Graders Guild Corp.
Terms and Conditions of Service
Effective date: 18 September 2026 · Alberta, Canada
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE SUBMITTING ANY ITEM. By creating an account, placing an order, paying any fee, or delivering an item to Graders Guild, you agree to these Terms in full. If you do not agree, do not send items.
CORE RULE: Graders Guild's maximum legal responsibility for any item is CAD $50.00. That limit applies to grades, delay, chips and digital features, inbound and outbound handling after the rules below, and physical loss or damage. It is meant to stop inflated, speculative, and illegitimate claims. If we ever pay more than CAD $50.00, that is a voluntary goodwill payment at our sole discretion. It is not a right, not an admission, and not a new cap.
Do not submit an item you cannot afford to have limited to a CAD $50.00 legal remedy.
1. Parties and Scope
These Terms and Conditions of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between you (the "Customer") and Graders Guild Corp. (together with its owners, officers, contractors, and agents, "Graders Guild," "we," "us").
These Terms govern all grading, authentication-support, encapsulation, labelling, verification, shipping handling, digital records, live or on-site grading, and related services (the "Services"). They apply to items submitted in person, by mail, courier, at a show or event, or any other method, in Canada, the United States, or elsewhere.
If any order form, website checkout box, packing slip, or label conflicts with these Terms, these Terms control. A written amendment signed by Graders Guild may add rights for us. It does not increase our legal liability above CAD $50.00 per item unless it says, in those words, that the CAD $50.00 cap is replaced for that item.
Notices to us go to the email or address on www.gradersguild.com or on your invoice. Notices to you may go to the email or shipping address on your submission. You agree we may communicate electronically.
2. Eligibility
You represent that you are at least 18, have legal capacity, and own the items or are authorized to bind the owner. If you submit for someone else, you accept these Terms for them and stay jointly responsible.
If you are a consumer and a statute will not allow a waiver, that statute controls only to the extent it must. Everything else in these Terms still applies.
3. When the Contract Starts
No item is accepted until one of these happens:
- you complete checkout and accept these Terms on our site; or
- you sign or tick a paper or electronic order, show slip, or packing list that refers to these Terms; or
- we scan and log the item at our premises or booth after you have had access to these Terms.
A box at the post office is not acceptance. We may refuse it or hold it unopened. No employee or show helper can raise the CAD $50.00 cap.
4. The Service
4.1 Grading is an opinion
A grade, note, label, or population-style record is our professional opinion at the time of examination. It is not an appraisal, not a market-value guarantee, not a promise that PSA, CGC, BGS, TAG, or anyone else will agree, and not a promise the item will sell for any price. We do not give monetary valuations or appraisals.
4.2 AI
We use imaging and AI tools for consistency. A person reviews authenticity and approves or changes the proposed grade before a label is issued. AI is a tool, not a warranty.
4.3 We do not buy your items
Submission is not an offer to sell to us.
4.4 Security features
Slabs may include UV fibres, void labels, seals, serials, QR codes, and NFC (including NXP NTAG 424 DNA chips). Features vary. We do not warrant that any feature stops all fakes, tampers, theft, or cloning, or that digital or NFT functions will stay available.
A chip or lookup read means the sealed slab has not been reported opened or swapped in our records. It is not a guarantee the raw item was genuine before sealing, not a title opinion, and not insurance.
4.5 Digital features
NFC, lookup pages, Cardfax or similar records, tokens, or NFTs are "as is." We may change or drop them. Extra product rules, if any, do not raise the cap.
5. Intake, Declared Value, Photos, Caps
Describe each item honestly and state a declared value at intake. That number is for our records, operating caps, and any insurance you buy. It does not raise our CAD $50.00 legal cap.
Intake opening is recorded on camera when practicable. Those images are the primary record of what arrived and in what condition. Damage or shortage not visible on that record is presumed pre-existing unless you prove otherwise.
