Guides · Method · Updated 20 Oct 2026
Selling a collection: the record a buyer will ask for
A buyer of a collection asks, item by item, what a buyer of one slab asks once: what is there, what each item is, where it has been, and what is in writing. Build the record before the first conversation.
The short answer
A buyer of a collection asks for the same things, item by item, that a buyer of a slab asks for once: a list of what is there, each item’s identity, where it has been, and what is in writing. A collection with that record sells on the record. One without it sells on the buyer’s own inspection, item by item, at the buyer’s pace.
Build the record before the first conversation. Count it, look up every cert, photograph it and date it. Then the buyer’s questions have answers already written, and the ones you cannot answer are written down as such.
What a buyer will ask for
- 01The list. One line per item: house number, grader and cert number or a raw description, the grade, and where the item is today. A spreadsheet is enough; the columns matter more than the software.
- 02The lookups. Every cert looked up on the grader’s own page, with the date. A number that comes back deactivated, not found or with a warning is written down as such before a buyer finds it; CGC’s lookup shows its warnings, and SGC’s asks for the full code.
- 03The photographs. Front and back of every item, square and in even light, named by cert number and date (see the photographing guide). A buyer compares them with the grader’s images and with the item on arrival.
- 04The provenance. How the collection was built: from whom, from where, and when, with receipts and earlier records where they exist. Gaps as gaps. A buyer reads an honest gap very differently from a filled one.
- 05The count and its date. When the list was last checked against the shelf, and by whom. A buyer who sees a dated count asks fewer questions about the list.
- 06The terms, in writing. What is included, how it ships, who holds the items until payment clears, and what happens if an item does not match its record on arrival. One message both sides keep.
- 07Who holds it during the sale. The seller, the buyer or a third party under its own agreement, written down either way, with the date of each handoff. Brich House records; it never buys, sells or holds.
What this check does not prove
- What the collection is worth. A record is a list of facts on dates. It carries no price, and neither does this guide.
- That a buyer will accept it. Each buyer sets its own checks and may repeat any of them. The record makes those checks faster; it does not replace them.
- Ownership. A record shows who has held each item. Whether the seller can pass title is a question for the seller, in writing.
- What the record cannot fill. An item with no lookup, no photograph and no history stays an item without a record, and the list should say so rather than guess.
Free cert check
Check a PSA, CGC, Beckett or SGC cert.
Enter the number from the label. You see what our watch holds on it and get a link to the grader’s own record. No account.
At the source
Each grader’s own cert lookup.
The grader’s page is its record of what it graded. Look the number up there yourself, not in a screenshot.
Selling a collection?
Brich House Estates.
Cards, memorabilia, watches and coins, from a single piece to a whole estate: every item verified and written down by Brich House. BSJ Ventures makes the offer or sells it for you.
For platforms
The independent record.
For vaults, pack and rip platforms, tokenized-card sites, auction houses and lenders: what you hold, checked against the record and written down, dated, by a company that never buys, sells or holds.