What Is AGS Grading?

AGS (Automated Grading Systems), also marketed as RoboGrading, is a third-party card grader founded in 2021 that launched publicly at the Collector-A-Con convention in Frisco, Texas that June. Its pitch goes further than most of the newer computer-vision graders: cards are scanned with the company's own AG-1000 and AG-1500 laser scanners to measure centering, corners, edges, and surface — down to microscopic scratches and print lines — and the grade comes out of that scan with no human reviewer weighing in. AGS grades sports cards alongside trading card games like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Disney Lorcana.

• 3D laser scanning, not photography. Where most computer-vision graders capture high-resolution images and run them through an algorithm, AGS scans each card with laser hardware built for the job, which the company positions as catching physical flaws (fine surface scratches, print lines) that photo-based imaging can miss. See how grading actually works for what centering, corners, edges, and surface mean generally.
• Eight subgrades per card— four front-side and four back-side subgrades, printed on the label alongside the overall grade. A QR code on the label links to a digital report with the scan images and measurements behind the number.
• No human in the grading call.AGS markets itself as the first fully AI-driven grader — a step past HGA's sensor-plus-human “hybrid” approach and TAG's computer-vision imaging, both of which still involve some human review in the process.
• Pricing and turnaround— tiered by turnaround speed and insured value, from same-day service down to roughly 20 business days, with bulk/standard pricing starting in the low double digits per card.
• Track record— one of the newer companies in this comparison, so resale-price history and buyer recognition still trail PSA, BGS, SGC, and CSG by a wide margin.

1. Check sold comps for that exact card in an AGS holder first.A fully-automated grade removes human inconsistency as a variable, but resale liquidity still trails the established four — confirm real buyer demand before submitting anything you plan to flip.
2. Weigh the “no human bias” pitch against brand recognition.A laser-measured, fully-automated grade matters most to collectors who want a repeatable process over a human eye — but only if the buyer on the other end trusts the label as much as the scan.
3. Compare against the established four in PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs CSG before deciding — for most cards you plan to resell quickly, one of those four still has the deepest buyer pool.

Confirm the exact card with Identify & Research — free-path first (on-device OCR, catalog match, and fingerprints). For the established major graders see PSA vs BGS vs SGC vs CSG: Which Grading Company Should You Use?, for a sensor-plus-human hybrid entrant see What Is HGA Grading?, for a computer-vision grader that publishes a per-card DIG report see What Is TAG Grading?, for a computer-vision grader that publishes four region subgrades see What Is Edge Grading?, for a UK-based grader with the tightest published centering tolerances in the hobby see What Is ACE Grading?, for what a grade actually measures see How to Grade Sports Cards, and for the submission process and fee math see How to Submit Cards for Grading.