Card grading guides

Practical, no-hype guides to checking your trading cards before you pay to grade them — centering, condition, costs, and choosing a grader.

• How to Check Card Centering Before You Grade
  A practical, step-by-step way to measure trading card centering at home — what the ratios mean, how to read front vs back, and the mistakes that throw your numbers off.
• PSA Centering Standards: 55/45, 60/40 and What a PSA 10 Needs
  The commonly cited PSA centering tolerances by grade, how front and back differ, and why centering is a cap — not the whole grade.
• Is It Worth Grading Your Card? A Cost and ROI Guide
  A simple framework for deciding whether a card is worth grading: the break-even math, the fees and turnaround to factor in, and when to leave a card raw.
• PSA vs CGC vs TAG vs BGS: Choosing a Grading Company
  A balanced overview of the major trading card grading companies — resale recognition, subgrades, computer-vision grading, turnaround, and how to pick.
• How to Photograph or Scan Your Cards for an Accurate Centering Check
  Simple tips for shooting or scanning trading cards so your at-home centering measurement is accurate — angle, lighting, background, and when to use a flatbed scanner.
• What Affects Your Card's Grade: Centering, Corners, Edges & Surface
  The four condition factors every grading company weighs — what each one means, how they combine into a final grade, and which you can check yourself before submitting.
• Should You Grade Your Pokémon Card? A Quick Decision Guide
  A simple decision framework for Pokémon collectors — which cards are worth grading, which to leave raw, and how to check condition before you pay the fee.
• Corner Wear & Edge Whitening: What Card Graders Look For
  How graders judge corners and edges, what whitening and fraying mean for your grade, and how to inspect them at home before submitting.

New to pre-grading? Start with How to check card centering.