Grading Was An Opinion.
We Made It A Measurement.

Over 150 Years Of Combined Experience Delivering Trust.
No Other Grader Is Built Like This.
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150M+
Data points per card
APEX
Every grade above 10 — S, S★★ and S★★★
12
Examined axes — every one measured, every one published
£64.99
Entry — beneath the market leader's UK guide
Lead Time · Avg 8 Working Days
Based on average across services
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Who We Are

They Eyeball Cards.
We Examine Evidence.

Every card is examined on video spectral comparators — the instruments national laboratories trust to authenticate passports and banknotes — scored by Mycroft.AI™ against a published Standard, and confirmed by a senior human examiner. Machine precision. Human accountability. The grade is the output. The evidence is the product.

I

10+ Combined Years Building Trust Engines

Our team's years at Trustpilot, Europe's largest trust platform, add up to more than a decade of fraud detection, integrity enforcement and transparency reporting — work European regulators read line by line. The same team has built cutting-edge technology at Apple and SEGA. Verifying things for a living is not new to us, and neither is building the machines that do it. Now both are pointed at the collectables and TCG industry.

II

Nearly 50 Years Of Forensic Verification

We operate in partnership with a world-leading verification-instrumentation specialist — a British firm whose systems are trusted by border agencies, central banks and police forces in more than a hundred countries. The instrument class that catches forged passports now examines every card we grade.

III

Since 1927 · Insurance Where The Art World Insures

We work with one of the world's largest insurance brokers, through its specialist fine-art and specie practice — the people who insure galleries, auction houses and private collections. Our founding team are members of the International Society of Appraisers — whose standards insurers and underwriters rely on — and the company is registered with it. Every appraisal we issue is written to those standards. The market that insures the Old Masters is where cover for cards in our care is being placed.

A.E.L. is led by VPs and technologists drawn from Trustpilot, Apple, SEGA, DAZN, PwC, Thermo Fisher and Agilent. Parent company Nevari™ is a UK AI house building its own AI for FTSE and S&P 500-listed organisations.

TrustpilotAppleSEGADAZNPwCThermo Fisher ScientificAgilent
Our Mission

We're collectors too. We wanted to know what a grade means, how it was measured, and how confident the measurement is. Every other company keeps all three to itself. So we built the laboratory that publishes all three — priced below the companies that publish none of them.

01 / PUBLISH

The Measurements

Per-axis scores on a 1,000-point scale, the formula computing in the open, a priced defect map and the written "why" on every public certificate.

02 / AUDIT

Our Accuracy

We are building for consistency: our target is that the same card gets the same grade at least 99.99% of the time. Every certificate carries the written reasoning behind its grade, so the result can be checked rather than trusted.

03 / PROVE

Before We Certify

The instruments measure and the AI scores, but nothing is certified until a senior examiner has read the result and accepted it under their own name. That acceptance is recorded, by name, against the card.

Our Technology

If MI5 Graded Cards, It Would Look Like This.

The Instruments

Video spectral comparators — the instruments national laboratories trust to authenticate passports and banknotes — image every card from ultraviolet through visible to infrared: multi-spectral capture, 3D surface mapping, hyperspectral analysis, microspectrometry and magnification to 480×. The first time this grade of instrumentation has been pointed at collectibles at scale.

Unboxing is filmed, every card travels under its own barcode, and every capture file is cryptographically hashed the moment it exists — a permanent, tamper-evident evidence archive anchored to the certificate forever.

The A.E.L. laboratory — video spectral comparator instruments
The laboratory · video spectral comparators

Mycroft.AI™ — The Mind Of The Laboratory

Our own laboratory AI ingests the complete measurement output for every card and scores it against the published Grading Standard — then writes, in plain language, the reasoning behind the grade, anchored on the axis that decided it, with the evidence frames cited.

A senior human examiner confirms every certificate before it exists.

Mycroft.AI — the A.E.L. laboratory platform
Mycroft.AI · the examiner's bench

The Data Behind Every Grade

Per card, the laboratory produces a complete evidence bundle — verified against affiliated card-manufacturer data sets and retained permanently. When anyone asks "how do you know?", the answer is the file.

