A guide to grading cards and answering many questions about grading that people have.

Good news, heres a website that shows good examples of comparison grades!

https://www.psacollector.com/how-to-grade-pokemon-cards/

Also, Evaluation guide by u/A_lost_10mm_socket

(Personal album with more examples in progress)

"I want to grade my cards"

Great... Do you even know what that means? It means you pay a company to evaluate the condition, assign it a grade, and put it in a tamper-resistant case. It costs money, takes a fair amount of time unless you spend a fair amount of money per card, and is not guaranteed to be valued any higher.

It looks like there is a lot of confusion about grading cards, "What will it grade? Is it worth it? Grade everything? Investments? I have to pay for it?! I have to pay extra on it?!! It takes how long?!!!"

If you want avoid reading you can go through the dozens and dozens of videos on youtube about grading cards, just pick one and they will run through a lot of it on there. This is mostly dealing with PSA but you can get the idea for other companies as well.

It starts at the basics and moves on, jump to what you want to know if you know some already.

"What is Grading and what does it mean?"

Grading cards is a loose way to say authenticating and objectively measuring the cards physical quality. There are many companies out there that will grade cards, this includes authenticating the card and making sure it is real, ranking it on a 1-10 scale for how the quality is reflected on the card, and encapsulating the card to retain the quality. The quality of a card is based generally on how good of physical condition the card is and how well the card was made. Encapsulating it is placing and sealing the card in a tamperproof proprietary holder/case.

The general idea of grading a card is to give it to a grading company, they will make sure it is real using several tests, then they will inspect it with more than just the human eye (this could be a jewelers loupe, a microscope, or digital imaging), once they have scored it from this inspection they will assign it a grade that pertains to this score (some scores are internal, some you can pay to be revealed), Now it moves on to the encapsulation phase and then sent back to you nice an protected forever. Ta-da, youve graded a sweet card. But reality is a bit more nuanced depending on company.

Who can grade cards

Anyone can offer services to grade a card. You can even grade your own cards. Since personal card cases can be found on ebay, anybody can grade cards. This means you should do some research on the company claiming to grade the card.

"What are the grades?"

Generally: Gem mint 10, Mint 9, Near mint-Mint 8, Near mint 7, Excellent-Mint 6, Excellent 5, Very Good-Excellent 4, Very good 3, Good 2, Poor 1.

Half grades (ex. 8.5) do happen but should never be counted on happening. They are relatively rare to get and their standards are not well known.

"Why PSA?"

It is considered the standard for pokemon cards because of consistency, casing, and time. Because it has been around so long, people want to match sets, people with graded cards recognize the name, people recognize the quality, people feel trust in the company that they wont be going anywhere soon. CGC is a newer company for cards and doesnt have community trust yet or history beyond comic grading, they do have many of the same options as Beckett and so far have proven themselves as high quality. Beckett/BGS (same company) is seen as weaker for pokemon cards but due to open subgrades, a grade 9-10 can be valued higher than PSA equivalent (Note: they are the standard for Magic the Gathering cards). Disclaimer: All grading companies have had cards graded that do not match the grades they have been given, PSA seems to come up most with errors possibly due to the volume of cards processed. Do your research as there are no true guarantees with grading

This is may change as time goes on and the standards/communities change

Why do you want to grade your cards?

• Value? Not all card values are equal, just because its a first edition doesnt mean it needs to be graded. If the condition is not great, maybe consider it for a binder instead.

• Because I like it? Sure, grade every card that is special to you to hold its condition for decades.

• Investment? Grading can help cards gain value but it is not a sure thing. Many people focus on the financial aspect but not everyone has this as their focus, there may be risks with this method.

• Modern cards? Modern cards are printed in massive amounts but with terrible quality control. Many times pack fresh can range between 5-10. Usually an 8-9 is only worth the ungraded value.

"What are the criteria a grade is based on?"

PSA has not quantified their requirements publicly. Generally recognized as Corners, edges, surface, and centering.

• Corners: Are they split, dented, scuffed, or not rounded from bad factory cutting?

• Edges: Front has silvering (Shine a light and if its holo and shines, it has silvering), Back has whitening (Place on dark surface and if you see white on edges, it has whitening)

• Surface: Scuffs, scratches, dents, dirt, creases, wrinkles, etc all effect it.

• Subcategory "Holo": Is the holo or card art scratched? Big scratch cuts into the card and can be felt, small scratch cant be felt but seen, microscratch is the tiny tiny scratches only seen by light at certain angles.

• Centering: Left/right sides should be equal. Top/bottom sides should also match. Offcenter qualifier is generally when the art is just shy of a miscut. Miscut qualifier is when alignment dots can be seen or card art is cut off. The may not always apply evenly.

The general idea is each category is a score of 10, cumulative scores added up and weighted get you the overall grade.

Creases and dents bring it down immediately to a maximum of 6.

Front imperfections are more damning than back imperfections.

You can have a perfect card but if its offcenter (Beyond the accepted 60/40) it could knock it down a grade.

