If you have any amount of Pokémon cards in your collection, you have undoubtably gone down the path of figuring out what Pokémon card grades are. And if you’ve gone that far, then you have certainly tried to figure out what grade your Pokémon cards will get.
It’s a fair question. The value of a card can be greatly increased with a good grade from a reputable company. So before sending it in, it’s good to know if it’s worth paying the fee to get them graded.
It’s worth starting with the fact that there is no guarantee what grade your cards will get. I, like everyone else who has ever graded cards, have gotten a grade that they didn’t agree with and/or were surprised by.
And it’s no wonder. Grading companies use humans to grade cards. And these graders have to run through A LOT of cards. So it’s not terribly difficult to make a mistake or have an off day and give a card a slightly better or worse grade than it should have gotten. It’s not how it should be, but it’s the way it is.
Despite that being the case, there is general guidance that can tell you around what grade your Pokémon card will get. I’ll give some examples of each and explain what to look for so that you can compare your own cards that you may be considering.
If I missed anything, let me know in the comments form at the bottom of the page!
What Does “Grading” A Pokémon Card Mean?
Let’s start with the basics.
Grading a Pokémon card refers to the process of sending a card to a company who will assign a grade to the card based on it’s quality. These ratings will typically be from 1-10 with 10 being a “pristine” or “perfect” card.
These will be the most expensive Grading Pokémon cards does cost money and it will take time. I’ve got another article on all of the basics here which would be a good read before reading this article.
Let’s jump right in!
Grade 1 Pokémon Card
Interestingly, Pokémon cards with a grade of “1” are more sought after than you might think. Anything from a 2 to a 6 are typically not sought after at all. Grade 1’s though? Lot’s of buyers.
So, what does it take then to get a grade 1 Pokémon card? What do the cards look like?
Let’s check out some examples.
As we can see above, Grade 1 Pokémon cards have quite a bit of…. variation in what they might look like. On the fronts, we can see bends, DEEP scratches, sun damage, crinkled edges, and really the whole gamut of card wear.
On the backs, its much of the same. Bends, markings, lots of whitening, black dots, fading, and many others. So to achieve a grade 1 on a Pokémon card, it just needs to be really beat up.
I will say, there is something really cool about them. These cards have been “appreciated” and enjoyed to the fullest. And that’s something we should all be able to get behind.
Interestingly enough, there is a limit on how damaged a card can be. Once Pokémon cards get torn or fall apart too much, it will be ungradable. The 1’s are the line right before that happens.
Grade 5-6 Pokémon Cards
I’m going to mention grade 5 and 6 Pokémon cards for just a moment. They really aren’t sought after at all nor do they have a big buyer base at all.
A lot of the time, grade 5-6 cards will actually sell for about the same as a raw card. So why mention them?
The reason being is that it is possible to get what looks like a perfect or near perfect card in a grade 5-6. Sounds unreasonable, but it happens more than you may think. The question though is why?
The above Jolteon was a card that I sent in myself. It was incredibly clean, had no scratches, centering was good, and looked amazing all around. My best guess is that it would get between an 8-10 when I sent it in originally.
Lo and behold though, it was returned a 5.
These grading companies, PSA in this case, uses several different types of lightings and pictures to examine every card they grade. When your card is surprisingly returned as a low grade, it means that they saw some kind of dent or mild damage that you missed.
While I still could never find it on this card, any denting, damage, or otherwise will automatically lower the grade of your Pokémon card to a 5 or 6. So it’s not a grade you want, but it is a grade you will unfortunately get sometimes when grading.
Let’s get to the more sought after grades.
Grade 7 Pokémon Card
There is a reason that the website Pricecharting shows the pricing for raw, then everything 7 and up. Because Pokémon cards under that grade typically aren’t worth grading. That’s with exception to the ever popular 1 mentioned above though.
For modern cards (cards produced in the last 2-3 years), a 7 is an incredibly poor grade. For vintage though, 7’s are a very solid grade. And a 7 in vintage Pokémon cards does typically increase the value from it being raw.
For the sake of consistency, I’m going to look at the same card for every grade. Let’s check out a few to see what they might look like.
If you’d like to see the images closer up, you can search up any card on the PSA website. Once you filter by grade, you can check out cards that have sold at that particular grade.
To review the above though, we can definitely see some imperfections among a l lot of these. There is some holo scratching, a bit of edge wear, and looks like there can be some (but not a tremendous amount) of whitening on the back of the card.
These cards would still classify mostly as “Near Mint” in their raw form though. A few may potentially be in the Lightly Played category, but only barely.
All in all though, grade 7 Pokémon cards are very nice. So when looking through your cards to determine if you should grade them, a grade 7 is a great benchmark.
Grade 8 Pokémon Card
For grade 8 Pokémon cards, I’ll use a few from my own collection and give some closer-ups vs what I did above. I’ll only show a few though that are in the “worst” reasonable condition that I believe are still deserving of an 8.
Let’s start with…. a Charizard! I mean, who can dislike this card? Not this guy.
