Grading & condition
Card Cleaning Risk Checker
Some things you can safely remove from a card. Most you cannot. This tells you which side of the line an action falls on, because the wrong one returns your card in an Altered holder with no grade and a permanent public record.
The line graders actually draw
Removing something that was never part of the card — dust, a loose fibre — is fine. Changing the card itself, including removing something that has bonded to it, is alteration. The distinction is not about intent or about whether the card looks better afterwards; it is about whether the physical card has been modified.
What an Altered holder costs
A card graded Altered receives no numeric grade, and the certification is publicly searchable for the life of the card. It typically retains a fraction of its untouched value and cannot be regraded normally. That outcome is permanent, and it is the reason the answer to almost every cleaning question is no.
Questions people ask about this
Can you clean a trading card before grading?
Only by removing loose surface dust with a dry cloth. Anything involving liquid, solvents, erasers or pressure counts as alteration, and a card graded Altered receives no numeric grade and carries a permanent public certification saying so.
Does soaking a card count as alteration?
Graders treat it as alteration, despite a long tradition of the practice in the vintage hobby. Detection has improved considerably, and a soaked card that is identified comes back in an Altered holder. The historical acceptance of soaking does not protect you at the grading company.
What happens if a grader finds a card has been altered?
It returns in an Altered holder with no numeric grade, and the certification is publicly searchable permanently. The card retains a fraction of its untouched value and cannot be regraded through the normal process. The alteration does not have to have been done by you for this to happen.
Where these numbers come from
Rates on this page were last checked against the published price lists on . Grading companies change fees and pause tiers without notice — confirm the total on the submission form before you pay.