What is TAG Grading? The Pokemon Card Grading Guide | Péko Collectables
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If you've spent any time in the Pokemon card collecting space, you've heard of PSA and Beckett. They've been grading trading cards for decades, and their slabs are recognisable to almost anyone in the hobby.
TAG Grading is something different and for a specific type of collector, it's a better fit.
At Péko, every graded card we sell is certified by TAG. That's not a default choice. It's a deliberate one, and this post explains the reasoning behind it.
What is TAG Grading?
TAG (Trading And Grading) is a specialist trading card grading service operating in the UK and Europe. Where PSA and Beckett were built around sports cards and scaled into trading card games, TAG was built specifically for the modern TCG collector market, Pokemon included.
TAG grades cards across four criteria you'll recognise from any grading service: surfaces, edges, corners, and centering. Each axis is assessed independently, and the final grade is a numerical score from 1 to 10, with 10 representing gem mint condition.
What sets TAG apart is what happens after the card is graded.
The DIG Report: Verification You Can Actually Use
Every TAG-graded card comes with a DIG report; Digital Identification and Grading.
When TAG grades a card, they photograph it at multiple angles under controlled lighting and link those images permanently to the slab's cert number. The result is a publicly accessible record: anyone with the cert number can go to the TAG Grading website and pull up the full DIG report for that exact card, including the images taken at the time of grading.
A PSA or Beckett cert number confirms that a card with that grade was once submitted. The DIG report confirms that this specific card, the one in your hands, in this slab, with this label, is the one that was graded. You can cross-reference the images and verify the cert against the label. There's a direct chain of evidence from the grading event to the physical object.
For collectors buying online without handling the card first, this provides assurance and confidence in the purchase.
How to Read a TAG Cert Number
Every TAG slab has a cert number printed on the label, typically in the format TAG-XXXXXXXX. To verify a card:
- Note the cert number from the slab label
- Go to the TAG Grading website
- Enter the cert number in the verification tool
- The full DIG report will load the grade, grading date, and the photographs taken at grading
If the cert number doesn't return a result, or the photographs don't match the card you're holding, that's a red flag. Legitimate TAG-graded cards will always verify.
Every card in the Péko collection has its cert number listed on the product page. We encourage every buyer to verify before purchasing.
TAG Grades vs PSA Grades: Are They Comparable?
This is one of the most common questions we get.
TAG and PSA use the same 1-10 scale, but they are independent grading services with their own standards and graders. A TAG 10 is not equivalent to a PSA 10 in terms of market price or collector perception due to the PSA clout-driven pricing.
What TAG offers is:
- Faster turnaround — particularly relevant for UK and European collectors who face long wait times and import costs sending cards to PSA's US facilities
- The DIG report — no equivalent exists at PSA or Beckett in the same form
- A growing population — TAG's pop reports are still relatively small, which means low-population TAG 10s can be genuinely scarce on specific cards
For investors chasing PSA 10 pop report arbitrage, PSA remains the standard. For collectors who want a verified, authenticated slab with full photographic provenance — and who are buying from a UK-based source — TAG is a serious option.
Why Péko Chose TAG
We looked at the grading landscape when we set up Péko and asked a straightforward question: which service gives our buyers the most confidence that what they're receiving is genuine and correctly represented?
The DIG report was the deciding factor.
When someone buys a graded card from Péko, they're trusting us and they're trusting the grader. The DIG report means that trust doesn't have to be blind. The buyer has an independent verification mechanism that doesn't rely on taking our word for it. They can check the cert, see the images and confirm the grade.
That aligns with how we think about the gallery. Every piece in our collection is hand-picked and aligns with the story TAG tells.
What the Grade Numbers Mean
For reference, TAG grades follow the same conventions as the wider industry:
- TAG 10 (Gem Mint): Near-perfect across all four axes. No visible surface wear, full print clarity, strong centering.
- TAG 9 (Mint): Minimal, often only detectable under close inspection. A strong collectible grade.
- TAG 8 (Near Mint–Mint): Light wear on one or more axes. Still a strong display piece.
- TAG 7 and below: Visible wear or centering issues. Generally lower collectible value but can still be significant for vintage cards where higher grades are scarce.
The majority of cards in the Péko collection are TAG 9 and TAG 10. We don't carry lower grades as a rule. Our focus is on collector-quality pieces.
Browse Our TAG-Graded Collection
Every graded card in the Péko gallery has been assessed by TAG, assigned a cert number, and has a full DIG report available for verification. Product pages include the cert number directly — run it through the TAG website before you buy if you want to confirm what you're looking at.
If you have questions about a specific card, its cert, or the grading process, get in touch via the contact page. We're happy to walk through the DIG report with you.