PSA Grading Standards 2026

PSA grades every card on four criteria: centering, corners, edges, and surface. PSA 10 Gem Mint requires centering within 55/45 front and 75/25 back, four sharp corners with no whitening, no breaks in surface gloss, and no print defects. All four criteria must be perfect simultaneously for a PSA 10. A single soft corner or 56/44 centering drops the card to PSA 9.

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PSA Grading Scale Overview

PSA uses whole numbers from 1 to 10. There are no half-points. Each grade has specific standards for centering, corners, edges, and surface.

Grade Label Front Centering Condition Summary
10 Gem Mint 55/45 or better Four sharp corners, no surface breaks, no print defects
9 Mint 65/35 or better One minor flaw: slight corner wear or minor surface issue
8 Near Mint-Mint 70/30 or better Light play wear. Slight corner fraying or minor surface scratch
7 Near Mint 75/25 or better Slight break in surface gloss or moderate corner wear
6 Excellent-Mint 80/20 or better Moderate corner/edge wear, light surface wrinkle
5 Excellent 85/15 or better Rounded corners, significant surface wear
4 and below Very Good or lower No centering requirement Visible play wear, creases, staining

PSA Centering Standards

Centering is measured on both the front and back of the card. PSA measures the ratio of the larger border to the smaller border. A perfectly centered card would be 50/50, but in practice even PSA 10 cards allow up to 55/45 front due to manufacturing variance.

PSA Grade Front Centering Back Centering
PSA 10 (Gem Mint) 55/45 or better 75/25 or better
PSA 9 (Mint) 65/35 or better 90/10 or better
PSA 8 (NM-MT) 70/30 or better 90/10 or better
PSA 7 (NM) 75/25 or better No requirement

Important: PSA centering is measured on both the top-to-bottom axis and the left-to-right axis independently. A card that is perfectly centered left-to-right but 60/40 top-to-bottom will not receive a PSA 10. Both axes must meet the 55/45 standard. Measure your card in both directions before deciding whether to submit.

PSA Corner Standards

PSA 10 requires four sharp corners with no evidence of whitening, fraying, or wear. PSA graders examine corners closely because even a single corner with micro-fraying is enough to drop a card from PSA 10 to PSA 9.

For PSA 9, one corner is allowed to have very slight wear that is barely visible to the naked eye. PSA 8 cards may have multiple corners with light wear. PSA 7 and below show progressively more corner rounding and whitening.

PSA 10 Corner Requirement

All four corners must be sharp, with no whitening or fraying visible to the naked eye or under normal inspection. Factory-sharp points on every corner.

What Causes Corners to Fail

Pack opening (corners catch on the foil wrapper), rough sleeve insertion, shuffling even once, storage in a box without individual protection. Corners are the most common PSA 10 disqualifier.

PSA Surface Standards

PSA 10 requires no breaks in the surface gloss and no print defects. This means the card face must be clean, scratch-free, and retain its original factory finish across the entire surface, front and back.

Surface grading is where the most subjective judgment applies. PSA graders use bright lamps at multiple angles to catch surface scratches that are invisible under flat lighting. Foil and holographic cards are especially prone to light-catching scratches that only show at specific angles.

How to check surface before submitting: Hold the card at eye level and tilt it under a bright lamp, slowly rotating through 360 degrees. Look for lines or patches where light catches differently from the rest of the surface. For foil cards, any scratch will show as a bright line at certain angles. If you see anything, the card may not achieve a PSA 10 surface grade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about PSA grading standards and criteria.

What centering does PSA 10 require?
PSA 10 Gem Mint requires centering of 55/45 or better on both the top-to-bottom and left-to-right measurements on the front of the card, and 75/25 or better on the back. This means neither border can be more than 55% of the total border width on the front. Cards with 56/44 centering or worse on the front will typically receive a PSA 9 at best.

What does PSA 10 Gem Mint require?
PSA 10 Gem Mint requires: centering within 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back, four sharp corners with no whitening or fraying, no visible breaks in the surface gloss, no print defects, no surface scratches, and no staining. All four criteria must meet the Gem Mint standard simultaneously. If any single criterion falls below this threshold, the card receives a PSA 9 or lower.

What is the difference between PSA 9 and PSA 10?
PSA 9 Mint allows slightly looser tolerances than PSA 10 Gem Mint. PSA 9 permits centering up to 65/35 on the front and 90/10 on the back. PSA 9 may also have one of the following: one corner with slight wear, minor edge roughness, or a minor surface defect. In resale value, PSA 10 typically commands 2-5x the price of PSA 9 on the same card, making the distinction extremely important financially.

Does PSA provide sub-grades?
No. PSA does not provide sub-grades for individual criteria. The final PSA grade is a single whole number from 1 to 10. If you want to know which specific criterion caused your card to receive a PSA 9 instead of a PSA 10, PSA will not tell you. This is one advantage BGS and CGC have over PSA: both offer detailed sub-grade breakdowns that show exactly which criterion held the card back.

What percentage of cards get a PSA 10?
Fewer than 10% of cards submitted to PSA receive a PSA 10 Gem Mint grade. Modern cards with consistent print quality have slightly higher PSA 10 rates than vintage cards. The rate varies significantly by card type: some modern Prizm and Chrome cards have PSA 10 rates of 5-15%, while vintage cards from the 1960s and 1970s rarely exceed 1-2% PSA 10 rates. This scarcity is what drives the PSA 10 premium in the market.

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