[benner73]

Anyone have a special method you use before submitting cards to grading companies? I have like a 10% gem mint conversion and see others who are 50% and above. Do you have a tool or method you use to measure them or something? Or are you just a good guesser with your naked eye? I'm just getting really discouraged.

[johnxgodfree]

i use a combination of the following:
lower end quality jewelers loop (I'd like to have a nicer one)
omnigrid for physical measurement of centering (although lately I use a digital omnigrid that I use in photoshop to use on scans of a card so i can view it better for centering (as my eyesight isn't what I wish it were)

other than that I use a nice bright desk light and a black light for checking surface condition/looking for smudges/fingerprints/etc

I'm still getting a better idea of what to expect for different things but even as a beginner have had about 50% success on the first two submissions (although a lot of the cards that didn't gem I knew wouldn't)

I've only had one card so far that didn't make it that I really expected.

my method for judging centering has been 100% nothing under a 9.5 for centering thusfar

[benner73]

Thanks man. I'll try some of your techniques.