Huge fan of your underrated TCG toolkit videos! I've been thinking of going back into the Pokemon TCG scene for nostalgia, like many others, with little awareness of how cards, especially vintage ones, are meticulously graded. These types of vids are quite informative and edited very well. I'll definitely share your content where I can and spread the word. Looking forward to the Grade Master tool review as I'm intrigued by it. Keep it up with this amazing content!
Hey John, thanks for your very gracious words dude! I really appreciate you taking the time to check out a video! Glad you're able to get something from them💜
I am a doctor of medical arts and a handsy physical physicist, and i too approve of the way you explain proportions. Indeed i am an aficionado and connoisseur in the ways of measuring things and stuff, with several degrees to prove it! Any chance i get, i will bring up my degrees into comments or conversations to punctuate just how much my opinion matters. After all, i have a degree that says so. You are all welcome.
Thanks for the video! Very helpful. I am a mechanical engineer by degree. only thing I want to clarify is that the measuring instrument you demonstrated in the video is called a measuring "Caliper" or set of "Calipers" - pronounced "Cal-i-per". Thanks again man! very thorough video.
Hey Sally welcome! You're very kind, I still can't stand the sound of my own voice and I have to edit these videos🤣🤣! Thanks for checking out a video, hope we get to interact on future videos too!
Amazing video! Very informative. I just got a Beckett graded card that was given a 10 on centering. The front looked perfect, however I could instantly tell the the back was slightly off-center. This makes much more sense seeing that a beckett allows 60/40 on the back.
That's definitely an idea for another video! Thank you for the suggestion. I will try to get some consensus from some authoritative sources and see what content could be made out of it!
Really helpful! Was never really sure how to implement the centering proportions. Makes sense now so will for sure try it on my upcoming first submission :)
Thanks friend! I think the best thing to do in a case like that one is to see what others in the space might have to say regarding centering. In the Pokémon hobby we are lucky that cards have such a clearly defined border, but for sports cards, it might be specific to the set, print run, and brand on the card to finally determine how/what you measure.
The Analytic Gengar yes I’m realizing that. With the sports cards even some of the borders aren’t rectangles like Prizm so it makes it difficult when I’m trying to write an algorithm for it. There’s also Mosaic basketball from 2019. No borders or symmetry at all. Do all Pokémon cards have a border? Even items and (I forget the other one)? What about the higher HP guys? I saw some knew ones with crazy high HP now, not EX but something else. I dabbled a bit during the Virizion Genisect dominant days haha. Nice to meet you man!
Hey just want to start off by saying awesome video. Love how you broke everything down. I just purchased a caliper tool to help determine center but was wondering when using it how do I determine the measurements taken make the card 60:40.
Hey friend, so thats explained a little later in the video, but you add up the two measurements, and divide each side's measurement by the total sum. This will give you two numbers that add to 1.00 (100%) - those numbers will be where you see if the card is 60/40 or better or worse!
this is really useful information, I have the grade master but i want something even more accurate because i'm still guessing when i'm doing decimals 5.5mm vs 5, i'm going to buy a caliper right now.
Yes at the level you want, I would definitely recommend buying a caliper! It'll give you the most exact measurements, and then you can always use something a little simpler like the grade Master for other less important measurements on trading cards
So, good video I appreciate the info. I Just have a question. I have a card that has perfect centering on the front but the back side the center is rotated at an angle counterclockwise. I was wondering how badly this might affect a cards Grading.
Hey, thanks for the comment, glad that you found some value in the video! So the rotation at an angle will likely still be considered an off-center from the grading perspective. Even so, there is a good chance that the card may carry a cool premium on it because of the fact that it is such a weird error card!
Hey gengar after watching your video and getting the caliper from your link I starting taking some measurements and was wondering if you could possibly check my work to see if it all checks out just having some second guesses on if I understand it or not
Hey yes, I'm more than happy to assist! My email is in every video description, feel free to reach out with photos of the card and we can figure something out!
thanks for the info! Have you come across pokemon cards that are crooked within the borders? for example the top half of the card from L to R measures 40/60 and the bottom half of the card L to R measures 60/40. The end result is just a crooked poorly cut card:( I have a couple of these and i'm hesitant to send them for grading. have you ever graded a card like this or do you have any knowledge how this card might be graded? I cant seem to find any information about this and it seems like a pretty common issue with pokemon cards :(
Yes! The more recent the sets the more frequently I've seen these types of miscuts, which is what they would be considered (as opposed to off-centered)! I think it has to do with the speed of production, so since they have to print a lot of cards super quickly, the quality assurance on them is lesser, and there's more likelihood that some cards get cut crooked along the way!
