Is 60/40 Centering a PSA 10? What PSA Says vs What Actually Grades

No. Under PSA's currently published standard, 60/40 centering is not a PSA 10. PSA's grading standards page says a Gem Mint 10 must be centered "within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse." The 60/40 figure is the published line for a PSA 9: "Centering must be approximately 60/40 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse."

If you have seen "60/40 for a PSA 10" in forum posts or older guides, that is not a hallucination. PSA's published Gem Mint front tolerance used to read 60/40, and secondary sources report the page was tightened to 55/45 in early 2025. The official page shows 55/45 today, and that is the number to plan around.

The honest second half of the answer: collectors report that cards measuring between 55/45 and 60/40 still occasionally come back as 10s when every other attribute is flawless, especially when only one axis is off. PSA's own page leaves room for that with the word "approximately" and an eye-appeal variance clause. So 60/40 is not a 10 by the standard, but 57/43 is not an automatic 9 either. Below is how to think about the gap.

What PSA's published centering standard says

Here is the current front and back wording for the grades that matter in this conversation, quoted from PSA's grading standards page.

Two details on that page matter more than the table itself.

First, the word approximately appears on every line from PSA 7 up. PSA is telling you these are guideline numbers, not machine cutoffs.

Second, there is a footnote: "At the grader's sole discretion, a small variance may be permitted on occasion based on the card's overall eye appeal." The same page has an "Importance of Eye Appeal and Subjectivity" section that says most cards "fall clearly within the centering guidelines for a particular grade," but some "fall either just within or just outside the printed centering standards," and graders "reserve the right, based on the strength or weakness of the eye appeal, to make a judgment call." PSA's example runs both ways: a low-contrast card can be forgiven a borderline measurement, while a high-contrast card that "technically measures for a particular grade – let's say 70/30, may be prevented from reaching that unqualified grade because the market would view that card as off-center."

That clause is the entire reason "is 60/40 a PSA 10" has two answers. The standard says 55/45. The grader is allowed to look at the card.

Why so many guides still say 60/40 for a PSA 10

For years PSA's Gem Mint line read 60/40 on the front, and an enormous amount of content was written against that number. Secondary sources such as the Business of Card Grading guide state that PSA tightened the published Gem Mint front standard from 60/40 to 55/45 in early 2025. Collectors on the PSA forums discussed the change as a quiet update, with some reporting that PSA staff said they had effectively been grading to 55/45 for a while before the page changed.

We cannot verify the exact date the page changed, so the safe way to say it is: PSA's published standard is now 55/45; older guides still quote 60/40. If a guide tells you 60/40 is the PSA 10 line, check its date.

Practically, nothing changed for the 9 and below. PSA 9 is still 60/40, PSA 8 is still 65/35, PSA 7 is still 70/30. The only line that moved is the one everyone cares about, which is why it caused "brutal returns" complaints in collector threads from 2025 onward.

What 55/45 versus 60/40 looks like in millimeters

Ratios are abstract until you convert them to border widths. Centering is calculated by measuring opposite borders, summing them, and dividing each by the total. A card is 2.5 x 3.5 inches (63.5 x 88.9 mm), but what matters is the combined width of the two borders on an axis.

Border widths above are rough, typical values; your card will differ.

Look at the sports row. The difference between a PSA 10 line (2.2 / 1.8) and a PSA 9 line (2.4 / 1.6) is 0.2 mm per side. That is thinner than a human hair is wide in many cases, and it is smaller than the error you get from a slightly tilted phone photo. This is why collectors measuring the same scan report anything from 53/47 to 57/43, and why PSA says "approximately."

Now look at the Pokémon row. On a thick yellow border, 60/40 is 3.6 mm against 2.4 mm, a difference of 1.2 mm that is plainly visible from arm's length. The same 60/40 on a thin Japanese border is 1.8 mm against 1.2 mm, which most people will not notice without a ruler. Same ratio, very different eye appeal, which is exactly the subjectivity PSA describes. For more conversions see what 55/45, 60/40 and 65/35 actually mean in millimeters.

What actually grades: collector reports versus the standard

Everything in this section is anecdote from collector forums and groups, not PSA policy. Treat it as weather, not law.

