Granite State Grading
AI card grading, certification, and verification
A straight-on image records the card's design and overall condition. Measured guides and directional rake lighting add information that ordinary inspection can flatten or hide. Each card submitted for grading is imaged ten times so its front, back, and response to several lighting directions can be compared. These examples are real captures from GSG-certified cards.
Horizontal and vertical guides identify the same uninterrupted printed boundary on all four sides. Comparing the remaining space on opposite sides produces left/right and top/bottom border splits without relying on asymmetric labels or decorative extensions.
Chips, impressions, raised fibers, and rough cuts can blend into a printed border under overhead light. Rake views reveal the physical profile of the same edge.
Repeated cut-line recesses become distinct when light travels across the edge.
Fibers and shallow fraying separate from the printed border under directional light.
Small raised fibers cast a highlight that is understated in the straight-on view.
Directional light can expose a folded plane, lifted point, or inward crease even when the overhead silhouette appears complete.
The outline looks nearly intact overhead, while side rake traces the folded plane.
The point remains present, but moving the light exposes a short inward crease.
This Cam Skattebo back has a continuous vertical scratch. It is difficult to follow in the overhead capture, then becomes a bright line when the first rake crosses the surface. The opposite rake shows it only faintly because that light travels at a less revealing angle.
Not every light direction reveals every defect equally. Comparing aligned overhead and rake views helps distinguish physical relief from printed lines or image texture.