The Single Grade Point That’s Worth More Than A Car
I own a Base Set Charizard. It isn’t 1st Edition and it isn’t Shadowless; it’s an ordinary unlimited print from 1999 that millions of people own. As a raw card it’s pleasant but unremarkable.
Graded, it’s a different story. As a PSA 9 it might be worth somewhere around £800 to £1,200. As a PSA 10, the same card can sit in the £15,000 to £25,000 range. Same piece of cardboard, one grade point apart, and the value multiplies many times over.
That gap is the whole reason grading matters, and it’s also why it catches so many people out. Whether your card lands on the right or wrong side of it comes down to a grader spending perhaps half a minute with it, and four things you can learn to assess yourself before you ever pay a fee.
What This Chapter Covers, And What It Won’t Pretend
This chapter, the second in the Pokémon Card Collecting series, explains how condition is judged, how the main grading companies differ, and, most importantly, how to assess your own cards honestly so you don’t pay to confirm a disappointment.
What it won’t do is promise that grading “adds value”.
Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. For a large share of cards it quietly costs you money.
The aim here is to help you tell those situations apart before submitting, not after.
The Grading Companies, Briefly
Three companies handle the overwhelming majority of Pokémon submissions. They grade on broadly the same idea (a 1-to-10 condition scale) but differ in how they report it and how the market values their slabs.
PSA
PSA is the most widely recognised name and, for most cards, its top grades carry the strongest resale demand.
It grades in whole numbers only, with no subgrades, so a PSA 10 tells you the card is excellent but not why it fell short of one. Standards can also feel inconsistent: the same card resubmitted won’t always come back the same.
For most UK collectors, PSA is the default choice for vintage WOTC cards and anything you intend to sell.
BGS
BGS, or Beckett, uses half-grades and gives subgrades for centring, edges, corners and surface, so you learn exactly where a card lost points.
Its much-coveted Black Label (a perfect 10 across all four subgrades) is genuinely special. The trade-off is that, for most cards, a BGS slab tends to fetch less in the market than the equivalent PSA grade.
CGC
CGC came to Pokémon from comics and coins and has been gaining acceptance.
It’s generally cheaper and faster, and it offers subgrades, which makes it a sensible option for modern cards and bulkier submissions where the PSA premium isn’t the point.
The Simple Rule
As a rough rule:
- PSA for vintage and anything you’ll likely sell.
- CGC for modern, budget or volume submissions.
- BGS or CGC where the subgrade detail genuinely interests you.
Relative market premiums between companies shift over time, so verify current resale behaviour before relying on any one company as the “best” option.
The Four Things A Grader Is Actually Looking At
Every grade comes down to four components. Learn to read them and you can pre-grade your own cards with reasonable accuracy.
1. Centring
Centring is how evenly the image sits within the borders, judged by comparing left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
A gem-mint front typically needs to be roughly 60/40 or better, with the back a little more forgiving. You can measure it with a ruler: if the left border is 3mm and the right is 5mm, that’s a 60/40 split (borderline acceptable).
WOTC-era cards are notoriously badly centred, which is exactly why a well-centred vintage card commands a premium. Modern printing is generally tighter, though errors still slip through.
2. Edges
Graders look along each of the four edges for whitening, chipping or fraying.
A top grade needs clean, sharp edges with no whitening, even under magnification. Whitening usually comes from shuffling, friction in binders or careless storage, and it shows up most obviously on dark-bordered holos, which includes many of the desirable WOTC cards.
3. Corners
Here it’s about sharpness: rounding, soft tips, micro-bends or whitening.
A top grade needs crisp corners with nothing visible under 10x magnification, and corner damage is permanent; there’s no fixing it once it’s there. Most of it comes from cards sliding in and out of tight binders, or from general handling.
4. Surface
Surface covers the front and back faces: scratches, indentations, stains and, critically, factory print lines.
Hold the card under a bright light and rotate it slowly to catch anything. Holofoil is especially unforgiving and shows micro-scratches easily.
Print lines deserve special mention. They’re factory defects, common in certain vintage sets, and they can disqualify a 10 on their own even if everything else is flawless.
When Grading Is Worth It and When It Isn’t
Grading costs roughly £25 a card once you include postage, insurance and the service fee, and that figure rises sharply for higher-value tiers and faster turnaround.
Verify current fees before submitting. Prices, turnaround times and declared-value tiers change.
That single number drives the entire decision.
The simplest test: a card generally needs to be worth around £100 raw before grading starts to make sense, and the real sweet spot is cards worth £200+ raw where a top grade could be worth £1,000 or more.
That upside is what justifies the risk of a disappointing result.
It’s worth being honest about that risk. Of the cards collectors believe are top-grade candidates, only a small fraction actually come back as 10s. Most land a grade or two lower. Treat that as the expected outcome, not bad luck.
As a working rule of thumb, assume a card you’re confident is a 10 will come back a 9, and budget on that basis rather than on the dream.
Grade When:
- The card is vintage.
- It appears near-mint or better after proper inspection.
- It is worth £200+ raw.
- A top grade would command several times the next grade down.
