How we grade condition

You can't hold a card through a screen. So we do the holding for you, and we tell you exactly what we see.

The five grades

We use one scale for every card, the same five names most card marketplaces use.

Near Mint

Looks like it came out of the pack. Sharp corners, clean edges, a clean surface. If a card has dirty black dots or grime, it is not Near Mint. No exceptions.

Lightly Played

Handled with care, and it shows a little. Light whitening on an edge or a corner, a light scratch you catch at an angle, a few tiny specks.

Moderately Played

Clearly used. Whitening on several corners, scuffs, lots of specks, sometimes a small crease.

Heavily Played

A lot of wear. Creases, bends, heavy whitening. Still whole.

Damaged

Past all of that: tears, writing, water marks, deep creases.

Sealed product and gear are listed as New.

How we grade a card

• The back counts as much as the front. A clean front with a creased back is graded on the crease. Our Shadowless Venusaur has a clean, sharp front and two creases on the back, so it's Moderately Played.

• Every extra photo means something. When we shoot more than the front and back, it's to show you a detail or the holo. We look at every one of them up close before we pick a grade, and every one goes in the gallery.
• We name the details. The condition notes say what's there and which photo shows it, like "whitening on the top left corner, photo 3".
• Shiny isn't dirty. Chrome, refractor and other foil cards can show printed dots in the shine. That's how the card was made, so we don't mark a card down for it. Paper cards and every card back get the full speck check.
• Some cards get a flat scan too. A scanner kills the glare, so surface detail shows up that a phone photo can hide.
• Several copies, graded one by one. If we have more than one of a card, each copy has its own photos, grade and price. Copy A is always the best one.
• Clean, dry hands. That's how every card is handled while we shoot it.

Our Grade Forecast, and how it works

Many card pages also show an Elemental Grade Forecast: our own estimate of what a grading company might give the card. It is an estimate, not a grade from PSA or anyone else, and we're not affiliated with PSA or any grading company. Here is how we make it.

• Centering is measured, the way PSA scores it. We measure how far the picture sits off-center, front and back, and score it on the lines PSA publishes. On the front, 55/45 or better is a 10, 60/40 a 9, 65/35 an 8 and 70/30 a 7. On the back, 75/25 or better is a 10.
• Corners, edges and surface come from a close look. We check the photos up close for whitening, dents, creases and specks. Anything the photos can't show counts against the card, never for it, and the page lists what we couldn't check.
• Cards with no printed border (full-art cards, for example) are measured on the border width their set prints, then scored on the same lines.
• A card pulled fresh from a pack is graded on centering only. Opened by us, sleeved and put in a toploader right away, its corners, edges and surface are brand new, so the only thing left to measure is how it was cut. If a card has a detail we noted, it's graded from its photos like any other.
• The odds are ours, too. The percentages on a card page are our estimated chance of each grade. They're a read of the photos, not a promise.

What we don't do

• We don't send cards out to be slabbed. Every card we sell is raw. Our grade is our honest read of the card in front of us, not a slab grade.
• We don't use stock photos for cards. Every listing shows the actual card you get, out of the sleeve, front and back.
• The moving shine on our site is a preview. It shows where the foil is. The photos are the real record of the card.

If we got it wrong

Not what the photos, the listed condition or the description said? Send it back within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. Return shipping is on us. See our returns policy and our guarantee.