How Call the Grade works

How rounds are made

Most cards are raw scans from the owner's own collection, front and back, at full scanner resolution. Scored cards are photos of the graded card in its slab, cropped inside the slab so the label never shows.

• Most cards have never been graded. Those rounds aren't scored: there is no grade to score against. Once 100 players have called a card, its reveal shows how players called it.
• A scored card has been graded by a grading company, and the answer is the grade it returned. Its label is cropped out of the picture.
• Some study cards are at the grader now. A study card with no grade yet is pending: your call is saved and scores once its grade comes back.
• Points are measured against the typical grade: the middle grade of every scored card, a call anyone could make without looking. It scores 0, like Not sure. Each half grade your call lands closer to the real grade than the typical grade does earns a point, and each half grade further costs one, up to 3 either way. An exact call also earns a bonus.

Fair play and player figures

• Answers stay on the server until you answer.
• Only rounds with a known answer are scored. Nothing is scored for speed or for agreeing with other players.
• Player percentages appear only once an item has at least 100 counted answers. They describe players of this game, not the public. It is not a poll.
• Each network counts at most 3 answers per item, and hosting-provider networks never count. None of this changes your own score or streak.