Unless we agree in writing first, we may refuse or leave unopened anything that would put more than our posted on-site cap on the premises (CAD $10,000 total as of the effective date) or any single item above our posted any-one-item cap. Over-cap lots may stay sealed.
We may refuse counterfeit, altered, wet, contaminated, prohibited, or misrepresented items.
6. Fees, Taxes, Chargebacks, Lien
Fees are as quoted, in CAD unless stated otherwise. Tax is extra unless the quote includes it. Fees are earned when we accept the item into process. Payment is not insurance.
A chargeback after we have started or finished, without a remedy these Terms actually give you, is a breach. You still owe the fee and processor cost.
Unpaid invoices: we may keep the items (possessory lien). After 90 days' notice to your last email, we may treat them as abandoned and dispose of them.
7. Shipping
7.1 Inbound
You pack and you pay inbound shipping unless we agree otherwise. Carrier terms govern you and the carrier.
We are not responsible for inbound loss or damage until the package is received and the item is logged at our premises or booth. A local postal scan is not receipt by us. After logging, Section 8 applies.
7.2 Outbound
We ship by a method we choose or you pay for. Tracking is a convenience. After we hand a tracked package to the carrier, look to the carrier first. Customs, duties, and failed delivery from a bad address you gave are your problem. We may charge storage and re-ship. After 90 days' notice, Section 6 abandonment applies.
High-value returns near our shipment cap use tracking and signature when available.
8. Maximum Legal Liability — CAD $50.00
8.1 The cap
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, GRADERS GUILD'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LEGAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO ANY SINGLE ITEM — WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), BAILMENT, CONVERSION, STATUTE, OR OTHERWISE — SHALL NOT EXCEED FIFTY CANADIAN DOLLARS (CAD $50.00).
That cap applies to the whole chain after the inbound rule in Section 7.1: logging, storage, examination, grading, encapsulation, shows, holding, and outbound handling.
It applies to loss, theft, mysterious disappearance, fire, flood, damage, destruction, delay, misdelivery, non-delivery, encapsulation or label defect, security-feature or NFC failure, grading opinion, and any other failure of the Services, except only what a statute says we cannot limit.
8.2 What the cap is for
The cap exists to block illegitimate, stacked, and speculative damages: later market spikes, "it would have been a 10," lost auctions, emotional distress, reputation, collection interruption, punitive claims, and lawyers' fees except as a court awards on a claim that a statute will not let us limit.
You agree that CAD $50.00 per item is the agreed allocation of legal risk in exchange for the service fee.
8.3 Exclusive legal remedy
Payment of CAD $50.00 per affected item, or at our option a refund of that item's grading fee, or replacement of a generic holder only (not the collectible), is your sole legal remedy against Graders Guild.
One item, one CAD $50.00. Inbound plus outbound plus "negligence" plus "bailment" still total CAD $50.00, not CAD $50.00 per theory.
8.4 No extra damages
We are not legally liable for lost profits, lost market value above the cap, lost auction results, emotional distress, reputational harm, or any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages, even if we were told they were possible.
8.5 Voluntary goodwill — not a right
If we decide that a particular situation should be handled more generously than CAD $50.00 — including, if we choose, paying toward the declared or proven value of an item we physically lost or damaged after logging — that payment is voluntary, ex gratia, and at Graders Guild's sole and absolute discretion.
A goodwill payment:
- is not an admission of liability, fault, or that the cap is unenforceable;
- does not waive, raise, or replace the CAD $50.00 cap for that item or any other item;
- does not create a duty, custom, or expectation that we will pay anyone else on the same terms;
- may be refused for any reason or no reason, including if we believe the claim is inflated, late, inconsistent with intake photos, or made in bad faith;
- may be conditioned on a signed release, return of the damaged item or slab, confidentiality, and proof of ownership and pre-intake value.
Nothing in this Section 8.5 gives you a contractual right to more than CAD $50.00. If we say no, the cap in Section 8.1 is the end of the legal claim.
