Card grading scale & standardsOne 1-10 scale. Two sets of trained eyes.
Sports cards and TCG cards use the same numeric grading scale, but we judge them differently. The printing, the common flaws, and what collectors care about aren't the same for the two, so VCG uses standards specific to each category on one consistent scale.
The VCG 1-10 scale
| Grade | Designation | What it means | Centering tolerance* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Gem Mint | Essentially flawless under standard review: sharp corners, perfect centering, and no visible print or surface defects. | Up to ~55/45 front, 75/25 back |
| 9 | Mint | Only the slightest, often microscopic imperfection keeps this from a 10. | Up to ~60/40 front, 90/10 back |
| 8 | Near Mint-Mint | Minor wear or a slight centering shift visible on close inspection. | Up to ~65/35 front, 90/10 back |
| 7 | Near Mint | Light surface or edge wear, but still a strong-looking card overall. | Up to ~70/30 front, 90/10 back |
| 6 | Excellent-Mint | Visible wear on corners or edges; centering may be noticeably off. | Up to ~80/20 front, 90/10 back |
| 5 | Excellent | Moderate wear across multiple areas of the card. | Up to ~85/15 front, 90/10 back |
| 4 | Very Good-Excellent | Noticeable wear, possible minor surface damage. | Up to ~85/15 front, 90/10 back |
| 3 | Very Good | Significant wear; corners and edges show real handling damage. | Up to ~90/10 front and back |
| 2 | Good | Heavy wear, creasing, or other visible damage. | Up to ~90/10 front and back |
| 1 | Poor | Major damage. The card is still authentic and identifiable, but heavily worn. | No stricter than ~90/10 front and back |
Swipe sideways to see the full table on narrow screens.
* Centering tolerance is the most the image can shift within the border. For example, 60/40 means the image can sit up to 60% toward one edge before it starts to count against the grade. A card right at the edge of its tolerance still comes down to the grader's judgment on overall eye appeal, as explained in the eye appeal section below. It isn't a strict cutoff.
Sports cards
Sports card grades are based on four main factors:
- Centering: how evenly the image sits within the card's borders, front and back.
- Corners: how sharp they are, or how much rounding, fraying, or whitening there is at the tips.
- Edges: chipping, roughness, or wear along the card's borders.
- Surface: scratches, print dots, staining, or loss of gloss on the card face.
Trading card games
TCG cards are judged on the same four factors, and we look more closely at problems that come from how these cards are printed and handled:
- Print lines: thin lines from the printing process, which show up more on TCG stock than on sports cardstock.
- Whitening: edge and corner whitening shows more easily on many TCG card borders.
- Surface texture: we check holo and foil cards for scratches and print flaws specific to foil stock.
- Centering: the tolerance is often tighter because of how TCG borders are designed.
More about grades
Qualifiers, cards we won't grade, and how eye appeal factors in.
Qualifiers and grade notations
Sometimes a card earns a strong grade overall but has one specific flaw worth calling out on its own. In those cases VCG may add a short notation next to the numeric grade, so buyers know exactly what they're looking at instead of finding the flaw folded into a lower number.
- MK (Marks): a scuff, dent, or surface mark small enough that it doesn't set the overall grade by itself.
- OC (Off-Center): centering outside our standard tolerance for the grade, noted on its own instead of averaged in.
- ST (Staining): discoloration from moisture, gum, wax, or similar contact.
- PD (Print Defect): a flaw from factory printing, such as a fleck, streak, or registration issue, as opposed to damage from handling.
- MC (Miscut): a factory cutting error that shifts the card's borders away from the intended design.
Ungradable cards
VCG won't give a numeric grade to a card that shows signs of trimming, recoloring, restoration, or other physical alteration, or if we have doubts that it's authentic. A grade only means something if the card is exactly what it claims to be. We won't put a number on a card we can't stand behind, so depending on what we find, we'll encapsulate it as "Authentic" or "Authentic Altered," or return it without encapsulation.
Common reasons a card doesn't get a numeric grade:
- Trimmed edges, done to make the corners look sharper than they are
- Rebuilt or restored corners, edges, or surface
- Recoloring or touch-up work on borders, print, or ink
- Chemical whitening, cleaning, or wax or gloss treatment applied after the card left the factory
- Doubtful authenticity, including suspected counterfeits
Eye appeal and judgment in grading
Most of a grade is objective. A mark is there or it isn't, and a corner is sharp or it's soft. But a grade also depends on how much a given flaw hurts the card, and a formula can't decide that. A trained grader has to make the call.
Say an otherwise clean card has a small ding on the bottom-left corner. That one mark doesn't automatically drop the card a full point. Our graders ask whether that flaw, in that spot, really hurts how the card looks as a whole. A faint touch on the corner might not change the grade at all. A sharper, more visible ding in the same spot could be what makes it an 8 instead of a 9, even if everything else on the card is identical.
That's eye appeal. Two cards can each have "one flaw" on paper and still get different grades, because the flaw's size, location, and visibility affect each card differently. We'd rather have an experienced grader weigh that than give every small mark the same fixed penalty no matter how much it takes away from the card.