Frequently asked questions
Here you can find the answers to our most frequently asked questions, please contact below if you can’t find the answer you’re looking for.
PSA authenticates and grades your collectables, giving them a grade between 1 and 10 based on the quality of the item.
For cards, there are four key areas. Corners, Edges, Surfaces and Centering. The cards are then placed in their own tamper-evident plastic cases, with a label that displays the cards information, grade, and unique certification number.
PSA are based in California and New Jersey, and are experts at what they do.
GradedGem is a Official PSA Dealer, offering £1000 per card insurance as standard and started in the UK in 2016 with Connor (GradedGroudon) and in 2018 Tom (BaseSetTom) joined the team.
GradedGem has submitted over 100,000 cards to PSA over the past 4 years, with over £1,000,000 worth of collectables being sent through us.
We show all collectables off in Submission & Returns Videos, as well as talking about our thoughts on trading cards and the current environment of the hobby over on YouTube
We are collectors ourselves, and try to help collectors in the ways we can, and try to make the grading process as simple as possible.
Orders start with submitting cards to GradedGem. Based on the service you are ordering, there will be a different submission slip which can be found here.
Place this form in with your submission or email to submissions@gradedgem.com.
When emailing, please enclose your first and last name in with your submission.
For Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, it is not necessary to fill in the individual card information, however for cards outside of this remit, we do ask for additional information so we can input your cards quickly and accurately.
Once we’ve confirmed arrival of your submission, and undertaken pregrades if applicable, then an order needs to be created on the site within 10 working days of the deadline.
Submissions for Essentials must be in clear sleeves, please do not place tape over semi-rigids / toploaders, but rather use bubble wrap around your submission.
Submissions for all services must include a submission form.
The submission form must have the correct service circled, so we can organise your submission correctly, as well as the total amount of items you have sent.
If you have an Instagram you would like to be shouted on on the videos your cards will be in, please put this next to your name.
The address to send to is:
Connor Davis/ GradedGem (Both or either)
Storagebase 1 Ltd
7 The IO Centre
Jugglers Close
Banbury, Oxfordshire
OX16 3TA
Then please wait on email confirmation of submission received from GradedGem, this can take up to 2 working days, weekend deliveries confirmed Monday.
Please allow extra time at the end of the month/ submission deadline week.
Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards do not need to be listed with information, however we do ask that other cards have as much information as possible on the submission form.
GradedGem can grade any card that is in the PSA registry (if you can find a PSA graded example, we can grade it).
Items not found on the PSA registry, please contact us to see if we think we can get it graded.
We have our own database and storage systems that separates each submitter, with multiple checks at each stage of the process.
Items sent to PSA, and being returned from PSA, are insured for a max value per parcel of up to £75,000. GradedGem, to their best efforts, will ensure parcels are always under this maximum declared value.
This provides cover for theft, loss or damage of the items including full or partial stolen goods, items going missing and damages such as accidental damage, impact, fire, water damage etc. All items are sent by, and received via, FedEx Express.
Items are insured for ungraded value on their way to PSA, and for their graded value upon return from PSA (up to the max value per parcel) and up to a maximum of £1000 per card.
Upon any potential claim, market price is used via eBay sold listings, if no sold listings, then it would be required for the submitter to have a receipt of their purchase to prove value.
Preferred, Express, Express+ and Sports 2017-New card submissions all get pregraded (providing submission form is sufficient), with no cost attached.
Any cards that are taken out at this point of the process will be packaged up to be returned to yourself. We will ask you for the postage cost to return these cards immediately, as we can’t store cards that aren’t being graded.
Please see PSA Grading standards here – PSA Card
We can also recommend this article at – PSACollector
Pre-Grading Fair Use Policy
At GradedGem we operate differently in regards to pre-grades to our competitors.
We have this system to give submitters a chance to have pre-grades without penalty of additional charges as we always have believed your fee should go to PSA grading.
This means we do ask for fair usage of our pre-grading system –
– Submitting cards to GradedGem you have the intention to grade with PSA if pre-grades are within your expectations.
– Expectation not to pull more than 25% of your submitted cards, it could be investigated if we feel submitter has exploited our Pre- Grading service.
This is to protect hours being used up pre-grading hundreds of cards for only small % of cards to be submitted.
If investigation concludes the pre-grading service was exploited, GradedGem reserves the right to not pre-grade your future submissions.
