Suppose you’ve been buying Pokemon TCG products for a while, and now, you finally decided to bring some of your most expensive cards to a grading company. If you’re curious as to how Pokemon cards get graded, you should first understand one of the most important factors in card grading, which is centering.
In this guide, we’ll give you everything you need to know about centering in the context of Pokemon TCG. Specifically, after reading this guide, you’ll be able to:
- What is centering, and why is it important in grading Pokemon cards?
- Why do Pokemon cards have different centering?
- Are off-centered Pokemon cards fake?
- How to check your card’s centering
Learn more about Pokemon TCG:
- What Is a Parallel Set in Pokemon TCG
- What Is a Master Set in Pokemon TCG
- How to Know if Japanese Pokemon Cards Are Real?
Centering in Pokemon TCG: What It Means and Its Importance in Grading
Centering refers to how a card’s main features (everything except the borders) are positioned within the card. You can also judge centering by looking at the borders themselves. Is the top border slightly larger than the bottom? How about the left and right sides? Do they appear evenly sized?
When it comes to centering, a Pokemon card can only have good or bad centering, depending on the professional grader’s standards. PSA, the most popular card grading company, had their own standards when it comes to centering.
For example, a PSA 9 card must have centering of around 60/40 on the front and up to 90/10 on the back. These numbers refer to the border ratio, or percentage, measured either left to right or top to bottom, which is always equivalent to 100 when combined. In simple terms, a PSA 9 card may have 60% of the total border on one side and 40% on the opposite side.
In Pokemon TCG, the perfect centering would be 50/50, referring to the borders on both sides of the card having the exact same size. However, PSA can still tolerate any slight imperfections in the centering of a card and stick with their standards, which is why a 60/40 Pokemon card can still fetch a grade of PSA 9.
Gem Mint, or PSA 10 Pokemon cards, must have centering that does not exceed 55/45, which makes them appear perfectly centered to the naked eye.
While many people do not care much about how a card is centered, it remains one of the key factors in determining how perfect a card looks, which is why it matters so much to card graders. Even if a card has no physical damage at all, it may still fall short of a perfect 10 if it is off-center.
If Pokemon Cards Are the Same, Why Do Borders Vary?
This question is quite common among those who are new to Pokemon TCG and collecting trading cards in general. The answer is quite simple, and to be honest, a bit frustrating.
You see, with the growing demand of Pokemon cards worldwide, the creators behind Pokemon TCG have to rely on machines to produce as many cards as they can in a short period of time. Since cards are being mass-produced at high speed, certain errors or inconsistencies in the manufacturing process can take place, such as the centering of some cards.
This issue can sometimes ruin a collector’s luck. You can pull the best chase cards and still end up disappointed once you notice the off-centered borders. While anyone can maintain a card’s mint condition, there’s no way to fix poor centering.
With the possibility of authentic cards being off-centered, there’s no surprise that counterfeit cards can have problems with centering as well. In fact, it’s much more common with fake Pokemon cards, but keep in mind that centering is not a good way to check a Pokemon card’s authenticity.
Easy Ways to Check Your Card’s Centering
To check how well your cards are centered, you can try either of these two methods:
- Taking a picture of your card and sending it to online card centering websites like this centering checker.
- Buying a centering tool.
Of these two, the centering tool offers a much more accurate and faster measurement of your card’s centering.
Final Thoughts
Centering is just as vital as other factors in card grading, even though many people don’t pay that much attention to it. Still, knowing what it is and how to check the centering of a card can give you an idea of the grade that it can receive from companies like PSA.
Cards don’t have to be perfectly centered to get a perfect 10. A 55/45 centering looks almost perfect at first glance, and there are also other factors that you should not overlook, such as the card’s corners and the existence of stains or other imperfections.
We hope this guide helped you become a more informed collector! For more Pokemon TCG content, check out more of our articles here at PokeCardHQ.
