About
A first look before you pay for a grade.
Prelim gives vintage Pokémon collectors a company-specific grade estimate from phone photos, shows the evidence behind it, and says plainly when it is not sure.
Why it exists
Grading fees add up.
If you collect vintage cards, you know the question: is this one worth sending in? Finding out the usual way means paying to grade it, plus shipping, and waiting.
Prelim is the look before that. Photograph the card, see what the photos suggest for each grading company, and decide which cards deserve the fee — with the doubts on show, not hidden.
01Photograph
Front and back from your phone. Corner close-ups optional.
02Identify
Top three candidates and a one-tap confirm when unsure.
03Estimate per company
PSA, BGS and CGC, each compared with that company’s slabs.
04Value & worth grading
Raw value with source and date, and a conservative read.
Principles
Four rules it does not bend.
These decide what the report shows, and what it refuses to show.
Company-specific, never a bare number
PSA, BGS and CGC grade differently, so each gets its own estimate, built from slabs that company graded and always labelled “(est.)”.
Shows its evidence
Estimates are capped by the defects the system can see, and the report shows what it found. Prices carry their source and date.
Says when it is unsure
Thin evidence gets “Needs review” or “Not enough slab data yet”, not a guess. When models disagree or confidence is low, the lower estimate is shown.
Your card, your data
Photos are processed on the operator’s own server, results links last about 24 hours, and share links can be revoked. No ad trackers.
Estimate, not an official grade. Not affiliated with or endorsed by PSA, Beckett (BGS) or CGC.
Honest by design
What it will never do.
Over-calling a grade costs collectors real money. These rules are written down and checked on every change.
- Show a bare number that reads like an official grade
- Borrow one company’s grade to fill in another’s
- Publish accuracy figures that were not measured on a pre-registered held-out set
- Hide low confidence behind a confident-looking badge
- Claim any link to PSA, Beckett, CGC or The Pokémon Company
What it is not
Clear about its limits.
A pre-check from photos is useful. It is not a substitute for a grading company.
Not a grading company
It cannot give your card an official grade. Only a grading company can, in hand.
No slabs
Nothing is sent, encapsulated or labelled. Your card never leaves your desk.
No authentication
It does not check whether a card is genuine.
No affiliation
Not affiliated with PSA, Beckett, CGC, TAG, Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK or The Pokémon Company.
Honest status
Where things stand today.
Until results from the pre-registered held-out set are published, treat every result as an estimate and read the confidence figure and review flags that come with it.
- Stage
- Private beta
- Scope
- WotC-era English Pokémon cards, 1999–2003
- Accuracy
- Being measured on a held-out set, registered in advance
- Numbers
- Published only from that set. None are claimed until then
- Pricing
- Free during beta · paid plans coming soon
Contact
Built by a collector, for collectors.
Prelim is built and run by an independent collector-developer — the Prelim team, for now.