What should you check before buying a graded card?

Published September 24, 2026 · By the Cards from Japan editors

Summary

A slab is a card that a grading company has assessed and sealed in a hard holder, with the grade and a certification number printed on the label. Before buying, read the card details, grader, grade, and cert number as one set, and run the cert number through the grader's official lookup. PSA itself warns that a matching cert number does not remove the risk of a fake.

A real cert number on a fake label

PSA's cert verification page checks whether a PSA or PSA/DNA certification number is valid. The same page says that checking the database does not eliminate risk, because counterfeiters copy real certification numbers from public sources onto fake inserts. A number that comes back valid still has to match the card and grade shown in the listing photos.

CGC makes that comparison easier. Every card it encapsulates is imaged in high resolution, and a QR code on the back of the label pulls up the card and its images on the CGC Cards website.

Price against exact matches

Change the grader or the grade by one step and you are looking at a different item. 130 Point searches sold items and active listings across eBay, PWCC, Goldin, Heritage Auctions, MySlabs, Pristine Auctions, and other marketplaces, with more than 15 million sold items in its database. Several completed sales of the same card, grader, and grade say far more than a single asking price.

Sources

Details are as published on these pages on the date above and can change. Check the official page before you buy or submit.

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