If you are unsure on what cards you should or shouldn’t grade and you would like our advise on how to research cards & prices and how to pre-grade cards please reach out and we are happy to assist.
3 month split, 2 month split, 1 month split (4, 3 or 2 payments including a deposit)
Payments can be made in My Account -> My Payments
Your next payment will be enabled as soon as you make your last payment.
For example if you have a 3 month split, after your deposit, payment 2 will be active. After that is made, payment 3 will be active, etc
Payment Plans are offered at no additional cost, however these are offered at our full discretion on a customer by customer basis, and can be refused.
We send the standard PSA Grading services once per month, with the deadline being at the end of the month.
Our express services are sent off once per month, with the deadline being near the middle of the month.
Our Specials are submitted once every two months, with the deadline being the end of the 2 month period.
Depending of the volume of submissions for each service level, we aim to get all submissions to PSA within 2 weeks.
To help GradedGem be able to offer the best service possible, submission forms are needed for all submissions (however card details are not necessary for ordinary Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards)
All order updates will now be hosted on our ORDER UPDATES page.
When your cards are returning to us we reach out to confirm your address.
Every month there will be an update video in regards to everything GradedGem, you can find our channel here.
An overall month-by-month update on submissions is available here which is updated every Friday evening.
The expected turnarounds for each service are on each service page.
However, external factors can affect this, such as PSA Closures.
Demand is currently extremely high for PSA services, therefore delays are to be expected.
PSA can charge additionally for cards that have a considerably higher value after grading.
Please see PSA Card
The submitter will be responsible for any value charges their cards attain, GradedGem will pay these charges immediately as to get PSA return’s as quickly as possible, however the submitter will have to pay these charges before graded cards are returned to submitter.
Approximate value charges breakdown:
Value once graded ~£200-£500 – Additional charge of ~£7
Value once graded ~£501-1500 – Additional charge of ~£58
Value once graded ~£1501-4000 – Additional charge of ~£160
PSA Pricing specialists may decide to levy charges dependant on values of cards they use https://www.psacard.com/auctionprices/
GradedGem can provide proof of any value charge. GradedGem only raise charges if PSA raise them on an order and charges are raised at the end of the process.
We will never ask for value charges to be paid until after the grading process.
Under 18s must use an adult to submit their cards, and be their primary source of contact and responsibility for GradedGem Submissions.
GradedGem does not officially support multi-person submissions from submitters.
If you wish to submit cards from multiple submitters within a singular submission we would suggest sending with no duplications.
GradedGem will not separate out your package into individuals.
GradedGem’s responsibility is to return your cards back to you correctly.
All of the cards will be under your submission, and are inputted into PSA in a format to get the best grades possible.
When sending 300+ cards you may also request cards are inputted in a specific order, and card order must be clearly sorted and labelled within the submission package.
Cards are sorted and input to give the best chance of favourable grading returns.
The Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated between the UK & EU looks increasingly likely to happen. For now, all trade between the EU & UK will work exactly as previously years until 31st December 2020.
This mean’s it will have no impact on our service until later in the year when an outlook of the future relationship between the EU & UK should become clear.
GradedGem Germany and GradedGem Italy will not be affected by Brexit changes and all charges will be inclusive for those services.
So no need to hesitate, Submit your cards!
If you are submitting 49 cards or less, it is required that you directly submit to either gradedgem.de or gradedgem.it
However, if you are submitting 50+ cards, you can still at this time directly use GradedGem UK
Getting the cards to us (at your preferred insurance level) is your responsibility. The unknown Brexit resolution may change this in the future.
Your cards will also be on YouTube, one video documenting submission and another for the returns this allows you to document the full turnaround and show off your trading cards. Best of luck with your Grades!
If you have an Instagram, eBay or any other social media account you want to be shared on the video please do let us know.
All cards for Essentials, Preferred, Sports 2017-Present, Express and Express+ will feature in both Submission and Returns videos.
All Special submissions (excluding Reholders) are shown in PSA Returns videos.
If you want to see your old orders or make payments on previously made payment plans, please visit https://classic.gradedgem.com
The price for any bracket is per card or per special item.
For example, one card submitted in Preferred would be in the 1-9 cards bracket of £10.49 per card, therefore costing £10.49 total.
3 cards submitted would be in the same bracket, so would cost 3 * £10.49 = £31.47 total.