12
Examined axes
3,180
Checks per card
1,000
Point scale
150M+
Data points retained
  • Per-axis measurements on the 1,000-point scale, published
  • A priced defect map — every flaw located and costed
  • The written rationale — "why 957" in plain language
  • A permanent public registry page with tap-to-verify NFC
  • A declared-value record
VaultLock Case

The Case Carries Its Own History.

Every card we grade is sealed into a VaultLock case: an ultra-polished acrylic inner and a machined aluminium outer, ultrasonically welded into one piece, with an encrypted tag laminated inside the label. The case cannot be opened and re-closed. Tap it with a phone and the certificate answers — who graded it, where it has been, who holds it, and whether anyone has reported it stolen.

No app. No account. The tag responds to any NFC phone.

Cert / AEL-2026-004192 Seal intact

Example record. A worked demonstration of a VaultLock certificate. No card carries this serial and the Registry holds no record against it — every date, place and tap below is illustrative.

Drag to turn

S★★★ Apex Class

Mrs. Incredible — Determined Rescuer

Set
Disney Lorcana · Enchanted
Number
239/204
Sealed
11 Mar 2026 · Gloucestershire
Case
Aluminium · welded
Holder
Registered owner · verified

Apex Smart Slab History

14 taps
  1. Sealed Apex Evolution Labs, Nevari HQ
  2. Certificate published Case Armed
  3. Left the vault Tracked transit · geo-fence released
  4. Tap authenticated Dealer floor, London
  5. Ownership transferred Registry updated · both parties authenticated
  6. Tap authenticated Collector, Tokyo JP

Geo-Fence

Inside Home Zone

Live position

—

—

Field of view
—
From home
—
Home zone
25 km radius

Home zone set by the owner. A tap outside it is still valid — it is simply recorded, and the owner is told where it happened.

Tap 14 · AEL-2026-004192

What a phone sees on tap

Verified by Apex Evolution Labs. Cert AEL-2026-004192 — Apex Class. Message from the owner: “Part of the Vault Two collection. Not for sale.”

Owner sets the message

  • Welded, Not Clipped

    An ultra-polished acrylic inner and a machined aluminium outer fuse into a single piece, with a second weld ring sealing the card chamber on its own. There is no screw, no clip and nothing that opens — getting the card out means breaking the case.

  • Anti-Tamper

    The seal is the evidence. Holographic lands run across the weld where the inner and outer meet, so a case that has been forced reads as forced — on the shelf and on the certificate.

  • Geo-Fencing

    Owners draw a home zone around a vault, a shop or a home. Taps inside it pass quietly. Taps outside it are flagged the moment they happen.

  • Location History

    Every tap writes a point: where the case was, and when. The result is a movement history built from real authentications rather than a promise that a card never left the safe.

  • Theft Marking

    Report a case stolen and the certificate turns. Every later tap shows the warning first, tells the person holding it what to do, and records where the tap came from.

  • Live Tap Messages

    The message on the tag is yours to change. Sell it, price it, tell its story, or hand the next owner a note — without touching the case.

The A.E.L. Scale

A New Standard. A Scale Built To Prove It.

Apex Grade ↑  S · S★★ · S★★★

UngradableAscending →Machine-perfect · verified rarity

A.E.L. class

S★★★

A perfect 1000, with verified rarity and a known, very small surviving population. S★★★ is the scarcest thing our scale can record. The card must first be flawless on every axis — an S in its own right — and then be shown to exist in very small numbers, with that count established rather than assumed. Condition alone cannot reach it, and rarity alone cannot either. Most collections will never hold one; most sets will never produce one. Where a card qualifies, the grade records something no condition scale can: that this card is both perfect and nearly the last of its kind.

Example
Mrs. Incredible
Set
Disney Lorcana · Enchanted · Determined Rescuer
Number
#239/204
Shell
Metallic purple

Select a class · the slab follows

Why Apex?

Every grading company has a top grade — the perfect 10. On our scale that's A, and we call it the gate: score 950 or better and your card stands with the best any other company can name.

