How to Submit Cards to PSA, Step by Step (2026)

Sending cards to PSA takes no membership, and a submission now runs through PSA's website or app, a prepaid FedEx label and a box packed to PSA's shipping guide. Here is the process in order, as PSA describes it in its FAQ (captured September 30, 2026) and its shipping guide (archived September 3, 2026), with the points where submissions most often go wrong.

Before you start

No membership needed. Joining the Collectors Club is optional for submitting, per PSA's FAQ, and the club's bulk tier has been on hold since June 2, 2026 (SI, May 28), listed as currently unavailable on PSA's price page on October 8, 2026. What membership still includes is in our Collectors Club guide.

Pick the cards and estimate their value. PSA sets the service level from the "max insured value": your estimate of what each card will be worth after grading. PSA does not appraise cards; it asks for "a realistic, educated guess" from your own research, and it uses the figure to insure the card. If it decides you understated it, it can make you pay for the right level before finishing the card, or send the card back ungraded at your expense while still billing the level you picked. The cheapest open level, Standard, was $59.99 a card for cards up to $1,000, with an estimated 90–100 business days, on PSA's price page on October 8, 2026; our cost guide has every level. Whether a card is worth that is covered in is PSA grading worth it.

Step 1: Create the submission online

Submissions start in PSA's Online Submission Center, on the website or in the PSA app. There are two ways through it:

• Assisted Submission assigns each card a service level from its estimated value, so you do not enter a max insured value yourself. If your cards land in more than one level, it creates one order per level, all under a single submission label.
• Classic Submission is the older route, still available from the dashboard. Use it to set your own coverage, and for anything Assisted does not handle: tickets, packs and coins, crossovers, reviews and reholders, the Premium 10 level and PSA vouchers.

PSA's app handles standard-size cards, tallboys, oversized cards and Dual Service orders for a card and its autograph; reviews, crossovers and reholders have to go through the website. PSA treats each service level, holder size and submission type as its own submission with its own form and charges, though several can share one box under a multi-submission packing label.

Step 2: Get the shipping label

PSA offers prepaid FedEx 2Day and FedEx Ground labels for sending cards in, from within the contiguous United States only. After checkout PSA emails the label two ways: a QR code that a FedEx employee scans, or a printable label. PSA's FAQ allows a printed label to go in a FedEx drop box, but its terms (section 6) say the package must be taken to a physical FedEx location to be scanned and to get a receipt, so the safe course is a staffed counter and a receipt either way. The label is valid for 30 days; if FedEx does not have the package by then, PSA cancels the order and you start again, though an unused label is not charged. Prepaid labels in the Assisted flow currently work only for a submission at a single service level.

Outside the contiguous states, or if you prefer your own carrier, ship to the address on the submission form (the shipping guide lists USPS and FedEx addresses) on your own label and insurance.

The trip in is your risk. PSA itself does not insure the package on the way in. Its FAQ says to buy cover from your own insurer or broker; its terms (section 6) describe an optional inbound policy through a third party, Cabrella, that may be offered at checkout, and say it does not change PSA's responsibility before Order Prep. Under section 5, PSA takes no responsibility for a card until it reaches "Order Prep", not when the box is delivered or signed for (PSA's terms).

Step 3: Pack the box the way PSA asks

PSA's shipping guide gives ten steps, condensed here:

1. Sleeve every card in a clear penny sleeve; solid or opaque ones cause delays.
2. Put each sleeved card in a semi-rigid holder, 3 5/16" × 4 7/8" for a standard card, with front and back both visible. No toploaders, tape, pull tabs or sticky notes.
3. Stack the cards in exactly the order on your submission form, item 1 on top.
4. Sandwich the stack between cardboard dividers and hold it with two or three rubber bands, firm enough to stop movement but no tighter.
5. Wrap the stack, put it in a new box and fill the empty space.
6. Put the printed submission form inside, with each submission bundled separately if you are sending more than one.
7. Seal every seam with packing tape, not painter's tape, Scotch tape or reused tape.
8. Stick the tracking label to the outside of the box with its barcodes fully visible, directly on the box, with no label pouch.
9. Address the box to the PSA destination for your carrier; the shipping guide lists them.

Under section 5 of PSA's terms, packaging that departs from the guide can draw processing fees, and the terms give toploaders, leftover pull tabs or stickers and an out-of-order stack as examples. Our supplies guide lists the holders that match PSA's size.

Step 4: Track it and pay at the end

PSA emails you when the package is delivered. In the tracker, "Order Arrived" only says the box is at PSA; the turnaround estimate starts at "Order Prep", when PSA scans your submission barcode. Once Research & ID is done, an email asks you to check the card details, which is the time to correct a wrong label, before it is printed.

Payment comes at the end: PSA requests it once the cards are graded, and its terms (section 15) say everything due must be paid before PSA finishes the order, reveals the grades or returns the cards (PSA's terms). Until the order closes you decide, card by card, whether each one comes home, goes into the PSA Vault or is listed on eBay through PSA. The return trip is a single shipping charge for the whole submission, worked out from how many cards it holds and their declared value, and the package travels on PSA's insurance with a signature required. Our guides to PSA order statuses and turnaround times cover the wait in detail.

Or hand the cards to a shop

A shop can submit your cards for you only if it is an authorized PSA dealer. PSA's terms let appointed dealers submit on behalf of individuals, and a dealer may combine its customers' cards, but they bar submissions on behalf of group submitters or other dealers, so nobody else can pool cards for you. Ask a shop whether it is an authorized dealer before handing anything over.

In our directory, 310 shops are tagged for help with PSA grading, in 199 cities across 38 states, and 172 of them name a grading service among what they offer. The tag means a shop helps with grading, not that PSA has appointed it as a dealer, so ask. We have no PSA-tagged shop listed in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont or Wyoming, which may reflect gaps in our listings as well as in those states. At some card shows PSA runs its own submission booth; its show schedule lists them. Our guide to getting cards graded locally walks through those routes.

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