Questions, answered

MAG grades collectible trading cards across sports and licensed entertainment categories. That includes baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, racing, golf and wrestling, alongside trading card games and entertainment releases. If you are unsure whether a specific card is eligible, contact us before sending it in.

Yes. Pokémon is one of the trading card game categories MAG grades, along with Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! and other widely collected games.

Sports cards are our primary market. Modern and vintage releases are both within scope, and every submission goes through the same imaging, analysis and human review process.

MAG holders are built for standard-size trading cards, which covers the large majority of modern sports and trading card game releases. Support for oversized, undersized and non-standard formats has not been finalized. Please contact us before submitting anything outside the standard size.

Cards showing evidence of alteration, restoration or trimming are not eligible for a numeric grade. If alteration is identified during review, we will contact you rather than assigning a grade.

Autograph authentication is not currently offered unless otherwise noted. Cards with autographs applied by the manufacturer at production are evaluated as part of the card itself.

Each card is digitally imaged, analyzed with AI-assisted tools, reviewed by a trained grader, assigned a final grade under MAG grading standards, encapsulated in a MAG holder and added to the MAG certification database with a unique nine-digit certification number.

No. MAG is not an automated grading service. Technology assists our graders by capturing detailed imagery and surfacing measurable characteristics such as centering, but the grade itself is not issued by software alone.

Yes. Every final grade receives human review. A trained grader evaluates the card together with the technology-assisted findings before the grade is finalized through quality control.

MAG uses the standard 1 through 10 scale, from MAG 1 (Poor) up to MAG 10 (Gem Mint). Cards are evaluated across centering, corners, edges and surface, and those categories inform the overall grade.

Enter the nine-digit certification number on the Verify page. If the number matches an active MAG record, the certification page shows the card details, grade and available grading information.

The certification number is printed on the label of the MAG holder. It is always nine digits, for example 100782020.

Double-check each digit and try again. Numbers are matched exactly, so a single transposed digit will return no result. If the number on your holder still does not resolve, contact us and include a photo of the label.

Online submissions are currently paused while we expand grading capacity. Pricing and service tiers are published so you can plan ahead, and submissions will reopen on this site once additional capacity is available.

Grading is priced per card and depends on the service tier you choose, which is based on estimated turnaround time and maximum declared value. Current tiers start at $20 per card. See the Pricing page for the full breakdown.

Each tier lists an estimated turnaround in business days. Those estimates begin after cards have been received, processed and entered into the MAG grading system, and do not include shipping time in either direction.