8.6 Our insurance is not yours
Any business insurance we carry, including cover for property of others, is for Graders Guild. It does not name you, does not make you a beneficiary, and does not raise the cap. If you want your own cover, buy a policy that names you.
8.7 Fraud and wilful misconduct
Where the law will not let us limit our own fraud or wilful misconduct, that slice is severed. Ordinary negligence, honest error, and bailment stay under the CAD $50.00 cap.
8.8 Force majeure
Events beyond our reasonable control (fire, flood, weather, utilities, labour, pandemic, war, government, carrier failure) do not create extra legal damages. The cap still applies.
9. Grade and Authenticity Review
Turnaround times are targets.
If we cannot process an item, we may return it ungraded and refund or credit the fee minus spent shipping.
Fail or hold authenticity items are not encapsulated as authentic.
Clerical error (wrong name, set, or serial), reported within 14 days of receipt: we correct the label.
Grade or authenticity dispute: write within 14 days. We review intake photos, scans, the rubric, and the human sign-off. We may require the item back if it has not been altered. If we agree a review is warranted, the only remedies we owe are a regrade/relabel at our discretion and/or a refund of that item's grading fee. That is not a market-value claim and it does not lift Section 8.
10. Shows
Stay with the item until we log it on a show slip or in the system. Collect completed items before you leave unless we agree in writing to ship. No customer items left unsecured overnight; overnight hold goes in a locked safe or off the floor. Booth talk is not a final grade until labelled or recorded. The show slip is part of these Terms.
11. Bad Items
We may photograph and keep images of suspected counterfeit or altered items, refuse to encapsulate them as authentic, return them ungraded, or hold or report them if the law requires. Do not send wet, mouldy, pest, or hazardous material.
12. Your Warranties and False Claims
You warrant lawful ownership or authority, honest description, and no sanctions or export breach. You indemnify us against third-party stolen / unauthorized-submission claims, including our legal fees, except where a court finally holds we caused the claim by our wilful misconduct.
Claims that contradict the camera file, invent a post-loss value, or use comps dated after intake may be denied as false.
13. Records and IP
Our names, logos, labels, serials, software, and photos we take stay ours. We may use photos for records, QC, population-style databases, and marketing of the Services without your name unless you agree.
14. After Return
Opening the slab or attacking a security feature after return is your risk. A tampered slab is no longer a sealed Graders Guild authentic item.
15. Privacy
We collect what we need to perform the Services and to meet tax, insurance, and dispute needs. You may request access or correction under Alberta PIPA and, where it applies, PIPEDA.
16. Contractors and Assignment
Couriers, software vendors, and show staff are not a second promise to you. You may not assign a submission without our consent. We may assign these Terms with the business.
17. Governing Law
Alberta law and Canadian federal law as applicable in Alberta. Alberta courts have exclusive jurisdiction, except we may seek an injunction anywhere to protect IP or recover fees or detained property.
Bring any claim within twelve (12) months after the item was due back or was returned, whichever is earlier, to the extent the law allows.
18. Entire Agreement
Posted updates apply to items submitted after the new version is posted. If a court strikes a clause, the rest stands and Section 8 is enforced as far as the law allows. These Terms are the whole agreement. No verbal promise raises the cap.
19. Acknowledgement
BY SUBMITTING AN ITEM YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GRADERS GUILD'S MAXIMUM LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY IS CAD $50.00 PER ITEM; THAT ANY LARGER PAYMENT IS OPTIONAL GOODWILL WE MAY REFUSE; AND THAT INBOUND RISK IS YOURS UNTIL WE LOG THE ITEM.
Acceptance. Checkout tick-box, typed name, signed show slip, payment, or our logging of an item after you were given these Terms is your signature.
Customer name: ________________________________
Date: ________________________________
Order / submission ID: ________________________________
Graders Guild
Chip, NFC, Tamper-Seal and Digital Twin Terms
Addendum to the Terms and Conditions of Service · Effective 20 September 2026 · Alberta, Canada
BINDING RULE — READ FIRST. The NFC chip, SDM / SUN message, TagTamper status, listing code, and Solana digital twin are security and records tools. They are not insurance, not a guarantee of future market value, and not a promise that any phone, wallet, chain, or payment network will work forever.
