How to spot an altered card, and how graders treat it

An altered card is a genuine card that someone changed after it left the factory, usually to make it look better or rarer: edges trimmed, color added, a bend pressed out or the surface cleaned. To spot one, compare its size and edges with a copy you know is untouched, look closely at the corners and edges where wear gets hidden, and let a grader’s label settle the rest. CGC marks a genuine altered card Authentic Altered instead of giving it a number, though it also says altered cards aren’t slabbed at all, and SGC won’t grade one. CGC’s graders use forensic tools to find alterations, among them UV and infrared light and ink and paper analysis, so their verdict counts for more than any check at home.

What counts as an alteration?

CGC calls a card altered when it has been changed from its original form, whether to mislead a buyer or to improve how its condition looks. Its word for an alteration made to hide a flaw is doctoring. SGC defines altering as changing a card’s appearance to improve its look, condition or content. Each company lists examples, and the lists differ.

SGC presents its list as examples only, so pressing’s absence from it is not a pass. CGC also refuses two groups outright. One is cards altered to pass as a rarer version, such as white borders turned black or a changed set symbol. The other is rebacked cards and clipped Beta cards, whose corners were made rounder to imitate an Alpha card.

How does CGC label an altered card?

CGC has three designations that stand in for a number:

• Authentic Altered (AA) is printed in the grade box when a card is genuine but altered. CGC’s examples are recoloring and trimming. Its population report counts AA cards in their own column, as our guide to reading a pop report shows.
• Authentic (AU) is for genuine cards that were not altered but can’t receive a number, such as a card missing part of its stock, a hand-cut card below its published measurements, or a card below the minimum size.
• Authentic ART is for cards that carry custom art on the surface. It applies when the card comes from a person who holds an artist account with CGC, or arrives in a Signature Series submission that qualifies.

So AU and AA mean different things, and only AA says the card was altered. Our guide to reading a CGC label decodes the rest of the label.

Is CGC’s policy consistent?

Not fully. A card CGC’s graders find altered in any form, artist alterations included, or cleaned or restored, gets no numeric grade and is not encapsulated. It goes back marked Evidence of Tampering/Alteration, with pressing, trimming, chemical cleaning, stain removal, power erasing and restoration among the examples, or Evidence of Color Added, and the grading fee is charged either way. Yet graders keep the right to decide between a numeric grade, Authentic and Authentic Altered, and CGC also says it will grade artist’s alterations made by a card’s own artist and artful alterations made by anyone.

What a reader can rely on is that an AA label exists, and that an altered card sent to CGC may come back unslabbed with the fee charged. A card below measurement tolerance, or with unnatural waviness along its edges, also gets no numeric grade from CGC.

How does SGC handle an altered card?

SGC’s terms and conditions, last updated October 30, 2025, are stricter:

• SGC will not grade cards that, in its judgment, bear evidence of altering.
• The submitter pays the standard fee anyway, because rejecting the card takes a review by SGC’s staff.
• SGC can apply the rule after a card has been slabbed and returned, and it can switch off the certification of a card or holder it has already graded if it comes to believe the card was altered.
• Submitters agree not to send cards they know or have reason to believe were altered.
• Submitters also acknowledge that detecting altered cards is very difficult.

The power to switch off a cert is why a lookup matters even on an SGC slab you already own. Our guide to spotting a fake slab covers SGC’s lookup.

What can you check yourself?

CGC’s graders use technology for card measurement and for spotting alterations, including UV and infrared light, ultra-microscopic inspection and non-destructive ink and paper analysis. A buyer has none of that, so home checks can raise doubts but can’t clear a card. Start with these:

1. The edges, under a loupe. Graders use a 10-times triplet loupe to detect alterations. Look along all four edges for unnatural waviness and for an edge cut differently from the other three.
2. The size. Set the card beside an untouched copy from the same set and compare. Our guides to card sizes for each card game and Pokémon card sizes give the makers’ standard sizes.
3. Centering that looks too good. Trimming is done to improve an edge or the centering. Be wary of a card that sits almost perfectly centered and measures small. Our centering checker turns border widths into a split.
4. The color of corners and edges. Recoloring hides wear on the surface, corners or edges. Compare those areas with the rest of the border and with your untouched copy.
5. The layers. A rebacked card is two cards joined together, so check the edges for a seam between layers.
6. The features of the version claimed. Borders, set symbols and corner shapes should match the printing the seller names. Our guides to fake Pokémon cards and fake Yu-Gi-Oh! cards cover printing details.

Pressing and cleaning are the hardest to judge by eye. For a card whose price depends on its condition, a numeric grade from CGC or SGC is the check.

How do marketplaces treat altered cards?

On TCGplayer, alterations such as stamps, signatures, paint and marker make a card Damaged. A seller can still list one as a Listing with Photos at the condition it would have without the alteration, and TCGplayer names alters among the items sold that way. Those are alterations listed openly, with photos. A manufacturer’s certified autograph card is not one of them: CGC grades cards with those autographs and offers JSA authentication for other signatures. Our guide to checking an autograph card covers the difference.

The trouble is a hidden alteration on a card listed as untouched. On TCGplayer, a single that doesn’t match its listed condition is one of three cases in which a seller handles a problem with a card, and you have until 30 calendar days after the estimated delivery date to contact the seller.

What should you do before and after you buy?

• Ask for photos of the back and all four edges before you buy a raw card. Our guide to buying raw cards online lists the photos and deadlines on each marketplace.
• Look up the cert of any slab on the grader’s own site, and read the grade box for AU or AA.
• Price an AA card against AA sales, never against numerically graded copies. Our guide on finding what a card sold for shows how to match sales.
• Don’t send a doubtful card to a grader hoping it passes. Both CGC and SGC charge the fee when they turn a card away as altered.
• Never try to fix a flaw yourself. Pressing out a bend or touching up a corner is itself an alteration on CGC’s list. Our guide to card condition problems explains how each flaw is graded as it is.

The glossary defines a counterfeit card, a slab and a cert number, and our pre-grading checklist covers what to look at before a card goes in.

Frequently asked questions

Does TAG grade altered cards?

No. At TAG, a card showing evidence of alteration comes back as a Processing Failure, which means it is neither graded nor slabbed.

Can a hand-cut card get a numeric grade at CGC?

Yes, if it meets the cataloged and published measurements for its set. Whether it gets a number or not, CGC prints Hand Cut as an attribute on the label, so the slab tells a buyer how the card was separated.

What refund applies when a card arrives in worse condition than listed?

At TCGplayer, the suggested partial refund is around 10% per condition step, so a Near Mint card that arrives Moderately Played comes to about 20%. The seller has 2 business days to respond before you can take it to customer service.

Can you return an alter bought as a Listing with Photos?

Not if it matches. At TCGplayer, a seller does not have to accept a return on a Listing with Photos when the card received matches its photos, title and description, so study those images before buying.