Pokémon Card Grading in the UK

To get a Pokémon card graded from the UK, the two routes we could confirm on 18 October 2026 are CGC's London office and Ace Grading in Banbury. You create the submission online, sleeve each card, post it, and the grader returns it sealed in a numbered holder. PSA is still an option, but it means posting to the US and paying import charges on the way back.

TCG Emporium does not grade or submit cards for anyone. This guide is about doing it yourself.

What a grade does and does not tell you

A grade is a professional opinion of a card's condition on a 1 to 10 scale, given after the card has been checked as genuine. PSA says at least two graders review each card. Two companies can still give the same card different numbers, and their scales are not interchangeable.

A grade does not tell you what a buyer will pay. Nobody can promise a grade before the card is in front of the grader, including the grader.

The UK routes

CGC Cards, London. CGC's London office is at 69 Southampton Row and takes visitors by appointment only. Collector members and Authorised Dealers can submit straight to London or to CGC in the US. Without a membership, you go through an Official Submission Center or an Authorised Dealer, such as Sports Cards Direct, appointed in November 2024. CGC points out these are independent businesses.

Ace Grading, Banbury. Ace is a company registered in England and Wales. You register on its site, create the submission and post the parcel within the UK. Its two cheapest levels are for AceSelect members only, and you pay when the cards are ready to come back.

PSA, United States. PSA's own help pages still describe international mail-in to its California addresses, with the customer paying any duty and tax both ways. PSA has also published notices about US tariffs and a planned receiving centre near London. We could not open those notices on 18 October, so check psacard.com before you choose PSA.

Beckett and TAG. Both grade Pokémon cards, but we could not confirm current UK fees or routes for either on 18 October. TAG said on 30 September that its value and bulk services remained paused.

Fees compared

Checked on 18 October 2026 unless stated. Fees change often, so read the company's own page on the day you submit.

PSA figures are as published on 26 September 2026, when its Value tiers had been paused since June. We could not recheck psacard.com on 18 October. CGC's VAT-inclusive figures are its own; CGC also has an Unlimited Value tier for cards above £80,000.

What one card really costs

The fee is rarely the whole bill. Take one card sent to CGC London at the Standard tier:

• Grading fee: £45, or £54 with 20% VAT, which CGC charges a UK private individual graded in the UK.
• Return by FedEx Economy for one to five cards: £32 before VAT, so about £38.40.
• Your own tracked, insured postage to London on top.

That is roughly £92 plus outward postage for one card, before any submission centre's own charge. Sending five cards at once spreads the return cost to under £8 a card.

VAT and import charges on cards graded abroad

Cards graded in the UK at CGC London or Ace never leave the country, so there is no import step. Cards graded in the US come back as an import.

GOV.UK says VAT is charged on goods sent to Great Britain from abroad on the total package value, including postage, packaging and insurance. Customs Duty applies to goods worth over £135, at a rate that depends on the goods and where they came from.

Returned Goods Relief, which can cut these charges on goods coming back to the UK, does not cover goods exported to be processed. A graded card has been processed and sealed, so do not assume the relief applies. That is our reading of the rule; HMRC has not published guidance naming graded cards.

Check the card before you send it

Look at the card under a bright light, ideally with a loupe. Our condition standard explains the terms we use for raw cards. Check the corners for whitening, the edges for chips, the surface for scratches and print lines, and the borders for centring.

The top grades are strict on centring:

• CGC Gem Mint 10: front centring no worse than about 55/45, back no worse than 75/25.
• CGC Pristine 10: 50/50 centring and virtually flawless.
• Ace 10: front centring better than 60/40.

Phone apps and AI tools that score a card from a photo see the image, not the card, and no grader is bound by them. Use them to rule cards out.

Do not try to improve the card

PSA will not give a numeric grade to a card showing trimming, restoration, recolouring, altered stock or cleaning, and it still charges the full fee. Pressing out a crease or wiping a card with a cleaning product can land you there. Other graders treat altered cards in a similar way: CGC labels them Authentic Altered.

Pack, submit and track

Create the submission online first. The form sets the order of the cards and gives you the number for the outside of the parcel.

• Ace asks for each card in a clear sleeve and then a semi-rigid holder, stacked in the order of the slip, with the slip inside and the submission number on the outside.
• CGC asks you to mark the tier on the box for some tiers: ST for Standard, EX for Express and WK for WalkThrough.
• PSA publishes its own shipping guide. Follow it exactly, as its packing rules differ from the others.

The parcel is your responsibility until the grader signs for it. Our guide to posting Pokémon cards covers tracked and insured services.

Turnaround figures are estimates, not promises. CGC counts working days and an order only shows in its tracking once the contents are checked in. It cannot be changed or cancelled while in transit. PSA's clock starts when your order reaches its order prep stage, not when the parcel is posted.

Check the slab when it comes back

Every graded card comes back in a sealed holder with a label showing the grade and a certification number. PSA, CGC and Ace each run a certification lookup on their own sites.

Confirm the card name, set, number and grade in the lookup match the label, and that the label matches the card inside. Fake and tampered holders exist. Our guide to spotting fake Pokémon cards has more on what to look for.

Is grading worth it for your card

Only where a top grade sells for well above the raw card plus every cost above. Our chase card guides show the gap card by card. Latios 203/191 from Surging Sparks, for example, sells for about £18 to £31 raw and about £187 at PSA 10.

That gap is the best case. A 9 can sell for far less than a 10, and the fees are the same either way. Our guide on how to value Pokémon cards shows how to find the raw and graded figures for your own card.

Questions about grading

Is PSA better than CGC?

They use different scales. PSA gives one grade from 1 to 10. CGC also runs 1 to 10 with half grades, and places Pristine 10 above Gem Mint 10. Choose on what you can confirm today: access from the UK, total cost, value limit and turnaround.

How long does CGC London take?

CGC listed 50 working days for every London tier on 18 October 2026, and says estimates are not guaranteed.

Can I move a card from PSA to CGC?

CGC offers a CrossOver service for cards already in another company's holder. It only removes the card if it expects the same or a higher grade, and charges the full fee either way.

Does TCG Emporium grade cards?

No. We are not a dealer or submission centre for any grader, and we do not offer a grading service.

Related guides

• PSA grades explained
• How to value Pokémon cards
• Surging Sparks chase cards, with raw and PSA 10 figures
• How to post Pokémon cards
• How to store Pokémon cards