PSA
tiers, timing, the label.

A submission is three decisions and one long wait. Choose the tier, pack it so the mail cannot touch it, then read what comes back — and know what every line on it means.

▸ ANATOMY OF A SLAB LABEL

One strip of paper carries the whole verdict. Six zones — and the money only ever argues about two of them.

CERTIFIED · TRADING CARDGRADED & ENCAPSULATED

1 CERTIFICATION NUMBER 7 4 2 0 9 1 8 6

2 YEAR & SET 1999 POKÉMON GAME · BASE SET

3 CARD NAME Charizard — Holo

4 VARIETY / QUALIFIER 1ST EDITION · SHADOWLESS (OC)

6MINT 59

Certification Number

Must match the grader’s public lookup.

Year & Set

Which printing — the label error buyers miss most.

Card Name

Spelled the grader’s way, not the card’s way.

Variety / Qualifier

1st edition, shadowless, codes like OC that cap it.

The Grade

One to ten. The whole argument lives between 9 and 10.

The Descriptor

The word for the number. It restates; it never adds.

Read a label in that order and you will catch a mislabelled slab before you pay for it: number first, set second, qualifier third. The grade should be the last thing you look at, not the first.

One submission, three decisions.

CHOOSE → SEND → READ. THE WAITING IS THE EASY PART.

STEP 01 · CHOOSE

Pick the Right Tier.

Tiers are really a bet on declared value and how long you can wait. Choose wrong and you overpay or you wait forever.

▸How declared value sets your tier
▸Paying for speed vs paying for nothing
▸Bulk submissions and when they pay off

READ →

Cards bundled with rubber bands beside a blank submission form on a desk

A shipping box packed with protective wrap and card holders

STEP 02 · SEND

Pack It So It Survives.

A card can lose a full grade in the mail. The pack-out that gets it there exactly as it left your desk.

◂The sleeve, the semi-rigid, the tape rule
◂Building a box that cannot shift
◂Insurance and what it really covers

← READ

STEP 03 · READ & TRACK

Read the Label, Watch the Queue.

Every line on the label means something, and the status page moves in stages. Learn both and the wait stops being a mystery.

01 THE LABELWhat each line on the label means 02 THE QUEUEThe stages a submission moves through 03 THE LOOKUPChecking a certification number

READ THE LABEL → WATCH THE QUEUE →

▸ FROM THE ARCHIVIST · IAN

“Half the grade is decided

before you seal the box.

Pack it like the mail
is trying
to hurt it,
because it is.”

READ: HOW TO SHIP A CARD THAT ARRIVES A 10 →

Macro of a sealed card holder, the blank label strip catching the light along its top edge

▸ THE NUMBER AND THE WAIT

You are not paying for a
piece of plastic. You are
paying for a stranger’s
opinion to become a fact.

Elsewhere on this route

TWO CHAPTERS LIVE

The step-by-step guides for choosing a tier, packing a box and reading a label are being written now, and land here as they ship. These are open today.

Compare CGC & the others →LIVE Back to: should you grade it →LIVE