Graded Pokémon cards

A graded card is a card sealed in a plastic holder by a third-party grader with a grade and a certificate number on the label. The holder makes the card easier to buy with confidence, which is exactly why fake and tampered slabs exist. So here is what we will do with every slab before it goes on this site.

Four checks on every slab

Cert lookup. We will type the certificate number into the grader's own verification page and confirm the card name, set, number and grade match the label. The link on our page will go to the grader's lookup, never to a third-party site.

Holder check. We will look at the holder's seams, the label's print quality and the hologram or security feature the grader uses for that generation of holder. A slab that has been opened and resealed usually shows it at the seam.

Photograph both sides. The card you see on the page will be the slab you receive, front and back, label legible, taken by us. No stock photographs, no grader's archive image in place of ours.

Describe the holder, not just the card. Scratches and scuffs on the plastic are not part of the grade but they are part of what you receive. We will note them.

Which graders

PSA and CGC first, because they have public cert lookups that we can link to. Others as we add them, on the same condition: if we cannot verify a cert on the grader's own site, we will not list the slab.

How a slab will be sent

Slab sleeve, then a snug box with padding on all six sides, then tracked and signed-for. A slab's corners are the first thing to go in the post and we would rather over-pack than argue about a chipped holder.

Wanted list

If there is a particular card at a particular grade you are after, tell us. Card, set, number, grader and grade. We keep the list, we go looking, and you hear once if we land one.