PSA Upcharge Calculator
Work out exactly what PSA will bill you if your card grades higher than you declared. Pick the tier you submitted under, enter what the card is worth once it's slabbed, and see the upcharge before the invoice lands.
Value tiers are paused. PSA paused Value Bulk, Value, Value Plus and Value Max for new US trading-card submissions on 2 June 2026 while it clears its backlog. Regular at $79.99 is the cheapest tier currently accepting cards. Paused tiers are still listed below because cards already submitted under them can still be upcharged.
Your submission
$79.99 per card · max declared value $1,500 · 70-80 business days
Value after grading
Upcharges are almost always triggered by a better-than-expected grade. Enter recent sold comps for each outcome to see which one puts you over the line.
Enter values in USD — PSA's tier caps and fees are USD.
Estimated upcharge
Worst-case upcharge
Safe declared value ceiling
$1,500
Declare at or below this and Regular holds. The number that matters is what the card is worth after grading, not what you paid for it raw.
How to avoid an upcharge
Declare on the realistic grade, not the dream grade. Most submitters declare raw value or the PSA 9 comp. Declaring the PSA 10 price pushes you into a higher tier before you even ship.
Watch the cap, not the fee. A card comping at $1,400 in PSA 10 fits Regular ($1,500 cap). At $1,600 it becomes an Express card and the fee nearly doubles.
PSA values at grading time, not submission time. If the market runs while your card sits in the queue, the upcharge is assessed against the newer, higher comps.
Split hot cards out. One card that jumps a tier can be sent separately rather than dragging a whole submission up a service level.
Now check if it's worth grading at all
Once you know your real all-in fee, run it through the profit calculator to see your ROI and the PSA 10 rate you need to break even.
PSA Profit CalculatorPSA Service Levels & Declared Value Limits (August 2026)
The upcharge is the gap between two rows of this table: the tier you paid for, and the tier your card's post-grade value actually lands in.
| Service level | Fee per card | Max declared value | Turnaround | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value BulkCollectors Club only | $24.99 | $500 | 95 business days | Paused |
| Value | $32.99 | $500 | 75 business days | Paused |
| Value Plus | $49.99 | $500 | 45 business days | Paused |
| Value Max | $64.99 | $1,000 | 30 business days | Paused |
| Regular | $79.99 | $1,500 | 70-80 business days | Open |
| Express | $149 | $2,500 | 20-30 business days | Open |
| Super Express | $349 | $5,000 | 10-15 business days | Open |
| Walk Through | $599 | $10,000 | 7-10 business days | Open |
| Premium 1 | $999 | $25,000 | 5-7 business days | Open |
| Premium 2 | $1999 | $50,000 | 5-7 business days | Open |
| Premium 3 | $2999 | $100,000 | 5-7 business days | Open |
| Premium 5 | $4999 | $250,000 | 5-7 business days | Open |
| Premium 10 | $9999 | $350,000 | 5-7 business days | Open |
Premium 10 is the only level priced by formula rather than a flat fee: $350,000 of insured value is covered by the $9,999 base, and every additional $10,000 (or part of it) adds $399 — so past $350,000this tool reports a quote rather than a number. Turnarounds are PSA's current backlog-adjusted estimates, not the nominal windows the tiers are named after. Fees are USD and exclude round-trip shipping and insurance. Rates for non-USD display last refreshed 2026-08-24.
What Is a PSA Upcharge?
A PSA upcharge is a second bill. You pay a grading fee up front based on the service level you pick, and every service level has a ceiling — PSA calls it the maximum insured value, and the submission form calls it declared value. If PSA decides your card is worth more than that ceiling once it's graded, it moves the card to the service level that does cover the value and bills you the difference before the card ships back.
PSA's submission terms put it plainly: if PSA determines an item has a fair market value exceeding the maximum insured value of your chosen service level, it may require you to pay an adjusted grading fee at a service level whose maximum exceeds that value. There is no percentage, no penalty and no negotiation built into the standard tiers — it is simply the price difference between two rows of the fee schedule.
