA and RCG opened up. CSG branched out from coins and comics to take on cards. GMA is, well, still here.

Over the past few years, prices for grading have come back down to earth, effectively killing off most of those secondary companies.

The Big 3

Today, most collectors recognize a big 3:

PSA, BGS, and SGC.

In 2023, here’s what the top grading companies did in volume:

Company	Total Volume	Change Over 2022
PSA	7.2 million	-3%
SGC	1.2 million	+28%
Beckett	375,000	-45%

SGC is the big winner, as far as growth, and Beckett is…not doing well. However, we’re still all living PSA’s world.

Grading Card Services Overview

Here’s a quick look at how they stack up:

	PSA	BGS	SGC	HGA	CSG	RCG	FGC	GMA
Grading Cost	$19	$18	$15	$14	$12	$22	$14	$10
Turnaround Time	65 days	60+ days	5-10 days	60 days	20 days	30 days	10 days	25 days
Gem Mint Grade	10	9.5	10	9.5	9.5	9.5	9.5	10
Subgrades?	No	Yes	No	Yes	+$10	Yes	Yes	No
Grades Auto?	No	Yes	On card if 10	No	No	Yes	Yes	No

A few things to note:

• Grading Scale – A gem mint rating is different for each company, which is why I compare a PSA 10 to an HGA 9.5. HGA has a pristine and flawless rating; PSA does not.
  
• Subgrades – These are interesting. It appears that most people nowadays prefer subgrades (I think it’s fun and transparent to know each grade)…but that’s contradicted by PSA values still being king. It seems that if you choose to not have a subgrades at a company that does offer them that it costs you on the resale. The whole industry is a walking contradiction.
  
• Grades Auto – SGC only puts the auto grade if it’s a 10 or if you specifically request it.

Resale Values for Grading Companies

I grabbed 3 popularly graded cards from the past few years. I didn’t want anything too old, or you’d be hard-pressed to find cards graded by HGA or SGC.

Anything too new, and you wouldn’t see PSA or BGS graded cards.

Also, I’m comparing the Gem Mint grades between the companies to make sure I’m looking at apples to apples here.

2019-20 Panini Prizm Zion Williamson

2018 Topps Chrome Ronald Acuna Jr.

2020 Donruss Optic Justin Herbert

Comparing SGC | HGA | PSA | BGS

Let’s dive a little deeper into the big 3, but then we’ll also throw in HGA because they have a dedicated fan base.

Why Choose PSA?

They’re still by far the company of choice for top level cards!

They still have the most name recognition (my wife calls all graded cards PSA), are the most identifiable, and have the best resale…but of these days you just can’t send in anything valued less than a couple hundred bucks minimum or you’re taking a huge chance.

The main reason—and this applies to all grading companies—is that not only have card values dropped overall, but the value of a 9 has dropped precipitously.

For most cards, getting a 9 no longer means breaking even on the grading cost. It means you’ve lost a good chunk. (Of course there are exceptions for rare or more valuable cards).

Since their price point is competitive to everyone else, there are few times when it’s not the right choice to go with PSA.

Why Choose SGC?

For many collectors, SGC is the clear #2 grading company. There are certainly fans of BGS, but their resale values have generally lagged behind SGC.

Of course, some people hate SGC’s slab design, others hate BGS’s, and some hate PSA’s. It’s hard for me to comment on that part of it because it’s really up to you.

But the BIG reason for SGC are their incredible turnaround times. There’s a lot of money in being first to market (I remember selling two raw Donruss Mac Jones cards rookies for $66!), especially if they’re graded.

People itching to buy those first highly graded cards will spend a premium on those SGC cards that get returned within a week. If you’re one of those investors, you can buy a brand new box, send in any of the big rookies, get it back quick, and make BANK.

Why Choose BGS?

For most cards, I think BGS has clearly fallen off. They’re getting beat often by SGC in resale, and crushed by PSA. 

The only circumstance that I’d grade with BGS is if I had a valuable RPA (rookie patch auto). They are still the best company for thick cards, and grading the auto is a bonus. But these have to be really nice cards for me to do this.

The BGS black label is still the highest value grade any company can give, but they are so extremely rare that there’s no strategy around submitting and trying to get one.

