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GEM MINT - PSA 10/ SGC 100. Pefect card. If you broke down two sealed boxes of vintage Topps Star Wars cards and found that every card was centered and focused and looked perfect, you may have one or two GEM MINT cards in the lot (f you are lucky). The commonest of vintage Star Wars cards would command a price of $60-$75 rated GEM MINT, and a rare card could easily command several hundred dollars. PSA says this about a GEM MINT card: "A PSA Gem Mint 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss. A PSA Gem Mint 10 card must be free of staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it doesn't impair the overall appeal of the card. The image must be centered on the card within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 to 60/40 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse."

M (Mint) - PSA 9/SGC 96 or better, no qualifiers. This can only be determined by a third party grading company. Mint cards are rare, even fresh out of packs. Common Topps Star Wars cards graded PSA 9 are generally valued at $15 each. [Example: PSA 9] PSA says this about a MINT card: "A PSA Mint 9 is a superb condition card that exhibits only one of the following minor flaws: a very slight wax stain on reverse, a minor printing imperfection or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 60/40 to 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse."

NM (Near Mint) - Very nice cards, possibly pack fresh... four good corners, no noticeable damage to card. You should only be able to find flaws under close scrutiny, if at all. These are the cards that would be sent to PSA/SGC to determine if they are Mint. Note that a NM set may have some EX cards in it, as long as the average condition is closer to NM than to EX. Generally, NM only applies to the condition of the card and not the centering and focus - it depends on the collector. You should always inquire if the cards are well centered and in-focus if you plan to send them to PSA/SGC. Common Topps Star Wars cards graded PSA 8 (NM) are generally valued at $5-8 each. [Example: PSA 8] PSA says this about a NEAR MINT card: "A PSA NM-MT 8 is a super high-end card that appears Mint 9 at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the card can exhibit the following: a very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection, and/or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse." and "A PSA NM 7 is a card with just a slight surface wear visible upon close inspection. There may be slight fraying on some corners. Picture focus may be slightly out-of-register. A minor printing blemish is acceptable. Slight wax staining is acceptable on the back of the card only. Most of the original gloss is retained. Centering must be approximately 70/30 to 75/25 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back."

EX (Excellent) - Nice cards, but with wear noticeable to the naked eye. I would not expect to see water damage, tears, multiple rounded corners, or gum stains. This classification would be a little looser for extremely rare cards, and tighter for common cards. You may see qualifiers such as "EX, with minor gum stain on the reverse" for example, to distinguish a this from a VG classification which is much broader and will cover a LOT more cards overall. An EX set would be hand picked, or pack fresh. [Example: Very nice card, minor damage along bottom of card and lower left corner, but otherwise a very nice card. I'd keep a card like this in a master set (especially if it was rare) but probably wouldn't go as far as submitting it to PSA.] PSA says this about an EXCELLENT card: "A PSA EX-MT 6 card may have visible surface wear or a printing defect which does not detract from its overall appeal. A very light scratch may be detected only upon close inspection. Corners may have slightly graduated fraying. Picture focus may be slightly out-of-register. Card may show some loss of original gloss, may have minor wax stain on reverse, may exhibit very slight notching on edges and may also show some off-whiteness on borders. Centering must be 80/20 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse." and "Excellent On PSA EX-5 cards, very minor rounding of the corners is becoming evident. Surface wear or printing defects are more visible. There may be minor chipping on edges. Loss of original gloss will be more apparent. Focus of picture may be slightly out-of-register. Several light scratches may be visible upon close inspection, but do not detract from the appeal of the card. Card may show some off-whiteness of borders. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back."

VG (Very Good) - Very very light water damage, curvature, very very minor tears, mildly rounded corners, minor corner bend/crease and/or light gum or wax stains, or severe centering issues probably plague cards in this category. This is the broadest category. VG cards all closer to "EX" would be a nice set; VG cards all closer to "good" might be disappointing. [Examples: The first card is pack fresh, and has four sharp corners, but it's severely off-center and has some ink issues (probably some ink from the back of the card on top of it, stuck to this card). This second card is a VG card, mainly because of the corner damage. It's minor corner damage, but it effects all four corners on the card.] PSA says this about a VERY GOOD card: "A PSA VG-EX 4 card's corners may be slightly rounded. Surface wear is noticeable but modest. The card may have light scuffing or light scratches. Some original gloss will be retained. Borders may be slightly off-white. A light crease may be visible. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back." and "A PSA VG 3 card reveals some rounding of the corners, though not extreme. Some surface wear will be apparent, along with possible light scuffing or light scratches. Focus may be somewhat off-register and edges may exhibit noticeable wear. Much, but not all, of the card's original gloss will be lost. Borders may be somewhat yellowed and/or discolored. A crease may be visible. Printing defects are possible. Slight stain may show on obverse and wax staining on reverse may be more prominent. Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back."

Good or Fair - These cards are intact, but have moderate to heavy gum stains, water damage, 4 rounded corners, partial bends or small tears, minor writing on the cards, or minor stains. Acceptable for rare of cards, or as placeholders until replacements can be obtained. I generally use "good" to describe cards that have a condition issue based on wear (round corners from handling), and "fair" condition to describe cards that were damaged another way (water damage or gum stains). If they have both types of condition issue, they usually drop to poor. [Example: The first card has a fairly heavy gum stain across the card face, making it fair condition even though it was pulled from the pack that way. The second card has significant wear from handling that severely affects all 4 corners.] PSA says this about a GOOD card: "A PSA Good 2 card's corners show accelerated rounding and surface wear is starting to become obvious. A good card may have scratching, scuffing, light staining, or chipping of enamel on obverse. There may be several creases. Original gloss may be completely absent. Card may show considerable discoloration. Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back."

Poor. I'd usually throw these away unless I was saving the card just to get information from it (I have some poor condition Star Wars Series One Mexican cards that I'm saving just to catalog the cards for my want list). These have severe water damage, heavy gum stains, major writing on the cards (checked off checklists included), severe tears/stains, heavy damage from handling, or worse. [Example: The first card has a gum stain so severe, that the gum still adheres to the card preventing it from being placed in a screw-down holder. In addition this card has discolored stains from the dye in the gum running onto the card, it's severely off-center, and there is a lot of the card surface removed from the wax wrapper being pulled off. Even though this card was pulled from the pack that way, it's poor condition. The second card was probably EX at some time in it's life, but has heavy damage from handling included 4 severely rounded corners and a full bend across the card. Unfortunately, even as rare as it is, it is not salvageable.] PSA says this about a POOR/FAIR card: "Poor to Fair A PSA PR-FR 1 card's corners will show extreme wear, possibly affecting framing of picture. Surface of card will show advanced stages of wear, including scuffing, scratching, pitting, chipping and staining. Picture will possibly be quite out-of-register and borders may have become brown and dirty. May have one or more heavy creases. A Poor card may be missing one or more small pieces, have major creasing and extreme discoloration or dirtiness throughout. Card may show noticeable warping. Centering must be 90/10 or better on the front and back."

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