Before cards change hands, we grade the deal instead of the card: authenticity, condition risk, comps on both sides, and a shipping plan that survives a dispute. Twenty-four hours, flat fee, no cut of your cards.
Or talk it through now — (571) 222-5179
Most bad trades aren't stolen cards — they're a raw card described as "mint," a cert number that belongs to a different slab, or a value gap nobody ran the numbers on. The order below is the order those problems surface.
Photos front and back under angled light, the cert number if it's slabbed, the other trader's profile, and the offer as it was made to you.
~10 min of your timeCert numbers checked against the grader's own registry. Raw cards get a print-pattern, edge, and back-gloss review — the checks that catch reprints and trimmed edges.
Same daySold comps only — never asking prices — from the last 30 days, matched on grade, print run, and language. You get the spread in dollars and in percent.
Same dayA one-page report: deal grade, what to renegotiate, and a shipping and payment sequence that leaves you a paper trail if it goes wrong.
Within 24 hrRun these yourself before you ever message us. Anything in the stop column means the trade doesn't happen until it's resolved — no exceptions, no matter how good the offer looks.
| Signal | What to check | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Cert number | Look the number up on the grader's site and compare the photo to the slab in front of you. Reused labels on swapped cards are the most common high-value scam. | STOP if mismatched |
| Slab seams | A cracked-and-resealed case shows glue haze, uneven seam width, or a label sitting proud of the well. | STOP |
| Back gloss & edges | Trimmed cards read sharp under a loupe but lose the factory edge fuzz. Reprints usually miss the blue back's dot pattern. | Send photos |
| "Mint" on a raw card | Whitening on the back corners, print lines through the holo, and off-center borders are all invisible in a straight-on phone photo. Ask for angled light. | Send photos |
| Value gap | Compare against sold listings in the same grade and language. A 1st Edition and an Unlimited print of the same card are not the same trade. | Renegotiate |
| Off-platform pressure | "Ship first," a friends-and-family payment, or moving the deal to DMs after meeting on a marketplace removes every protection you had. | STOP |
| Shipping method | Sleeve, toploader, taped, in a rigid mailer. Tracked and signature-required over $250, insured to full value, filmed unboxing on both ends. | Required |
A commission would give us a reason to want the trade to close. It doesn't, and we don't — you pay the same whether the report says go or walk away.
Send one card from either side of the trade and we'll run the full check on it — cert lookup, condition read, and the 30-day sold range — at no cost and with nothing to enter but an email. It's the same report you'd get on a paid review, just on one card, so you can see the work before you pay for it.
Questions first? (571) 222-5179
[Customer quote about a specific trade the review caught or improved — one or two sentences, in their own words.]
[Customer quote about turnaround or the report format — what they actually did with it.]
[Customer quote about walking away from a bad deal — the outcome, not adjectives.]
No. We never take custody. Cards go directly between you and the other trader — we advise on the sequence that keeps you protected while they do.
No one can from photographs. We tell you what the evidence supports and what it doesn't, and when the only responsible answer is "send it to a grader first."
Front and back, straight on and at an angle under a single light source, all four corners close up, and the slab label with the cert number readable.
Yes. Comps are matched on language and print run — a Japanese print and its English equivalent often sit hundreds of dollars apart in the same grade.
Your report includes the documentation to open a platform or carrier claim. We're consultants, not insurers — we can't recover cards, and anyone promising that should worry you.
No. We're independent, we take no referral fees from graders or marketplaces, and we're not affiliated with or endorsed by any trading card publisher.
Tell us what's on the table and we'll reply with what we need to see. Most reviews are back the next morning — and the first card is free.
Prefer to call? (571) 222-5179