[RattPoison2]

Do you use magnifying glass, a telescope-type device, 3.0 reading glasses, or simply just eye-ballin' it?

Sometimes I'd swear this card or that card is a 9.5 or 10 and it'd come back an 8.5 or 9. So frustrating, but does anyone know the type of equipment a BGS, PSA, etc. grader uses to examine?

[Speak917]

I have a 10x jewelers loupe with an LED light, card centering tool. the jewelers loupe is amazing, as a card that appears mint with the naked eye, shows edge chipping, ink blots and other imperfections that the naked eye does not pickup. I've submitted 3 cards thus far - 1st I knew was not mint, but was a Fields on card auto and had some minor edge chipping on the upper right hand corner, it came back an 8. Better than what I expected. The 2nd, I thought had a good chance of being a 10, but came back a 9 with no explanation as to why it was a 9. The 3rd, I thought either a 9 or 10 and it came back a 10.

I do not know what type of tools PSA/BGS use for grading, but I am fairly certain a loupe is utilized. I also believe that card grading will soon become automated with how technology is these days.

[RattPoison2]

Appreciate the feedback. I will see what I can find to help with submissions.
Agree it may become automated one day. I see Beckett still hiring graders.

O-H

[Speak917]

There is also this great thread here on the forum "Beginners Guide to Grading Cards" it has a lot of good information.

I-O!!!!!

[jplarson]

If you have card that's worth the time to absolutely check for every detail, having a jeweler's loupe is a must as Speak917 mentioned.

The card centering tool is something like this - https://www.amazon.com/Center-Tool-Card-...B08HR8P2G8 - or you can scan it in and count the pixels on each border (if it's a card that has borders or obvious marks to measure centering.

Sometimes the best thing to do is take pictures and/or scans of the card and ask the community for unbiased feedback.