Graders Guild's total liability for any item — including chip failure, false tap result, failed burn, failed sale, lost listing code, or chain outage — remains capped at CAD $50.00 per item under the master Terms and Conditions of Service dated 18 September 2026. Cutting, peeling, soaking, or otherwise opening the tamper tail is an intentional act. You authorize irreversible destruction of the digital twin when the seal reports open.
1. Agreement and acceptance
These Chip, NFC, Tamper-Seal and Digital Twin Terms (the "Chip Terms") are an addendum to the Graders Guild Terms and Conditions of Service (the "Master Terms"). Together they form one agreement. If these Chip Terms and the Master Terms conflict on chip, NFC, SUN, Tamper, listing-code, marketplace, or digital-twin subjects, these Chip Terms control. The CAD $50.00 per-item liability cap in the Master Terms is not increased by anything in this document.
You accept these Chip Terms when you do any of the following: submit an item for encapsulation with a chip; pay for a chipped slab; tap a Graders Guild chip with a phone or reader; open a verification URL served by Graders Guild; create, use, or share a listing code; list, buy, or sell a chipped slab through Graders Guild tools; or cut, peel, or otherwise disturb a tamper tail. Secondary-market buyers are bound the first time they tap the chip or complete a purchase.
If you do not agree, do not tap the chip, do not cut the tail, and do not use the verification URL or marketplace.
2. What the chip is — and what it is not
2.1 Intended function
A Graders Guild slab may contain an NXP NTAG 424 DNA TagTamper (or successor) NFC chip programmed by Graders Guild. On tap, the chip can produce a Secure Unique NFC (SUN) message that our oracle may use to: (a) show a live verification page; (b) report a seal status such as CC (closed / intact), OC, or OO (open / tampered); (c) bind the physical slab to a Solana Token-2022 mint (the "Digital Twin"); and (d) if the seal reports open, attempt to burn or otherwise retire that Digital Twin.
2.2 Not a warranty of the cardboard
A "Verified Genuine" or similar result means only that, at the moment of that tap, the chip produced a SUN / MAC / PICC payload our then-current keys and software accepted, and that our records associated that chip with the displayed mint. It is not: an appraisal; a promise the trading card inside is authentic independently of our grade opinion; a promise the slab has never been mishandled after return; insurance; a title registry recognized by any government; or a guarantee that screenshots, copied URLs, or replayed taps are valid.
2.3 Not a perfect physical lock
No polymer, adhesive, inlay, antenna, or silicon package is unbreakable. A determined actor with time, tools, or a compromised reader can damage, desolder, swap, or clone hardware in ways that may or may not be detected. The chip raises the cost of fraud. It does not make fraud impossible. You accept that residual risk.
3. TagTamper, tails, and irreversible burn
The TagTamper loop / tail is a one-way physical sensor. Factory and programmed behaviour is that an intact loop reports a closed status (commonly mirrored as t=CC) and a broken loop reports an open status (commonly t=OC or t=OO). Status encoding may change; the legal fact is closed versus open.
- You must not cut, peel, soak, puncture, microwave, launder, or chemically attack the tail unless you intend the Digital Twin to be destroyed.
- An open-seal tap is your instruction to Graders Guild to burn, freeze, or otherwise retire the Digital Twin using the permanent delegate or any other authority we hold.
- Burn is irreversible. Supply cannot be restored. We will not remint a "replacement twin" for a tail you opened, except at our sole discretion and never as an admission of liability.
- A burn may fail because of RPC outage, blockhash expiry, empty token account, wrong program ID, revoked delegate, or network congestion. Failure to burn does not restore a closed-seal status and does not create a claim above the CAD $50.00 cap.
