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What PSA grade would my card get?

Updated: 2026-10-15

PSA grades cards from 1 to 10 based on four things: centering, corners, edges and surface. With good photos and these criteria you can get a fairly close idea of the grade yours would get.

The scale, in short

Grade	What it means
PSA 10	Gem Mint: virtually perfect. Four sharp corners, good centering, no marks or scratches.
PSA 9	Mint: a single very minor flaw (a speck of whitening, centering slightly off).
PSA 8	Near Mint-Mint: slight wear on corners or edges, or centering further off.
PSA 7	Near Mint: visible but light wear, surface with some loss of gloss.
PSA 6 or lower	Clear wear, creases, marks or rounded corners.

The worst aspect sets the grade

PSA doesn't average: a card with 10-level corners and a scratch on the holo doesn't get a 9.5, it gets the grade of the scratch. That's why you should check all four aspects and go with the worst one.

1. Centering

Measure the border on each side (left against right, top against bottom) and turn it into a percentage. If one border is 2 mm and the other 3 mm, centering is 40/60. The back has more tolerance than the front:

Highest grade	Front	Back
PSA 10	up to 55/45	up to 75/25
PSA 9	up to 60/40	up to 90/10
PSA 8	up to 65/35	up to 90/10
PSA 7	up to 70/30	up to 90/10

2. Corners

Look at the back: whitening shows much more there than on the front. A single white speck on one corner usually drops a 10 to a 9; several touched corners or one rounded corner, to an 8 or lower.

3. Edges

Run along the edge under good light. Look for nicks, chips and whitening on the back edges, typical of cards that have been shuffled or pulled out of tight sleeves.

4. Surface

Tilt the card under a side light. Holo scratches, fingerprints, dents and print lines will show up. A slight curl on a holo card is normal and isn't a defect; a dent or a crease is, and they weigh heavily.

How to photograph it for a check

• Out of the sleeve, on a dark, plain background.
• A straight-on photo of the front and another of the back, with the whole card and all borders visible.
• One photo with side lighting for the surface.

More tips in how to photograph your cards.

Let the AI grade it

CardFolio's AI analysis does this check with your photos: it measures front and back centering against PSA's tolerances, scores corners, edges and surface, and gives you the most likely grade and the possible range. It also tells you what your card is worth at that grade and whether grading pays off. It's an estimate: the final grade is always set by the grading company.

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