Disney Lorcana grading: how it differs from Pokémon

Disney Lorcana arrived fast and built a serious collector base just as quickly — and with it, plenty of cards worth grading. If you’ve graded Pokémon before, most of what you know carries over. But Lorcana has a few quirks of its own that are worth understanding before you submit. Here’s what’s the same, and what’s different.

The fundamentals don’t change

A card is a card. Lorcana is graded on the same four factors as any other trading card — centering, corners, edges and surface — on the same 1–10 scale. The cards are standard size, so they go through the same process and the same measurement. If you understand how card grading works, you understand Lorcana grading.

Centering is the one to watch

Like any card cut from a printed sheet, Lorcana can come off-centre — and as a relatively young product, centering is the factor collectors flag most. The framing and the foil treatment can make a small shift more noticeable. As always, check both faces: the back can be centred differently to the front, and both count toward the grade.

Foiling and the surface question

Lorcana’s foil and enchanted/special-art cards are some of the most sought-after in the set — and, like all foils, the trickiest to judge by eye. Shine hides scratches and the foil’s own pattern can be mistaken for damage. This is the same challenge we cover in why holographic and textured cards are the hardest to grade, and it’s exactly where measuring the surface under controlled light beats judging it under a desk lamp.

Edges and dark borders

Many Lorcana cards carry rich, dark or saturated borders, and edge whitening or the faintest chip shows up instantly against them. It’s the same principle as any dark-bordered card — clean, even edges matter most where the colour is deepest.

A newer market, the same protections

Because Lorcana is young, the market is still finding its feet, which makes two things especially valuable: authentication and a consistent grade. A measured grade gives a Lorcana card the same trustworthy baseline a Pokémon card gets — a sealed, tamper-evident slab and a verifiable certificate — so buyers and sellers can trade on condition they can rely on rather than a photo and a hope.

Submitting your Lorcana

You can mix Lorcana in with the rest of your submission — it’s the same process end to end. Give your foils a careful look for surface marks, check centering on both faces, and you’re ready. For packing, our guide to sending your cards applies in exactly the same way.

Got Lorcana worth protecting? Submit your cards and grade them on measurement, not opinion.