Restoration
Restoration is any work performed on a comic book to improve its appearance or structure beyond simple conservation. Common types include colour touch, tear seal, trimming, re-glossing, and piece replacement. Restored books receive a purple CGC label rather than the standard universal blue, and typically trade at 30 to 60 percent below the unrestored price […]
Refractor
A refractor is a parallel printing of a sports card with a chromium or holographic finish that produces a rainbow shimmer in light. Topps introduced the refractor on its 1993 Finest baseball set, and the format has spread across virtually every modern Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome, and Topps Finest release. Refractors come in a hierarchy […]
Page Quality
Page quality is a separate grade assigned by CGC and CBCS to graded comic books, indicating the colour and brittleness of the interior pages. The scale runs from White (best), through Off-White-to-White, Off-White, Cream, Light Tan, Tan, Brown, and Brittle. Page quality often affects market price independently of structural condition; a White-page 9.0 frequently outsells […]
MS-65
MS-65 is a Mint State coin grade on the Sheldon 1-to-70 scale, indicating an uncirculated coin with full original mint luster, no wear, and only minor contact marks visible to the naked eye.
Proof Strike
A proof strike is a coin produced using specially polished dies and planchets, typically struck twice or more to bring up the design with maximum sharpness. Proofs show mirror-finished fields and frosted devices (cameo contrast) and are produced as collector coins rather than for circulation. They are graded on a separate PR or PF prefix […]
Mint Mark
A mint mark is a small letter struck into a coin to identify the mint that produced it. US mint marks include P (Philadelphia), D (Denver), S (San Francisco), CC (Carson City, 1870–1893), and W (West Point, 1984–present). Mint mark placement varies by series and era and is one of the first details collectors check […]
Tachymeter
A tachymeter is the scale found on the bezel or outer dial of many chronograph watches that converts elapsed seconds into a speed reading over a fixed distance, traditionally one mile or one kilometre. Used since the 1930s on racing and pilot chronographs, it remains a defining design element of watches such as the Rolex […]
Lume
Lume is the luminescent material applied to watch hands and indices so the watch can be read in low light. Early lume used radium (highly radioactive, used into the 1960s), then tritium (mildly radioactive, 1960s–1998), and is now Super-LumiNova or LumiNova — photoluminescent and chemically stable. Original lume that has aged into a creamy or […]
Redial
A redial is a watch dial that has been refinished or reprinted to remove age, lume damage, or moisture marks. Even high-quality redials typically reduce a vintage watch’s value by 30 to 60 percent because original dial patina is one of the primary value drivers in the collector market. See also: Provenance LetterPSA Population Pop […]
Centring
Centring describes the position of the printed image area relative to the four edges of a finished card. It is reported as a left/right and top/bottom percentage, and it is the variable that most often separates a 9 from a 10 in third-party grading. PSA tolerances are tighter on the front than on the back; […]