Can someone explain the current grading system?

[LCBOY]

I collected, traded and sold baseball card from about 1988-93. Then I stopped. I recently went into a baseball card shop and looked through a baseball price guide. Can someone expain the current grading system? I was totally confused. When I traded all we had was Mint, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, etc.

[Madison]

I can tell you that the grading process is extremely picky. The smallest detail is wrong and the card goes from high end value, all the way to worthless. Even something that you cannot control, like the picture not being perfectly centered, it hurts the value of the card tremendously. Having your cards graded can get really expensive as well.

I'll try to post a better explanation of it all soon.