Fake CCA Slabs Are Showing Up Online: Buyer Beware

Slabs marked "CCA" that we never graded are being sold online, mostly modern sports cards. The labels use our initials and a grade, but the cards were never submitted to us, never scanned by us and have no certificate on our site. If you buy graded cards, please read this before your next purchase.

CCA is Certified Collectible Authentication. Every card we grade gets a numbered certificate at ccacard.com/cert with scans of the exact slab. That is the whole test. If a slab says CCA and the number on it does not pull up a cert page with that card on it, we did not grade it.

What the fakes* look like

The fake slabs we have seen so far share the same look: a solid gold label, a big "9.5 MINT+", four subgrades printed on the label and a long cert number. Some listings name the grader as a company with a similar name, and some list a different grader in the condition line than in the title. In every case, the number on the label returns "No certificate" on our site. That is the only detail that matters.

Be careful even when a listing shows a real CCA slab. We have seen a genuine CCA slab photographed in the same gallery as a fake, under one title and one grade. The slab you receive is the one to check, not the one in the photos.

How to check any CCA slab

1. Get the cert number. It is printed on the back of every CCA label, with a QR code that opens the cert page. Ask the seller for it if the photos do not show the back.
2. Look it up. Go to ccacard.com/cert and enter the number. No result means no CCA certificate, full stop.
3. Match the card to the scans. The cert page shows front and back scans of the exact slab we sealed. Compare the card, the label text and the grade. If they do not match, the slab is not the one we graded.

That takes about a minute and it is free. A grade on a label is a claim. A cert page with scans that match the card in your hand is proof.

Red flags

• The cert number does not come up at ccacard.com/cert.
• Subgrades printed on the label. Our subgrades live on the cert page, not the label.
• A grade word like "MINT+". We use Gem Mint, Mint, NM-Mint and so on.
• The listing names a different grading company in the item specifics or condition line.
• The seller will not share the cert number or a photo of the back of the label.

If you already bought one

Look up the number. If there is no certificate, or the scans do not match the card you received, the item is not as described. Open a return through the marketplace's buyer protection, include a screenshot of the "No certificate" result, and let us know which listing it was. We keep a record of every fake we are shown and we report listings that misuse our name.

Buy and sell with the cert number

Sellers of real CCA slabs: put the cert number in the listing and link the cert page. Buyers can check it in seconds, and cards that can be checked sell for more. Every card we sell through CCA consignment is listed this way, with the cert's own scans.

Every card we grade is scanned, measured, graded by a person and given a public certificate anyone can check. Grading starts from $8/card for bulk (10 card minimum), $10 standard. See pricing, look up any cert at ccacard.com/cert, or start a submission.

* By "fake" we mean a slab marked CCA that was not graded by Certified Collectible Authentication, the grading service at ccacard.com, and whose number does not exist in our certificate records. We do not know who produced these slabs and we make no claim about any other company or seller. We know only that they are not ours, and our customers should not take a CCA grade at face value unless it verifies at ccacard.com/cert.