PSA vs BGS vs CGC vs ACE for UK Collectors
Four graders will take a card posted from a UK address, and they sit further apart than most comparisons admit — not just on price, but on where your card physically goes, how long it sits there, and whether the slab that comes back will fit anything you already own. Every figure below was taken from the graders’ own pages on 12 October 2026. Grading prices move, so check the links before you post anything.
What does each grader actually charge?
Each company is quoted in the currency it bills in. CGC’s UK site and ACE both publish pounds. PSA publishes US dollars, and a UK submission pays those dollars plus postage both ways, PSA’s return shipping and import VAT on the way home.
| Grader | Cheapest tier a UK collector can use | Per card | Max declared value | Stated turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACE | Core (AceSelect members only) | £12.00 | Not published | 75 business days |
| ACE | Value (AceSelect members only) | £15.00 | Not published | 60 business days |
| CGC (UK) | Bulk, 25-card minimum | £16.80 inc. VAT | £400 | 50 working days |
| ACE | Basic (open to anyone) | £18.00 | Not published | 30 business days |
| CGC (UK) | Economy | £19.00 inc. VAT | £800 | 50 working days |
| PSA | Standard | $59.99 (about £45) | $1,000 | 90–100 business days |
| BGS | None — Base and Standard are paused | Not published | — | — |
The headline is blunt. The cheapest open route into a slab from the UK costs roughly a third of PSA’s cheapest open tier, before you have paid a penny in postage. PSA’s Value and Value Bulk levels — the ones that made its pricing competitive — are both marked “Currently Unavailable” on PSA’s own page, with a notice that value services are temporarily paused. Standard at $59.99 is the floor until that changes.
Note what CGC’s UK fees include that the others do not: the page lists every fee both with and without VAT, and the VAT-inclusive number is the one you pay. ACE’s prices are UK prices from a UK company, so there is no import VAT to come. PSA’s are not.
Where does your card physically go?
This is the part that decides most UK submissions, and it is rarely in the comparison tables.
ACE is registered in England and Wales and takes submissions from the UK directly. Your card goes to a UK address and comes back from one. No customs form, no import VAT, no three-week leg across the Atlantic at each end.
CGC runs a London intake. Collector members and authorised dealers can submit to CGC Cards’ London office at 69 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, operated by Certified Collectibles Group – International UK Limited; visits are by appointment. If you are not a member you can go through an authorised dealer or official submission centre instead. CGC also offers a route that ships to Sarasota, Florida, and on that option the fees include round-trip shipping and insurance — a genuinely useful thing to have priced in rather than guessed at.
PSA opened a European facility in Frankfurt and, per PSA’s own announcement, collectors in the European Union could submit to it directly from 15 September 2026. The United Kingdom is not in the European Union, so that door is not open to a UK collector; an earlier PSA article describes the intake as continental Europe and Ireland. On top of that, PSA’s Collectors Club page carried a notice on 12 October 2026 that submissions from Europe are currently paused. Either way, a UK card still crosses the Atlantic.
What is going on with Beckett?
Beckett is the awkward answer in October 2026, and pretending otherwise would not help anyone. Beckett’s website redirects to a maintenance notice saying its digital platforms, including Beckett.com and the Beckett app, are temporarily offline. The notice says Beckett is still accepting Express card grading submissions through a temporary submission form, but that Base and Standard submissions are paused so it can clear existing orders and hold its turnaround estimates, with a waitlist to join. No return date is given.
That means there is no published BGS price list to quote right now, and we are not going to repeat numbers from a third-party blog and present them as Beckett’s. If you want a BGS slab today, the only live route is Express via that temporary form, and you should get the price from Beckett in writing before you send anything. This article will be updated when Beckett’s pricing is back up.
