CGC Trading Cards Help Center

Sub-grades are grades that provide further detail into the card's overall grade. There are four sub-grades: Centering, Surface, Corners and Edges.

CGC Trading Cards has developed a proprietary algorithm to determine a card’s final grade based on its sub-grades. While we can’t reveal how we arrive at a final grade and sub-grades for a specific card, we can share some guidelines. First, it is important to note that the final grade is not simply an average of the sub-grades. Rather, it is based on numerous rules that are built into CGC Trading Cards’ proprietary systems and grading process. For example, the final grade can be no more than 1 point higher than the lowest sub-grade. In addition, if the two lowest sub-grades are the same, then that is the final grade for the card. For more information on CGC Trading Cards’ grades, including detailed explanations for each grade and sub-grade, see the CGC Trading Cards Grading Scale.