PSA 8 Base Set #4 Charizard
Now, it’s hard to tell which scratching is on the case and which is on the card itself. The first picture does show a good amount on the case. In looking closely though you can definitely see a small bit of holo scratching on the card itself as well.
Note that they are very faint and light though. There aren’t any heavy scratches on the card itself.
On the pictures of the back, you can see that it looks really good, but definitely not perfect. There are small white spots on some of the corners but again, they are very small and faint.
Let’s check out one more.
PSA 8 Base Set Shadowless Venusaur #15
The above is a PSA 8 Base Set Shadowless Venusaur. It is Shadowless because it is missing the shadow along the right side of the card. If you’d like to read more about that and other card variations check out the article here.
In looking through these pictures we can see that this card looks really good, but is definitely not perfect. In the 1st and 2nd picture, we can see some light holo scratching and some edge wear.
The next two pictures of the back show a little bit of whitening, but not a tremendous amount. There are some marks on the case, but that doesn’t affect the grade of the card here.
So what’s my point? To get a grade 8 Pokémon card it can definitely have some imperfections. They can’t be heavy and they do have to be very limited, but they can be there.
Let’s check out a few 9’s.
Grade 9 Pokémon Cards
To get a grade 9 Pokémon card, it needs to be nearly perfect. As a matter of fact, there is a very small difference between a 9 and 10 graded Pokémon card.
To give a few examples, I’m going to do the same thing as above. I’ll give a few close ups of some graded (PSA in this case) 9 Pokémon cards and what they look like.
If you were concerned about there not being enough flying dragons on this page, fear not. There will be more.
PSA 9 Dark Charizard
Let’s check out some pictures.
It can be a little hard to tell if the scratches are on the casing or the card. But in this case, the scratching is exclusively on the case itself.
Where a grade 8 Pokémon card above could have a small touch of holo scratching, a 9 doesn’t allow for hardly anything.
Even in looking at the back of the card, we can see that there is even less whitening than their was before. It also takes a pretty substantial amount of zoom to get a decent look at the smallest of imperfections on the card.
Let’s look at one other. Did you ask for more flying dragons? Great, I’ve got you covered.
PSA 9 1st Edition Dark Dragonite
Let’s jump right into some pictures below.
All in all? This card looks amazing. Especially for being a 25 year old card.
The holo looks incredible. The back looks near-perfect. And the centering is very very good.
We can see a very small bit of whitening on the back of the card, but it’s very hard to see from the picture of the entire back.
Ultimately, that is what a grade 9 card requires for Pokémon cards. A grade 8 can have some very minor flaws on both the front and the back. To get a grade 9 though, there needs to be basically none.
If that’s the case then, what is the difference between getting a grade 9 and a grade 10?
Grade 10 Pokémon Card
I don’t believe showing grade 10 Pokémon cards would be useful here. In looking through a few grade 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s, you should have a good understanding of the grading scale and the amount of allowed “wear” on a card to get a good grade.
So to get a grade 10 Pokémon card? You correctly assumed that the card has to be basically flawless. Interestingly though, even freshly pulled cards don’t guarantee a 10. And the thing that stops your brand new cards from being a 10 is something you have no control over.
Centering
I mentioned it briefly above, but if you haven’t heard of centering, you should know it is a big deal in the Pokémon and general trading card grading world.
Thousands of freshly pulled Pokémon cards get submitted to grading companies and the majority of them turn out to not get a 10. And the centering is the biggest culprit.
Centering ultimately refers to how well the card is “centered” within the actual card. It is a measurement of how exact the edges are around the top, bottom, left, and right side of the card. This is most prevalent on the back but also plays a part on the front as well.
Below is a diagram with a link to where to buy a “centering tool”. It’s a great way to spend $5 if you’re looking to grade some cards.
So when asking what grade your Pokémon card will get, check for whitening, scratches and other marks. Once done, always check out the centering. PSA requires within a 70/30 ratio to get a 10.
Let’s look at one more thing before wrapping up…
Beckett (BGS) Black Label 10
As far as Pokémon card grading goes, BGS Black Labels are the pinnacle of value and prestige. While PSA generally sells for higher value grade for grade, the BGS Black label is by far the highest value grade of them all.
BGS is typically known as a harsher grader than PSA and to get a Black Label, the edges, surface, corners, and our favorite, centering, all have to be absolutely top notch.
To give an idea of the difference between a PSA 10 and a BGS Black Label, the Black Label requires no less than a 60/40 on the centering vs a 70/30 on the back for PSA. They also grade each of the categories separately, so the most minor of print lines and otherwise won’t get you a Black Label.
So is it tougher to get? Yes. Is it still worth the attempt? A lot of people would say so.
Summary
Hopefully this guide has given you an idea of what your Pokémon cards need to look like to grade favorably. There is a lot to this and if anything was missed, please let me know at [email protected]!
Wondering if Pokémon cards are a good investment? Check out my other article here!
Wondering if you have a fake Pokémon card or want to know how to identify them? Look no further.
Looking to sell some Pokémon cards? I’ve got you covered.
Thanks for reading!