Awesome video man very helpful! I do have one question tho if you'd be able to help me out. I was going over my cards and I realized I have a card that has completely crooked centering.. goes from skinny to wide on every side of the card and looks crooked. Would that result in an O/C grade or would it just get docked to a very low grade because of that?
Hey friend, glad the information was useful to you. In a scenario like that it can really depend on the grader. There are reports that off center grades are a lot more difficult to get. Based on the definition from psa's website, you need a card that meets the standard of a PSA 10, but is off-centered, and so it will get the 9 OC grade. But by that exact same definition, depending on how off-centered the card is, it could also get the lower grade as you mentioned. Your best bet would be submitting the card, and then making sure that the order allows for qualifiers which would give you a shot at the OC grade.
Hello! I am still a little confused about skew... So if the front of the card has L/R 40:60 and the T/B is 50/50, the skew margin is 20? If it is L/R 40:60 and T/B 52/48, the total skew becomes 24? And for PSA 10, the total skew allowed is 20 right?
Hi Victor, in your first scenario, yes the margin is 20. And in your second scenario, the total skew would be the largest shift in the card from one side to another. So because left to right is 40 to 60, it is still only 20. The top-to-bottom centering would be four, but since 20 is the larger number, the number you need to focus on is 24 determining whether or not the card will be eligible as a PSA 10 under their centering standards. Also bear in mind that I give a very specific definition in this video, so the most important thing is identifying which side is worse, and then determining if it falls within the standards for a PSA or BGS grade that you would like to achieve on the card.
@@TheAnalyticGengar Thank you for your response! If I understood you correctly, for the second scenario, I should still be looking at the largest difference (in 40:60). Thus the skew is still 20 instead of 24 right?
So just out of curiosity, would the proportions always have to equal out to be 100 after doing the equation? or could you wind up with an total of like 96? I ordered one of the calipers from your link and have started to get back into collecting and maybe selling some cards and would like to know, especially since PSA isn't taking cards for grading right now.
Mathematically speaking it should always equal a hundred, but that's just out of percentages. So as an example 50% on one side and 50% of the other side equals 100% of the border of the card, which mathematically is appropriate. Technically you couldn't have 96% of a border because that would mean to say someone cut off another 4% or it was just missing. Let me know if that makes sense.
Does top/bottom centering have to match left/right centering? I have a vmax full art pokemon card that is perfectly matching left/right. bottom is smaller than left/right and you can't see top corner cause its a full art vmax
For PSA, either side needs to be within 60/40, so you can realistically have a card with that on one or both sides on the front and you'll be fine. In your case as long as the off-centered side is within specification you'll be fine!
Great question! So don't forget that PSA's guidelines for a 10 allows for 40-60 centering, meaning that a card that gets a 10 does not actually have to be perfectly centered. It can actually be off-centered, and to a noticable extent, and still get the 10. Beckett is far tougher on centering, a 10 for them requires 50-50 both ways.
Do Japanese Pokémon cards have better centering and quality control then American? I’m asking because this has been my experience but I don’t know for sure
100%, Japan's manufacturing process has been known to be of far greater quality, across many years. The Sword & Shield era has been no exception to the rule!
Hey Zuman, in my experience there's no direct correlation, it really just depends on how well centered the front and back cardstock are when they are pasted together, as well as when they are cut. Sometimes you will see cards that have the exact type of off centering, which means the cardstock was lined up properly but the cutter was not. The other type of miscut typically results in a really well centered side of a card and a really off-centered side of the card, which is typically indicative of the fact that the cardstock was not perfectly centered when it was pasted together. You can see examples of both types of card, but it really is just a matter of how good quality control is during the production of the cards.
@@TheAnalyticGengar thanks for the quick reply! I've been using an online pixel counter to try and guage centering when looking on eBay and have had some success with that.. would recommend :)
Hey, yes it can. You can have something that's perfectly centered on one access, but off on another access. Or you can have the situation play out where it's off center on both the top to bottom and left to right. There are many different possibilities, mainly driven by how the card stock is cut at the factory.
The Analytic Gengar it seems the option to message you isn’t popping up in the about channel, that’s the only way I know how to message on UA-cam sorry haha 😅. I am interested in the link though!
All part of my master plan, I say the word wrong knowing people will comment the correct pronunciation, thus boosting the video in the algorithms... yep, that's exactly what I did... 100% all planned out from the start!
