Comparison
A straight, factual comparison — price, turnaround, insured value and what actually comes in the box. No spin, and we'll tell you plainly where PSA is the better choice.
PSA is the biggest and best-known grading company in the hobby, and a PSA slab carries a resale premium that no newer company can claim. MPE is a veteran-owned grader built around a different problem: grading is too expensive to use on most of what collectors actually own.
MPE's most expensive service costs less than a fifth of PSA's cheapest one. That is the whole comparison in one line. Everything below is the detail behind it.
PSA figures on this page are their published rates as shown on psacard.com, checked August 2026. PSA sets its own prices and may change them at any time — check their site for current rates before you submit.
Both companies price by turnaround speed, so the tiers are lined up fastest to slowest rather than by name.
| Speed | MPE tier | MPE price | PSA tier | PSA price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastest | Diamond — 2 days | $15/card | Walk-Through — 7–10 business days | $599.00/card |
| Fast | Express — 10 days | $9/card | Super Express — 10–15 business days | $349.00/card |
| Mid | Premium — 30 days | $7/card | Express — 20–30 business days | $149.00/card |
| Entry | Standard — 90 days | $5/card | Regular — 40–50 business days | $79.99/card |
What that means in practice: a 20-card submission is $100 at MPE Standard against $1,599.80 at PSA Regular.
PSA quotes estimated turnaround in business days; MPE quotes calendar days from the day your cards are received.
| Tier | MPE | PSA |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | 90 days (Standard, $5) | 40–50 business days (Regular, $79.99) |
| Mid | 30 days (Premium, $7) | 20–30 business days (Express, $149.00) |
| Fast | 10 days (Express, $9) | 10–15 business days (Super Express, $349.00) |
| Fastest | 2 days (Diamond, $15) | 7–10 business days (Walk-Through, $599.00) |
Being fair about this one: at the entry tier PSA is quicker. Their 40–50 business days is roughly two to two-and-a-half months; MPE Standard is 90 days. If speed at the cheapest tier is what matters most to you, PSA Regular wins on that single measure — at 16× the price. MPE Express is 10 days for $9.
| MPE | PSA | |
|---|---|---|
| Grading scale | 1–10 with half grades, published in full | 1–10 with half grades |
| Slab | Tamper-evident, sonic-welded, serial + QR | Tamper-evident, returned in a fitted sleeve protector |
| Card imaging | Front and back images on every card, shown in your online vault | Standard imaging on all tiers; high-resolution Premium imaging on Super Express and Walk-Through |
| Grader notes | Not offered | Included on Express and faster |
| Insurance | Optional shipping insurance, $2 per $100 of coverage, up to $500 per submission | Declared value included in the service level: $1,500 Regular · $2,500 Express · $5,000 Super Express · $10,000 Walk-Through |
| Public cert lookup | Yes — Cert Lookup and Population Report | Yes |
| Live submission tracking | Yes, on every tier | Yes |
| Custom label art | Yes — design your own label, plus optional colour matching (+$3/card) | Not offered on standard submissions |
| Online vault & marketplace | Yes — every graded card lands in a public, shareable vault you can list for sale | Separate PSA Vault service |
| Membership required | No | Some service levels require a paid collectors club membership |
We'd rather tell you this up front than have you find out after you've shipped:
It's a fair question to ask of any grader that isn't one of the big three, so here is the honest answer.
MPE is veteran owned and operated. Every card is graded on a published 1–10 scale across centering, corners, edges and surface, sealed in a tamper-evident slab with a unique serial and a QR code, and photographed front and back. Anyone can verify a slab through our public Cert Lookup, and the whole graded population is browsable in the Population Report — the same transparency you'd expect from a large grader, on a service that costs $5 a card.
What MPE is not is a shortcut to PSA's resale premium. We're a younger company, and the market prices that in. If you're grading to flip a high-value card, that matters. If you're grading to protect, organise and show a collection — and to trade it with other collectors — the grade, the slab and the verification are the parts that count, and those are the parts we've built.
Comparing other graders? MPE vs SGC · MPE vs Beckett
Yes, substantially. MPE's entry tier is $5 per card and its fastest tier is $15 per card. PSA's published rates start at $79.99 per card for Regular service and rise to $599.00 per card for Walk-Through. MPE's most expensive service costs less than a fifth of PSA's cheapest one.
MPE is a veteran-owned grading company that grades every card on a published 1–10 scale across centering, corners, edges and surface, seals it in a tamper-evident slab with a serial and QR code, and lets you verify any slab through public Cert Lookup and Population Report tools. It is a newer company than PSA and doesn't carry PSA's resale premium on high-value cards, so it's best suited to collectors grading in volume, protecting personal collections, and trading or selling through the MPE Vault marketplace.
PSA publishes estimated turnaround of 40–50 business days for Regular, 20–30 for Express, 10–15 for Super Express and 7–10 for Walk-Through. MPE publishes 90 days for Standard, 30 days for Premium, 10 days for Express and 2 days for Diamond. PSA is quicker at the entry tier; MPE is quicker everywhere else, and dramatically cheaper at every tier.
For a genuinely high-value card you intend to sell at auction, PSA's brand recognition and their much higher declared value coverage are a real advantage, and we won't pretend otherwise. MPE's optional shipping insurance covers up to $500 per submission, so a card worth more than that belongs with a service priced for it. MPE is the better fit for grading in volume, for cards you're keeping, and for building a verifiable collection you can show off and trade.
MPE grades on a 1–10 scale with half-point grades, assessed across centering, corners, edges and surface, and the full scale is published so you can see what each grade means. Grading is a judgement call at every company, so an MPE grade isn't a guaranteed match for a PSA grade on the same card.
They're PSA's own published rates from psacard.com, checked August 2026. PSA sets its own pricing and can change it at any time, so check their site for current rates. Shipping, insurance and any membership costs are extra on both services.
