CGC subgrades explained, and why CGC dropped them
CGC stopped giving subgrades in 2023. What the four scores covered, what they cost, how older CGC and CSG labels showed them, and what a new holder removes.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 7 min read
CGC no longer offers subgrades. They ended when CGC Trading Cards and CSG combined as CGC Cards in July 2023. Subgrades were four extra scores, for centering, surface, corners and edges, that CGC Trading Cards printed on a label for a fee and, from 2022, on every Perfect 10. You will now find them only on older CGC Trading Cards and CSG slabs, and a new holder removes them.
Does CGC still give subgrades?
No. CGC announced the change on June 20, 2023, ahead of the merger that July, and gave two reasons:
- Demand. By June 2023, under 5% of the submissions sent to CGC Trading Cards asked for subgrades.
- One scale. CGC argued that the hobby needs a single standard grading scale built around a Gem Mint 10, and that the market had moved away from subgrades.
A current CGC Cards label shows one overall grade. Our guide to reading a CGC label decodes it.
What did each subgrade measure?
CGC Trading Cards graded a card by looking at four elements: centering, surface, corners and edges. In a January 2022 notice it said the condition of those four elements determines a card’s overall grade. Subgrades printed the four scores on the label, and a perfect set was four 10s.
CSG, the sports card service that later merged into CGC Cards, described in an October 2022 post how its graders examine the same four areas when they grade a card. Here is its account, set beside the wording of CGC’s current scale for each area:
| Area | How CSG’s graders examined it (October 2022) | Where the area shows in CGC’s scale now |
|---|---|---|
| Centering | Measured the margins top to bottom and left to right with a ruler, then read a grading chart; on borderless cards, judged from the design | Gem Mint 10: front not past about 55/45, back not past 75/25. Mint 9: 60/40 front and 90/10 back, for sports and non-sports cards |
| Surface | Tilted the card under clean white LED light so the bulb’s reflection crossed it, to find wrinkles, creases, dimples and alterations | Gem Mint 10: no print spots and perfect gloss. Mint 9: all original gloss, with a few specks or one minor defect allowed |
| Corners | Checked all four, front and back, with a loupe | Gem Mint 10: perfect to the naked eye, and at the Mint+ grade under 10-times magnification. Mint 9: four sharp corners with only minor wear |
| Edges | Checked with the loupe alongside the corners, with any major damage noted under the light | Mint 9: slight minor flaws may be visible |
CSG’s post adds that a card showing signs of alteration or counterfeiting goes on to a separate examination. Today CGC’s graders weigh centering, defects from making or handling, how well a card was kept, and wear such as scuffing, indentations, soiling and fading, and several graders reach a consensus on each card’s final grade. The four areas still count. They are just no longer scored on the label. Our checklist before grading walks through each one at home, and the centering checker turns your border measurements into a split for the first.
How did subgrades relate to the overall grade?
Do not assume the overall grade was an average of the four scores. The scores and the overall grade were separate figures:
- Perfect 10 needed both. CGC Trading Cards defined a Perfect 10 as a Pristine 10 with all four subgrades at 10, which treats the overall grade and the four scores as two separate conditions. Our guide to CGC’s Pristine and Perfect grades covers that grade’s history.
- The combinations were hard to read. CGC suggested that many collectors and dealers found it hard to reconcile so many pairings of overall grade and subgrades, and hard to value and keep track of them.
What did subgrades cost, and when did they end?
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| July 2020 | CGC Trading Cards launches its holder; subgrades are available on request and fit on the label |
| February 16, 2021 | Subgrades cost $7 a card and add five days to the Bulk, Economy and Standard turnaround |
| January 14, 2022 | Every CGC Trading Cards Perfect 10 gets its four 10s printed on the label, requested or not, with no refund for those who paid |
| March 25, 2022 | CSG stops subgrades on every grade except Perfect 10, which gets them free; fewer than 20% of its submitters had been asking for them |
| May 12, 2022 | CSG’s new Perfect 10 label prints the four 10s on the back of the label |
| July 5, 2022 | The CGC Trading Cards subgrade fee rises to $15 for submission forms completed from that day |
| June 20, 2023 | CGC announces that CGC Cards, launching in July, will not offer subgrades |
CGC published its own demand figures. About 15.8% of new submissions asked for subgrades in the two months before the July 2022 price rise, and about 11.7% in the two months after, a fall CGC put at 4.1% of the total and did not call meaningful. In June 2023 CGC announced that demand had fallen nearly every month for the previous 18 months, whether or not the price rose. In 2023, a submitter who had paid for subgrades could take them on the old label before the merger, or hold the order for CGC Cards and have the fee refunded.
What happens to subgrades if you reholder the card?
They disappear. A card with subgrades will not keep them after a reholder, and CGC encourages owners to think carefully before sending one in. CGC no longer issues the old CGC Trading Cards and CSG labels, so any new holder carries a CGC Cards label.
| Your slab | What a CGC Cards reholder does | CGC’s advice |
|---|---|---|
| CGC Trading Cards label with requested subgrades | Drops the four scores | Think carefully first |
| CGC Trading Cards Perfect 10 with its four 10s | Comes back as a Pristine 10, with no subgrades | Do not reholder a Perfect 10 |
| Older CSG label with subgrades | Drops the four scores | Think carefully first |
| CSG Perfect 10 with four 10s on the back | Comes back as a Pristine 10 | Do not reholder a Perfect 10 |
| Gem Mint 9.5 from either company | Not needed: CGC’s online tools already show it as a Gem Mint 10 | Keeping the 9.5 slab is fine |
CSG had already done the same on its own reholders from March 2022: subgrades on an old green label were removed unless the card was a Perfect 10. CGC’s ReHolder service costs $10 a card on a direct submission by a Collector member, with an estimated 20 working days, as of October 12, 2026. The grade does not change, and the card must still be in its original CGC or CSG holder.
How do you check a slab with subgrades?
- Look up the cert. Every card graded by CGC Trading Cards and CSG can be searched in CGC’s Verify tool, so check the cert number there before you buy.
- Compare like with like. When you look up what a card sold for, match the grader, the grade and the label type, with or without subgrades. Our guide to finding what a card sold for shows how.
- Decide on a new holder last. Use the table above, since a reholder cannot put the scores back.
Do other graders print subgrades?
SGC’s scale lists single grades only, and its example label shows one card grade beside an autograph grade, with no subgrades. See how to read an SGC label, and CGC vs SGC for fees and waits. The subgrades, centering and CGC glossary entries define the terms, and our guide to card condition grades covers the raw grades below a slab.
Frequently asked questions
Does any grader still give subgrades?
TAG does, on its TAG Score reports: 8 subgrades, for front and back centering, corners, surface and edges, beside a score on a 1,000-point scale. TAG's Regular grading report leaves the full set out.
How can you see why a CGC card got its grade without subgrades?
Look at its photos. CGC Cards images every graded card after it is sealed, and the pictures show in its Verify tool, which the QR code on the back of the label opens.
Does CGC use machines to grade cards?
In part. At CGC Cards, AI attributes a card and measures its centering, and forensic devices use UV and infrared light, ultra-microscopic inspection and ink and paper analysis to find alterations and fakes.
Why did CSG drop subgrades?
CSG said in March 2022 that ending them would let it shorten its turnaround times, which then ran from 3 to 45 business days, with fees from $12 a card.