PSA 10 is the grade every collector hopes to see on a graded card's label. Watch any pack opening, or browse a pack site that deals in graded cards, and you will see it everywhere. So what does PSA 10 mean for a Pokémon card? And why does it cost so much more than the same card without a case? We put the grade next to our own price data to answer both.
On 22 October 2026, the typical PSA 10 Pokémon card was worth 20 times the same card raw, and 3.5 times a grade 9. Raw means ungraded: a loose card with no case. That figure covers the 16,108 cards we hold both a raw and a PSA 10 price for.
What does PSA 10 mean?
PSA 10 means Gem Mint, the top grade PSA gives. PSA stands for Professional Sports Authenticator. It is a company that grades trading cards. It checks a card's condition and gives it a grade from 1 to 10. Then it seals the card in a hard plastic case called a slab. A label inside the case shows the grade, the card's details and a certification number.
So what is a PSA 10 card? In PSA's own words, a Gem Mint 10 is “a virtually perfect card.” On the label it reads GEM MT 10.
What makes a PSA 10: the rules PSA grades by
Graders look closely at the corners, the edges, the surface and the centering. Centering means how even the borders are on opposite sides of the card. For a 10, PSA's grading standards ask for all of this:
- Four perfectly sharp corners.
- Sharp focus and full original gloss.
- No staining of any kind. A slight printing flaw is allowed, but only if it does not hurt the look of the card.
- Centering within about 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back.
Centering takes the most explaining. A 55/45 split means that if you add the two side borders together, the wider one takes no more than 55% of the total. PSA also says its graders may allow a little leeway on centering now and then, based on how good the card looks overall.
PSA 10 vs PSA 9: the gap is often one small flaw
The next grade down is Mint 9. PSA describes it as a card in superb condition with just one minor flaw. The flaw can be a very slight wax stain on the back, a minor printing flaw, or slightly off-white borders. Its centering can be about 60/40 on the front and 90/10 on the back.
So a 9 and a 10 can differ by one small thing. The price difference is not small at all.
How much more a PSA 10 is worth: typically 20 times raw
Our card pages carry raw, grade 9 and PSA 10 prices. The prices come from PriceCharting, which builds them from sold listings, meaning past sales. Here is how the PSA 10 price compares, grouped by what the raw card is worth.
| Raw price | Cards | Typical PSA 10 | 10 vs raw | 10 vs a 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $5 | 7,339 | $46 | 31x | 3.0x |
| $5 to $20 | 4,200 | $110 | 12x | 3.9x |
| $20 to $100 | 3,124 | $466 | 12x | 4.4x |
| $100 to $500 | 1,198 | $2,606 | 13x | 4.1x |
| $500 and up | 247 | $11,100 | 8.6x | 3.1x |
| All cards | 16,108 | $103 | 20x | 3.5x |
Two things stand out. A PSA 10 is worth 3 to 4.4 times a 9 at every price level. And the jump over raw is biggest at the bottom: 31 times for cards under $5.
Why cheap cards jump the most: the grading bill is in the price
Cards under $5 are typically worth $2 raw and $46 as a PSA 10. That looks like an easy win. It is not. Grading has a fee, and shipping costs extra. So the price of a slabbed $2 card has that bill built in. Our PSA grading cost guide does the math for any card.
A 10 also does not turn a common card into a chase card, the rare hit people open packs hoping for. The label tells you the condition.
On new chase cards, a 9 is worth little more than raw
Expensive new cards make the gap sharper. We took the 39 Scarlet & Violet cards that are worth $100 or more raw and have all three prices. For the typical one, a grade 9 was worth just 4% more than the raw card. A PSA 10 was worth 2.8 times raw.
Charizard ex #199 from the 151 set shows it well. Our prices, last checked on 16 October 2026, had it at $342 raw, $356 graded 9 and $1,385 as a PSA 10. Umbreon ex #161 from Prismatic Evolutions, last checked on 18 October 2026, read $1,021 raw, $1,197 graded 9 and $4,825 as a PSA 10.
That is why grading a new card is a bet on the 10. Miss by one small flaw and you may pay to grade a card that ends up worth about what it was before.
Old cards carry a bigger PSA 10 premium
The premium is the extra a 10 is worth over the same card raw or graded 9. We compared 15 of the first English sets with 16 Scarlet & Violet sets. The old sets run from Base Set (1999) to Skyridge (2003). The Scarlet & Violet sets came out from 2023 to 2025. Across 2,148 cards from the old sets, the typical PSA 10 was worth 34 times raw and more than 5 times a 9. Across 2,047 Scarlet & Violet cards, it was 23 times raw and 3.6 times a 9.
PSA's population counts point to one reason. A population count, or “pop,” is the tally of how many copies got each grade. On the typical old card, 15% of the PSA-graded copies are 10s. On the typical Scarlet & Violet card, 35% are. So on old cards, a 10 is a much smaller share of the graded copies, and the price follows.
We counted cards with at least 100 PSA-graded copies, using the counts we held on 22 October 2026. These counts only include cards that people chose to send in. So they are not the odds for any card you pull.
Half the Pokémon PSA slabs pulled on pack sites are 10s
On pack sites that deal in graded cards, PSA 10s are everywhere. On these sites, a pull is the card you get when you open a pack. We looked at the 24 hours to 08:00 UTC on 22 October 2026. In that time, seven sites we track recorded 55,920 Pokémon pulls in PSA slabs with a number grade. Of those, 27,840 were PSA 10s. That is almost exactly half. We left out the three sites whose feeds only show the better pulls, because they would push the share up.
So a PSA 10 on a pack site is normal, not special. What makes a pull valuable is the card inside the slab. Check its raw and PSA 10 prices in our Pokémon card price checker before the label gets you excited.
We record these pulls from the sites' own public feeds. You can compare the sites in our pack site rankings.
Questions people also ask
Is PSA 10 the best grade?
Yes. Gem Mint 10 is the top of PSA's scale, and Mint 9 is next. The scale runs down to PSA 1, which PSA calls Poor. PSA also gives half grades, such as 8.5, to cards at the top end of a grade.
Is PSA 10 hard to get?
It depends on the age of the card. In PSA's population counts, the typical Scarlet & Violet card has about 35% of its graded copies at 10. The typical card from the first English sets (1999 to 2003) has about 15%. We counted cards with at least 100 PSA-graded copies. Those counts only include cards that people chose to send in.
What is PSA 10 in baseball cards?
The same thing. A PSA 10 baseball card meets the same Gem Mint rules as a Pokémon card. PSA's grading standards page even uses baseball cards among its examples.
Should I buy a PSA 9 or a PSA 10?
A 9 costs much less. In our prices, the typical PSA 10 was 3.5 times the price of the same card graded 9. If you want the card in a case and do not need the top grade, a 9 is the cheaper way in. If you pay for the 10, check the gap on that exact card first.