TOUCHSTONE 0.2

A grade should come with its calculations. Here's an illustrative assessment. Call it, then check it.

54 / 46 51 / 49 R2 R3
A schematic of the example's front face, not a photograph or a measured capture. The markers link to the ledger. The back's single finding is listed there too.

Example findings

    These are stipulated inputs, not verified observations. Identifying and classifying damage requires judgment. The same assessment and rubric version produce the same score; that does not prove the assessment is correct.

    Your call

    Before you see the calculations: what's this card?

    Pick a grade. The ledger stays hidden until you do.

    Run it yourself

    The scorer that produced the ledger above is one dependency-free module. Install it and reproduce a published result on your own machine:

    npm i github:touchstone-standard/touchstone#v0.2
    import { score } from "@touchstonestandard/rubric";
import rubric from "@touchstonestandard/rubric/rubric.json" with { type: "json" };

const r = score(
  { back: { defects: [{ region: "corner", corner: "br", severity: "moderate" }] } },
  rubric,
);
console.log(r.points, r.grade);   // 825 8

    That result is asserted in three independent places: the README, the worked example in the rubric, and the conformance vectors. So if your machine disagrees, one of us has a bug and it's findable.

    What you can do with it

    Calculate a score from your own assessment, for free. Recompute someone else's score when you have their assessment and rubric version, and question a specific input or deduction. Drop the scorer into your shop software, your site or your bot: no key or quota. This is a calculation, not authentication or a complete card inspection.

    • The licence carries an express patent grant. §3, in writing, for everyone. LICENSE
    • “We acquire no rights in your contribution that you and every third party do not equally hold.” CONTRIBUTING
    • Conformance is a sentence, not a badge: anyone who passes the vectors may say conforms to Touchstone 0.2. The licensing commitment permits that accurate, versioned statement; it does not grant branding rights or imply certification. Licence

    Why this, now

    Market context checked September 6, 2026 — a dated snapshot, not a live tracker.

    Grading activity remains substantial. GemRate reported 3.61 million cards in July 2026, followed by 3.40 million in August. August was down 6% from July and up 47% year over year in its tracked population data.

    Capacity and queues can change. One grading company's own public tracker reported 12.4 million units on July 28, then approximately 10.9 million on August 25, 2026, alongside expansion to five grading hubs. Read the dated backlog updates. The later reduction matters; the July backlog is not the current figure.

    An open calculation is useful at any card value. It does not remove the work or cost of inspecting a card, but it makes the rules and deductions available to check.

    Disagree in specifics

    Think a moderate corner should cost more than 175? That's not a complaint. That's a proposal, and a proposal needs a reference implementation and a conformance vector, not agreement in a thread.

    Open a proposal · How decisions get made · What is open, and what isn't