There are four things every grading company looks at: corners, edges, surface, and centering. Once you know how to check these yourself, you can walk into a submission with a pretty good idea of what's coming back instead of just hoping for the best.

Here’s how I evaluate my cards before sending them in:

Corners are the first thing everyone looks at, so they have to be nearly perfect. Any whitening at all is going to hurt you, and it's especially obvious on a dark card, where a little white showing through the corner sticks out immediately. If you can see whitening, getting a PSA 10 is going to be tough.

Get a loupe or a magnifying glass to check properly - I grabbed mine on Amazon for less than $10!

Look at every corner from the front, the back, and then from the top and the side too. I've seen corners that look perfectly sharp head-on, but when you look from the top, it's actually squished down a little. That happens more than you'd think, and it can knock down your grade just as much as a corner that looks obviously bad.

Checking the edges is next, and it’s pretty much the same as looking at the corners… just that there’s more surface area.

They should be sharp, with no squishing, no indents, and no “chipping.” Sometimes you’ll see some of the white coming through on the very edges. On Chrome cards, sometimes you can see the card “coming through” the Chrome finish… if that makes sense.

I recently had a $400+ card that I wanted to send in for grading. Everything looked immaculate, until I saw something on the very last edge!

It was an indent, like someone had pushed hard on it with a fingernail. Automatic disqualifier.

PSA's standard for the front is 55/45, which is almost impossible to judge with your naked eye. If you can visibly tell a card is off center, it's almost certainly not landing a PSA 10. A cheap card centering tool that lays over the card will tell you more than trying to eyeball it.

Some cards are easy to measure because they have a rectangular border, like this:

Cards without a clean rectangular border are trickier to measure. You have to find matching elements on the card.

This Ohtani All Aces is a good example - you can measure above and to the left of the top “A” and compare that to below and to the right of the bottom “A” to ensure good centering.

PSA is a lot more forgiving on the backs of cards, allowing a 75/25 centering.

Unless it’s egregious, it’s unlikely to cost you that gem mint rating!

Surface is the hardest one to judge because it's the biggest area, and it's not always clear whether something is part of the card's design or an actual flaw. One way to decide is to compare your cards to PSA 10 versions on eBay.

What to look for:

My method: hold the card under strong, angled light and slowly go over every inch of it. I once spent good money on a Downtown Lamar Jackson where the ink had actually run. I didn't catch it until I saw it in person under the right light.

Keep a microfiber cloth on hand. Almost every card you look at closely will have something on it that makes you second-guess yourself. Wipe it gently and see if it comes off.

Also make sure to wipe off any fingerprints.

A few types of cards tend to grade worse no matter how careful you are:

(Any of those can grade well, but it’s worth looking extra close)

Before you submit anything, look up the card's gem rate on GemRate.com.

If a card looks perfect to your eye but only 10% of them come back a PSA 10, I'd hold off, even if you're confident.

On the flip side, if a card's gem rate is sitting at 80-90%, it's probably worth sending even if you're personally a little unsure.

One exception: obvious flaws always override gem rate. A 90% gem rate doesn't matter if your specific card has a visible scratch on it.

Everything above is mostly about chasing a PSA 10, and that's the right goal for most modern cards (anything from about the last 10 to 15 years).

But older cards are a different game entirely. A PSA 7, 8, or 9 can carry real value on a vintage card, and sometimes grading isn't even about the number, it's about proving the card is authentic. A Michael Jordan rookie or a Mickey Mantle rookie needs to be graded just so buyers know it's real.

Honestly, I give the same answer to the "should I grade this" question:

It's just math. Go on eBay and check what a PSA 10 sells for, what a PSA 9 sells for, and what raw sells for. Then add up your real costs: taxes and shipping when you bought it, eBay fees when you sell it, and the actual grading fee.

Or for vintage, determine what grade you think your card will get (you can check PSA’s guidelines here) and look up that value on eBay.

If you get good at spotting corners, edges, surface, and centering, the grading decision stops being a guess. It becomes a number you can actually trust.

I sometimes like to use bulk submitters, which are basically services that will send your card to get graded for you. The advantage is that you know they’ll package things up right, and they often get bulk pricing.

Some bulk submitters will also check the condition of the card for you! For around $5 per card, they’ll look it over. If it won’t grade well, they’ll send it back to you without incurring grading fees.

If you’re sending in fairly expensive cards, that could be the best $5 you ever spend.

I used to do this with all my cards until I got confident enough to analyze cards on my own.

(I’ve used NashCards in the past and loved them)

And that’s it! If you have any grading questions, hit reply and let me know!