Valuable cards looked at properly
All the valuable / rare cards on this site is looked at properly before they go online. Here's exactly how I do it, and just as importantly, what the numbers do and don't mean.
This is based on standard approved grading guidelines to give you confidence as to the quality of the card(s).
The five steps
- Scan or photograph the card. Front and back, on a plain dark background.
- Straighten and flatten it. Photos are taken at an angle, so I mark the four corners and the picture is flattened to a true card shape before anything is measured.
- Measure the centering. I compare the border either side of the picture, left against right, top against bottom, and record it as a ratio such as 52/48.
- Check every corner and edge. Each of the four corners and four edges is zoomed in and checked for whitening, chips, dings and dirt, and given a score out of 10.
- Work out the estimated grade. The lowest of all those scores becomes the estimate.
Why the lowest score?
A card is only as good as its weakest point. A card with perfect corners but poor centering is still a poorly centred card, so averaging the scores would flatter it. Taking the lowest keeps the estimate honest, and every card page shows each score so you can see exactly what set it.
What the grade is, and isn't
- It is my own estimate. It is not a TAG, PSA, BGS or any other official grade.
- The centering scale follows the centering ratios published by TAG Grading. The corner and edge scores are my own assessment.
- Surface is not assessed (print marks, scratches, gloss), so a card could still come out lower on a surface check.
- Measuring from a scan has a small margin of error, so an official grader could score a card higher or lower than my estimate.
If a card is important to you, please ask me for extra close-up photos before you buy. I'm happy to send them.
Cards from 1980 – 1983
Most of my stock is from this era, when printing and cutting were far less precise than today. Off-centre borders are very common, which is why centering is often the score that holds a card back, even when the corners and edges look sharp.