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Not all grading is equal.
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about card grading,
the companies behind it,
and what their grades
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From the Wire
FeaturedThe Wire: PSA, CGC · Capacity
Grading hits a record 3.87 million cards in October as PSA and CGC both set highs
Record month for PSA and CGC. CGC's sports grading is up 159% in a year.
By Cardboard Journal, 3 Nov
PSA backlog falls to 6.8 million, but the Value reopening slowed the drop
Down 400,000 in two weeks, not a million. Reopening Value refilled the queue.
By Cardboard Journal, 3 NovPSA reopens Value grading at $39.99 and cuts Standard and Priority turnaround by 20 days
Value is back at $39.99, but new orders wait behind the 7.2 million already there.
By Cardboard Journal, 28 OctPSA publishes all 6,451 stolen certs as the FBI joins the FedEx theft case
Every stolen PSA cert is now public. Check any cert before you buy.
By Cardboard Journal, 27 OctPSA's backlog is down to 7.2 million. Value still has no date.
The backlog keeps falling, but PSA has still not named a date for its cheapest tiers.
By Cardboard Journal, 21 OctThieves take two pallets of PSA cards from a FedEx truck at its headquarters
Stolen PSA slabs now have dead certs, but a cracked-out card has no cert to check.
By Cardboard Journal, 20 Oct
Beckett’s Recovery, Phase 2: Still Waiting on Answers
Back: accounts, submissions, pop reports, cert lookup. Not back: price guide, Marketplace.
Opinion. By Cardboard Journal, 17 OctThe big story
The market is more concentrated than it looks
3 of the 4 graders the resale market accepts share one owner. Collectors Holdings owns PSA, SGC and BGS. CGC, owned by Blackstone, is outside it.
See the scorecardsCollectors Holdings
PSAScore 86 
SGCScore 69 
BGSScore 60
Blackstone
CGCScore 67
Guides
All guides
The Number Everyone Reads in a Pop Report Is the Wrong One
What the columns mean, why the gem rate matters more than the raw count, and the ways a pop figure misleads.
Graders Take the Lowest Score. Find It Before They Do.
Centering, corners, edges, surface — what graders look for before you submit.
Most Cards Should Not Be Graded. Is Yours the Exception?
Where to look up what a card is worth, how to check the grade you are likely to get, and the arithmetic that turns both into a yes or a no.
If the Cert Number Does Not Resolve, It Is Not a Slab
Real third-party grading vs. fake magnetic cases — how to tell the difference.
From the scorecards
All 40 graders
TAG
The most transparent grade you can buy — every point deduction itemised — but the market still pays for PSA's label, not TAG's evidence.
Score 57. Emerging.
MNT Grading
A stable Canadian hockey specialist — dependable within that niche, largely invisible outside it.
Score 44. Regional.
KSA Certification
One of the oldest independents still running, and genuinely respected in Canadian hockey — but liquidity outside that niche is thin.
Score 43. Regional.
DSG
A young grader punching well above its weight on documentation — a 32-subgrade report at one flat price — but the resale market hasn't caught up to it yet.
Score 41. Raw value.
The story
Why this site exists
I bought a card already graded by a company nobody in the resale market recognizes. The slab made it look like a sure thing. It wasn't. We score that company 22 out of 100.
We don't tell you what to buy. We measure what the market actually does.
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