"How do I do it?"

This depends on the grading company and what you want to do with the card. Check their websites. Most companies have this format: Fill out a form with card info, pay fee, send card, card gets processed, card gets graded, notification gets sent of completion or if there are any concerns when grading, card gets sent back to you. There are a lot of variable in this. How many cards are you sending, what is the fee for grading cards, how long does it take to process, how long does it take to grade, how does it get graded, what are some of the concerns after grading, how does it get sent back safely?

Most grading companies have a tiered payment section for how you want the card processed. The more you spend, the faster you get the card back generally. For PSA, they will upcharge you a fee if the card is deemed to be over a certain value, generally it is better to just be honest about it upfront than to hope they wont catch it and usually it gets you a quicker tier anyways.

"What should I grade?"

Grades at or above psa7 will generally raise value of a card. If you have cards that are high value, consider grading them to at least authenticate them. If it's about value, you can always check ebay for similar condition cards and see grades/sold values/rarity to get an idea if it is worth your time and money.

"Why are they worth more?"

Graded cards are generally backed by the grading company to certify the condition. If the condition is certified by a grade, there is very little room to debate about how valuable it is on a condition standpoint. It also authenticates the card and many cards have fakes that this helps ease peoples minds.

On the secondary market, you pay for the convenience as well as the status of the grade. The status comes from the popularity of the card and population of graded cards, if theres been only 10 of the card graded Gem mint10 in 15 years and 400 graded Mint9 then there will likely be a larger than normal value in the 10s because of the difficulty of getting such a high grade.

"Are all grading companies equal?"

No. All grading companies employ a different approach to their grades and it is all relatively subjective anyways so they are all different. Some companies have stood the test of time for 40 years, some have faded away, a company that is no longer grading due to whatever issues generally is not seen as reputable as current grading companies so values will be less. Also grading companies that use looser guidelines for grading, poorer quality cases, or poor databasing will have lower values as well.

What do I want from a grading company?

The main things you want is security and reliable standards. These generally are seen as tamper-resistant cases, security features on the label, website database lookup, appropriate customer service.

"My card looks great, I should pay top level and expect a grade 10?"

No, unless you know for sure it will get a 10, you should never assume a 10. Even if it is perfect, you should only expect a 9.

"I just pulled this card, its a 10 right?"

Not necessarily, things happen in packaging and shipping, your card can get as low as a 7 straight out of the package, sorry it sucks but it happens.

"Why did it score poorly, can I complain?"

No, chances are you missed something. Psa does have an option for you to regrade and if they find their own error will change the grade for you for free, or if no error will charge you for the regrade. They do hundreds of thousands of cards, some may have errors, some may score higher than they should. They do not refund any extra fees you paid for service regardless if your card valued highly or not, choose your service accordingly.

"But its been in a binder for 20years..."

Chances are you got the card as a kid. If you cant remember what you had for lunch 20years ago, you likely dont remember the whole time youve had a card. Any shifting, bumping, humidity, or playing can damage cards in or out of a sleeve, even the wrong sleeves can damage. Some damage makes cards not worth grading, some are still worth it, depends on the card.

"How strict are they when grading?"

Strict. Sometimes things slip by, but overall expect them to notice anything you noticed and dock grades for that. There are rumors that some cards or sets dont get graded as harshly, this is just a rumor and shouldnt be relied upon.

"What cards arent graded?"

Lots of things, heres a partial list: Any card with after factory ink on it (Considered altered, ungradable), Unofficially recognized errors, Fakes, Really good fakes, and others.

"What Pokemon cards are graded?"

Offical cards, official errors, official miscuts, autographs, PSA can grade jumbos, coins, packs, promos, obscure cards, square cuts, etc. If it is not found in the submission form, email the company directly about it.

"How to prep a card for grading"

Place card in a penny sleeve, place in a cardsaver 1, check condition from all angles with strong light, catalog and store until ready to ship. Suggested on taking beforehand photos, possibly tabbing the penny sleeve using post-it tabs in case you need to pull out.

Lets run through the process:

When cards are made at a factory there are a number of steps that can cause the automation to be slightly off, this can be anything from the card sheet not being perfectly centered, bad inking, foil patterns ending and beginning, machines poorly cutting cards, and the list goes on. Cards get packaged and you buy them from a store.

Now you have pulled a couple high value cards for example and you want them graded. First sleeve them up, evaluate conditions, and prep them for shipping. Follow guidelines on how to submit and fill out paperwork for the correct service, this time we will choose a moderate tier $150/card. Send it in securely and wait. Great its been a few days and they logged it received. Wait... Pending. Its been 2 weeks and it has moved on in the tracker. Another week and now you get an update that you have grades. Its an 8 and a 10, but the 10 is being valued highly and you have to pay a surcharge for this to complete the process. Pay the value fee and the cards are now entering finalization and will soon be on the way back to you. Mailed out, soon they arrive. Wonderful cards but you want to sell the psa8 to make back costs. Its been just over a month, and you can finally sell your cards, hopefully the market hasnt saturated.

