Card Grading
Every card in your Ultimate Team Set is hand-graded for Near Mint, Near Mint/Mint, Mint or Gem Mint condition. That is an entire set of INVESTMENT QUALITY cards!
The following are the criteria used to grade each card's condition.
GEM MINT CONDITION
| Corners | All four corners completely intact without a single bit of separation, fuzzing, or rounding under intensive inspection. |
| Edges | All four edges fully intact without ply separation, nicks, or chattering under intensive inspection. |
| Surface Finish | Full gloss intact without gum stains on front or back. Perfect surface finish. |
| Surface Printing | Front surface printed in sharp focus without a single ink spot, dropout or line. Back surface printing clear and sharp with no ink bleed or ink dropouts. Any color that bleeds to the edge sharp and clear without ink chips. Uniform and proper color density across the entire surface of the card. |
| Centering | No worse than 55/45 on both axes on front and 60/40 on back. |
MINT CONDITION
| Corners | All four corners completely intact without a single bit of separation, fuzzing, or rounding under intensive inspection. |
| Edges | All four edges fully intact without ply separation or nicks. A very minor amount of chattering allowed provided that such imperfection is not immediately visible except upon close inspection. |
| Surface Finish | Full gloss intact without gum stains on front or back. Absolutely no creasing allowed though a discrete ply bubble is acceptable provided that it is virtually invisible except on close inspection. |
| Surface Printing | Front surface printed in sharp focus. A single ink spot, dropout or line is allowed provided that such printing error does not detract from the look of the card on inspection. Back surface printing clear and sharp with no ink bleed or ink dropouts. Any color that bleeds to the edge sharp and clear without ink chips. Minor variation of color density allowed provided that such variation is not noticeable on cursory inspection under strong light. |
| Centering | No worse than 60/40 on both axes on front and 70/30 on back. |
NEAR MINT/MINT CONDITION
| Corners | One corner allowed very slight fuzzing (or fraying) upon close inspection. No ply separation allowed. |
| Edges | All four edges fully intact without ply separation or nicks. A very minor amount of chattering allowed provided that such imperfection is not visible unless the card is removed from the sleeve and inspected closely. |
| Surface Finish | Full gloss intact without gum stains on front. Back is allowed a minor gum stain provided that it is not immediately apparent on initial cursory inspection. |
| Surface Printing | Front surface printed in moderate to sharp focus. A single ink spot, dropout or line is allowed provided that such printing error does not detract from the look of the card on close inspection. Back surface printing clear and sharp with no more than one insignificant ink dropout. Any color that bleeds to the edge sharp and clear without ink chips. Minor variation of color density allowed provided that such variation is not noticeable on cursory inspection under strong light while cared is sleeved. |
| Centering | No worse than 70/30 on both axes on front and 80/20 on back. |
NEAR MINT CONDITION
| Corners | One or more corners allowed very slight fuzzing (or fraying) upon cursory inspection. Very minor ply separation allowed provided corner is completely intact. One corner may have very slight compression crease without otherwise being deformed. |
| Edges | All four edges fully intact without noticable ply separation or nicks under close inspection. A very minor amount of chattering allowed provided that such imperfection is not visible unless the card is removed from the sleeve and inspected closely. Some minor off-whiteness on edges allowed provided it doesn't bleed to the face of the card. |
| Surface Finish | Most of the original gloss intact without gum stains on front, with gloss density is still uniform across the face of the card. Back is allowed a minor wax stain provided that it does not detract from the overall look of the card. |
| Surface Printing | Front surface printed in moderate focus. A minor print blemish is allowed provided that such printing error does not detract from the look of the card on cursory inspection. Back surface printing clear and sharp with no more than one insignificant ink dropout. Any color that bleeds to the edge sharp and clear without ink chips. Minor variation of color density allowed provided that such variation is not detracting on cursory inspection under moderate light while cared is sleeved. |
| Centering | No worse than 75/25 on both axes on front and 90/10 on back. |
AUTOMATIC
REJECTION CRITERIA
- Any wear at all on two or more corners.
- Any wear on one corner that amounts to more than a slight touch of wear and that does not result in color differential.
- Any crease, fold, spot (not caused by printing), gum marks, oil or grime.
- Any immediately noticeable variation in original gloss.
- Any printing ink spots that are larger than a hairline and more than 1/8 of an inch long, blobs, washout spots, or any card that has three or more ink spots regardless of immediate perceptibility.
- Any image rotation of greater than two degrees.
- If one axis is centered better than 60/40, we will allow the other axis to run 70/30 provided that the border color is light and results in the off-centering not being immediately perceptible without subsequent direct measurement. All dark-colored borders must be 65/45 or better on both axes. No cards will pass if both axes are 70/30 or worse.
- And of course, any writing, holes, tears, noticeable ink spots, gum stains, or color washouts
