1
Select language
it
Practical guide to the online request form and shipping
1
fill out the online form to place the order, create your list of cards, at the end of the procedure pay by credit card, bank transfer or Paypal, or payment in person (if you plan to deliver your package personally).
2
print and cut out the PDF shipping label that the system will provide at the end of the online request.
3
prepare the cards by putting each card in a protective blister or top loader, put all the cards in a box and make sure they cannot move by adding paper or other materials to avoid damage during transport. NB: top loaders are returned, but the boxes are not, if you use metal, tin or other types of boxes, remember that the boxes are removed and thrown away, they are not returned.
4
close the package and attach the shipping label on the box, fixing it well with transparent tape.
5
send the box to our address, indicated in the label you printed, or deliver it in person to our Milan offices. If you decide to ship independently (ie without using our courier) use a courier, do not use a mail service (eg registered mail) because we do not make withdrawals at post offices.
6
when the package arrives at our place we will check the content to verify that it corresponds to the order you made and proceed by performing the gradings that turned out to be regular. Instead you will be notified if there were irregularities between the order and the received package.
7
wait the processing time you requested in the online form, when your package is ready you will receive an email confirming the order's completion. The return package will be delivered to you at the address you indicated in the request form or you can pick it up at our place.
If you have doubts about how to fill out the online request form, read this paragraph. If not even this reading clears up all your doubts contact us. Our assistance service can guide you into the filling out of your first online order request. The online request form is designed in a simple way, here's what you have to do:
A great practical advice is to prepare a pile of the cards you intend to ship. When you get to fill out the list it will be very useful to have them in order.
To place an order, the first step is to go to the order page to fill out the form. Here you can set several general options (valid for the whole package) and then you can insert the list of cards you want to certify. Even for each card you can set some options (valid for single cards). Finally complete the filling out by entering the shipping data and choosing a payment method.
The standard processing time of a package is 15 working days. As shown in the services and prices of the certifications page, you can choose a faster service to accelerate processing times (10 or 5 days) bringing forward the delivery time.
You can decide, both for dispatch and return, whether to request a courier managed by us or not. If you request our courier for dispatch, as soon as your package is ready call support (+39 02 89 073 293 ) to arrange pickup date and time for your package.
If instead you don't use our courier, you can personally deliver the package to our Milan offices or you can use your shipping method. In this case use a courier: do not use a mail service (eg: registered mail) because we do not make withdrawals at post offices.
If you have chosen a courier for delivery, you can also decide whether to request package insurance during transport. Insurance is a unique option that applies to shipments. If you have only chosen dispatch, you will only insure that way. If you have chosen both dispatch and return, the system will insure both shipments.
If you want to tell us something important about the entire order you have a notes blank that you can use for this purpose.
At this point you can start creating the list of cards you want to send us to grade.
Decide what kind of service you prefer: Standard or Digital grading or simple Authentication. Consider that in the same order you can also insert many cards to send them all together, but you cannot insert in the same order both Standard and Digital or Authentication requests. If you want to request different certification types you will have to place different orders.
For each card you want to insert indicate the name of the card. If you intend to put duplicates (various copies of the same card) in the same order you can do it, but for each card you have to fill out a row in the online request form.
For each card you can decide whether the certificate of authenticity that will be printed and encapsulated with the card is either in Italian or English.
Decide whether to indicate the minimum grade. If you leave "any grade" the card will be encapsulated regardless of which final grade will be assigned to it. If instead you decide to indicate the "minimum grade", you can set a value from 1 to 7 to indicate the limit to encapsulate (seal in a case) the card for which you are requesting the certification. If you finally select the "no grade" option you indicate that you want a certification of authenticity without a quality grade. The card will be enclosed in the case and in the certificate, instead of the grade, there will be the acronym AU (authentic).
An option at your disposal is the possibility of requesting or not the encapsulation of the cards (sealing in a case) if one or more cards should turn out to be "authentic-altered" during the grading process. The option has no influence on the cost of the service, it is only your preference to indicate whether to encapsulate or not these cards that will not receive a qualitative grade but will still be authenticated.
