Cert reused on a fake: the mismatch tells

The mismatch tells

1. 01The description. Record against label against card: year, set, card number, variety, grade and qualifiers. A copied label is typed by someone, and a record that says one thing while the label says another is the first tell.
2. 02The images. PSA and CGC say their records carry images of the card as sealed. A card that differs from them in a fixed detail, or a label in the images that differs from the label in hand, is a tell (see the matching guide).
3. 03The label’s own features. CGC lists its label’s security features as microprinting, UV ink and holographic foil. A label that lacks what its grader says it carries, or carries them in the wrong place, is a tell. Compare with a slab of the same grader you know.
4. 04The label’s generation. Graders change label designs over time. A design from one era with a number from another, or fonts and spacing that differ from a known label, is a tell. Keep one known slab per grader to compare against.
5. 05The holder. The seam, the corners, the clarity, the dimensions and the inner sleeve, against a holder you know (see the resealed slab guide). A holder the grader never sealed often differs in feel before it differs in look.
6. 06The same number elsewhere. Search the number. The same number live in two places with different cards, or with a card that differs from the record, is a reason to ask both sellers and the grader. It says nothing yet about which slab is which.
7. 07Write it down, and ask the grader. The tells, the photographs and the date. The grader’s support is the place to ask what it sealed under the number; a forum is not.

What this check does not prove

• Which slab is the one graded. A mismatch says the record and the slab do not agree. It does not say which of two slabs, if there are two, is the grader’s. Only the grader can say that.
• That a matching slab was never opened. A slab that matches its record on every tell can still have been opened and closed. The holder is a separate check.
• Who holds the card now. A cert records the card and the grade on the day it was graded. It says nothing about who has held the card since, or how it got to the seller.
• What the card is worth. A grade is not a price. The lookup says nothing about value, and neither does this guide.