@@TheAnalyticGengar haha just bustin’ your pokeballs brother. This video actually really helped me out. So much so that I went out and bought the Grademaster Template. You the man! 🙏
Hey Tommy no worries! Good news is tons of folks have left really positive feedback regarding this video and how helpful it is, so with any luck the same if true for you as well! And feel free to reach out if there are any other questions!
I really dislike that centering matters. If you get a card that is in perfect condition your grade is automatically lowered at no fault of your own, but the fault of the card company. Centering should not affect a grade
Yeah I sometimes wish they were not as tough on centering, but I suppose the idea of subgrades was meant to address what you point out - you can still get 10's in one area even if others are not up to spec.
Nintendo suck ... i bought to many pack ...finally i found erika invitation full art 203 .... and centering sucks most bad centering from all cards is on this best card ... nintendo is joke
Huge fan of your underrated TCG toolkit videos! I've been thinking of going back into the Pokemon TCG scene for nostalgia, like many others, with little awareness of how cards, especially vintage ones, are meticulously graded. These types of vids are quite informative and edited very well. I'll definitely share your content where I can and spread the word. Looking forward to the Grade Master tool review as I'm intrigued by it. Keep it up with this amazing content!
Hey John, thanks for your very gracious words dude! I really appreciate you taking the time to check out a video! Glad you're able to get something from them💜
I bought one of the card graders and the measurement method is much more accurate when I used my ruler. Totally getting the calipers. Thank you!
I’m an industrial engineer and you did a very well job explaining proportions ! Good info
Industry approved 👍! Ha ha thanks for checking out the video friend!
Irrelevant
@@Johnnymarzo this comment is irrelevant
I am a doctor of medical arts and a handsy physical physicist, and i too approve of the way you explain proportions. Indeed i am an aficionado and connoisseur in the ways of measuring things and stuff, with several degrees to prove it! Any chance i get, i will bring up my degrees into comments or conversations to punctuate just how much my opinion matters. After all, i have a degree that says so. You are all welcome.
Thanks for the video! Very helpful. I am a mechanical engineer by degree. only thing I want to clarify is that the measuring instrument you demonstrated in the video is called a measuring "Caliper" or set of "Calipers" - pronounced "Cal-i-per". Thanks again man! very thorough video.
I've been waiting for someone to make a vod like this! 😍
Awesome friend, thanks for the comment! Make sure to share if you think it can help others too😁
I just subscribed. 1st, GENGAR RULES, 2nd You are an excellent teacher, and 3rd Your voice is calming. Looking forward to seeing your other videos.
Hey Sally welcome! You're very kind, I still can't stand the sound of my own voice and I have to edit these videos🤣🤣! Thanks for checking out a video, hope we get to interact on future videos too!
Cool video!
I would love to see a video which shows of center or miss cut cards which makes this cards more valuable!
Hey great idea! I think that you should keep an eye out, it will be coming soon! Thanks for the video idea!!!
Amazing video! Very informative. I just got a Beckett graded card that was given a 10 on centering. The front looked perfect, however I could instantly tell the the back was slightly off-center. This makes much more sense seeing that a beckett allows 60/40 on the back.
Gald you got some value from the content! And yes, always remember that there are different standards for both the front and the back!
This is a extremely well put together video. Nice stuff mate
Thanks friend, glad the content provided some value for you!
In the age of full art cards I would love some corner/surface analysis at this amazing level.
That's definitely an idea for another video! Thank you for the suggestion. I will try to get some consensus from some authoritative sources and see what content could be made out of it!
Thanks for explaining the OC tag on the psa cards :).
No problem, gald you we're able to learn something from it!
Really helpful! Was never really sure how to implement the centering proportions. Makes sense now so will for sure try it on my upcoming first submission :)
Thanks for the feedback friend! I hope you get some gem mint cards!
Why would anyone dislike this video, super helpful!
Thanks for the support friend!
Any suggestions for cards that don’t have borders like sports cards? Excellent excellent video. I learned so much!
Thanks friend! I think the best thing to do in a case like that one is to see what others in the space might have to say regarding centering. In the Pokémon hobby we are lucky that cards have such a clearly defined border, but for sports cards, it might be specific to the set, print run, and brand on the card to finally determine how/what you measure.
The Analytic Gengar yes I’m realizing that. With the sports cards even some of the borders aren’t rectangles like Prizm so it makes it difficult when I’m trying to write an algorithm for it. There’s also Mosaic basketball from 2019. No borders or symmetry at all. Do all Pokémon cards have a border? Even items and (I forget the other one)? What about the higher HP guys? I saw some knew ones with crazy high HP now, not EX but something else. I dabbled a bit during the Virizion Genisect dominant days haha. Nice to meet you man!
