How we grade.

Popinspect runs a 47-point inspection across 8 categories to predict whether your Funko Pop is worth submitting to PSA, CGC, or Beckett. We are not a grading authority — the official grade still comes from them. We just make sure you only ship the ones worth shipping.

Pre-grade, not grade.

Submitting a Funko Pop to PSA, CGC, or Beckett costs about $25 and takes 3-8 weeks. If you send one that comes back a 7, you're out the fee and the wait — and now you've added "graded 7" to its history, which can actually hurt resale value.

Popinspect is the call you make before you ship. We take 5 photos, run them through a vision model calibrated against 12,000 actual graded submissions, and tell you the most likely grade range + an honest "send · maybe · hold · skip" call. The official grade still comes from PSA/CGC/Beckett. We just save you from sending the ones that won't earn the fee back.

8 categories. Real-world weights.

Each category rolls up into a 0-10 score. The 8 scores are weighted and combined into the confidence score you see on every report.

01 / 08

Box

12 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

The cardboard. We score every corner, every edge, and every face for crushing, dings, edge wear, color fade, dust shadows, and factory plastic damage.

WHY IT MATTERS

The single biggest grade driver for Pops. A perfect figure in a 7 box still grades 7. PSA, CGC, and Beckett all weight corners + edges heavily — between them, ~50% of a final grade lives here.

SPECIFICALLY

• Corner crush (any of 8 corners)
• Edge wear / whitening
• Dents from shipping or shelf falls
• Sun fade on top + window-side face
• Factory plastic tears or punctures

02 / 08

Window

5 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

The clear plastic display window. Scratches, scuffs, clouding, cracks, and how flush the plastic sits against the cardboard.

WHY IT MATTERS

A dinged window looks worse than the box wear behind it. Graders score this as part of Surface; collectors notice it instantly on the shelf.

SPECIFICALLY

• Hairline scratches catching light
• Clouding / hazing on aged Pops
• Window pushed in or pulled away from box
• Cracks (auto-cap at 8.5)

03 / 08

Stickers

6 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

Convention exclusives, vaulted markers, retailer stickers, chase indicators. Integrity, flatness, alignment, color, and authenticity vs. known variants.

WHY IT MATTERS

A bent or peeling con sticker can drop a grade an entire point. A fake sticker can fail authentication entirely.

SPECIFICALLY

• Sticker corners lifting
• Color fade (esp. on shared-edition pinks/blues)
• Off-center placement (factory error vs. tampered)
• Convention/chase pattern matches known authentic

04 / 08

Figure paint

10 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

Everything painted on the figure: face, eyes, hair edges, body, accessories. Looking for slop, smudges, asymmetric features, gloss inconsistency, and chips.

WHY IT MATTERS

Visible through the window — the first thing a grader and a collector both see. Paint slop on the face is the most common reason for a 9 to drop to 8.

SPECIFICALLY

• Eye paint off-center (most common defect)
• Slop on ears, hair edges, accessory borders
• Color drift between production runs
• Gloss uneven (one side matte, one side shiny)

05 / 08

Figure body

6 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

The molded plastic itself. Mold seam visibility, head-to-neck fit, base stability, surface scratches, and glue marks.

WHY IT MATTERS

Often where "factory defects" hide. A bobble-head sitting crooked or a visible seam line will drop a grade even when the box is perfect.

SPECIFICALLY

• Wide mold seams
• Loose or tilted head
• Crack at neck joint
• Visible glue residue
• Surface scratches from packaging friction

06 / 08

Centering

4 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

How well the figure sits inside its window — top/bottom, left/right, and box-to-figure alignment.

WHY IT MATTERS

This is the ONE category every official grader publishes as its own subgrade. Beckett is famously the strictest on centering — a Pop that'd grade 9.5 at PSA can come back 9 from Beckett purely on centering.

SPECIFICALLY

• Figure leaning forward or back inside the window
• More gap on one side than the other (60/40 or worse = auto-deduct)
• Visible factory inserts shifted

07 / 08

Vaulting & rarity

2 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

Whether the factory plastic shrink-wrap is intact, whether anything's been opened/re-sealed, and whether the variant is what you say it is.

WHY IT MATTERS

Doesn't move the grade itself, but CGC flags Authenticity separately and a fake "vaulted" claim can fail the entire submission. This is a yes/no risk check.

SPECIFICALLY

• Factory shrink-wrap intact (no tears, no slit)
• Variant matches known production
• No reseal artifacts (residue, double crease)

08 / 08

Overall presentation

2 PTS

WHAT WE LOOK AT

The "vibes" check. How the Pop reads at arm's length under display lighting. Color saturation, freshness, composition.

WHY IT MATTERS

Smallest category — usually mirrors the rest. We keep it separate because borderline submissions (9 vs 9.5) often come down to "does this feel like a 10 across the table from the grader."

SPECIFICALLY

• Looks "fresh off the shelf" vs. "second-hand"
• Off-tone yellowing on white box parts
• Aging cues (brittle stickers, hazy plastic)

Real graders use 4 subgrades.
We use 8 — here's why.

PSA, CGC, and Beckett all publish four subgrades for graded items: Centering, Corners, Edges, Surface. CGC adds Authenticity as a separate flag.

Those rubrics were designed for trading cards — one flat object, four edges, two surfaces. A Funko Pop is six things in one slab (box, window, figure, stickers, plastic, centering), and the failure modes are completely different. Splitting into 8 lets us tell you exactly what'll torpedo your submission so you can re-shoot or pull it back.

What the numbers mean.

Per-category score (0-10)

• 9-10 — submission-ready in this category.
• 7-8 — minor wear. Most still pass at 9+; this rarely tanks a submission on its own.
• 5-6 — something's off. Worth a re-shoot under better light before deciding.
• Under 5 — meaningful defect or aging. Likely caps the overall grade in the 7-8 range.

Confidence score (0-100)

A weighted roll-up of the 8 categories — Centering and Surface count most, Presentation barely moves the needle (mimics how the real grading houses weight things internally).

SEND · MAYBE · HOLD · SKIP

Strict thresholds — we'd rather miss a 9.5 than mis-call a 7 as a 9.

94% match rate against 12,000 real grades.

We re-audit the model quarterly against fresh PSA/CGC/Beckett submissions. Current production version is v1.3-2026-05 — stored on every report row so we can trace which model produced any past call.

±0.5 grade match rate against PSA's published grade: 94%. Within ±1.0: 99%. The remaining ~1% is almost always a "MAYBE" call we flagged honestly — not a confident wrong call.

Pre-grade your first Pop — free