Getting cards graded is a straightforward process with one hard decision inside it: which cards to send. Everything else is logistics and fees. This page walks the stages in order, says what each costs, and points at the two calculators that answer the decision rather than the logistics.
Choosing the cards
This is the whole decision and it is arithmetic. A card is worth sending when the price it fetches in a slab at the grade you honestly expect, less the marketplace percentage, exceeds the raw price less that same percentage, plus the all-in cost per card. Anything that does not clear that is worth more raw, and sending it costs you the fee for the privilege of finding out.
Declaring value and picking a level
Graders tier service levels by declared value per card and require you to use the matching tier. Declaring low to save money caps what you can claim if something goes wrong and is generally corrected and rebilled anyway. Declare what the card is actually worth and cost the tier that follows.
Packing and posting
Cards travel in penny sleeves inside semi-rigid holders, snug in a box with no room to shift, insured for the declared total. This leg is your cost. The return leg is insured too and is charged by the grader against the declared value of the whole submission, which is why both belong in the cost calculation from the start.
Waiting, and then reading the result
Turnaround depends on the service level and the grade does not. When the cards come back, compare each one's actual grade against the price you costed it at. Doing that honestly after every submission is how people learn to predict grades, and predicting grades is the skill the whole exercise rests on.
Questions people ask about getting cards graded
How many cards should I send at once?
Enough that the postage stops dominating. The cost calculator shows exactly where that is for your numbers; for most people it is a box rather than a handful.
What do I put the cards in?
A penny sleeve inside a semi-rigid holder is the standard, with the cards packed so they cannot move. Graders publish their own submission requirements and those take precedence.
Will they tell me why a card graded low?
Graders note qualifiers and defects in varying detail. Comparing your own expectation with the result is usually more instructive than the note.
Is insurance worth it on the outbound leg?
If the cards are worth grading they are worth insuring, and if they are not worth insuring they were probably not worth grading.