The reholder: cheapest, safest
A reholder is when you send a slab back to its original grader to be reslabbed without regrading the card. Useful when the original case has scratches, fogging, or a cosmetic defect on the holder. The grade does not change. Cost is roughly $20 per card at PSA reholder tier. Almost zero risk because the card stays in the grader care the whole time.
Best for: a high-grade vintage card in an older PSA holder you want to refresh for resale, or a slab that has visible holder damage that hurts a buyer first impression.
The crossover: medium risk
A crossover submission is when you send your slab to a different grader (say BGS) and ask them to grade the card without cracking it. They evaluate the card through the existing slab. If their grade matches or exceeds a threshold you specify ("minimum 9.5"), they crack and reslab. If not, they return the card in the original slab untouched.
Crossovers are commonly used to move a BGS 9.5 into a PSA 10 holder for the resale premium. The risk is that the new grader evaluates the card more strictly than you expected and returns it ungraded, costing you the submission fee with no benefit.
The crack-and-resubmit: highest risk, highest payoff
Physically cracking the slab and submitting the raw card to the same or a different grader. Used when you believe the original grade was conservative and a fresh look will produce a higher grade. Common play: a PSA 9 that looks like a 10 candidate gets cracked, resubmitted, and either upgrades to 10 (often 4x to 10x the value) or comes back another 9 (no change beyond the fee).
The crack itself is the risk point. Pry the slab open with a vise or hammer too aggressively and you can chip the card or fold a corner. There are dedicated slab-cracking tools (PSA-tool-style pry bars) that minimize this risk. Use one. Do not freehand it with a hammer.
The economics
For a PSA 9 candidate at a 10 upgrade, the math is straightforward. If the PSA 10 trades at $1000 and the PSA 9 trades at $200, the upgrade is worth $800. The resubmission cost is $25 to $200 depending on tier. The probability of upgrade is the only unknown. Pre-grade the card honestly (read the grading guide) and only crack when you are confident the original grade was wrong.
When not to crack
If the card is already at the top of its grade tier (PSA 10, BGS 10 Pristine) there is nothing to gain from cracking. If the card is below the grade where price meaningfully changes (typically PSA 7 or lower for vintage), the upgrade math does not justify the risk. And if the slab is older and carries collector value on its own (first-generation PSA holders are sometimes prized), cracking destroys that value.