Not every card needs a grade. Some you just want kept safe — sealed away, untouched, for as long as you own it. So we've added a second service to CALIBRE: encapsulation only. The same slab we seal graded cards in, without the grade.
Grading answers a question: how good is this card, exactly? It's the right call for a card you might sell, insure, or want ranked against every other copy in the population. But plenty of cards in a collection aren't there to be measured. They're there because you love them — a first pull, a childhood card, a gift, a chase you finally landed. You don't need a number on those. You need them protected, for good.
What encapsulation gives you
We seal your card in the same tamper-evident, serialised CALIBRE slab we use for graded cards. It's an inert, archival enclosure that protects the card from the things that quietly ruin it over the years — handling, dust, humidity, UV and air. Once it's sealed it can't be opened without showing, and the card is kept exactly as you sent it in, indefinitely.
What it doesn't carry is a grade. There's no scan, no measurement report, no score on the slab — because we're not grading it. The front shows the card's name, set and number; the back carries the CALIBRE mark; and every slab gets its own serial, so it's uniquely yours and tamper-evident. That's the whole idea.
Protection, not judgement.
When to grade, when to encapsulate
- Grade it when you want to know precisely how good it is — to sell, to insure, or to place it in the registry against every other copy.
- Encapsulate it when you simply want it kept perfect — a card you're holding, displaying or passing on, where the grade was never the point.
And you don't have to choose for the whole order. You can grade some cards and encapsulate others in the same submission — they come back to you together.
Fast, and fairly priced
Encapsulation is £8 per card, flat, with the same £5.95 tracked, insured return postage per order as grading. No surcharge for holos, foils or textured cards — the slab is the slab. And it's just as quick: sealed and back to you within 72 hours of arrival, the same turnaround as a graded card.
How to order
It works exactly like a grading order. Start your order, add your cards, and choose Encapsulation Only as the service on each card you want sealed rather than graded. Post them in, and they come back sealed in their slabs — kept perfect, for good.