- If you open a tail by accident, that is still an open seal. Accidental destruction is your risk.
Do not treat the verification page as a safe-deposit box. Once the tail is open, the product promise is "seal broken — twin retired," not "we will always succeed in writing that to Solana in under N seconds."
4. SUN messages, URLs, and verification
The chip writes dynamic fields into an NDEF URI (typically parameters such as mint, t, e, and c). Those fields are designed to change per tap. You acknowledge:
- A screenshot, printed URL, or copied link from an old tap is not proof of a later tap.
- A phone, browser, carrier, or NFC stack may truncate, rewrite, or prefetch the URL. Malformed taps can show an error page even when the chip is genuine.
- We may reject a tap for bad PICC length, bad AES-CMAC, unknown mint, exhausted or reused counter, key mismatch, or oracle rules we publish later.
- "Not verified," "processing notice," or a similar page is not a finding that the cardboard is fake. It is a finding that this tap did not satisfy the cryptographic checks.
- We may change parameter names, path (/v versus /api/verify-slab), offsets, or key slots without notice as we harden the system.
You will not scrape, flood, or automate the oracle to enumerate keys, counters, or other customers' mints.
5. Keys, programming, and chain of custody
Application keys, diversification, and SDM file settings are Graders Guild confidential information. You have no right to factory keys, master keys, session keys, or dump files.
- Only chips we program, or that we accept in writing after inspection, are "Graders Guild chips." A blank, factory-zero, hobbyist-written, or grey-market inlay is not our product even if it sits in a slab that looks like ours.
- If you or a third party re-program, overwrite NDEF, change file settings, or swap the inlay, all verification and burn features are void and the CAD $50.00 cap still applies.
- We may use per-chip or per-batch keys. Compromise of one chip's diversified material does not entitle you to keys for any other chip.
- Reader software (TagXplorer, GoToTags, custom Python, phone apps) is untrusted input. A successful write in a desktop tool is not a Graders Guild certification unless we performed or approved that write.
6. Hardware limits and customer care
NFC fails in ordinary life. You accept, with no extra remedy, loss of function from: cracked antenna or inlay; moisture in the slab or label; heat above the tag's spec; bending, dropping, or crushing the slab; metal or ferrite near the tail; cheap or incompatible readers; iOS / Android NFC bugs; wallet-case magnets interfering with coil coupling; and chips that never leave factory state because programming did not commit.
We are not obliged to replace a chip that worked at dispatch and later went silent. Any replacement we offer is goodwill, billed at our then-current fee, and still subject to the CAD $50.00 cap for the original item.
7. Digital Twin, wallets, and Solana
The Digital Twin is a Token-2022 mint (or successor standard) that may include a permanent delegate so we can burn on open-seal. You understand:
- Blockchain transfers are final. Wrong wallet, phishing site, or drained seed is your loss.
- We do not custody customer wallets except to the extent a mint sits in a treasury we control before first transfer.
- Phantom, Solflare, Irys, RPC providers, and the Solana validators are third parties. Their downtime, forks, or fee spikes are not our breach.
- Metadata URIs can rot if a gateway dies. On-chain name/symbol may survive; artwork may not. That is not a grading defect.
- A holder may burn the token from their own wallet. That is allowed and is not our defect. After supply is zero, verification should report the twin gone.
- Royalty fields in metadata are informational. We do not promise on-chain royalty enforcement on every marketplace.
8. Listing codes, marketplace, and money
A listing code is a bearer secret. Anyone who has it can change price, mark the slab for sale, or start Stripe Connect for that slab. You will treat it like a PIN. We will not reconstruct a lost code except through a process we set, which may include destroying marketplace access for that mint.
Secondary sales: Graders Guild does not receive or hold the seller's sale proceeds. Card checkout uses Stripe Connect so funds settle to the seller's connected account. We take only the published platform fee (the greater of the stated dollar floor and the stated percentage, never more than the price minus one cent). Cryptocurrency sales pay the seller wallet we record, minus any on-chain fee we disclose.
