{
  "dataset": "grading-scales",
  "title": "Published centering tolerances by grading company",
  "description": "The front and back centering tolerance each grading company publishes at each grade, transcribed with the page it was read from and the date it was read.",
  "source": "https://sportscardradar.com",
  "documentation": "https://sportscardradar.com/api/",
  "publisher": "Vast Flow, LLP",
  "licence": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "attribution": "Sports Card Radar (https://sportscardradar.com)",
    "note": "Reuse any of this, including commercially, with a link back to the page or endpoint it came from."
  },
  "as_of": "2026-09-11",
  "caveats": [
    "These are the companies’ own published guidelines, not a machine threshold. Every one of them is worded as an approximation, and a card on a boundary is decided by a person holding it.",
    "Centering is a ceiling, never a grade. Corners, edges and surface bring a perfectly centred card down; this table says only what centering alone permits.",
    "The back tolerance is looser at every company and is applied at every company. A card inside the front band and outside the back band is capped by the back.",
    "Companies revise these. Each row carries the URL it came from — check it rather than trusting this copy."
  ],
  "method": {
    "method": "Measure the border on each side of the printed image, not the edge of the card, and measure at the middle of each side rather than at a corner. Any unit works — the ratio is a ratio.",
    "backMatters": "Every company states a separate, looser tolerance for the back, and every company applies it. A card that is 55/45 on the front and 95/5 on the back is capped by the back.",
    "diamondCut": "A card whose borders are wider at the top than at the bottom on one side and the reverse on the other was cut at an angle. That is a cutting fault, not centering, and it is graded as one."
  },
  "count": 3,
  "scales": [
    {
      "id": "psa",
      "company": "PSA",
      "scale_name": "PSA 1–10 grading standards",
      "source_url": "https://www.psacard.com/gradingstandards",
      "read_on": "2026-09-11",
      "how_the_company_words_it": "PSA states centering as a front tolerance and a back tolerance per grade — for Gem Mint 10, the image must be centred \"within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse\".",
      "caveat": "PSA words every tolerance as \"approximately\" and reserves discretion, so a card at the edge of a band is a judgement made by a person holding it. Treat the number as the boundary of the argument, not as a verdict. Note also that PSA TIGHTENED the top of this ladder in early 2025 without announcing it: Gem Mint 10 went from 60/40 to 55/45 on the front and every grade below it shifted with it. A great deal of published guidance — and a great many memories — still carry the older, looser numbers, so a figure from before 2025 is one step too generous at the top four grades.",
      "rows": [
        {
          "grade": 10,
          "label": "Gem Mint 10",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 55,
          "front_ratio": "55/45",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 75,
          "back_ratio": "75/25"
        },
        {
          "grade": 9,
          "label": "Mint 9",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "front_ratio": "60/40",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 8,
          "label": "NM-MT 8",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 65,
          "front_ratio": "65/35",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 7,
          "label": "NM 7",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 70,
          "front_ratio": "70/30",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 6,
          "label": "EX-MT 6",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 80,
          "front_ratio": "80/20",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 5,
          "label": "EX 5",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 85,
          "front_ratio": "85/15",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 4,
          "label": "VG-EX 4",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 85,
          "front_ratio": "85/15",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 3,
          "label": "VG 3",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "front_ratio": "90/10",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 2,
          "label": "Good 2",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "front_ratio": "90/10",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 1,
          "label": "Poor–Fair 1",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 100,
          "front_ratio": null,
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 100,
          "back_ratio": null
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "bgs",
      "company": "BGS (Beckett)",
      "scale_name": "BGS centering subgrade",
      "source_url": "https://www.beckett.com/grading/card-grading-scale",
      "read_on": "2026-09-11",
