Blastoise · Base Set 2
Back · 7.5 — centering 10.0 · corners 4.0 · edges 9.5 · surface 8.5
Centering is graded on both faces, and the final grade weights the front more heavily.
Corners is the weakest sub-score, so it's the most likely thing to cost this card a grade. Sharpness under magnification. Softening from shuffling or a binder shows here first, and corners cost more grades than anything else.
An estimate from one photo — not a grade, and not affiliated with PSA. Lighting, angle and photo quality all move these numbers, and a grader sees the card in person.
Square, 1600×1600, with the grade and our mark along the bottom — sized so eBay's square crop doesn't cut your card.
The short version
Blastoise is playing for a mid grade.
The card is held back by one thing: corners at 7.0, against edges at 8.5. Fix nothing and it grades where corners allows — but it also means a sharper, straighter-on photo is worth taking, because a single weak reading is the one most likely to be the camera rather than the card.
On the money: $166 after fees against $151 raw. That is close enough that fees, postage and a single grade either way decide it — grade it if you want the slab, not for the margin.
Worth repeating: this is one photo read by a model, not a grade. Lighting and angle move these numbers, and a grader has the card in hand.
Grade one of yours free →What each score measures
Noticeably off-centre. This is the kind of margin that caps a card at 8 even when everything else is clean.
How evenly the border frames the art, front and back. PSA publishes a tolerance per grade — it is the one sub-score you can measure yourself before you send.
Clear corner wear. Corners cost more grades than any other factor, and this is the card's ceiling.
Sharpness under magnification. Softening from shuffling or a binder shows here first, and corners cost more grades than anything else.
Some edge whitening is visible. It shows most on dark borders and graders do not overlook it.
Whitening and nicks along the card's edge, most visible on dark borders.
Clear surface damage — scratches, print lines or dimpling. This is the hardest fault to talk a grader out of.
Print lines, scratches, dimples and gloss. Holo cards scratch easily and it rarely photographs well.
Is it worth grading?
Based on what copies of Blastoise actually sell for at each grade — and the photo shows light wear, which takes a 10 off the table.
Grading roughly breaks even here — it hinges on the grade landing well.
What grade it would likely get · prices are BGS
Prices are the median of real BGS sales for this card, with the number of sales behind each. The odds come from PSA population data for this era and are applied to every grader, so treat them as the chance of the CARD earning that grade — not as one company's strictness. Odds describe submitted copies of this era, not this specific photo.
Which grader pays best
| Grader | Fee | Expected, after fees |
|---|---|---|
| BGS · best | $41 | $166 |
| CGC | $36 | $145 |
| PSA | $71 | $136 |
Based on 213 graded sales and 1,901,341 pop-report entries. Grade odds describe submitted copies — the population a "should I grade this?" question belongs to. Fees are the current published rates and exclude postage and insurance both ways.
How many already exist
PSA has graded 11,528 copies of Blastoise.
A large or fast-growing gem population dilutes the premium a 10 carries, so this matters alongside the current price — not just how much a 10 is worth today.
What each grade actually sold for
Cert-verified: each of these was matched to its PSA certificate, not just a listing title — follow any cert number to check it against PSA's own record.
Buy one instead
Live listings. Sometimes a graded copy sells for less than grading your own would cost — we may earn a commission.