How long are you actually waiting?
| Grader and tier | Per card | Stated turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| ACE Luxury | £120.00 | 2 business days |
| ACE Ultra | £60.00 | 5 business days |
| ACE Premier | £32.00 | 10 business days |
| ACE Standard | £25.00 | 15 business days |
| CGC (UK) Standard | £54.00 inc. VAT | 50 working days |
| CGC (UK) Express | £96.00 inc. VAT | 50 working days |
| PSA Express | $199.00 | 20–30 business days |
| PSA Super Express | $349.00 | 10–15 business days |
| PSA Premier | $599.00 | 7–10 business days |
Two things stand out. First, ACE sells speed cheaply: £32 for a ten-day turnaround is in a different world from $599 for seven to ten days. Second, CGC’s UK board showed 50 working days against every tier when we checked, from Bulk up to WalkThrough — so on the UK route today you are not buying speed by paying more, you are buying a higher declared-value ceiling. CGC’s US fee page still shows the usual spread, with Standard at $55 for 10 working days and Express at $100 for 5. Every grader describes its turnarounds as estimates, not guarantees, and PSA has a well-documented backlog.
Does VAT and customs change the answer?
Substantially. A PSA submission from the UK is not a $59.99 decision — it is $59.99 plus tracked international postage out, PSA’s return shipping, and import VAT when the slab re-enters the country. We have broken that down properly in how much PSA grading costs from the UK, and the landed figure is a long way above the headline fee. ACE’s £18 is £18. CGC’s UK fees are quoted VAT-inclusive, and its US option prices the round trip in. Comparing sticker prices across these four is the single most common mistake UK collectors make.
Which slab does the market actually pay for?
Here we are offering judgement rather than a figure, because nobody publishes trustworthy cross-grader premium data and we are not going to invent any.
PSA is still the most liquid slab, particularly for Pokémon. A PSA 10 is the grade buyers quote at each other, and it is the easiest thing to shift quickly at a predictable number. BGS built its reputation on subgrades and the Black Label, and that still carries weight with collectors who care about how a card was graded rather than just the number — though the current submission pause makes it hard to recommend as a default. CGC has become a serious third option, especially for modern and Japanese cards, and the London intake makes it the most practical non-UK brand for a British collector. ACE is the cheapest and by far the fastest, and if the card is for your own shelf that may be the entire argument; if you are grading specifically to sell to an international buyer, be honest with yourself that ACE has a thinner market behind it than PSA.
Do you get subgrades?
ACE includes subgrades for corners, edges, surfaces and centring free with every card, which at £18 is remarkable value and the clearest point of difference on the list. ACE also sells label options on top: the standard label is free, a colour-matched label is £1 and an artwork Ace label is £3. CGC’s fee page lists add-ons for pedigree, crossover, custom label and reholder, but no subgrade option at the tiers above. PSA’s standard trading card service returns a single grade.
Will the slab fit the case you already own?
No, not reliably — and this catches people out after they have switched grader. The four companies use different holders, so protection cut for one does not seat properly in another. Our Acrylic PSA Slab Case (£17.99, in stock) is cut to PSA’s holder and will not take a BGS, CGC, TAG or ACE slab. If you are grading across more than one company, buy protection that does not care which label is inside: the SlabShield Crossbody Slab Bag (£27.99, in stock) has a front display pocket that takes any graded slab and a zipped main compartment for the rest. If you are deciding between a hard case and a guard, we have compared the two.
Which cards are worth sending to any of them?
Most are not, and that is the decision worth getting right before the grader decision. A card has to gain more in value than the whole landed cost of grading it, and we have worked that through in the break-even maths.
If you want a second opinion before you commit, pre-grading in SlabShield Vault photographs a raw card and gives you PSA’s likely grade, so you can see which cards in a stack are realistic 10 candidates and which are not. Pre-grading is a Vault Pro feature at £4.99 a month, which includes 100 scans a month — and the maths there is not close, because a single PSA Standard submission at $59.99 plus postage both ways costs more than a year of it. The free Vault gives you 10 slab scans, which read the grader and grade straight off a label you already own, plus set browsing across Pokémon, Magic, Lorcana, One Piece and more, and it catalogues PSA, BGS, CGC, TAG and ACE slabs side by side — useful if you end up with a mixed collection, which most people do.
So which should you use?
If the card is staying in your collection and you want it back this month, ACE. If you are grading in volume and want a recognised international brand without posting to America, CGC through the London intake. If you are grading a card you intend to sell to the widest possible audience and you can wait out a 90 to 100 business day queue plus shipping, PSA — and pack it properly. If you specifically want subgrades and a Black Label, wait for Beckett to reopen Base and Standard, and get a price in writing in the meantime.