PSA Slab Dimensions: Sizes, Slots & Stacking
The slab's outer envelope decides every display, storage, and framing number downstream — and the four major graders don't share one.
Key Takeaways
- A standard PSA slab measures about 81 x 136 x 6.5mm (3.19 x 5.35 x 0.26 in) — but holder generations vary by a millimeter or more, which is why tight-fit displays are cut from a measured slab, not a published number.
- The four major card graders don't share an envelope: BGS slabs are shorter but thicker (~84 x 131 x 8mm), SGC runs the largest footprint (~86 x 138.5 x 7.9mm), and CGC matches PSA's footprint but adds ~1.4mm of thickness.
- Display slot rule: cut the slot to the actual slab plus roughly 0.5mm of total clearance — enough to seat and remove the slab freely, tight enough that it doesn't lean or rattle.
- Capacity math starts from slot pitch, not slab thickness: a PSA slot at ~7mm plus a 5mm acrylic divider gives a 12mm pitch, so six slabs need roughly 77mm of interior run.
On this page
The numbers first
PSA slab dimensions run approximately 81 x 136 x 6.5mm — 3.19 x 5.35 x 0.26 inches — for the standard holder that encapsulates a graded trading card.1 Collector measurements of current-generation holders cluster within a millimeter of those figures. Every display slot, storage box, insert, and frame number downstream derives from that envelope.
Two qualifications keep that number honest. First, PSA does not publish a formal dimensional spec for its holder, so the figures above are convergent measured values — hobby references and collector measurements land on the same envelope, give or take a millimeter.1 Second, holder generations differ: PSA has revised its case design several times, and a vintage slab from an early generation will not match a current one to the tenth of a millimeter. For anything with a loose fit — a shelf, a sleeve, a shipping box — the published number is plenty. For anything with a tight fit — a display slot, a recess, a stacking well — the slab in your hand outranks any table on the internet, including the one below.
That distinction is the working rule of this page. I’ve gauged thousands of slab slots against approved samples across 10+ years leading final inspection, and the orders that go smoothly are the ones where the buyer mailed us a real slab instead of a screenshot of a dimensions table. The table gets you to a correct drawing; the physical slab gets you to a correct fit.
What the envelope contains: card vs holder
A standard trading card measures 63.5 x 88.9mm (2.5 x 3.5 in), so the PSA holder adds roughly 17mm of width and 47mm of height around it. Most of that height is the label block; the rest is the welded perimeter that makes the holder tamper-evident. PSA case size and card size are two different numbers, and displays are sized to the case.
That gap between card and case is where sizing mistakes come from. A buyer who specs a display around the card — because the card’s dimensions are the ones printed in every collecting reference — ends up with slots a full label-block too short. The label is not trim: it carries the grade, the certification number, and the barcode, and a display that crops it visually has hidden the part of the slab that justifies the grading fee. Every slot, recess, and frame opening in this guide assumes the full holder envelope, label included.
Thickness has its own version of the same trap. The card inside is under a millimeter thick; the holder’s ~6.5mm comes from the two welded shells and the internal well that suspends the card. Thicker cards — patch cards, relic cards — go into taller-well variants of the holder, which is one more reason the measured slab in hand beats the published number: two PSA slabs from the same year can differ by the well depth of the card they carry.
PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs CGC: no shared envelope
The four major card graders each designed their own holder, and none of them match. BGS slabs are shorter but noticeably thicker than PSA; SGC runs the largest footprint of the four; CGC matches PSA’s footprint almost exactly but adds about 1.4mm of thickness. “Graded slab” is a category, not a size.
| Grading service | Width | Height | Thickness | Fit note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | ~81mm (3.19 in) | ~136mm (5.35 in) | ~6.5mm (0.26 in) | The reference profile most displays are cut for |
| BGS (Beckett) | ~84mm (3.31 in) | ~131mm (5.16 in) | ~8mm (0.31 in) | Shorter but thickest — won’t enter a PSA-snug slot |
| SGC | ~86mm (3.39 in) | ~138.5mm (5.45 in) | ~7.9mm (0.31 in) | Largest footprint of the four |
| CGC | ~80mm (3.15 in) | ~135mm (5.30 in) | ~7.9mm (0.31 in) | PSA-like footprint, ~1.4mm thicker |
Dimensions are commonly measured values compiled from hobby references,1 except CGC’s footprint, which the grader itself states at approximately 3.15 x 5.30 inches.2 All four vary slightly by holder generation.
The practical reading of the table is thickness-first, with PSA slab dimensions as the baseline the other three are read against. Footprints differ by a few millimeters, which matters for recesses and frames, but thickness is what decides whether a slab enters a slot at all: 6.5mm (PSA) against roughly 8mm (BGS, SGC, CGC) is the difference between seating cleanly and not fitting. A “universal” slot wide enough for all four leaves a PSA slab with 1.5mm of slop — it leans, rattles, and reads as an afterthought on a counter. That is why mixed collections get mixed-profile blocks with per-service slots cut side by side, not one compromise channel.
Coin collectors run the same math with different numbers: an NGC coin slab measures roughly 82 x 58 x 8mm, and the slot logic in this guide transfers directly — our coin display ideas guide covers the coin-side formats, and a real build for a numismatic retailer is written up in the coin shop counter slab display case study.
From slab dimensions to display slot dimensions
The conversion rule from slab to slot is short: cut the slot to the actual slab’s measured envelope plus about 0.5mm of total clearance, and cut any footprint recess about 1mm over the slab’s length and width. That clearance seats and releases the slab freely without letting it lean or rattle.
