Grading scale
What the number
actually means.
Four scores, one grade, and all five printed on the label. Nothing here is a number you are asked to take on trust.
- Corners
- 10
- Edges
- 10
- Surface
- 10
- Centering
- 10
Rowlet · graded 10 · Certificate 19152
The four scores
Judged four times over.
Each is scored on its own, by a grader who cannot see what the last one gave it.
Centering
Borders, front and back, measured rather than judged by eye.
Surface
Scratches, print defects, gloss and indentation.
Edges
Chipping, whitening and wear along all four edges.
Corners
All four, under magnification.
The grades
Ten down to one.
Whole grades only. Half grades split hairs the eye cannot settle and turn every borderline card into an argument.
Four sharp corners, clean edges, and a surface that holds up under magnification. Centred within 60/40 on the front and 60/40 on the back. Not flawless under a microscope — nothing you would notice holding it.
Everything a ten has, with one thing you can find when you look for it: a touch of softness at a single corner, or one small print mark. Centred within 65/35 on the front and 70/30 on the back.
Minor wear that is visible without hunting for it — light whitening on a corner or along an edge, or a small mark on the surface. Centred within 70/30 on the front and 75/25 on the back.
Wear you see on the first look: whitening at more than one corner, a nick in an edge, or a scratch that catches the light. Centred within 75/25 on the front and 80/20 on the back.
Several areas showing wear at once, or one flaw obvious enough to lead with. Corners are softened rather than sharp. Centred within 80/20 on both faces.
Handling visible across the whole card. Corners rounded, edges worn, and surface marks in more than one place rather than a single spot.
Heavier wear, with the card beginning to lose its shape in one place — a soft corner, a warped edge, or a crease that has not broken the surface.
Wear in several places at once and damage that is obvious at arm's length. Centred within 85/15.
Significant damage: creasing, surface loss, or an edge that has gone. The card is whole and it is clearly identifiable.
The card has been through something. Structural damage, heavy creasing or major loss — graded, encapsulated, and genuine.
Centering
Measured,
not eyeballed.
Borders are measured on both faces, and the worst pair of opposite sides sets the ceiling. Whichever face is worse is the one that counts — a well-centred front does not excuse the back.
The table names the grades it names. There is no row between 6 and 3, so a card that misses the 6 by a single percent is capped at a 3 — a cliff rather than a slope. Inventing a limit for the grades in between would be inventing a rule nobody set.
Centering is only ever a ceiling. A perfectly centred card with a torn corner is still graded on the corner.
| Best grade possible | Front, within | Back, within |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 60/40 | 60/40 |
| 9 | 65/35 | 70/30 |
| 8 | 70/30 | 75/25 |
| 7 | 75/25 | 80/20 |
| 6 | 80/20 | 80/20 |
| 3 | 85/15 | 85/15 |
| 1 | Anything worse | Anything worse |
Not every card gets a grade
When one comes back ungraded.
Authenticity is checked before grading starts, not after. A card we cannot stand behind is never sealed in one of our slabs.
It comes back to you
Returned raw, with the reason written down, and posted back with the rest of your parcel. The other cards in the submission are unaffected and keep their price.
You are refunded for it
You get back what you paid for that card, less £5.00 — what it cost to receive it, examine it and post it back, which we have done whatever the result.
