Slab
A slab is the sealed, tamper-evident plastic holder a grading company encases a card in after grading it. The label inside records the card's identity, its assigned grade, and a certification number that can be verified against the grader's database.
The slab is what makes a graded card easy to trade: a buyer can read the grade and verify the card without handling it, and the seal protects the card and confirms it has not been swapped. Verifying the certification number on a slab against the grader's records is a basic safeguard before any significant purchase. A slab whose cert number does not match the grader's database is the clearest warning sign of a counterfeit or altered card, and the check takes only a moment on the grader's site.
Compare the official scales: PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC grades with their centering tolerances.
A graded card arrives in a sealed slab whose label shows the grade and a cert number you can look up on the grader's site.
Collector reference
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Continue with the owning guide: Card grading explained