The 0.5mm figure is a working tolerance, and both directions of failure are visible on an inspection bench. Cut tighter, and two things go wrong: insertion drags acrylic against the holder’s edges, and the generation variance described above turns a “perfect” slot into a jam for one slab in twenty. Cut looser — 1mm and beyond — and the slab leans off vertical, rattles in shipping, and sits crooked in every listing photo the retailer shoots. When my inspection team checks a slab-display order, slot fit is gauged piece by piece against the approved sample with a reference slab, because a half-millimeter is invisible on a drawing and obvious in the hand.
The same logic scales to recesses and wells. A flat recess that locates a slab on a base runs about 1mm over the slab’s length and width — location, not grip. A stacking well that holds a pile of slabs adds clearance on all four sides, because stacked holders self-align less precisely than a single seated slab. And every one of those cuts starts from a mailed slab: send one PSA, BGS, SGC, or CGC holder and we measure it directly, cut a sample slot, and ship the sample in 3-5 days for approval before the 15-20 day production run.
Stacking and capacity math
Capacity math is where PSA slab dimensions turn into case dimensions, and it starts from slot pitch, not slab thickness. One PSA slot at about 7mm plus one 5mm acrylic divider gives a 12mm pitch, so a six-slab block needs roughly 77mm of interior run — six slots plus a seventh wall. Stacks are simpler: about 6.5mm per PSA slab plus a seating allowance.
Worked through, the three common formats look like this. A vertical multi-slot block at 12mm pitch puts six PSA slabs in ~77mm and nine in ~113mm of interior width, which is why 6- and 9-slot blocks dominate counter displays — they stay under a forearm’s width. A stacking well for raw storage holds ten PSA slabs in about 65mm of slab material; plan ~70mm of well depth to absorb the seating gaps between holders, and verify against a real stack because holders are designed to rest on each other, not to a published stack height. A wall rack rows out on the 136mm slab height: each row wants the slab plus roughly 30mm of visual gap and rail, so a four-row gallery panel lands around 660-680mm tall.
Mixed-profile programs change the pitch per slot, not the method. A block holding four PSA and two BGS slabs runs four slots at ~7mm and two at ~8.5mm, dividers unchanged — the drawing just stops being uniform. The one number I flag on every mixed-profile inspection checklist is which slot is which: a 1.5mm difference between neighboring channels is easy to miss visually and impossible to miss at handover, which is why slot widths are gauged and logged against the drawing before packing, on 100% of pieces, under our ISO 9001 process.
What this page settles, and what it hands off
This page is the dimensional reference: slab envelopes, slot clearance, and capacity math. Choosing a display format and buying cases are different questions with their own pages — and if you’re sourcing slab displays commercially, the product page below is where specs turn into a quote.
The division of labor, explicitly. Our graded card display cases product page owns the commercial side — the six case formats, felt and UV options, pricing drivers, and MOQ terms — so once your slab profile is settled, that’s where a program gets specified and quoted. Our trading card display case guide owns the decision layer above it: which display type suits a shop counter versus a collection wall versus sealed product, across PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC. This page feeds both with the numbers.
For how the dimensions play out in real programs: the triple PSA slab display case study documents a three-slot counter block where every slot was cut from the retailer’s mailed slab at ~0.5mm clearance, and the sealed and single-card formats sit one page over for programs that mix slabs with booster boxes.
If you’re holding a slab and a quantity in mind, the shortest path is physical: send us the spec — service, format, quantity — and mail one slab. MOQ is 50 pieces per design with zero tooling fees; we measure the holder, cut the sample slot, and the numbers on this page become a fit you can gauge with your own hands.
Footnotes
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Graded card slab sizes for PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC — Only Greats — hobby reference listing measured slab dimensions in inches and millimeters (PSA ~136 x 81 x 6.5mm; BGS ~131 x 84 x 8mm; SGC ~138.5 x 86 x 7.94mm; CGC ~136 x 81 x 7.86mm), the measured-envelope figures behind this guide’s comparison table. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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CGC Cards holder FAQ — what are the dimensions of the CGC Cards holder? — the grader’s own statement that the CGC holder measures approximately 3.15 x 5.30 inches, the one first-party footprint figure among the four major services. ↩
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the dimensions of a PSA slab?
A standard PSA graded card slab measures approximately 81 x 136 x 6.5mm — about 3.19 x 5.35 x 0.26 inches. Collector measurements of current holders cluster within a millimeter or two of those figures, and older holder generations vary slightly, so any tight-tolerance display or insert should be sized from the actual slab in hand.
Are PSA and CGC slabs the same size?
Nearly, in footprint — CGC states its holder at about 3.15 x 5.30 inches (80 x 135mm), within about 1mm of PSA's. Thickness is the real difference: a CGC slab runs roughly 7.9mm against PSA's 6.5mm, so a CGC slab will not seat in a slot cut snug for PSA even though the two look interchangeable face-on.
Will a display case made for PSA slabs fit BGS slabs?
No. A BGS slab is about 8mm thick against PSA's 6.5mm, so a PSA-snug slot is roughly 1.5mm too narrow for Beckett. BGS is also about 5mm shorter and 3mm wider in footprint. Mixed collections use a mixed-profile block — a PSA-width slot and a BGS-width slot cut side by side in the same piece.
How much clearance does a graded slab display slot need?
About 0.5mm of total clearance over the slab's measured thickness. Under that, insertion scrapes and generation variance jams; over about 1mm, the slab leans, rattles in transit, and photographs crooked. We cut the slot from a slab the buyer mails us and verify the fit on the approved sample before any bulk run.
How tall is a stack of 10 PSA slabs?
About 65mm of slab material — 10 slabs at roughly 6.5mm each — plus a few millimeters of seating gap between holders, so plan around 70mm of interior height for a 10-slab stacking well. PSA holders are designed to sit stably on each other, but a stacking well should still be sized from a measured stack, not multiplied thickness alone.
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