Card Conditions & Grading

When you add a scanned card to your collection, or any time afterward from its detail view, tap the condition field and choose the tier that matches the card. You can update a card's condition later too — useful if you re-examine a card more closely or its condition changes over time, such as a sleeve tear.

No — Tappr's condition tags are a quick, practical way to track raw card condition for collection and pricing purposes, not a substitute for professional grading. Services like PSA, BGS, and CGC use detailed, numeric grading scales and physically encapsulate the card, which matters for high-value cards where a precise, third-party-verified grade meaningfully affects resale value.

The price Tappr surfaces from live market data is generally benchmarked to Near Mint condition, since that's the baseline most listings use. A card you've tagged as Lightly Played or below in your collection is worth meaningfully less than that headline number — how much less depends on the specific card, since condition sensitivity varies, with older, more fragile cards and high-demand chase cards often hit hardest by wear.

Check corners first for whitening, dents, or softened points, then edges for nicks, fraying, or peeling along the border. Examine the surface under angled light for scratches, scuffing, or print lines, and check centering by comparing the border width on all four sides — a card that's noticeably off-center is usually marked down even if everything else looks clean. Foils deserve an extra look for surface waviness or foil scratching, which is easy to miss under flat lighting.

Yes — the reflective foil layer makes surface wear like scratches and print lines more visible than on a non-foil card, but it also makes glare more of a factor when inspecting it, so it's easy to miss real damage or mistake a light reflection for a scratch. Tilting the card slowly under a single light source, rather than relying on ambient overhead light, gives the clearest view of the actual foil surface.