How we grade

Most cards in the case are raw — they haven’t been sent to PSA, BGS or anyone else, and no third party has put a number on them. The condition written on a raw listing is one person’s assessment, made in hand under good light, and it’s the assessment you can send the card back over if you disagree.

• Mint: sharp corners, clean edges, no surface marks worth naming. As it came out of the pack.
• Near Mint: essentially clean, with something minor you could find if you went looking — a touch of edge wear, one soft corner.
• Excellent: honest light play — visible corner wear or a surface mark, described specifically in the listing.
• Good and below: obvious wear, always photographed and always spelled out.

When a card has been slabbed, the listing names the company and the number, and that number is the grade — not an opinion formed here. The slab ships in the same rigid packaging everything else does.

Cards listed as on-card autographs are certified by the manufacturer — the signature was applied before the card was packed out, and the certification is Topps’ or the set maker’s, not the shop’s. Nothing in the case is a signature added afterwards.