- Authentication genuinely matters because counterfeits are a concern.
Don’t Grade When:
- The card is worth under £100 raw.
- It has any flaw you can already see.
- It is a modern card from a high-supply set with limited resale upside.
- A raw near-mint copy sells for much the same as a graded 8 or 9.
In all of those cases, grading adds cost, not value.
Pre-Grading Your Own Cards
The whole point of self-assessment is to avoid paying to confirm bad news. The process is simple and worth doing every time.
Start with a naked-eye pass:
- Is the centring visibly off?
- Is there any edge whitening?
- Is there corner wear?
- Is there any surface scratching?
A yes to any one of those rules out a 10 immediately.
Then go in with a 10x loupe under good light:
- Measure the centring properly.
- Check each edge for fine whitening.
- Inspect every corner for softness.
- Scan both surfaces for print lines and scratches.
- Check the back properly, not just the front.
Plenty of collectors grade the front meticulously and overlook that the reverse has its own centring, edges and surface to satisfy.
The Common Pre-Grading Mistakes
The recurring mistakes are predictable:
- Waving away centring on a card that’s plainly 70/30.
- Missing print lines because the card was never tilted under angled light.
- Overrating holo surfaces that are quietly covered in micro-scratches.
- Judging only the front of the card.
- Assuming “pack fresh” means “gem mint”.
Catching these yourself is the difference between a satisfying submission and an expensive lesson.
Storing Cards So They Stay Gradeable
Condition is far easier to preserve than to recover, and good storage costs pennies.
A sensible hierarchy, scaled to what a card is worth:
| Card Value | Protection | Rough Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk / under £1 | Penny sleeve | ~1p |
| £5–£50 | Penny sleeve inside a regular sleeve | 5–10p |
| £50–£200, or grading candidates | Perfect-fit inner + outer sleeve | 15–20p |
| £200+, display or submission | Perfect-fit + sleeve + top loader or card saver | 30p–£1 |
Beyond sleeving, the environment matters.
Aim for a stable 15–21°C and 30–50% relative humidity. Lofts run too hot, many basements too damp, and both extremes warp or embrittle card stock over time.
Keep cards out of direct sunlight, which fades older cards in particular.
Avoid:
- Rubber bands: they leave indentations.
- Tight binders: friction wears edges.
- O-ring binders: pressure points can damage cards.
- Loose storage: cards move, rub and pick up edge wear.
Acid-free boxes and D-ring binders are kinder.
Handling is the cheap, boring discipline that protects everything else:
- Use clean, dry hands.
- Hold cards by the edges.
- Never touch the holo face.
- Work over a soft surface in case of a drop.
- Don’t sleeve cards near food or drink.
Sending Cards In
If you do submit, package as graders expect.
Use a semi-rigid card saver, which is usually preferred over a top loader for submission. Seal it with painter’s tape (never regular tape, which can lift the surface), then use bubble wrap, a rigid “do not bend” mailer, and full insurance for the declared value.
Group submissions by value tier, since higher declared values cost more to grade.
Then wait. Standard service can take months, express services cost significantly more, and the fastest tiers only make sense for genuinely high-value cards.
Turnaround windows and tiers change, so check the current grading company’s terms before sending anything in.
When results come back lower than hoped, compare them against your own pre-grade notes and work out what you missed. That feedback loop is how self-assessment improves.
Cracking a 9 to resubmit in the hope of a 10 is occasionally worth it, but only when the top-grade premium clearly justifies another fee, and only if you accept you might come back with an 8 instead.
The Realistic Approach For Most Collectors
For most people, the sensible split is to keep the large majority of a collection raw and well stored, and to grade only the small top tier where a high grade adds real value.
Where you can, buying cards already graded lets someone else carry the grading risk entirely, which is often the calmest option.
Condition is the primary value driver in vintage collecting, full stop: a pristine common can outvalue a played rare.
You don’t need to grade everything, but you do need to be able to read condition accurately, because it decides value more than rarity, set or name ever will.
The next chapter turns to the practical side of buying and selling: how to navigate the online marketplace safely, spot misleading listings, and avoid the most common mistakes.
If you’d like to see condition assessment applied to real cards, the documented Collection shows how individual pieces are described and judged, and Cardfolio lets you record condition across your own collection and track what it’s worth over time.
Frequently asked questions
What actually separates a PSA 9 from a PSA 10?
A 10 is gem-mint across all four areas (centring, edges, corners and surface) while a 9 has a small visible flaw. On vintage cards that single point often multiplies the value several times over.
Is it worth grading my cards?
Generally only if a card is worth around £100+ raw (the sweet spot is £200+) and looks near-mint after careful inspection. Below that, grading usually costs more than it adds.
Which grading company should I use?
PSA for vintage and anything you’ll sell, CGC for modern, budget or volume submissions, and BGS or CGC when you want subgrade detail. Check current resale premiums before committing.
How can I predict the grade my card will get?
Inspect centring, edges, corners and surface: first with the naked eye, then a 10x loupe, front and back, then subtract one from whatever grade you think it deserves.