Plain-English definitions for everything you'll see in the UI.
Grading companies
- PSA — Professional Sports Authenticator. Industry standard, premium pricing. Red label.
- BGS — Beckett Grading Services. Blue label is the gold standard at 9.5+.
- CGC — Certified Guaranty Company. Mid-tier, faster turnaround than PSA.
- TAG — Technical Authentication Grading. AI-graded with laser-etched clear slabs. QR code on the back links to a full digital report.
Grade levels (all companies use 1-10)
- 10 / Gem Mint / Pristine — flawless to the naked eye
- 9 / Mint — minor flaws under magnification
- 8 / NM-MT — very light edge wear
- Anything ≤ 7 — visible play wear; rarely worth grading
Slab terms
- Slab — a graded card in its tamper-evident case
- Raw — ungraded card (also "unslabbed")
- Cert — the unique number assigned to a graded card
- Pop — population, the count of cards graded at a specific grade
Market terms
- BIN — Buy It Now (fixed-price eBay listing, no bidding)
- EV — Expected Value, the statistical value of opening a sealed product
- P&L — Profit and Loss, your realised gain on a sale after fees
- Margin — % below market value on a deal (Sniper metric)
- Comp / Comparable — a recent sold listing used as a price reference
- MSRP — Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (sealed products)
- HR / SIR / IR — Hyper Rare / Special Illustration Rare / Illustration Rare
Set codes
- swsh — Sword & Shield era (2019-2022)
- sv — Scarlet & Violet era (2022-now)
- me — Mega Evolution era (2025-now)
- swshNpt5 / svNpt5 — half-set / special expansion