The reason it catches people out is timing. You declare a value when you ship. PSA assesses value when it grades. With current turnaround times, those two moments can be six months apart, and the grade itself often multiplies the card's worth.
A Worked Example
You buy a raw card for $600 and submit it at Regular — $79.99 per card, $1,500 declared value cap. You declare $900, which feels conservative. Recent comps: PSA 9 sells around $1,200, PSA 10 sells around $2,100.
It grades PSA 9 → $1,200
Under the $1,500 Regular cap
It grades PSA 10 → $2,100
Over $1,500 → rebilled at Express ($149, $2,500 cap)
The grade you were hoping for is the one that triggers the fee. That is the whole trap: upcharges scale with good news, and they land at the exact moment you feel like you've won. Budget for the PSA 10 outcome and it never stings.
Four Ways to Keep the Upcharge Off Your Invoice
Declare on the realistic grade
Raw price or the PSA 9 comp is the standard approach. Declaring the PSA 10 price on every card means overpaying on the majority that come back 9.
Check the cap, not the fee
The fee difference between tiers is obvious. The cap is what actually decides your bill. A $1,400 PSA 10 fits Regular; a $1,600 one doesn't, and costs $69 more.
Assume the market moves
Long queues mean your card is valued months after you shipped it. Leave headroom under the cap rather than sitting right on it.
Split the outliers
Upcharges are per card. One likely tier-jumper is cheaper to submit on its own than to drag an entire bulk order up a service level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PSA upcharge?
An extra grading fee PSA bills after your card is graded, when it decides the card is worth more than the maximum declared value of the service level you submitted under. PSA's submission terms reserve the right to require an adjusted grading fee at a service level whose maximum insured value exceeds the item's fair market value. You pay the difference between the tier you chose and the tier your card actually belongs in.
How is a PSA upcharge calculated?
Upcharge = the fee of the tier your card's post-grade value falls into, minus the fee you already paid. A card sent at Regular ($79.99, $1,500 cap) that comes back worth $2,000 is rebilled at Express ($149) — a $69.01 upcharge. PSA publishes no percentage formula for standard tiers; it just moves the card to the correct row of the fee schedule.
Why did PSA upcharge me when the card only went up after I submitted it?
PSA assesses fair market value at grading time, not at submission time. Queues currently run months long, so a card that was comfortably inside your tier's cap when you shipped it can be over the line by the time a grader sees it. This is the single most common source of surprise upcharges in a hot market.
How do I avoid a PSA upcharge?
Declare on a realistic outcome — raw price or the PSA 9 comp — then sanity-check the PSA 10 comp against your tier's cap. If the PSA 10 price would push the card over, either move up a tier deliberately or submit that card on its own. Never declare the PSA 10 price on every card; you will overpay on the ones that grade 9.
Can I refuse a PSA upcharge or dispute it?
PSA holds the card until the adjusted invoice is paid, so refusing outright is not really an option. You can dispute the valuation with PSA customer service using recent sold comps from around the grading date. That works best when you can show genuine sales below the tier cap — a disagreement about the card's ceiling rarely lands without evidence.
Which PSA tiers are actually open right now?
Regular ($79.99), Express ($149), Super Express ($349), Walk Through ($599) and the five Premium levels ($999 to $9,999). All four Value tiers have been paused for new US trading-card submissions since 2 June 2026 while PSA works down a backlog that passed 12 million cards. That makes $79.99 the effective floor for grading a single card today, which changes the maths on bulk submissions considerably.
Does the upcharge apply per card or per submission?
Per card. Only the cards whose values exceed your tier's cap get rebilled — the rest of the submission stays at the original fee. That is why splitting one hot card out of an otherwise cheap bulk submission is usually better than moving the whole order up a service level.
Next steps on BankTCG
PSA fee schedule and declared value limits current as of August 2026. Fees are USD and set by PSA, not by BankTCG. This tool produces an estimate — PSA determines fair market value at its own discretion at the time of grading.