A seller must complete their own Stripe KYC. One email should map to one connected account reused across that seller's slabs. Mixing emails creates extra accounts and is the seller's problem. We are not the seller's employer, partner, or payment agent beyond acting as a Connect platform.
Chargebacks, AVS failures, and Stripe reserves hit the connected account or, where Stripe's rules assign them, the platform. You indemnify us for buyer fraud you cause. We may cancel a listing or freeze checkout if we suspect abuse.
9. Data created by a tap
Each tap may send us chip UID, read counter, PICC ciphertext, MAC, tamper status, mint, IP address, user-agent, and time. We use that to verify, to detect replay, to operate the marketplace, to burn on open seal, and to keep records for tax and disputes. We may retain it for the life of the product line plus limitation periods. We do not sell tap logs as a marketing list. We may share them with payment processors, chain RPCs, insurers, or law enforcement when required.
10. Prohibited conduct
You will not, and will not help anyone to:
- Extract, brute-force, or publish application keys, diversified keys, or raw APDU traces intended to clone a live slab.
- Replay a SUN URL to impersonate a later tap, or grind counters to desynchronize a chip.
- Present a swapped inlay, photocopied label, or screenshot as a live Graders Guild verification.
- Use a stolen listing code or a Connect account that is not yours.
- Interfere with burn transactions or the oracle.
- Submit items you do not own.
We may blacklist a mint, chip UID, wallet, or email without notice. Blacklist is not a taking of the cardboard; it is a refusal of digital services.
11. No extra warranties
CHIPS, SOFTWARE, URLS, AND DIGITAL TWINS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY ALBERTA AND FEDERAL LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT UNINTERRUPTED ORACLE UPTIME, INSTANT BURNS, OR THAT EVERY PHONE WILL READ EVERY CHIP.
Some consumer rules cannot be waived. Where a waiver is void, our remaining obligations are limited to a re-tap attempt or a refund not exceeding CAD $50.00 for that item, at our choice.
12. Liability, indemnity, and time bar
Nothing in these Chip Terms raises the Master Terms cap. For chip, tap, burn, listing-code, Stripe, and twin claims, that cap is the exclusive monetary remedy, even for negligence (but not for fraud we actually commit, or for death or bodily injury where the law forbids a cap).
You indemnify Graders Guild, its owners, officers, contractors, and agents against claims arising from: your opened tail; your lost listing code; your wrong payout email or wallet; your resale representations; your attempt to reprogram a chip; and third-party chargebacks on sales you listed.
You must sue within twelve (12) months of the tap, sale, or burn you complain about, whichever is earlier. After that the claim is barred to the extent the law allows.
13. Changes, law, and entire agreement
We may post a new version of these Chip Terms. The version in effect when you tap, list, or buy governs that act. These Chip Terms plus the Master Terms are the entire agreement on chips and twins. Informal chat, Discord, or support emails do not amend them.
Governing law: Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. Exclusive courts: Alberta, except we may seek an injunction anywhere to stop key theft, oracle abuse, or trademark misuse.
If a clause is struck, the rest survives and the CAD $50.00 cap is enforced to the maximum allowed.
14. Acknowledgement
BY TAPPING A GRADERS GUILD CHIP, CUTTING A TAMPER TAIL, USING A LISTING CODE, OR PAYING FOR A CHIPPED SLAB, YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU HAVE READ THESE CHIP TERMS AND THE MASTER TERMS, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT AN OPEN SEAL IS INTENDED TO DESTROY THE DIGITAL TWIN, AND YOU ACCEPT THAT GRADERS GUILD'S MAXIMUM RESPONSIBILITY REMAINS CAD $50.00 PER ITEM.
Electronic checkout, a tap that loads our verification host, typed name, payment, or shipment to Graders Guild is signature.
Customer / holder name: ________________________________
Date: ________________________________
Slab serial / mint (if known): ________________________________
Listing code last-four only (do not write the full code): ________