OUR PROCESS
ACG is Australia's most technologically advanced card grading company. Every Pokémon, One Piece, Magic: The Gathering, Dragon Ball Super and standard-sized TCG card we grade runs through a special process developed entirely by ACG.
Every card is captured in forensic macro at over 1500+ dpi before our personally developed AI reads the card from it, identifies the set and variant in any language, and measures centering at sub-pixel resolution.
From there it's human. Surface, corners and edges are assessed by a grader under high magnification and multiple lighting angles, then independently reviewed by a second grader. A final grade can never exceed the surface grade by more than one point.
Once a card is processed The imagery is published and a cert is minted.
ALPHATECH
ACG uses the most advanced grading technology in Australia built 100% in house.
Every model in our pipeline is custom trained to serve a unique purpose to both increase accuracy and streamline our process.
ACG currently utilizes:
- AI centering measuring at a sub-pixel level allowing us to grade down to 2 decimal points.
- Multilingual AI card identification
- 1500+DPI Forensic Imagery
We have several huge surprises in the pipeline including a world first experience for customers that will be offered exclusively in Australia.
It's an exciting time to grade your favourite TCG!
OUR GRADERS
Every ACG certificate names the grader who processed your card and assigned the grade.
Anonymous grading protects the grader.
Ours protects you.
Behind each name sits a live analytics system we track for grade distribution across every TCG (including subgrade distribution) to ensure consistency in every grader on our floor, so ACG standards hold over time rather than drift.
This data also allows us to see unique market insights we can share with our community.
OUR DATABASE
At the time of writing, ACG operates Australia's first and only public card grading photo database.
We don't believe a card should be graded without customer accessible imagery. A grade with no photographic record is a claim nobody can check, not the collector, not a future buyer, not us.
Every card graded by ACG is photographed front and back and archived permanently against its certificate number, viewable by anyone holding the slab.
That protects every party. It protects the collector against tampering, slab swapping and forgery. It protects the buyer, who can verify a graded card before money moves. And it keeps us transparent and accountable, because our work sits on the public record.
Every major grading company in the world maintains an image archive for exactly this reason.
Our capture resolution has moved from 450 dpi to over 1500 dpi with forensic macro imaging. At that magnification the archive holds surface texture, print lines and edge wear - its not a photo, its a fingerprint.
OUR LABEL
ACG was created for collectors
At Alpha Card Grading, we believe the slab should serve as a natural extension of the card, not distract from it.
That philosophy extends to the label itself.
With this in mind, we made the intentional decision to keep all branding away from the front of the label, allowing the card to remain the visual focus.
Subgrades and company branding are placed on the rear of the slab, ensuring a clean, uninterrupted presentation when displayed.
It’s not about us, it’s about the card.
Our label design is inspired by the simplicity of museum-style presentation: minimal, modern, and refined, designed to compliment the card as if it were a curated piece of art.
Every element is intentional.
The focus is always the same: the card comes first.
Grading Scale
Our grading system operates on a half-grade scale.
Cards are evaluated across four subgrades. When a card achieves a score of 10 across all four categories, it is awarded our Pristine Diamond Label. All other graded cards receive our Signature Black Label.
Surface condition is the most significant factor in a card’s overall presentation. For this reason, a card’s final grade cannot exceed its surface grade by more than 1 point.
Grading Scale
10+ - Pristine DIAMOND LABEL
Represents a flawless card in every way, free of any marks, wear or blemishes with perfect centering.
10 - Gem Mint
Awarded for an almost perfect card.
A black label 10 is perfect in every way but will have one incredibly minor defect such as whitening dot under slight magnification, raised or squared corner or slightly off centering.
But overall still a fantastic quality card.
9.5 - Mint+
Fantastic quality in all aspects, however may include one or two very minor blemishes.
Overall aesthetically pleasing in quality.
Other Grades
9 Mint
8.5 Near Mint - Mint+
8 Near Mint - Mint
ETC
Centering Standards
Centering is not subjective. It's a measurement.
A centering scale spans roughly 50 increments per axis, 50/50 through to the far edge, in one-percent steps.
On a real card, a single increment is around a tenth of a mm. That sits at the limit of what the human eye can physically resolve, and no grader can consistently work there. Even a digital tool measuring in whole percentage points can only ever land on the increment itself.
Our centering model measures at sub-pixel resolution and reports to two decimal places - one hundred times finer than the increment being graded. A grader verifies the measurement before the grade is approved, and the final figures are published on your card's database entry so you can see for yourself.
For example:
Front Grade
Left / Right - 45.25/54.75 = 9
Top / Bottom - 51.49/48.51 = 10
Back Grade
Left / Right - 43.01/56.99 = 10
Top / Bottom - 50.00/50.00 = 10
Final Centering Grade = 9