Two cards can both be "Near Mint" and still come back from PSA two grades apart. That's because selling a card raw and grading it use completely different yardsticks. Here's how each one works, where they disagree, and the simple math we use to decide whether a card is worth sending in.
How raw cards are conditioned
For raw singles, the closest thing the hobby has to a rulebook is the TCGplayer Card Conditioning Standard. Instead of a gut call, every imperfection gets points based on how much of the card it affects:
| Severity | Points each | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Slight | 1 | Touches a minimal area of the card |
| Minor | 2 | A noticeable area |
| Moderate | 4 | A significant area |
| Major | 8 | Anything bigger than moderate |
Imperfection types include edgewear (whitening along the borders and corners), scratches, scuffing, surface wear, grime, indentations, bends, faults like splitting or delamination, and print defects. The points add up to a tier:
| Condition | Points allowed |
|---|---|
| Near Mint (NM) | 3 or fewer |
| Lightly Played (LP) | 6 or fewer |
| Moderately Played (MP) | 12 or fewer |
| Heavily Played (HP) | 24 or fewer |
| Damaged (DMG) | More than 24, or any tear, puncture, fold, liquid damage or missing card information |
Some flaws cap the tier no matter how few points they add. Near Mint allows no surface wear, grime, bends or faults, and a crease means Moderately Played at best.
Two more details matter. Conditioning is done by eye, not under a loupe. And TCGplayer lets centering go as far as 70/30 before it affects a card's condition at all. Keep that number in mind for the next section.
If you want to check your own cards the same way, TCGplayer publishes free printable conditioning overlays. Print them on clear film at 100% scale and lay them over a flaw to judge its size.
How graders score a card
Graders look at the same four things (centering, corners, edges and surface), but under bright light and magnification, and they turn it into an exact number. The difference most collectors run into first is centering. Here are the published tolerances as of October 2026: PSA, BGS, TAG, CGC and SGC.
| PSA grade | Front | Back |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Gem Mint | 55/45 or better | 75/25 or better |
| 9 Mint | 60/40 or better | 90/10 or better |
| 8 NM-MT | 65/35 or better | 90/10 or better |
| 7 Near Mint | 70/30 or better | 90/10 or better |
| 6 EX-MT | 80/20 or better | 90/10 or better |
The other major graders have their own top tiers:
- BGS: a 9.5 Gem Mint allows about 55/45 on the front. A Pristine 10 needs 50/50, and a Black Label needs all four subgrades at 10.
- CGC: Gem Mint 10 allows about 55/45 front and 75/25 back. Pristine 10 needs 50/50 and a flawless card.
- TAG: Gem Mint 10 is about 55/45 on the front, and Pristine 10 about 51/49. TAG doesn't give 9.5s.
These are published guidelines, not formulas. Graders also weigh eye appeal, so a card sitting right on a line can go either way.
Why a Near Mint card isn't automatically a 10
Put the two systems side by side and the gap is easy to see:
- Centering. A 62/38 card is perfectly Near Mint to TCGplayer, but it misses PSA's 60/40 line for a 9 and tops out around a PSA 8. At 68/32 it's closer to a 7.
- Magnification. A speck of corner whitening you can only see with a loupe costs nothing in raw condition, but it's often the difference between a 10 and a 9.
- The range. "Near Mint" covers a lot of ground. In graded terms, a Near Mint card can land anywhere from roughly a PSA 7 to a 10.
Rule of thumb: Near Mint is the starting line for grading. Measure the centering front and back and check every corner and edge under a loupe before you count on a 10.
Real examples from our pre-screens
Here's how we'd call four cards. The Mimikyu, Tyranitar and Lugia come from a recent batch we inspected, and the Charizard is an example of a higher-value card. Values are recent Card Ladder sold prices, and "after the fee" uses our $65 Standard tier.
| Card | Raw | Most likely | Graded value | After the fee | Our call |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charizard ex, 151 | $320 | PSA 10 (62%) | $1,340 | +$955 | Grade |
| Mimikyu-GX, Lost Thunder | $45 | PSA 10 (62%) | $356 | +$246 | Borderline |
| Tyranitar-GX, Lost Thunder | $33 | PSA 9 | $85 | -$13 | Borderline |
| Lugia-GX, Lost Thunder | $37 | PSA 7 | $19 | -$83 | Keep raw |
The Lugia is the one to learn from. It's a clean card that would sell as Near Mint, but its front centering (about 67/33) caps it around a PSA 7, and a PSA 7 sells for less than the raw card.
What the percentages mean
The percentage next to a grade is the odds, not a promise. Take the Charizard ex from 151 (199/165) in the table above, at "PSA 10 (62%)". That means if 100 copies in the same shape went in, about 62 would come back as 10s, and almost all of the other 38 would come back as 9s.
So is 62% good enough? It depends on what a miss costs. Here's that Charizard, using recent Card Ladder sold prices and our $65 fee:
| If it comes back | Chance | Sells for | vs. selling it raw ($320) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 62% | about $1,340 | +$955 |
| PSA 9 | 38% | about $350 | -$35 |
Weighing the odds, that averages out to about $579 ahead per card. The worst likely result costs about $35, less than a tenth of the $385 you put in (the raw card plus the fee). That's an easy "Grade."
Now look at the Mimikyu. It has the same 62% shot at a 10, but a PSA 9 Mimikyu has only sold for about $20 lately, less than the $45 it brings raw. (Raw copies can outsell a 9 because raw buyers are paying for their own shot at a 10.) A miss would leave you about $90 behind on the $110 you put in. On average it still comes out about $118 ahead, but more than a third of the time you'd lose most of what you put in, so we call it Borderline.
Rule of thumb: a grade estimate over 50% is the most likely result, not a sure thing. Ultimately, you should consider your tolerance for risk and whether you'd be happy with that grade or the one below it. When the most likely grade is under 70% and coming back one grade lower would lose more than a quarter of what you put in (the raw value plus the fee), we call it "Borderline," and the call is yours. We say "Grade" when the result clears the fee comfortably and either the odds are ~70% or better or a miss is cheap.
Is it worth grading? A 60-second check
- Find the raw value for the card in its actual condition, using recent sold prices.
- Estimate the most likely grade. Measure centering front and back and log any flaws you see under a loupe. Our Grade Estimator does this math for PSA, BGS, CGC and TAG.
- Look up the graded value at that grade. Use sold prices, not asking prices.
- Do the subtraction: graded value, minus the raw value, minus the grading fee.
- Check the miss: look up what one grade lower sells for and do the same subtraction.
| If the result is... | Our call |
|---|---|
| More than $20 ahead, with 70%+ odds or a cheap miss | Grade it |
| More than $20 ahead, but the odds are under 70% and one grade lower would lose more than 25% of the raw value plus the fee | Borderline, depends on your risk tolerance |
| Within $20 either way | Borderline, your call |
| Behind, but there's a 40% or better chance at the next grade up, and that grade would come out $50+ ahead | Borderline, worth a look |
| Anything else | Keep it raw |
The bottom line
Raw condition tells you what a card is worth as it sits. A grade tells you what it could be worth in a slab. The two overlap, but they aren't the same, and centering is usually where they split. If you'd rather not do the math yourself, send us your cards for a free pre-screen or book a quick consultation. You can also see how we grade condition on our Card Assessment page.
Sources: TCGplayer Card Conditioning Standard (updated October 2026), PSA Grading Standards, CGC Cards Grading Scale, TAG's published grading rubric and Beckett's published grading scale. Prices are recent sales and change with the market.