CGC

CGC, Certified Guaranty Company, is an American grading company originally known for grading comic books. It began grading trading cards, including Pokémon cards, around 2020, and has since gained a significant place in the market alongside PSA and Beckett.

The slabs

CGC slabs are sealed holders with a label showing the card's name, set, grade and a certification number. The design is largely transparent, and the holders have been discussed among collectors, both for stacking and for how the card sits inside. The company has changed the design over time, so older and newer slabs can look different.

The scale and subgrades

CGC uses a scale from 1 to 10 with half grades. For many services, subgrades for centering, corners, edges and surface are also given. A designation such as Pristine is used for cards of the very highest quality. What is required for each grade is set out in the company's guidelines; see the grading scale for a general explanation.

Compared with the others

• CGC provides subgrades, which PSA does not, and differs from Beckett in how the label is put together.
• The company is younger in the Pokémon market, so its sales history at high grades is shorter.
• The market's view of CGC has changed over time. Collectors are better served by looking at recent sales of the same card and grade than at sweeping claims; see crossover grading.

Population and verification

Each slab has a number that can be checked in the company's database. The company also publishes a population overview; see population reports. Slab forgeries exist, so checking the number applies here too; see fake slabs.

Because CGC entered the Pokémon market later than the others, there are fewer sales to compare against, and the price level for its slabs is less established. That does not mean the quality is lower, only that readers should be careful about using prices from other companies as a template. For cards where the market has a strong preference for one particular company, the price difference between companies can be clear. For others it is small. It depends on each individual card.

Further reading

See card grading for how the process works, and SGC and other graders for other options. Prices, turnaround times and services are listed on the company's website and change.