GG Update – 17/02/2023

For fortnightly updates I would suggest joining the –

GradedGem Facebook Group 

Latest YouTube Update 

FAQs from YouTube Update

Query 1 –

Submitters who have paid –

GG is responsible for the submissions at PSA and we are obliged to pay/return them. We can’t split orders from PSA to submitters plus just the added cost from PSA shipping direct to submitter unfortunately isn’t an option. Additionally we are working on the first in, first out system so orders are returned in order of submission.

The contracts are between the submitter and GG and then GG to PSA, PSA also already has a situation to deal with and I’d imagine their preference is GG to resolve this.

For submitters who have already paid for us to return orders individually we would need to have sent off every submission separately & also required payment upfront from everyone. The whole intention of the service was to save on grading fees and costs to put submissions together making this not plausible unfortunately, it’s easy to see in hindsight but the initial business model did not work like this. I would also argue the safety of £millions in upfront payments may have left the other large middlemen less aware of the cash flow issues that would arise, whereas we very quickly had to cut operating costs and balance out income and expenses efficiently.

Query 2 –

Turnaround Expectations –

I don’t want to over- promise and under deliver as could be stated from the last video therefore these expectations are safely within the realm of realism –

Oct/ Nov 2020 – Finalised by end of Jan

Jan 2021 – Finalised by the end of March

Feb 2021 – Finalised by the end of May

Although this is 2 months later than expected to wind GG down it is based on more accurate productivity numbers from the months prior to this update.

Query 3 –

Should everyone pay immediately?

Not really, as long as payments match our operating capacity then realistically there is no need to scramble to make payment until contacted. Funds are in place for a large share of outstanding over the next couple of months, once we start attacking January submissions in large quantities we will send out a communication with expectation of payment, same for February.

If you would prefer to pay now then please email connor@gradedgem.com titled URGENT – Making payment and I can allocate your funds / orders correctly on our database.

Query 4 –

Awaiting email/ communication from GG .

My apologies if you are awaiting a communication/ dispatch, unfortunately our communication channels got overloaded with queries and realistically the only way to solve that was sorting this update video out. I’m working now and the rest of the week to resolve outstanding queries and then can focus entirely on new orders returning.

Query 5 –

Updates and retiring of the update system.

Although initially useful the update system’s only purpose now is to remind submitters their cards aren’t back, by retiring the system we can fully focus on returning cards/ orders.

I will be making more of an effort to do FB/ YT updates & the big picture updater in the next few months but hopefully as people get their cards back it will become obvious progress is being made.

Query 6 –

Selling the cards unpaid for.

I do like the idea of selling the cards as a ‘mystery’ slab however it can be hard for submitters to outright give us permission to sell their cards in this or any other manner. We worked hard to lower unpaid orders amount and this may be something we explore if it rises for 2021 submissions.

Query 7 – Specials turnaround expectations

2020 – Feb 23

2021 – May 23

The above is my expected turnarounds for 2020 & 2021 submissions.

I apologise if I missed anything, so again feel free to comment below, whether you agree with the answers or not, I hope it does at least clarify your queries from our perspective.

All the best,

Connor

 

 

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 collectibles, 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 card’s information, grade, and unique certification number.
PSA is based in California and New Jersey is the most trusted & popular grading service in the world.

GradedGem is an 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 250,000 cards to PSA over the past 5 years, with over £2,000,000 worth of collectibles being sent through us.

We show all collectibles 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 by sending your cards to GradedGem. You then fill out a submission slip which can be found at “downloads”. Place this form in with your submission.

For Sports cards and Special ‘other collectible’ services, it is necessary to fill in the individual card information, this is done via a submission form which you can find here – “downloads

Once we’ve confirmed the arrival of your submission, and undertaken pre-grades if applicable, then an order needs to be created on the site.

Submissions for Trading Cards 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 slip.

The submission slip must have the correct service circled, so we can organise your submission correctly, as well as the total amount of items you have sent.

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.

Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards do not need to be listed with information, however it would be appreciated if other TCGs accompany a list of their information so labels are correct returning from PSACard.

Although this is not compulsory and we will always do our best to research card details correctly.

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.

 

Yes we can pre-grade your cards for you, it is an option for most services we offer, if not sure please double check on the product pages.

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.

If you would prefer to pre-grade your own cards and save some money please see the below helpful links.

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 payment split, 2 payment split, 1 payment 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 payment split, after your deposit, payment 1 will be active. After that is made, payment 2 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 we reserve the right to refuse submitters from this offer.

Depending of the volume of submissions for each service level, we aim to get all submissions to PSA within 2 weeks.

To help GradedGem to be able to offer the best service possible, please follow all procedure and instructions.

A personal unique order update system is currently in development.

This will be released as soon as practically possible.

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 and demand for their services.

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 pricing tiers on Standard service:
Value once graded ~$200-$500 
Value once graded ~$500 -$1000 
Value once graded ~£1000-$1500 & then above.

Value Charges are will be lower on Express/ Express + submissions as you are entitled to higher value limits and you pay a higher initial cost. 

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.

Cards are sorted and input to give the best chance of favourable grading returns.

When submitting on behalf of yourself it means responsibilities between ourselves and yourself are committed to.

If you submit via a third party to ourselves we can not provide you with updates, customer service or any financial insurance commitments, this would all be committed to the third party. 

For the best GradedGem experience we heavily encourage submitting for yourself on behalf of yourself.

 

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.

 

The Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated between the UK & EU means no tariffs on goods between the EU & UK. 

This mean’s it will have little to no impact on our service. 

Official GradedGem EU Services will not be affected by Brexit changes and all charges will be inclusive for those services.

We encourage submitters to submit with their local GradedGem service if possible.

Please see list below –

location

So no need to hesitate, Submit your cards!

 

We now advise all EU located submitters use EU GradedGem Hubs.

Germany- Link – Contact- pablo@gradedgem.com

Italy- Link – Contact- alessio@gradedgem.com

Belgium- Link – Contact- laurent@gradedgem.com

Switzerland- Link – Contact- simon@gradedgem.com

Norway- Link –  Contact- mats@gradedgem.com

Getting the cards to us (at your preferred insurance level) is your responsibility. 

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!

https://youtube.com/gradedgem

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.

You can choose this option when submitting on the submission slip 🙂

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

 

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.

Please do NOT refresh the checkout page, as this can create duplicate orders.

After pressing Place Order, please check your emails and your “My Account -> My Orders” page to check to see if your order has been processed.