What Is TAG Grading?

TAG began grading cards in 2022, built around a pitch similar to HGA's but taken further: instead of a human grader estimating centering, corners, edges, and surface under a loupe, TAG scans every submission with Photometric Stereoscopic Imaging — a computer-vision capture system the company markets as “machine-learning,” not human grading. Each card is scored on a precise 1–1,000 point scale, which converts to the industry-standard 1–10 scale (with half points) that collectors are used to from PSA, BGS, SGC, and CSG.

• Scale— a 1–1,000 internal score maps to the familiar 1 (Poor) to 10 (Gem Mint) scale with half points, so a card can land on a 9.5 the same way it would at PSA or SGC. See how grading actually works for what centering, corners, edges, and surface mean generally.
• The DIG report— every TAG-graded card gets a Digital Image & Grading report breaking the score into five attributes (Corners, Edges, Centering, Surface, and Dimensions) with front and back sub-scores for each, plus “DINGS” — TAG's term for the specific defects that drove the grade down. No other major grader publishes that level of per-card measurement detail.
• Dimensions as its own attribute— TAG measures and reports card dimensions directly, which functions as a built-in trim check most graders don't publish as a standalone score.
• Encapsulation without a grade— TAG also sells “TAG Verified Authentic,” a slab-and-seal service for collectors who want a card protected without paying for a full grade.
• Track record— the newest computer-vision entrant 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 a TAG holder first.The DIG report's measurement detail is a genuine differentiator for collectors who want to verify a grade themselves, but resale liquidity is still thin compared to the established four — confirm real buyer demand before submitting anything you plan to flip.
2. Weigh the transparency pitch against brand recognition. A published DIG report with front/back sub-scores and dimension data matters most to buyers who want to verify a grade themselves rather than trust a label on reputation alone.
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 another sensor-driven newer entrant see What Is HGA Grading?, for a computer-vision grader that publishes per-region subgrades instead of a 1,000-point score 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 a fully AI-driven grader built around 3D laser scanning see What Is AGS Grading?, for the CSG-to-CGC brand history see What Is CGC Card 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.