      "how_the_company_words_it": "Beckett grades centering as one of four subgrades, on the same 1–10 scale as the final grade, and the final grade is constrained by the subgrades rather than averaged from them.",
      "caveat": "The centering subgrade is not the final grade. A card centred 50/50 can still finish at BGS 8 on corners, and a BGS 9.5 can carry a centering subgrade of 9. The table says what centering alone permits.",
      "rows": [
        {
          "grade": 10,
          "label": "Pristine 10",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 50,
          "front_ratio": "50/50",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "back_ratio": "60/40"
        },
        {
          "grade": 9.5,
          "label": "Gem Mint 9.5",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 55,
          "front_ratio": "55/45",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "back_ratio": "60/40"
        },
        {
          "grade": 9,
          "label": "Mint 9",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "front_ratio": "60/40",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 70,
          "back_ratio": "70/30"
        },
        {
          "grade": 8.5,
          "label": "NM-MT+ 8.5",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 65,
          "front_ratio": "65/35",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 80,
          "back_ratio": "80/20"
        },
        {
          "grade": 8,
          "label": "NM-MT 8",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 70,
          "front_ratio": "70/30",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 80,
          "back_ratio": "80/20"
        },
        {
          "grade": 7,
          "label": "NM 7",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 75,
          "front_ratio": "75/25",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 6,
          "label": "EX-MT 6",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 80,
          "front_ratio": "80/20",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 5,
          "label": "EX 5",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 85,
          "front_ratio": "85/15",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "sgc",
      "company": "SGC",
      "scale_name": "SGC 1–10 scale",
      "source_url": "https://gosgc.com/grading-scale/",
      "read_on": "2026-09-11",
      "how_the_company_words_it": "SGC publishes a tolerance for its top grades and describes the lower grades in words rather than in ratios, which is why only the top of the ladder appears here.",
      "caveat": "SGC is the grader most associated with vintage, where a 60/40 card can be the best-centred copy in the population. Below NM-MT 8 it judges centering against the set rather than against a fixed ratio.",
      "rows": [
        {
          "grade": 10,
          "label": "Pristine 10",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 50,
          "front_ratio": "50/50",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "back_ratio": "60/40"
        },
        {
          "grade": 9.5,
          "label": "Gem 10 / 9.5 band",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 55,
          "front_ratio": "55/45",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 70,
          "back_ratio": "70/30"
        },
        {
          "grade": 9,
          "label": "Mint 9",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 60,
          "front_ratio": "60/40",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        },
        {
          "grade": 8,
          "label": "NM-MT 8",
          "front_max_larger_side_pct": 70,
          "front_ratio": "70/30",
          "back_max_larger_side_pct": 90,
          "back_ratio": "90/10"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "card_sizes": [
    {
      "id": "standard",
      "name": "Standard modern card",
      "width_in": 2.5,
      "height_in": 3.5,
      "width_mm": 63.5,
      "height_mm": 88.9,
      "note": "The size every card has been since 1957 Topps, and the size every sleeve, toploader and slab is built around."
    },
    {
      "id": "tobacco",
      "name": "Tobacco card (T206 era)",
      "width_in": 1.4375,
      "height_in": 2.625,
      "width_mm": 36.5,
      "height_mm": 66.7,
      "note": "Roughly 1 7/16 by 2 5/8 inches. Borders are narrow, so a millimetre of drift is a much larger share of the border than on a modern card."
    },
    {
      "id": "1952topps",
      "name": "1952–1956 Topps",
      "width_in": 2.625,
      "height_in": 3.75,
      "width_mm": 66.7,
      "height_mm": 95.3,
      "note": "Larger than the modern standard, which is why these need their own holders and why the 1952 set does not fit a normal binder page."
    },
    {
      "id": "oversize",
      "name": "Oversize / box-bottom",
      "width_in": 3.5,
      "height_in": 5,
      "width_mm": 88.9,
      "height_mm": 127,
      "note": "Box-bottom panels, Topps Super and similar. Most graders slab these in a larger holder at a higher fee tier."
    }
  ]
}