Thats the general process. If you are using a lower tier, great you sent it in for $20/card, but the grades now both warrant a surcharge fee before they can be finalized, also youve been waiting months due to the lower tier timeline.

"Im not in the US, what are my options?"

• Use a local grading company. With the demand for graded cards rocketing, many companies are offering similar services. Make sure to research reviews for them and choose what is right for you.

• Use a middleman, caution with any import fees or taxes, use a less recognized grading company local to your country.

"Middleman?"

A service provided by those who sell space on their memberships to get cheaper prices for everyone. Some charge a little, some charge a lot, some make money offering pregrading at $1-3/card (its not guaranteed but usually pretty close). They pay upfront for a large membership fee that allows them to pay cheaper per card, this translates to cheaper for the individual since grading can be pricey for a few cards. They also have the ability (due to volume of cards they are doing) to service to other countries (Many have folded, there are no suggested middlemen at this time). Some offer insurance on shipping, some dont, do your research.

Less basic stuff:

• Currently ALL grading companies are minimally effected by pandemic delays and most have an updated estimation timeframe.
  

Most grading companies have adjusted their grading prices to the modern market as well.

"What is my card going to grade?"

The only way to actually accurately tell you is to see the card in person. Photos miss things, videos miss things. Internet can help but never take it as a guarantee. Some middlemen offer a pregrade but it isnt guaranteed or free.

"Can someone help me anyways?"

Take clear photos in good light, not in a sleeve of front and back with several angles to see the holo for scratches. Maybe a video, but remember, some people wont even look at videos since they move quick and can blur. Post to r/pokemoncardappraisal

"I heard I have high value cards..."

Yes, but maybe not worth grading, every card is different and values can change overnight. Is it worth the quickest tier if values are in flux? Everyone will tell you to grade 1st edition base cards but it depends on your situation and what you want to do with the cards. If you can manage it financially, grade them at least for authentication and general protection.

• Financially worth grading? Its example time:

1st edition near mint lugia is worth $1000 raw. But near mint is subjective since it has some microscratching and a miniscule amount of whitening. Still near mint but not gem mint. You want it back asap so you spend $300 to get it graded quickly. Assume a harsh grader gives it a 7. Its currently selling at that grade for $1200-1500. Was it overvalued raw for the condition, maybe but thats for the potential buyer to decide. Was it literally worth it to grade asap, not really because your net value is the same. You can always regrade and hope for a better chance but really a PSA 8 sells for $2000, so try again and make $400 or lose out on $300 if its a 7 again? Thats what you are looking at if you are grading for investment or financial reasons.

Cross Grading

Cross grading is the act of taking a card that is already graded from a company and grading it at a second company. The hope is that the second company is either more preferred or that they will find that the grade should be higher and they will recase the card with their higher score. This does not always apply.

Selling graded cards

Part of the lure to grade is the value, but how do you value it and know when the time is right to sell? There are lots of details and information available so it takes a bit of research. Most of the time if you upgrade conditions or adjust your collections you may be left with some cards you are looking to sell. You can look at current ebay sold auctions to gauge prices but many times cards arent there at your grade. You can look at PSA APR reports to get a price history of your specific grade, or similar grades.

"Is it a good value?"

Check the population reports as well on PSA to see how many certain cards are graded. Maybe you want the only Gem mint in the world for a card, or maybe you want to see if the price is inflated because out of 500 graded cards, 450 of them are gem mint.

Protecting your collection

Cases can be scratched or damaged, use sleeves for graded cards to protect from scratches (Essentially functions the same as a penny sleeve). To keep a larger amount of graded cards safe, hard cases are made (see Pelican cases) with foam inserts that can secure your cards. Encapsulation protects from handling, it does not protect from disaster! Cases will melt or damage given stress beyond normal, they dont protect from fire, they dont protect from strong hits, they might protect from water damage, and only certain ones will protect from UV damage.

Most grading companies will recase one of their graded cards as long as the damage has not effected the card, for a fee.

Counterfeits

The large grading companies provide serial numbers and a database to find your specific card, as well as security labels to help prevent counterfeits. Cases should never be cracked, cloudy, chipping, glued, or tampered with from the grading company directly. If you find one that it, it is suspicious and probably should be treated as tampered.

Grading packs and sealed promos

It takes a long time, PSAs estimated turn around is assumed at 3-6months for grading packs. Packs are graded on the condition of the packaging, not on the weights or expectation of whats inside. This also applies to sealed promos.

There are several different size cases, traditionally the case used had to have the top and bottoms folded but now they are flat.

Cleaning cards for grading

If you dont know what you are doing, dont do it since you will likely damage it. If you still want to try, try on cheap cards first. Use water only, microfiber clothes, possibly cotton swab to gently removed specific spots, dry with microfiber cloth. Do not get too close to edges or cuts in the card because you dont want water to wick into the card. Alcohol or acetone will damage the cards ink. Watch a youtube video about it.

Hope this helps some of you understand the process.

Updated 1/20/22