TCG Card Shop Simulator Card Grading Odds & Prices
Grading arrived in Early Access build 0.60 (23 August 2025). Submit from the phone; you can put up to 8 cards in one package and keep up to 4 packages in transit at once. You can hold up to 4 packages in transit at once, so a Value submission effectively locks 32 cards away for the better part of two in-game weeks.
Grading services: price, turnaround and full package cost
| Service | Days | Per card | Full package of 8 (incl. shipping) | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | 12 | $10 | $90 | Default while cash is tight. Two weeks of shelf time is the real cost, not the $10. |
| Standard | 7 | $40 | $330 | Once a full package of eight is worth five figures and you want it back inside one in-game fortnight. |
| Express | 4 | $200 | $1,610 | Late game only. Pays for itself when the slot is holding cards you intend to relist immediately. |
| Premium | 2 | $1,500 | $12,010 | Achievement chasing and record singles. At $12,010 per package it is a convenience purchase, not an investment. |
Orders submitted after 1 PM in-game begin processing the following day, so a "7 day" service submitted in the afternoon is really eight.
What grade you actually get
Every card is first sorted into one of two pools, then resolved through a chain of rolls inside that pool. This is why low grades are so hard to obtain deliberately — they only exist in the 4% pool.
| Pool | Chance of entering | Grades it can produce |
|---|---|---|
| High quality | 96% | 5 to 10 |
| Low quality | 4% | 1 to 5 |
Final probability by grade
| Grade | Chance on a first submission |
|---|---|
| 10 (Gem Mint) | 38.40% |
| 9 | 23.04% |
| 8 | 17.28% |
| 7 | 8.64% |
| 6 | 4.32% |
| 5 | 5.92% |
| 4 | 1.20% |
| 3 | 0.60% |
| 2 | 0.30% |
| 1 | 0.30% |
These are the community's datamined figures, not a published developer table. They line up with what the achievement stats imply: 11.1% of all owners have 10 Gem Mint cards, which is only plausible with a high-grade bias this strong.
Regrading
Regrading re-rolls a graded card by one step in either direction. It is the only reliable way to obtain a low grade, which matters for exactly one thing — the Obsessed With Grades achievement asks for a complete set from 1 to 10, and initial grading almost never produces a 1, 2 or 3.
| Outcome | Chance |
|---|---|
| Grade goes up by 1 (caps at 10) | 30% |
| Grade does not move | 40% |
| Grade drops by 1 (floors at 1) | 30% |
On a Grade 10 there is no upside, only a 30% chance of losing it. Use cheap duplicates as regrade fodder when chasing the low end of the set, and leave your genuine 10s alone unless you are deliberately farming that achievement.
What is worth a slot
- Base value first. A slot spent on a card worth $12 returns a card worth slightly more than $12. Aim at cards already in the hundreds.
- Rarity classes that pay: full art, foil, Ghost and Ascension. These are the ones whose graded price separates sharply from the raw price.
- Read the price graph by grade. The price screen lets you select a specific grade and see its market price — check the spread before you submit, not after.
- Watch the cash, not the card. Rent, power and wages accrue while a package is in transit. Four Premium packages is $48,040 out of the till for two days.
Grading achievements and how rare they are
| Achievement | Requirement | Share of owners who have it |
|---|---|---|
| Grading Apprentice | 10 Gem Mint graded cards | 11.1% |
| Grading Prodigy | 100 Gem Mint graded cards | 2.7% |
| Grading Master | 500 Gem Mint graded cards | 0.5% |
| Obsessed With Grades | Collect one card at every grade from 1 to 10 | 1.2% |
| Graded Gold | Sell a graded card worth more than $100,000 | 1.2% |
Frequently asked questions
What are the odds of a Gem Mint 10?
A card entering grading for the first time has a 38.4% chance of coming back Grade 10. That is because 96% of submissions are routed into a high-quality pool covering grades 5 to 10, and the first check inside that pool is a 40% roll for a 10.
Is regrading a 9 worth it?
It is a coin flip weighted against you in one direction only: 30% up, 40% no change, 30% down. On a Grade 9 that means a 30% chance of the 10 you want and a 30% chance of falling to 8. On a Grade 10 it can only stay or fall.
Which grading service should I use?
Value at $10 per card and 12 days while cash is tight, Standard at $40 and 7 days once packages are worth five figures. Express and Premium are convenience purchases for late saves and achievement runs.
What should I send for grading?
Cards whose base market value is already high — full art, foil, Ghost and Ascension variants. A perfect grade multiplies an existing value; it does not create one.
Grading data checked:
Service prices and turnaround are read from the in-game app; the grade probability tables are the community's datamined values and are labelled as such.