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How to Grade Pokémon Cards and Understand PSA, CGC, and Beckett Scores

By Freedom251 Team · · 4 min read

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To estimate a Pokémon card’s condition, inspect its centering, corners, edges, and surface under good light. A home check can help you spot flaws, but it cannot guarantee an official grade: PSA, CGC, and Beckett use their own criteria, and their top scores do not convert directly from one company to another.

How to inspect a Pokémon card at home

Handle the card by its edges with clean hands and place it on a clean, uncluttered surface. Under bright, diffuse light, check the front and back straight-on for centering. Then tilt the card to reveal scratches, dents, impressions, or uneven gloss that may be hard to see head-on.

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Inspect the whole card rather than relying on one strong feature. Look for whitening, fraying, chipping, or rough cuts along every edge and at each corner. On the surface, check for print spots, stains, fading, creases, bends, loss of gloss, and handling marks. Both manufacturing defects and damage from later handling can affect condition.

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  • Centering: Compare the borders around the artwork on the front and back. Uneven borders can be a flaw even when the rest of the card looks clean.
  • Corners and edges: Check for whitening, soft or bent corners, chips, and roughness.
  • Surface: Tilt the card in the light to look for scratches, dents, impressions, stains, and gloss inconsistencies.
  • Alteration: Do not clean, recolor, press, trim, or otherwise alter a card in an attempt to improve its appearance. PSA lists cleaning, altered stock, and other tampering among reasons a card may receive no grade. See PSA’s grading standards.

A magnifier is optional but can help reveal small flaws. CGC describes the corners of a Gem Mint 10 as appearing perfect to the naked eye and Mint+ under 10x magnification. A 10x loupe can aid inspection; it does not replace a grader’s assessment. See CGC’s card grading scale.

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Record visible condition rather than promising yourself a particular score. Graders weigh multiple features, and a well-centered card may still have a surface or edge flaw. PSA also notes that eye appeal can affect judgment in borderline cases.

What PSA, CGC, and Beckett scores mean

A grade is meaningful in the context of the company that assigned it. Read the label and the issuer’s criteria together; the same number can represent different standards or names.

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PSA

PSA calls its grade 10 Gem Mint and describes it as a virtually perfect card. Its published criteria include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus, full original gloss, and no staining, while allowing a slight printing imperfection if it does not impair overall appeal. PSA gives approximate centering tolerances for a 10 of no worse than 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the reverse. Those figures are criteria, not a guarantee: PSA says graders may exercise judgment around eye appeal and centering. Read PSA’s full grading standards.

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CGC

CGC distinguishes Pristine 10 from Gem Mint 10. Pristine 10 calls for 50/50 centering and a virtually flawless appearance. Gem Mint 10 is an overall 10 when one criterion falls short of Pristine; its approximate centering limits are up to 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the reverse. CGC’s scale also describes permitted defects at lower grades and includes an authenticity and alteration designation system. See CGC’s card grading scale.

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CGC maps former CGC Trading Cards Gem Mint 9.5 and CSG Gem Mint 9.5 labels to its current Gem Mint 10 in its updated scale. This is a CGC-specific legacy mapping, not a conversion to PSA or Beckett grades.

Beckett

Beckett assesses centering, corners, edges, and surface as subgrades and uses a half-point scale from 1 to 10. Its listed high grades include Pristine 10 and Gem Mint 9.5. For Pristine 10, Beckett specifies 50/50 centering on the front and 55/45 or better on the back; it describes the corners, edges, and surface as virtually flawless under intense scrutiny. Details are on Beckett’s grading page.

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How to compare PSA, CGC, and Beckett grades

The official standards cited here do not establish a direct conversion chart among the three companies. In particular, PSA Gem Mint 10, CGC Gem Mint 10, CGC Pristine 10, Beckett Pristine 10, and Beckett Gem Mint 9.5 are not interchangeable labels. Compare the issuer’s criteria and the grade name rather than treating the number alone as a universal scale.

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If you are deciding whether to submit a raw card, consider which company’s published criteria and labels suit your needs, whether its service is currently available, and what its current submission terms say. The grading standards do not establish a universally best company or relative resale premiums; those depend on card-specific market evidence.

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Before submitting a card

Check the grading company’s official pages for current instructions and availability immediately before submission. Service status can change: when Beckett’s official page was accessed on 2026-10-11, Express submissions were open while Base and Standard were temporarily paused. Beckett said availability changes with demand and processing capacity; confirm the current status at Beckett’s grading page.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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