When you have finished filling out the list of cards it is very important to carry out a check to make sure you have inserted all the cards. Take the stack that was formed as you inserted the cards and check that the list created on the site matches the stack. The number of cards in your pile must match the number of rows in the order's list.
checking is a very important phase, especially for you, because it guarantees you that you will receive the service exactly for what you want without errors or problems, such as repeating twice the request for the same card therefore generating two requests (and paying twice) for one single card. After making the payment, in fact, it will not be possible to go back and errors will not be refundable. If you make some mistakes while filling out the form you have to correct it before making the payment.
The system offers you a summary box to get the general data of the order under control and calculate in real time the cost amount that the order entails.
When you have finished defining all the details of the order all that's left to do is that you carefully fill out the data for shipping and finally make the payment by credit card, bank transfer or PayPal.
If you want to deliver the package personally directly at our offices, you can also select the payment in person option.
The last step is the printing of the summary containing the shipping label that the system will provide you. It is needed both to manage the package processing in our grading procedure, and to facilitate your shipment. It will be enough for you to print the summary and cut out the part related to the shipping data and then attach the label to the box you will prepare.
We advise you to check everything carefully even while preparing the package, because if a package is somehow wrong GRAAD will not be able to refund your mistakes. Therefore follow these instructions carefully.
Take the summary sheet that you should have printed at the end of the order and check again that the list corresponds exactly to the pile of cards you intend to ship. This check is very important because if the content of the package we will receive does not correspond to the list of the order made online, we will proceed with the grading of the cards without making refunds for any missing cards. For example, if in the package two cards you have already paid for in the order are missing, you will not be able to send them later in another package but you will lose the amount for those two certifications.
During transport the cards in the box may be damaged
Protect the single cards
So, we therefore advise you to protect each card carefully: insert one by one in protective sleeves, then insert them into soft or rigid top loaders (they will be returned in the return package). If you don't have top loaders, insert some rigid cardboard between one card and the other.
NB: attention: if you are not used to inserting cards in protective sleeves, remember that you have to be very careful not to damage the edges and corners of the card if you insert the card by scratching the edges. Some customers happened to have perfect cards but without realizing it, by putting them inside sleeves, they ruined them on the edges and did not understand why the grade received later was low. If you have never inserted cards inside sleeves, try this operation several times with cards of no value to understand what the correct movement must be to avoid damage on the edges.
Prevent movement
Then, to prevent movement, cover the stack of cards with cardboard to make it compact and close everything with a rubber band to keep the cards straight and rigid. Finally, cover everything with bubble wrap for shipments, so as to prevent them from moving during transport.
If the box you use for the shipment is big, prevent the package from moving by adding bubble wrap or other materials to prevent any movement of the pile of cards inside the box.
Use a rigid and resistant box
If you send a single card, as a box use a rigid and resistant container, preferably of metal, or very hard and thick cardboard. Use a rigid but not valuable container because the container will then be thrown away. GRAAD returns all the internal equipment of the cards (top loaders, sleeves, etc) at the end of the order, but not the box it contains.
If you send a pile of cards make sure to compact them together well by wrapping the stack in an additional layer of bubble wrap, and above all that the box you use is made of either rigid cardboard or another resistant material.
Never use light cardboard boxes.
NB: sleeves and top loaders are returned, but the boxes are not. If you use metal, tin or other types of boxes, remember that the boxes are removed and thrown away, the external boxes are not returned.
Make sure you close the package carefully so that it is sealed well with a resistant tape that fixes any crack. Take the shipping label you should have cut out from the PDF summary that the system provided you with at the end of the order and attach it to the package using a transparent tape and making sure that every side is well attached to avoid tears.
If you have requested a round trip shipment contact support to arrange the details (times and preferences) for package pickup. If instead you have not requested round trip, that is, you have chosen to ship your package independently we advise you to rely on a good courier and insure the package, especially if it contains cards of a certain value. In fact, couriers are not always precise and the packages are not always handled carefully. GR.A.AD does not take responsibility for lost packages or for ruined content. If your package arrived in ruined conditions or damaged it will be our care to warn you but we immediately decline any responsibility.
Our customer service is at your disposal from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., via one of the following channels: