The value you declare should not have an effect on the grade unless it is wildly off. (For example, submitting a T206 Plank under $500 service level.) I typically put my declared value at what it cost me to purchase the card, but it is up to you. Basically, the declared value is used if the grader damages or loses your card during grading, that is the value that they will compensate you. So, if they lose your card, and you put $100 down but the card is worth $1000, and you say, I want $1000 back, too bad.
About the shipping costs, return shipping is a big part of the costs to any TPG. That's why it's typically better to submit more cards at one time so that the shipping costs can be spread out over more cards to make it more worthwhile.
Finally, for any TPG, it's always useful to keep track of the monthly specials they have. What I do every month is to typically take a screenshot of each of the monthly specials for PSA, SGC, and Beckett, so I have an idea of what they often do. Then I wait for that special to come around again. (If you need to submit immediately because you need TPG to authenticate an ebay purchase where you're not 100% sure the card is authentic, then you can't wait.) For example, in Mar-Apr 2011, PSA just had a 10 business day special for cards with declared value under $500 at $10/card. So you could've saved $5/card or 33% off their regular fees (not including shipping).
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