How trading cards are graded, and what the numbers mean
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A graded card is one that has been sent to a third-party company, examined, given a score out of ten and sealed in a plastic case. The score is not an opinion about whether the card is good. It is a measurement of how well the object has survived since it was printed.
Who does the grading
Three companies handle most of the market. PSA is the largest and the one most collectors mean when they say "graded". Beckett (BGS) is known for sub-grades, where you see four separate numbers as well as the overall one. CGC came from comic book grading and has grown quickly in trading cards.
They do not grade identically. A card that scores a 9 at one company can score an 8 or a 10 at another, which is why serious sellers name the grader alongside the number.
The four things being judged
Whatever the company, the assessment comes down to the same four properties.
Centring
How evenly the printed image sits inside the card's borders, written as a ratio like 60/40. That means one border is 60% of the combined width and the other is 40%. Centring is decided at the factory, before anyone has touched the card, and it is the single most common reason an otherwise flawless card does not reach a 10.
Corners
Sharp corners against soft or rounded ones. Corners take damage from shuffling, from being dropped, and from sitting loose in a box. Under magnification a corner that looks fine can show fraying.
Edges
The cut faces along the four sides. Look for nicks, white flecks where the coloured layer has chipped, and roughness from the cutting die.
Surface
Scratches, print lines, indentations, loss of gloss, and any staining. Holographic and foil cards are judged harder here, because the reflective layer shows every mark.
What the numbers mean
The scale runs 1 to 10. In practice the range that matters commercially is narrow:
- 10 — Gem Mint. Essentially perfect, with centring close to 55/45 or better.
- 9 — Mint. One minor flaw, often centring.
- 8 — Near Mint-Mint. Slight wear visible on close inspection.
- 7 and below. Visible wear. For most modern cards, value drops steeply here.
The gap between a 9 and a 10 on a sought-after card can be several multiples in price. That is why grading exists as an industry: it turns a subjective argument about condition into a number two strangers can trade on.
What it costs and how long it takes
Grading is priced per card and rises with the card's declared value, because the grader is also insuring it while it is with them. Turnaround has ranged from weeks to the better part of a year depending on the tier chosen and how busy the company is. Shipping both ways, insured, is on top.
When grading is worth it
Grading pays when the grade might change the price. For a modern card worth a few kronor, the fee will exceed anything the grade adds. For a scarce card in genuinely excellent condition, it can be the difference between a cautious offer and a confident one.
It is also worth saying plainly: grading protects and authenticates, but it does not make a card rare. The scarcity was there or it was not.
What this has to do with us
We make one-of-one cards from people's own photographs, and every one ships sealed in a slab. Ours is not a graded slab — there is no third-party score on it, and we would not claim one. The seal is there for the same physical reasons a grader uses one: it keeps the corners, edges and surface in the condition they left us in.
Read next
- What a card slab is, and what it protects against — the case a graded card ends up in, and what it actually protects against
- How to store and display trading cards — the cheaper layers that keep a card worth grading in the first place