Grading is a $25–$100 bet per card.

The problem

You hand a $30 card to PSA. The fee is $25–$32 depending on the tier. You wait 60–80 days. The card comes back a 9, not the 10 you were hoping for. The slab sells for $24.

You just paid $32 to lose $6.

Multiply that by ten cards per year and the math gets ugly. Most collectors don't track it because losses are diffuse and victories are loud — but the spreadsheet exists whether you keep it or not.

What changed in the last year

• • Graders raised prices. PSA Value went from $19 to $32.99. CGC modern bumped. The cushion on borderline cards shrank.
• • The market got softer. Slab premiums on common moderns compressed. The gap between PSA 9 and PSA 10 widened on rare vintage and tightened on bulk.
• • Pop reports got bigger. More 9s and 10s exist for the same set than two years ago, which means scarcity premiums shifted.
• • Gut calls don't scale. If you're grading one card, vibes work. If you're grading fifty, you need a calculator.

What SlabScore does

Paste a card. Get a 0–100 score and a verdict — STRONG GRADE, GRADE, CONSIDER, MARGINAL, or SKIP — based on real-time PriceCharting data. The score combines profit at the most likely outcome, slab premium, market depth, and downside protection if the grade comes in low.

SlabScore picks the cheapest grader/tier whose insurance covers your card. It compares PSA, CGC, TAG, BGS, and ACE side by side. It tracks the card from Watchlist through Graded so you can compare your prediction against the actual outcome.

That's the whole product. We don't grade your card. We don't buy or sell. We're a calculator with a portfolio tracker stapled on.