Service Standards
Learn about CGA grading standards and card fee structure.
Standard Card Grading Criteria Celebrity Photo Card Grading Criteria Fee Structure How to Submit
Celebrity Photo Card Grading Standards
As printing processes for photo cards from different manufacturers vary, and taking full account of these printing processes, celebrity photo cards are graded based on authenticity and condition using several different rating tiers: Flawless, Minor Flaws/No Facial Flaws, Flawed, Authentic, and Counterfeit.
Flawless
No scratches, indentations, or dimples visible to the naked eye on the card surface; perfect under machine scanning and magnification; corners perfectly preserved with no noticeable edge or corner damage, chipping, or creasing.
Minor Flaws/No Facial Flaws
No obvious scratches, indentations, or dimples visible to the naked eye on the front of the card; no flaws on the portrait's face; perfect under machine scanning and magnification. The back may have 1-2 printing dots, dimples, indentations, or short scratches. No noticeable corner damage or creasing.
Flawed
Obvious flaws crossing the face on the portrait, dimples, indentations, or scratches visible to the naked eye on the front of the card. The back has 3-4 minor printing dots or short scratches, or 1-2 long scratches, obvious indentations, dimples, creasing, etc. Corners have noticeable damage, chipping, or creasing.
Authentic/Counterfeit
Only determines the authenticity of the card.
Special Notes for Celebrity Photo Card Grading
1. Corner Issues: Due to cutting process issues, minor whitening or uneven cutting on the edges of the card back is common. Rough edges, burrs, etc., are not considered flaws. (Examples: small bumps and fuzz on card edges/corners, white spots on the edges of Xinghe and AM special event cards, etc.)
2. Surface Issues: Surface roughness/graininess caused by paper density during printing, bubbles from lamination, printing lines running through, ink spots on white card backs, small white spots on the back of US edition album cards, etc., are considered manufacturing issues and are not counted as surface flaws. (Example: surface bubbles on SNH48 photo cards)
3. Signed or Hand-drawn Signed Cards: If autograph authenticity cannot be confirmed, the label will not indicate "hand-signed." Only the authenticity of the card itself will be graded. For unpublished Polaroids or autographs believed to be genuine, purchase source records must be provided.
4. Unpublished Polaroids & Cards Involving Bound Content: Due to their special nature, serial number lookup is not available on the official website. Query must be done via QR code or NFC function. (Example: some TF Family cards)