Why Choose HGA

HGA is clearly #4 in popularity out of these 4 companies, but they seemed to have carved a niche and have settled in as the best of the little guys.

They claim to have the best slabs of any company…and many people agree. They give you several options to choose from (for free) or even a custom slab (for $10 extra).

I’ve seen some incredible slabs, and more hobbyists are turning to them for their personal collection (PC). I’ve personally sent them 10 cards, and I love the looks of these more than any others.

However, their resale value is hit or miss. They used to be okay, value-wise, but they’ve dropped off. In my mind, it’s only for a PC play at this point.

List of Sports Cards Grading Companies (Bottom Tier)

I’m rarely going to be an early adopter of ANY new grading company. If I’m paying money and waiting the time, even it’s for my PC, I still want my cards graded by a company that’s going to add value.

I found this out first hand when I tried out HGA.

I’d just gotten back into card collecting and spent about a month going through my old collection. This was when ANYTHING Kobe or Jordan had skyrocketed in price.

At the time, you graded literally anything of theirs that looked to be in decent shape—even $1 base cards or cheap inserts.

So I found 9 Kobes and Jordans that I thought to be in great shape. PSA, BGS, and SGC were either shut down or had sky-high prices. Along comes HGA at $20/card with good turnarounds and cool labels.

I jumped in their lottery submission process (yes, that’s what it was back then!) and eventually got to submit my 9 cards.

By the time I got them back (60 biz days), the market had cooled on those cheap Kobe and Jordan inserts and SGC had opened back up at $30 per card (and have since gone even cheaper).

Dang.

It also hurts that I got straight 9s and 8.5s on those cards. Not bad grades for 20-year-old cards, but also not going to raise value much.

It’s not the end of the world because Kobe is my favorite player and Jordan is, well, Jordan. So I don’t mind holding them, but boy do I wish I had them in SGC slabs right now.

I like HGA. I think they have a good product and good customer service. Their submission process is easy. 

My problem with them is the same as these other new grading companies:

There’s not enough volume to accurately measure resale across other card companies, and the ones you can find usually don’t sell for a premium. It takes a long time for a new grading company to gain trust.

Don’t Tell Anyone…

I actually kind of like FGC!

Of the newest ones, I like their slabs the best (except for an HGA slab done really well), they grade the auto, subgrades come standard….

They do have a few downsides of course:

• Coming into the market at a higher price than SGC is…bold. They’re now cheaper, but weren’t when they opened!
• I don’t like their CEO. Heard him on a Facebook Live and sounded like a middle schooler defending himself.
• Resale not there yet.

The downsides are still too big for me to go with them, but I’ll keep an eye out.

My Preferred Card Grading Company

I’m going to consider 4 main things when it comes to grading:

1. Cost to Grade
2. Resale Value
3. Turnaround Time
4. Visual Appeal of the Slab

So, BGS is automatically out, as they don’t win any of those four categories.

Resale value disqualifies most of the others. Visual appeal takes out CSG (oh man) and GMA (cheap).

That only leaves a few options.

PSA vs SGC

SGC beats out PSA in 3 of the 4 categories, but…resale value is too dang important to overcome.

I’ll only go with SGC if a card set was just released, and I want to get back cards quick for a higher resale.

If I’m buying a slabbed card, it’s always PSA. If I don’t care how fast I get a card back, it’s always PSA.

While I don’t think their slabs are great looking, it’s hard to argue with paying the same grading fee but the card comes back 30% more valuable than SGC/BGS.

Even for my PC, I’m still going with PSA. I’ve heard people say “I’m NEVER going to sell my cards, so I don’t care at all about resale value!”

The problem with that logic is two-fold:

1. What if you get in a bind and need to sell your cards? Or decide that you just don’t care about card collecting anymore?
2. When you pass your cards onto your kids, it’s a BUMMER for them to sell your collection at 30% less value than they otherwise could have.

“Hey kids, have my collection. For the same grading price, my collecting could be worth $100k. But I liked these slabs better, so now it’s only worth $70k. Enjoy!”

Yes, some slabs are nicer, but I also think PSA looks good enough to enjoy them, and I get enjoyment knowing they’re more valuable than other slabs.