Verify & grade
A short-duration physical check on a card that is part of a trade, purchase or transfer. We receive it, document it, confirm it matches the transaction, and route it onward. Our goal is to hold your card for as little time as possible.
Six steps, and every one of them is written to the card's record as it happens.
You ship the card to the Poke-Trade verification center using the instructions attached to your transaction.
The shipment is scanned on arrival. Arrival date and time are recorded and a chain-of-custody record opens against your transaction.
Package condition, card or slab front and back, certification details and identifying characteristics are photographed, along with any condition observations and the associated Smart Tag.
We confirm the item received matches what the transaction says it should be — the listed card, quantity, stated grade and slab information, certification details, and any obvious discrepancies.
If it matches, the item is marked Poke-Trade Verified on its record, with the documentation attached.
The card leaves. You choose the destination in advance: on to the trade recipient, back to you, or on to an independent grading company you select.
Poke-Trade confirmed that the item it received matches the requirements and documentation of a specific transaction, and recorded photographs and a chain-of-custody record for it.
This is not a professional grade, not an authentication opinion, and not a substitute for PSA, CGC, Beckett or SGC.
An independent grading company examined the item, assigned a grade, and issued a certification number under its own standards.
Poke-Trade does not assign the grade and does not independently validate a provider's certification unless we state that we have authoritative verification.
You choose the destination when you start the transaction, and you can confirm it once verification completes.
We ship the verified card directly to the trade recipient, with the verification record attached to the trade.
Trade Center→The card goes straight back to you with its documentation on the record.
Your portfolio→We forward the documented card to the independent grading company you choose. The grade and certification come back to the same record.
Compare providers→If what arrives does not match the transaction, we hold it only as long as resolving the transaction requires, and then either return it to the sender or follow the applicable dispute-resolution procedure. The documentation captured at check-in is the evidence used to resolve it.
Trust & safety →This is a deliberate limit on the service, not a feature we have not built yet.
Poke-Trade does not offer long-term storage, vault accounts, indefinite custody or storage subscriptions, and does not plan to. Holding large numbers of valuable cards creates theft exposure, insurance burden and reconciliation risk that collectors end up paying for. Keeping custody short means your card spends its time with you, with the person you traded it to, or with a professional grader — not with us.
Collectors who want professional long-term storage can arrange it independently with a provider that offers it. Poke-Trade’s role is to keep the digital record accurate wherever the physical card sits, including when it is somewhere else entirely.
How the record tracks locationGrading, authentication, certification and storage services are provided independently by their respective providers. Poke-Trade is not affiliated with or endorsed by a provider unless specifically stated.
If you route a verified card onward for grading, you pick the provider. We do not choose for you and we do not rank them.
This page is about verifying a card. Verifying your account — email, phone, identity and address — is a separate thing that raises your trade limits.
