Last updated: August 4, 2026
Most dealers run PSA submissions in a spreadsheet, submission number, cards, expected return date, maybe a column for cost. It works until the third submission is in flight, the second one came back with a grade you didn't expect, and the first one is on hold and you can't remember why. This guide walks through what actually needs tracking, how to calculate grading ROI per card, and how to know when grading is worth it before you ship.
At one or two submissions a year, a spreadsheet is fine. At one or two a month, which is where any serious dealer ends up, three things break:
Net effect: you grade the same loser cards a second time the next year because you didn't have clean data on what worked the first time.
Per submission (the thing PSA gives a number to):
Per card inside the submission:
PSA publishes seven status states. Tracking which one each submission is in is what tells you whether you're 2 weeks from selling or 12 weeks from getting any data back:
SCN tracks all seven. When you mark a submission Complete, every card inside it gets its grade, cert number, and grading company appended to the inventory record automatically, including the eBay listing title if the card is listed. No more manually rewriting titles to add "PSA 10" or hunting for the right cert image to upload.
The number that actually tells you if you should grade something is per-card net profit at the expected grade. The formula:
Net profit = Post-grade comp
− Raw cost (what you paid for the card)
− Pre-grade comp (opportunity cost of selling ungraded)
− Grading fee (per-card, at your service level)
− Submission fee share (insured ship + return ship ÷ cards)The interesting term is pre-grade comp, what you could have gotten for the raw card today. Treating raw cost as the only baseline overstates grading's value because you could have sold the card ungraded for more than you paid. Most dealer tools miss this; SCN has both fields on the grading record so the math is real.
SCN's Per-Card ROI panel sorts your graded cards by net profit so you can spot patterns: which players, which sets, which grades pay for themselves on which cards. Stop grading the losers, double down on the winners.
The decision is two unknowns: what grade will it come back, and what's that grade worth right now? You can't perfectly predict either, but you can get close:
SCN's "Should I Grade This?" AI on Dealer tier and up does all four for you with one click on a raw card in inventory. It also flags when the live comp data is thin and you should override its verdict with your own judgment.
Two ways:
For grading specifically:
The official source is PSA's website: log in and open Order Status / My Orders, or look up a submission number directly. The catch is you can only see one order at a time and there's no cost or ROI context. Dealer tools like SportsCardNetwork mirror all your submissions on one screen across the full workflow, Preparing, Submitted, Received, Grading, Graded, Shipped Back, Complete, so you see everything in flight at once and know whether you're two weeks from selling or twelve weeks from any data back.
The submission number (sometimes called the order number) is the official ID PSA assigns when you submit cards. It's on your PSA confirmation email and the submission form PDF, and it's what you enter to check status. In SCN you enter it once (or drop the PSA PDF and it's read automatically) and it becomes the link that tracks the whole order.
Turnaround depends on the service level you pay for, faster tiers (Express, Walkthrough) return in days to a few weeks, value/economy tiers can run many weeks to a few months, and PSA's posted timelines shift with volume. Track the estimated return date against PSA's turnaround for your tier at submission time, and watch the status states rather than trusting the original estimate.
Yes. The workflow and ROI math are identical across companies. PDF import is currently PSA-only because PSA's confirmation form is the most standardized; BGS / SGC / CGC submissions get created manually from inventory selection.
On a graded card record, enter the cert number and SCN pulls the grade + card details from the grading company's database. PSA cert lookup is on the free plan. Comes in handy when you buy a slab from someone else and need to verify it quickly.
Yes. The grading workflow is independent of where you sell. Track submissions, see ROI per card, update inventory, none of it requires eBay sync.
When you mark the submission Complete, SCN updates the eBay listing title to include the grade ("… PSA 10"), uploads the new slab photo if you've added one, and adjusts the inventory record. You still review the auto-generated changes before they push to eBay, just no more manual title rewrites for every slab.
Related: Is Grading Worth It? The ROI Math for the decision before you submit. Sports Card Dealer Software: The Complete 2026 Buyer's Guide covers the broader software category. The FAQ has more workflow specifics. Questions? Email support@sportscardnetwork.ai, replies usually within a few hours.