Two grading companies look at the same card and both say it is perfect. One slab then sells for more than twice the other. That is not a rumour or a forum sentiment, it is what our own graded tape says on a single day: across the 4,547 cards that carry a recorded PSA 10 median and a recorded CGC 10 median at the same time, the PSA 10 fetches a median 2.42 times the CGC 10, and it is the dearer of the two on 4,224 of them. This piece is about the size of that gap, where it does not hold, and how much of it you should believe.
What the typical gap actually looks like
Medians are easy to quote and easy to misread, so here are the cards that sit on this one. Each of these prices at almost exactly 2.42 times its CGC twin, at four different price levels, which is the point: the ratio is not an artefact of one tier of the market.
Cards sitting on the median ratio
| Card | Set | PSA 10 | CGC 10 | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shining Tyranitar | Neo Destiny | $10,900.00 | $4,499.50 | 2.42x |
| Piplup | Phantasmal Flames | $99.86 | $41.27 | 2.42x |
| Pidgeot ex | Obsidian Flames | $60.00 | $24.75 | 2.42x |
| Dodrio V | Fusion Strike | $41.21 | $17.00 | 2.42x |
A card worth $10,900 in a PSA 10 and a card worth $41.21 in one land on the same multiple. That is what makes this look like a property of the label rather than of the card.
Where the number stops being trustworthy
The extremes are the part to be careful with, and the reason is not the one we first reached for. M Gengar-EX from XY Promos reads 133.62x, a $12,775.33 PSA 10 against a $95.61 CGC 10. Both sides of that ratio rest on almost nothing: ten recorded PSA comps against nine CGC ones. A gap that size built on nineteen sales in total is far more likely to be two different products sharing one line than a market judgement about the same cardboard. Treat the tails as a sign of missing evidence, not of a 133-fold opinion.
The reverse cases are more interesting because they are rarer and harder to explain away. CGC is the dearer slab on 321 cards. Duosion, from the Japanese SV11B set rather than the English Black Bolt profiled elsewhere on this site, reads $20.25 in a PSA 10 against $393.00 in a CGC 10. Houndoom from Skyridge reads $410.00 against $1,597.08. Houndoom rests on three PSA comps against five CGC ones and can be waved away; Duosion, on nineteen against ten, cannot.
The premium survives being tested
If the gap were an artefact of one comparison it should collapse when the comparison changes. It does not. At the 9 the median PSA premium is 1.90x across 2,871 cards, with PSA dearer on 90.8%. Against a BGS 9.5, across the 565 cards priced in both, the median is 2.11x and PSA is dearer on 98.1%, the highest share of the three.
The same question, three ways
| Comparison | Cards priced in both | Median ratio | Share where PSA is dearer |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 against CGC 10 | 4,547 | 2.42x | 92.9% |
| PSA 9 against CGC 9 | 2,871 | 1.90x | 90.8% |
| PSA 10 against BGS 9.5 | 565 | 2.11x | 98.1% |
Graded medians come from our own recorded sale tape, read on day 20717 (September 21, 2026), the most recent day with a full graded snapshot. A card enters the comparison only when a median exists for both grades on that same day, which is 4,547 cards for PSA 10 against CGC 10, 2,871 for the 9s and 565 against BGS 9.5. Ratios are computed per card and then the median across cards is reported, so a single very expensive card cannot move the headline. Every row on both sides of this tape carries a comp count, and the extreme individual ratios are almost always built on single-digit or low-double-digit samples on one or both sides; the median is quoted precisely because it is robust to them. Nothing here is investment advice.