How it works

Every card comes to us. We photograph it under our own lights, we seal the case, and we mail it back. What you are choosing is whether it gets graded — and if it does, how fast.

Traditional grading — Standard and Express

Grading the way it has always worked. You mail us the card, we photograph it under our own lights, we grade it, we seal the case and we send it back. Same four sub-grades. You just do less of the work.

1. You pay and tell us it is coming. $20 for Standard, $55 for Express.
2. You mail us the card, packed the way we ask. You ship it to us, we ship it back. Shipping is yours both ways and is not built into the price; it is quoted against your address at checkout. A mail-in kit is the way to have it covered in transit — a parcel you pack and send yourself is one we cannot insure or trace.
3. We photograph it under our own lights. Controlled light, no glare, no thumb in the corner. Those photographs get published next to the grade.
4. We grade it. An AI takes the first pass on all four sub-grades; a person confirms or overrides every card. The overall grade is worked out from those four rather than typed over them. The standard.
5. We seal the case and mail it back. Standard takes less than 30 days; Express takes 1-2 weeks.

From the moment it reaches us to the moment it is back with you, the card is covered up to $250 (or $500 in bulk) on Standard, and up to $1,000 (or $2,000 in bulk) on Express. If your card is worth more than that, write to us before you send it rather than mailing it anyway.

Sealed — $12

You mail us the card. We photograph it and seal it in clear acrylic, with no grade attached. You get the acrylic case, the printed label with its NFC chip, the published photographs and a certificate page that keeps answering — everything a graded slab gets, except the grade.

1. You pay $12 and tell us it is coming. Same as above, and the card takes the same journey.
2. We photograph it under our own lights. The same controlled light, the same two faces, published on your certificate page.
3. We do not grade it. Nobody assesses the centering, the corners, the edges or the surface, and no number goes on the label. The certificate page says so plainly, so a buyer cannot mistake the case for a graded one.
4. We seal the case and mail it back. It takes up to 2 months, and it is covered up to $25 while we have it.

You get the printed label, the NFC chip, the published photographs and a certificate page that answers forever. There is no grade and no grading report, because there was no assessment — and a card sealed this way cannot be graded later without us opening a new case and issuing a new certificate.

What this is, and what it is not

You mail us the card. We photograph it under our own lights, a grader grades the card itself, in hand, and we seal the case ourselves.

Your certificate says so in plain words, and publishes the photographs beside the grade, so anyone who taps it reads the same story you do.

A grade is a judgement about condition. On Pokémon cards we also check that the card is genuine, with a light test, weight, thickness, and print and texture under magnification, and the certificate page says so. On other games we do not, and no check can promise a card is genuine. Set the card beside the photographs on the certificate page and compare them yourself, because that is a check nobody can do for you.