Authentication
A slab is a claim. We check it before we repeat it.
Counterfeit holders with real certificate numbers are the single biggest risk in graded cards right now, and they are good enough that a photograph will not save you. Here is exactly what happens to a card between arriving here and appearing on the site.
Six checks, every card
Nothing is listed until all six pass.
01
Certificate lookup, every time
The cert number goes into the grading company's own database in front of us. Grade, card, year and population have to match the slab exactly. If the lookup returns nothing, the card does not get listed — it gets sent back.
02
Weight and dimensions
A genuine holder from each grading company has a known weight and thickness within a tight tolerance. A counterfeit slab almost never does. Every card is weighed on a 0.01g scale and measured with calipers at four points.
03
Holder integrity under light
Raking light across the seam shows a re-seal; UV shows an adhesive line the naked eye misses. We are looking for a card that has been swapped into a real holder, which is the fraud that actually costs people money.
04
The card itself, against the grade
We read the card as if we were grading it. If our read is two grades away from the label, something is wrong with the card, the slab or the label — and it does not go up for sale while we work out which.
05
Photographed, flaws first
Straight-on front and back, then angled shots of anything we can see. The flaw shots go in the listing next to the good ones. You should never learn about a roller mark when the box arrives.
06
Written up honestly
The description says what is wrong with the card as plainly as what is right with it, and the comps we publish include the sales that argue against our asking price.
The vault
Where your card sits while you think about it.
Everything on this site is in one room, in one building, in Midlothian. Not in a partner's inventory, not on its way from a seller who has not shipped it yet. That is why we can photograph a corner for you on request and have it to you the same afternoon.
- Climate held
- 68°F and 45% relative humidity, monitored and logged.
- Insured in place
- Full replacement value on everything in the room, always.
- Monitored
- Alarmed, on camera, with entry logged to the individual.
- Never commingled
- Consigned cards are stored and insured separately from ours.
And then it is guaranteed for as long as you own it.
- Every card in-hand
- Nothing on this site is brokered, pre-sold or sitting in someone else's inventory. If it is listed, it is in our vault, photographed under our own lights, and it can ship the day an offer clears.
- Certificate verified before listing
- Each slab is checked against the grader's own certificate lookup, weighed, measured and photographed front and back. The cert number is printed on the listing so you can verify it yourself before you offer.
- A real person answers your offer
- No bots, no counters generated off a price feed. Offers are read at the desk and answered inside twelve business hours with a yes, a no, or a counter that tells you why.
- Authenticity guaranteed for life
- If any card we sell is ever found to be altered, trimmed, re-holdered or not the card on the certificate, we buy it back at the full price you paid, for as long as you own it.