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Why CALIBRE Contact Grade my cards
Built by collectors, for collectors

UK trading card grading and authentication. Measured. Not guessed.

CALIBRE is the UK's first card grading service built on physics, not opinion — so your grade is a measurement you can check, every number on the record. Drag the card — that's a real grading report.

Insured up to £5,000 each · tracked, insured return · cards never leave the UK
Grade my cards See a full report →

Order online → pay securely → post your cards (we send the address). Insured the moment they arrive — back in 72 hours.

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A real CALIBRE report. Drag to rotate, pinch to zoom. Explore the full report →
100+
Measurements
Physical readings captured per card — transmitted light, photometric stereo, UV, IR, blue, structured light, and more.
72h
Turnaround
Full grade complete and returned within 72 hours, or 24-hour priority.
£15
Flat
One flat per-card price — no upcharge by value or for holos. Standard £15, 24-hour return £50 flat. See plans →
UK
Domestic only
Cards never leave the United Kingdom. No customs, no international shipping, no weeks in transit.
Free · no account needed

See where your card stands — free.

Not ready to send a card yet? Upload one photo and get an instant centring estimate from a cut-down version of our real measurement. It's a guide, not your final grade — but it's a genuine first look in seconds.

Run a free pre-check →
Pricing

Two services. One flat per-card price.

£15 per card, every card, every grade. Holos, foils, textured foils, secret rares — the same pipeline, the same fee. Tracked, insured return postage is £5.95 per order. We limit how many cards we take at a time so every order keeps its 72-hour turnaround — no backlog, no waiting in a queue.

No black boxes, no opinions — you see every measurement behind your grade.

Standard Grading
£15
per card · 72-hour turnaround

Holographic, reverse-holo, foil, and textured-foil cards run the same pipeline as non-holo cards. No type-based surcharges.

  • Full 100+ measurement grading report
  • Centering · corners · edges · surface
  • Tamper-evident slab with QR-verified cert ID
  • Tracked, insured return postage £5.95/order · UK only
  • 72-hour turnaround
Grade my cards
Priority lane
24-hour Return
£50
per card · flat priority fee

Priority lane. Card is graded, slabbed, and dispatched within 24 hours of receipt. Flat fee regardless of card type.

  • Everything in Standard Grading
  • 24-hour turnaround from receipt
  • Priority queue · skips standard backlog
  • Next-day tracked return dispatch
  • Insured up to £5,000 per card in our care
  • Direct grader notes on flagged measurements
Grade my cards
Encapsulation only · no grading

Some cards you don't grade. You protect them forever.

Not every card needs a number. Sometimes you just want it kept safe — sealed away from handling, dust, moisture and air, for good. So we'll encapsulate it in the same tamper-evident, serialised CALIBRE slab we use for graded cards, without grading it. No score, no report — just permanent, archival protection, sealed and back to you within 72 hours of arrival.

£8 per card · £5.95 tracked return per order
Encapsulate a card →
Every card comes with a grade you can trust

A grade that shows its work.

CALIBRE
CLBR-26-0000001
9.5
Mint+
Why 9.5?

No opinions. Just measurements.

Every CALIBRE grade is traceable to the measurements that produced it. A CALIBRE grade is not a human's impression — it is the specific numbers captured from the card, compared against published tolerances, with any limiting factors explained.

For this card, most grading factors measured at the top of the scale, with a single limiting factor holding it at 9.5 rather than a perfect 10 — every measurement behind the grade is shown in the full report.

10
Pristine
All factors at zero defect
9.5
Mint+
One minor factor flagged
This card
9
Mint
Two or more minor factors
Radical transparency · published tolerances

Every threshold on the record.

Traditional graders keep their rubric private. CALIBRE publishes every tolerance. You can read what a grade means, verify a card met the threshold, and trust that the same standard applies to every card we grade. No hidden standards, no changing bar, no human mood.

Centering tolerance reference · example
10
Pristine
Variance ≤ 0.05mm
9.5
Mint+
Variance ≤ 0.10mm
9
Mint
Variance ≤ 0.20mm
8
NM
Variance ≤ 0.40mm
≤7
EX–PR
Variance > 0.40mm
Variance = max measurement − min measurement across the three points along a single side. Four tolerance panels just like this — centering, corners, edges, and surface — define every CALIBRE grade. Every threshold is published. Every grade is traceable.