• "On paper no, in practice sometimes yes." That was the consensus in a late-2025 thread asking whether PSA still allows 60/40. Collectors report that a card measuring in the 56/44 to 59/41 range with perfect corners, edges and surface is "hit and miss" for a 10, and that "PSA is more concerned with eye appeal than measurements."
• Single-axis cards get more grace. Several collectors claim a 60/40 reading can only sneak into a 10 when it is on one axis and the other axis is near 50/50. There is no official statement of this, but it lines up with PSA's eye-appeal clause: a card that is 50/50 left-right and 58/42 top-bottom looks much better than one that is 58/42 both ways.
• Inconsistency cuts both ways. One collector pixel-measured a card at 54/46 and received a 9; another measured 59.5/40.5 and received an 8. A third scanned, counted pixels, requested a review and had the grade bumped to 10. Bulk submissions are widely reported to receive less leeway than higher service levels, though PSA does not say so.
• Photos deceive. In a "can someone count the pixels for me" thread, three people measured the same photo at 53/47, 55/45 and 57/43. An angled photo compresses one border and stretches the opposite one. Scan flat or shoot straight down before you trust any number, and measure the card out of the sleeve.

None of this means you should submit a 60/40 card hoping for a 10. It means a 56/44 card is not a lost cause, and a 57/43 card with a 50/50 second axis is the kind of submission where discretion genuinely matters.

The 5% leeway clause, and why it probably is not your loophole

PSA's qualifier section contains a sentence collectors cite constantly: "A 5% leeway is given to the front centering minimum standards for cards which grade PSA 7 or better." The official example continues: "a card that meets all of the other requirements for PSA 9 and measures 60/40 off-center on the front automatically meets the PSA front centering standards for PSA 9. If a card meets all of the other requirements for PSA 9 and measures 65/35 off-center on the front, it may be deemed to meet the PSA front centering standards for PSA 9 if the eye appeal of the card is good."

Read literally, "PSA 7 or better" includes 10, and 5% past 55/45 is 60/40. But notice PSA only demonstrates the leeway with a PSA 9 example, and the sentence lives in the section describing how the Off-Center qualifier is applied. PSA does not publish an example of the leeway at the 10 line. Our reading: the clause explains how PSA decides between a numeric grade and an OC qualifier for cards that are otherwise clean, and it is consistent with the anecdotes above, but you should not treat it as a published promise that 60/40 is a 10. Nobody gets to argue the text with a grader.

One axis or both: how PSA combines left/right and top/bottom

PSA's official description of measuring is short: "PSA determines centering by comparing the measurements of the borders from left to right and top to bottom. The centering is designated as the percent of difference at the most off-center part of the card."

The operative phrase is most off-center part. A card is not averaged across its two axes; the worse axis is the card's centering. That has a direct consequence for the 60/40 question:

• 50/50 left-right, 60/40 top-bottom → the card is 60/40 → PSA 9 line.
• 58/42 left-right, 58/42 top-bottom → the card is 58/42 → outside the published 10 line, but both axes are closer to 55/45 than the first example's worst axis.

Collectors who report borderline 10s usually describe the first pattern, not the second, and eye appeal explains why: one clean axis pulls the card back toward looking centered. We cover the combining rule in depth in both axes off vs one axis off.

Also remember the back. A PSA 10 needs 75/25 or better on the reverse; a PSA 9 allows 90/10. A front that is a perfect 52/48 can still come back a 9 because the back is 80/20. Check both sides before you decide a card is "a 10 except for centering."

What to do with a 57/43 card

Say your card measures 57/43 left-to-right and 52/48 top-to-bottom on the front, 70/30 on the back, with perfect corners, edges and surface. Here is how it maps to published front tolerances for the top grade at each company.

So the decision tree is simple:

1. Re-measure properly. Out of the sleeve, flat, straight-down photo or flatbed scan, two measurement points per side to catch tilt. If a careful re-measure moves you to 55/45 or 56/44, you are in PSA's "approximately" zone.
2. Check the back. If the back is worse than 75/25, the front conversation is moot for a PSA 10.
3. Decide what label you want. If the goal is a PSA 10, a 57/43 single-axis card with a perfect second axis is a reasonable gamble at a service level you are comfortable paying for, knowing a 9 is the base case. If the goal is any company's top centering mark, ACE is the only published standard that clearly admits 57/43.
4. Compare the 9/10 price gap to the fee. A 9 that sells for roughly the same as raw does not justify the fee; a 9 that still carries a meaningful premium does. Our PSA 9 vs PSA 10 centering article walks through that math.

