Graded cards: whether grading this one actually pays
- Net gain from grading, after the fee and the cost
- $65
- The graded price you need just to break even
- $55
- Graded over raw, before costs
- $90
- How many times the raw price the graded price is
- 4.00
Every figure on this site comes out of the prices you type and the arithmetic printed beside them. There is no feed, no price of our own and no third-party data: this site holds no card prices at all, only the method for reading the completed sales you have already found. Each step is written out on the page so you can check it by hand.
The figures above are a worked example ($65). Type the prices you are actually looking at and every line re-computes.
Download the Graded Cards: Does Grading This One Pay worked example (CSV)
Grading pays when the graded price, less the selling fee, beats the raw price less the selling fee, plus what the submission cost per card. Put in what the card sells for raw, what it sells for at the grade you actually expect rather than the one you are hoping for, the all-in cost per card from the grading-cost calculator and your marketplace's percentage, and it gives you the net gain, the graded price you would need just to break even, the uplift before costs and the multiple of the raw price you need. On the worked example a $30 raw card that sells for $120 at the expected grade, costing $25 a card to grade, nets $65: the break-even graded price is $55, which is 1.83 times raw, and the card is at 4.00 times.
Where the method behind this calculator comes from
NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, 1.3.5.17 Detection of Outliers. Applies to the graded comparables as much as the raw ones: one freak sale at a grade is not a price at that grade. Read 2026-09-11.
eBay, Selling fees. Where the selling percentage this calculator applies to both prices is published. Read 2026-09-11.
Graded Cards: Does Grading This One Pay: the questions readers send about this one
Which graded price should I use?
The one for the grade you will probably get, read from completed sales at that exact grade. A grade below your guess is the usual outcome, and the commonest way a submission loses money is by being costed against the best grade the card could theoretically receive.
What if the net gain is negative?
Then grading this card costs more than it adds at the grade you expect, and the card is worth more raw. That is a complete answer and it is the answer for most cards; the arithmetic exists so it can be read before the cards are in the post rather than after.
Does a higher grade always mean more money?
It usually means more, but the size of the step is what matters and it is not smooth. Between two neighbouring grades the difference can be a few dollars or it can be most of the price, and only the completed sales at each grade tell you which, so read them rather than assuming a ladder.
Should the cost per card include the postage?
Yes. Use the cost-per-card output from the grading-cost calculator, which already has the per-card fee, the extras and the postage in both directions in it. The fee on its own understates what the card actually had to earn.