But a 10 isn't the ceiling. Two cards can both hold a 10 and not be equal — one is merely flawless; the other is flawless AND rare, or one of a handful left in the world. The older scales can't tell those cards apart. Ours is built to. Everything above A is Apex: S for the card that's perfect on every axis, S★★ when that perfect card is also verifiably rare, S★★★ when it's rare and nearly the last of its kind. That difference is what collectors pay for, and until now no grade has recorded it.

Below the gate sit six classes, B down to F, each one step further from it.

Scale comparison from each grading company's public materials as at August 2026: PSA, Beckett, CGC, TAG, Ace Grading and Get Graded publish scales topping at 10. Beckett's Black Label and CGC's Pristine 10 distinguish a perfect 10 from other 10s, but record perfection, not rarity or population — no published scale records rarity or population above its top grade. Figures and services change; verify against current published lists before reliance. All names and trademarks are the property of their owners; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.

How A Grade Is Reached.

Every card is measured on twelve axes — nine that score its condition, from how the artwork sits within its borders to the state of every corner, edge and surface, and three forensic gates that check its dimensions, its laminate structure and its authenticity. Across those axes we run 3,180 individual checks. Why so many? Because a grade you can trust has to be earned the same way every time — by measurement, not by glance. The result is a single score out of 1,000, and the class letters on this page are bands of that scale.

Your certificate carries more than the number. It states the written reasoning — what we found, axis by axis, and why the card scored what it did.

The Registry

Every Certificate Lives At A Permanent Public Address.

Grade a card with A.E.L. and it joins the Registry for good — a live certificate page anyone can open, and any slab can summon with a tap of its sealed NFC chip. Below is an example certificate — the record every graded card receives.

The Registry opens with grading on 1st November 2026.

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Drag to turn · Both faces of the record
The certificate's subject · example card, front and back
PUBLIC RECORD

Every certificate has a page, found by its reference number. It shows the axis register — the nine measured scores behind the grade — the priced defect map, the examiner's written reasoning, and how many cards A.E.L. has certified at that grade. Open to anyone, no account needed.

OWNER'S PIN

A twelve-character PIN is printed once, on the certificate, and never shown online. It unlocks the full diagnostic report — every measurement behind every score, and the evidence frames the examiner worked from — plus the card's tap history and the owner's message controls.

RECORDED TRANSFER — OPTIONAL

When a card changes hands, both parties tap the slab and confirm. The Registry records that a transfer happened and when — the chain, not the names. Optional at every sale.

ANCHORED TO EVIDENCE

Every frame the instruments capture is hashed with SHA-256 the moment it exists, so any later change would show. The certificate names the frames it rests on. “How do you know?” has a file for an answer.

Side by Side

Every House. One Table. See Who Leads.

The services collectors mention, set beside A.E.L. — against the criteria that decide where a six-figure card should go.

A.E.L. PSA Beckett CGC TAG Ace Grading Get Graded
Years of trustover 150 years — combined experience, delivering trust35 years · est. 1991—————
MethodSpectral instruments + laboratory AI + senior examinerHuman visual gradersHuman graders, subgradesHuman gradersAutomated photometric imagingHuman gradersHuman graders
Data on the certificate12 axes · 3,180 checks · 150M+ data points; measurements publishedGrade onlyFour subgradesGrade (+ optional subgrades)Proprietary score reportGrade (+ subgrades on some tiers)Grade only
ScaleLetters on a 1,000-point system; APEX band (S/S★★/S★★★) above 10; S★★/S★★★ verified rarity1–101–10 + Black Label1–10 + Pristine 101–10 (internal 1,000-pt)1–101–10
Entry price, UK£64.99—Premium; via UK distributorsVia UK submission partnersUS-based serviceBudget entry tiersPer published list
Entry lead time10–15 working days from receipt — published targets, not guarantees—Multi-week to multi-monthMulti-weekWeeks; US turnaroundPer service levelPer service level
The slabUltra-polished acrylic inner ultrasonically welded into a machined aluminium outer · sleeve-first museum mount · conservation RH discSonically sealed hard-plastic case—Ultrasonically-welded case · crystal-clear optics · archival materials—Crystal-clear slabGetSealed™ moulded UV acrylic
SecuritySeam-spanning holo seals · first-closure witness · secure-element NFC + QRTamper-evident sonically sealed case · LightHouse™ labelAnti-counterfeit label — holographic metallic, hidden UV pattern, light-reactive badgeTamper-resistant welded case · microprinting, UV ink, holographic foil · QR cert lookup · high-resolution imaging——Patented anti-counterfeit technology · GetSealed™ moulding
RegistryLive cert pages, provenance ledger, optional recorded-ownership transfer, tap-to-verify, 2FA evidence tierSerial lookup + pop reportSerial lookup + pop reportSerial lookup + pop reportDigital report per cardSerial lookupSerial lookup
Published accuracy figureTarget: ≥99.99% grade reproducibility — the same card, the same gradeNo published figureNo published figureNo published figureNo published figureNo published figureNo published figure
Characteristics summarised from each company's public materials as at August 2026 and generalised for comparison; figures and services change — verify against current published lists before reliance. All names and trademarks are the property of their owners; no affiliation or endorsement is implied. Individual cards certify on their measurements.
Pricing & Turnaround