How to measure this yourself

You do not need a caliper to know whether you are at 55/45 or 60/40, but you do need a flat, square image. Put the card on a dark background, shoot straight down (or scan it), then upload the image to the free card centering calculator, which detects the borders, lets you drag guide lines to the exact edges, and maps the result to PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC and TAG tolerances. Measure the back the same way. If the app reads 57/43 and you want a second opinion, measure the borders at two points on each side with a ruler and run the formula: larger border ÷ (larger + smaller). For example, 2.3 mm ÷ (2.3 + 1.7) = 0.575, so 57/43 or 58/42 depending on rounding. The full published ladder for every grade is in our PSA centering standards guide and the grading standards guide.

Bottom line

• PSA's published Gem Mint 10 standard is approximately 55/45 front, 75/25 back. 60/40 is the PSA 9 line. Guides that say 60/40 is a 10 are quoting older wording.
• The word "approximately" and PSA's eye-appeal variance clause are official; discretionary 10s for 56/44–58/42 cards are collector anecdote, not something you can count on.
• The worse axis governs. A 50/50 by 60/40 card is a 60/40 card, though single-axis cards are where collectors report most of the borderline 10s.
• On a roughly 2 mm sports border, the 10/9 line is about 0.2 mm per side, smaller than the error from an angled photo. Scan flat and measure twice.
• If you need a top centering mark at 57/43, ACE (better than 60/40) is the only published standard that clearly allows it; every other major grader's top line sits at 55/45 or tighter.

Frequently asked questions

Does PSA still allow 60/40 centering for a PSA 10?+

Not on paper. PSA's published Gem Mint 10 standard says the image must be centered within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the reverse. 60/40 is the published line for PSA 9. Older guides that quote 60/40 for a 10 reflect earlier wording. Collectors report that borderline cards occasionally still receive a 10, but that is grader discretion, not the standard.

Is 58/42 centering good enough for a PSA 10?+

Measured against the published standard, 58/42 is outside the approximately 55/45 tolerance for a PSA 10 and inside the 60/40 tolerance for a PSA 9, so the realistic expectation is a 9 if everything else is perfect. PSA does say the word approximately and keeps an eye-appeal variance clause, so a 58/42 card with flawless corners, edges and surface is a borderline submission rather than a guaranteed 9.

What does 60/40 centering look like in millimeters?+

It depends on the total border width. On a sports card with roughly 4 mm of combined left-plus-right border, 60/40 means about 2.4 mm on one side and 1.6 mm on the other. On an English Pokemon card with roughly 6 mm combined yellow border, 60/40 is about 3.6 mm versus 2.4 mm. The same ratio looks worse on a thick, high-contrast border than on a thin one, which is part of why PSA mentions eye appeal.

If only one axis is 60/40 and the other is 50/50, can the card be a PSA 10?+

PSA states that centering is designated as the percent of difference at the most off-center part of the card, so the worse axis governs. A card that is 50/50 left-to-right but 60/40 top-to-bottom is treated as 60/40 centering, which is the PSA 9 line under the published standard. Collectors report that single-axis cases are where discretionary 10s most often appear, but you should plan around a 9.

Which grading company gives a 10 for 57/43 centering?+

Among published standards, only ACE Grading's Gem Mint 10 centering line, which is better than 60/40, clearly admits 57/43. PSA (approximately 55/45), CGC Gem Mint 10 (approximately 55/45), SGC 10 Gem (55/45), TAG Gem Mint 10 (approximately 55/45) and BGS 9.5 (55/45 both ways) all sit at or inside 55/45 on the front. Always check the grader's current page before submitting.

Sources & further reading

• PSA Grading Standards (official)
• PSA Customer Update, June 2021 (qualifier policy)
• PSA Glossary: Qualified
• Business of Card Grading: The Complete Guide to PSA Grading (secondary source on the 55/45 change)
• ACE Grading Scale (official)