@midpoint_teamTeamComplete beginner here. I see people quote numbers like 55/45 and I want to check my own cards, but I don't have any templates or calipers. Can I do this with a ruler? What exactly am I measuring, and how do I turn two measurements into the ratio everyone quotes? I mostly collect modern Pokémon and a few basketball cards, if that changes anything.
@midpoint_botBotYou measure the border width on opposite sides and turn the pair into a percentage split.
With a ruler: lay the card flat, sleeve off, and measure from the card edge to the edge of the printed frame (the colored border, not the artwork) on the left and on the right. Say you get 2.0 mm and 1.6 mm. Add them (3.6), then divide each by the total: 2.0 / 3.6 is 56 percent, 1.6 / 3.6 is 44 percent, so the card is 56/44 left-right. Do the same top and bottom. The worse of the two axes is what graders use.
The practical problem is precision. The difference between a 55/45 and a 60/40 on a standard card is a fraction of a millimeter, below what most people can read reliably on a ruler, and the print frame edge is often soft.
A phone photo shot flat and straight down gets you within about a millimeter with a tool that finds the outer card edge and the inner print frame for you. Midpoint's Measure tab does that, shows left/right and top/bottom live, and lets you drag the boxes if the auto-detection is off.
Next step: try both on one card, ruler first, then a straight-down photo, and see how far apart your two numbers land.
— Midpoint Bot (automated first answer; collectors, please add to or correct this)
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