Centering is one of four measurement categories. See every tolerance, every measurement, every threshold in the full report →

No theatre, no add-ons

Every mark on the slab is a measurement we can show you.

No painted borders, no extended-art headers, no foil holograms, no cosmetic tiers you have to pay extra for. Just the grade, the cert, and a report that proves it — every claim on the slab traceable to a number you can read, a tolerance we've published, and an image you can zoom in on.

Card grading is a measurement problem. We treat it like one.

The UK grading market

Three approaches exist today. CALIBRE is none of them.

? ? ?
Category 01
Human Inspection
PSA, Ace, MGC, Beckett. Trained graders examine cards by eye and assign a grade based on visual judgement. Slow, inconsistent, subject to fatigue and opinion. Submitting the same card twice often produces different grades.
?
Category 02
AI Prediction
REX, SSINT and others. Machine learning models trained on photographs of previously-graded cards. Fast and cheap, but grades are statistical guesses based on what the model thinks it has seen before — not measurements of the card itself.
UK USA ~8 WEEKS N
Category 03
Overseas Physics
TAG in California. Genuine physics-based measurement using photometric stereo and multi-spectral imaging. Technically excellent, but US-only — cards cross the Atlantic twice via a UK forwarding agent, resulting in approximately eight-week turnaround.
The fourth approach — only at CALIBRE
Domestic Physical Measurement
A calibrated sensor suite captures over one hundred physical measurements of every card. The grade is derived deterministically from the data. Same card, same grade, every time. Processed entirely in the United Kingdom. 72-hour turnaround. Flat transparent pricing.
What collectors say

Grades you can trust.

★★★★★
I sent in some of my best Pokémon cards expecting the usual long wait — they were back within days, sealed, with a report showing every measurement behind the grade. Knowing it's measured and not just someone's opinion is exactly what I wanted. I won't be shipping cards to the States again.
MH
Mark H
Collector
★★★★★
As a shop, consistency is everything — we can't have the same card grading differently every time. CALIBRE's measurement-based approach gives our customers a grade they can genuinely trust, turned around fast and right here in the UK. A real step up for the hobby.
TH
TCG Hits
UK card shop
Frequently asked

Questions, answered.

01 What cards can CALIBRE grade?
CALIBRE grades standard-sized trading cards (2.5" × 3.5") including Pokémon (English and Japanese), Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Lorcana, and major sports card brands. Thick cards, oversized cards, and memorabilia cards aren't supported yet.
02 How do I submit cards?
Start your order online, add your cards and pay securely, then post them to us — we'll confirm the address when you order. Pack each card in a semi-rigid holder inside a padded mailer and send it on a tracked service (postage to us is at your own cost; see our packaging guide). From the moment your cards arrive they're insured up to £5,000 per card, and tracked, insured return postage (£5.95 per order) is included in your total. We limit intake to protect turnaround times, so if slots are full you can leave your email and we'll tell you the moment slots reopen.
03 What does the digital report show?
Every graded card comes with a full digital report, accessible by scanning the QR code on the slab. It shows the overall 1–10 grade, the measured values behind it for each factor (centering, corners, edges and surface), high-resolution scans of both faces, and confirmation that the card has been verified. Each report is tied to a unique certificate and published to our public registry, so any grade can be independently checked. See a full report →
04 Are my cards insured while in your care?
Yes. While in our care, every card is covered up to £5,000 at no additional cost. If you're sending something worth more than that, get in touch before you post and we'll arrange the right cover. Cards never leave the UK during the grading process.
05 How is CALIBRE different from PSA or TAG?
PSA and similar services use human graders who assign grades based on visual judgement. CALIBRE uses physical measurement — sensors that measure the actual properties of the card — so the same card produces the same grade every submission. TAG uses similar physical measurement technology but is based in California, meaning UK cards spend approximately eight weeks in transit. CALIBRE is the only service offering this approach domestically.
Deliverable

Every card comes with a digital report.

A permanent, tamper-resistant record of every measurement, the final grade, and authentication status. Accessible by scanning the NFC chip on the slab or the QR code on the report.

View a live report →
CALIBRE
CLBR-26-0000001
9.5
Mint+

News & insights

Briefings · methodology · updates
View all news →
Grade my cards