Centering, edges, corners, surface: what graders are actually looking at

Every grading company evaluates the same four attributes. Learning to assess them yourself is the difference between a submission that pays for itself and one that does not. ## Centering — the one that caps you Measured as a ratio of border widths, front and back. A perfectly centred card is 50/50. Graders generally want 55/45 or better on the front for a 10. You can measure this with a ruler and thirty seconds. Do it before anything else, because no amount of surface perfection rescues a 65/35 card. This is why Neo Genesis Lugia has such a small PSA 10 population despite plenty of clean copies existing. ## Surface — the one that surprises you Print lines, holo scratches, indentations, dimples, and the faint scuffing that dark holo cards seem to acquire in a sealed pack. Check it properly: hold the card at a shallow angle under a single bright light source and rotate it slowly. Damage that is completely invisible head-on jumps out at 30 degrees. If you only learn one physical inspection habit, make it this one. ## Edges — the one that ruins modern cards Whitening along the cut edge. Black-bordered modern cards show it brutally; yellow-bordered vintage hides it well. A loupe along all four edges takes twenty seconds. Anything you can see without magnification is already costing you a point. ## Corners — the easiest to judge Sharpness and any softening or fraying. Genuinely the most intuitive of the four, and the one people over-index on because it is the easiest to see. ## Putting it together A useful pre-submission routine: 1. Ruler the centering. If it is worse than 60/40 front, stop. 2. Angled light for surface. Rotate through 360 degrees. 3. Loupe the edges, then the corners. 4. Flip and repeat. Back centering counts too, and people forget. If a card clears all four, you have a genuine 10 candidate. If it clears three, you have a 9, and you should price your expectations accordingly rather than being disappointed by the slab.