Pay Less. Wait Less. Know More.

One standard for a global market, with turnaround targets that accelerate as the stakes rise. Fees are per card and set by the card's value ungraded — what it sells for raw today, not what it might fetch in a slab. Our laboratories and global locations are rolling out now, bringing us closer to our worldwide community and meeting demand wherever it lives.

Declared value means the card's ungraded market value, assessed in USD in every currency mode; the £ / $ / € toggle switches fees only.

Declared value (ungraded)A.E.L.™
To $249£64.99$85 · €80
$250–$1,499£109.99$145 · €130
$1,500–$3,499£199.99$260 · €235
$3,500–$10,000£399.99$520 · €470
Over $10,000POASubmit — we’ll come back with a quote
Turnaround — faster as the stakes riseWorking days
To $24910–15
$250–$1,4997–10
$1,500–$3,4995–7
$3,500–$10,0003–5
Over $10,000By arrangement
EXPRESS 24–48 HOUR SERVICE IS AVAILABLE FOR AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE
Volume Discount

Grade More, Save More

The more you send, the less each card costs.

10 Cards
Standard fee—
Discount—
You pay —
You save—

Grading fees only · POA quoted separately · applied automatically at checkout

Prices include VAT. Billing in GBP; USD/EUR prices and declared-value equivalents indicative at launch FX. ¹ Comparison figures from the market leader's published UK guide, standard service, August 2026 — higher declared-value tiers sit outside its standard published guide. Grade More, Save More — volume discount on grading fees: 3% from two cards, 6% from five, 9% from ten, 12% from fifteen, 15% from twenty-five and no further. Grading fees only — express handling is charged in full, and POA cards are quoted individually and sit outside the scale. Dealer terms supersede the volume scale where agreed; dealer terms on application. Turnaround targets are estimates, averaged in working days from receipt; actuals publish in the quarterly transparency bulletin.
Services

Start With One Card. From £64.99.

GRADE

Forensic Grading

Declared-value tiers from £64.99 to £399.99, continuing to POA — every tier faster and beneath the market leader's published UK guide. Turnaround typically from 10–15 working days at entry, accelerating as the stakes rise.

SEALED

Sealed Product

Booster packs, Elite Trainer Boxes and Japanese booster boxes — verdicts in purpose-built tamper-evident cases with foil-safe suspension.

EXPRESS

Express & white glove

Express is available as a charge on any TCG tier (not yet for Entertainment cards). White glove handling at the top of the ladder.

Ready To Submit?

Submissions, pricing and checkout run in our store — choose your tier, declare your values, and send your first consignment.

Register My Interest

Games

  • Disney Lorcana
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game
  • One Piece Card Game
  • Digimon Card Game
  • Union Arena
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Gundam Card Game
  • Riftbound
  • Dragon Ball Super Fusion World
  • Dragon Ball Super Card Game
  • Weiß Schwarz
  • Cyberpunk TCG
  • Naruto

Entertainment

  • Topps
  • Marvel
  • Star Wars
  • Disney
  • Garbage Pail Kids
  • Wacky Packages