What Is Fanatics Grading?

Despite the name people use for it, there is no standalone “Fanatics” grading brand or label. What launched in September 2024 is a partnership: CGC Cards built a full-time authentication and grading operation on site at Fanatics Collect's facility in Tigard, Oregon. Cards submitted through Fanatics Collect get authenticated and graded by CGC staff working out of that building, then come back in a normal CGC holder with a CGC label — the same encapsulation and 1–10 scale CGC uses for submissions mailed directly to them.

• $9 flat per card— preferred pricing for Fanatics Collect users, regardless of the card's value, plus a separate authentication-only option (no numeric grade, just a verdict on genuineness) starting around $3.
• Target 24-hour turnaround— the entire pitch is speed: grading in-house next to the marketplace instead of mailing cards to CGC and waiting weeks, which is the standard timeline for a normal grading submission.
• Grade, then sell or vault without leaving the platform— a raw card submitted through Fanatics Collect can be graded and then listed straight into a Weekly or Premier Auction, listed on the Buy Now marketplace, or placed in the Fanatics Collect Vault, all inside the same account.
• Tied to the Fanatics Collect ecosystem— this isn't a walk-in or mail-in service open to the general public the way a standard CGC submission is; it's built around cards already flowing through Fanatics Collect for sale or storage.

Because the grading is performed by CGC staff under CGC's standards, a card graded through this program is a CGC-graded card, full stop — not a separate “Fanatics” grade with its own scale or reputation to build from scratch. If you're trying to judge what a numeric grade from this service is worth on resale, look at how CGC grading is regarded generally, not at “Fanatics” as if it were its own brand.

1. Already selling or vaulting through Fanatics Collect? The speed and flat $9 pricing are a real advantage over mailing a raw card to CGC separately and waiting for it to come back before you can list it.
2. Just want a card graded to keep or sell elsewhere? You don't need Fanatics Collect for that — submit straight to CGC, or compare it against PSA, BGS, and SGC first, since resale liquidity still varies by grader and by sport.
3. Confirm current pricing and eligibility.Flat per-card pricing, turnaround targets, and which submission paths qualify are the kind of platform terms that change — verify them on Fanatics Collect before submitting anything.

Confirm the exact card with Identify & Research — free-path first (on-device OCR, catalog match, and fingerprints). For the auction and marketplace platform this service is built into, see What Is Fanatics Collect?. For how CGC grades and where it stands against the other majors, see What Is CGC Card Grading? and PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs CSG. For the standard mail-in submission process and fee math, see How to Submit Cards for Grading, and for Fanatics' own card production see What Is a Fanatics Card?.