Hey just want to start off by saying awesome video. Love how you broke everything down. I just purchased a caliper tool to help determine center but was wondering when using it how do I determine the measurements taken make the card 60:40.
Hey friend, so thats explained a little later in the video, but you add up the two measurements, and divide each side's measurement by the total sum. This will give you two numbers that add to 1.00 (100%) - those numbers will be where you see if the card is 60/40 or better or worse!
this is really useful information, I have the grade master but i want something even more accurate because i'm still guessing when i'm doing decimals 5.5mm vs 5, i'm going to buy a caliper right now.
Yes at the level you want, I would definitely recommend buying a caliper! It'll give you the most exact measurements, and then you can always use something a little simpler like the grade Master for other less important measurements on trading cards
Cool video. I always enjoy these type of videos!
Thanks Gabe😀 gald they help!
Great video thanks!!
Glad you liked it!
So, good video I appreciate the info. I Just have a question. I have a card that has perfect centering on the front but the back side the center is rotated at an angle counterclockwise. I was wondering how badly this might affect a cards Grading.
Hey, thanks for the comment, glad that you found some value in the video! So the rotation at an angle will likely still be considered an off-center from the grading perspective. Even so, there is a good chance that the card may carry a cool premium on it because of the fact that it is such a weird error card!
Hey gengar after watching your video and getting the caliper from your link I starting taking some measurements and was wondering if you could possibly check my work to see if it all checks out just having some second guesses on if I understand it or not
Hey yes, I'm more than happy to assist! My email is in every video description, feel free to reach out with photos of the card and we can figure something out!
A highly instructive video! Great channel. Subbed.
Glad you were able to get some value from the content! Welcome to the Gengar Gang!
thanks for the info! Have you come across pokemon cards that are crooked within the borders? for example the top half of the card from L to R measures 40/60 and the bottom half of the card L to R measures 60/40. The end result is just a crooked poorly cut card:( I have a couple of these and i'm hesitant to send them for grading. have you ever graded a card like this or do you have any knowledge how this card might be graded? I cant seem to find any information about this and it seems like a pretty common issue with pokemon cards :(
Yes! The more recent the sets the more frequently I've seen these types of miscuts, which is what they would be considered (as opposed to off-centered)! I think it has to do with the speed of production, so since they have to print a lot of cards super quickly, the quality assurance on them is lesser, and there's more likelihood that some cards get cut crooked along the way!
Awesome video man very helpful! I do have one question tho if you'd be able to help me out. I was going over my cards and I realized I have a card that has completely crooked centering.. goes from skinny to wide on every side of the card and looks crooked. Would that result in an O/C grade or would it just get docked to a very low grade because of that?
Hey friend, glad the information was useful to you. In a scenario like that it can really depend on the grader. There are reports that off center grades are a lot more difficult to get. Based on the definition from psa's website, you need a card that meets the standard of a PSA 10, but is off-centered, and so it will get the 9 OC grade. But by that exact same definition, depending on how off-centered the card is, it could also get the lower grade as you mentioned. Your best bet would be submitting the card, and then making sure that the order allows for qualifiers which would give you a shot at the OC grade.
@@TheAnalyticGengar thanks for the response man I appreciate it!
Hello! I am still a little confused about skew...
So if the front of the card has L/R 40:60 and the T/B is 50/50, the skew margin is 20?
If it is L/R 40:60 and T/B 52/48, the total skew becomes 24?
And for PSA 10, the total skew allowed is 20 right?
Hi Victor, in your first scenario, yes the margin is 20. And in your second scenario, the total skew would be the largest shift in the card from one side to another. So because left to right is 40 to 60, it is still only 20. The top-to-bottom centering would be four, but since 20 is the larger number, the number you need to focus on is 24 determining whether or not the card will be eligible as a PSA 10 under their centering standards. Also bear in mind that I give a very specific definition in this video, so the most important thing is identifying which side is worse, and then determining if it falls within the standards for a PSA or BGS grade that you would like to achieve on the card.
@@TheAnalyticGengar Thank you for your response!
If I understood you correctly, for the second scenario, I should still be looking at the largest difference (in 40:60). Thus the skew is still 20 instead of 24 right?
based off this video alone, how do you not have a million subs!?
Thats really kind of you to say friend, I appreciate you leaving the comment, as well as checking out this video !!😁😁
Very nice
Thanks friend!
Thanks
No problem
So just out of curiosity, would the proportions always have to equal out to be 100 after doing the equation? or could you wind up with an total of like 96? I ordered one of the calipers from your link and have started to get back into collecting and maybe selling some cards and would like to know, especially since PSA isn't taking cards for grading right now.
Mathematically speaking it should always equal a hundred, but that's just out of percentages. So as an example 50% on one side and 50% of the other side equals 100% of the border of the card, which mathematically is appropriate. Technically you couldn't have 96% of a border because that would mean to say someone cut off another 4% or it was just missing. Let me know if that makes sense.
Thank you for this information! you're on point!!
Thanks for watching!
@@TheAnalyticGengar you're very welcome 👊🏾🤜🏾
Does top/bottom centering have to match left/right centering? I have a vmax full art pokemon card that is perfectly matching left/right. bottom is smaller than left/right and you can't see top corner cause its a full art vmax
For PSA, either side needs to be within 60/40, so you can realistically have a card with that on one or both sides on the front and you'll be fine. In your case as long as the off-centered side is within specification you'll be fine!
sorry if I missed this but does it matter whether it is LR 60/40 or RL 60/40?
Can you have a printable version or email the BGS vs. PSA centering picture you have?
Hey! Yeah, for sure,, can you drop me an email or DM? I'll send it over to ya!
So how that works in some of the PSA10 cards where you can clearly see that the card is of centre especially on GX’s cards with that black boarder?
Great question! So don't forget that PSA's guidelines for a 10 allows for 40-60 centering, meaning that a card that gets a 10 does not actually have to be perfectly centered. It can actually be off-centered, and to a noticable extent, and still get the 10. Beckett is far tougher on centering, a 10 for them requires 50-50 both ways.
@@TheAnalyticGengar brilliant, thanks.🙏
Do Japanese Pokémon cards have better centering and quality control then American? I’m asking because this has been my experience but I don’t know for sure
100%, Japan's manufacturing process has been known to be of far greater quality, across many years. The Sword & Shield era has been no exception to the rule!
Are the centerings of the front and back of pokemon cards directly correlated?
Hey Zuman, in my experience there's no direct correlation, it really just depends on how well centered the front and back cardstock are when they are pasted together, as well as when they are cut. Sometimes you will see cards that have the exact type of off centering, which means the cardstock was lined up properly but the cutter was not. The other type of miscut typically results in a really well centered side of a card and a really off-centered side of the card, which is typically indicative of the fact that the cardstock was not perfectly centered when it was pasted together. You can see examples of both types of card, but it really is just a matter of how good quality control is during the production of the cards.
@@TheAnalyticGengar thanks for the quick reply! I've been using an online pixel counter to try and guage centering when looking on eBay and have had some success with that.. would recommend :)
Can it be centered top to bottom the same as left to right
Hey, yes it can. You can have something that's perfectly centered on one access, but off on another access. Or you can have the situation play out where it's off center on both the top to bottom and left to right. There are many different possibilities, mainly driven by how the card stock is cut at the factory.
Where did you buy the grade master?
eBay, but message me and I can get you the link as well!
The Analytic Gengar it seems the option to message you isn’t popping up in the about channel, that’s the only way I know how to message on UA-cam sorry haha 😅. I am interested in the link though!
Feel free to reach out on IG as well, i can definitely get you a quicker answer that way as well!
interesting :D
caliper*** my guy
All part of my master plan, I say the word wrong knowing people will comment the correct pronunciation, thus boosting the video in the algorithms... yep, that's exactly what I did... 100% all planned out from the start!
@@TheAnalyticGengar haha just bustin’ your pokeballs brother. This video actually really helped me out. So much so that I went out and bought the Grademaster Template. You the man! 🙏
@@sincereee___ ayy, great to hear you got some value from the content bro! Thanks for the views and engagement!
Caliper...
Ahahahha pronunciation was never my strong suit😅
Why do I feel like Ima watch this whole video and still learn nothing (sorry I’m a slow learner)
Hey Tommy no worries! Good news is tons of folks have left really positive feedback regarding this video and how helpful it is, so with any luck the same if true for you as well! And feel free to reach out if there are any other questions!
I really dislike that centering matters. If you get a card that is in perfect condition your grade is automatically lowered at no fault of your own, but the fault of the card company. Centering should not affect a grade
Yeah I sometimes wish they were not as tough on centering, but I suppose the idea of subgrades was meant to address what you point out - you can still get 10's in one area even if others are not up to spec.
Nintendo suck ... i bought to many pack ...finally i found erika invitation full art 203 .... and centering sucks most bad centering from all cards is on this best card ... nintendo is joke