Clear it before you ship it
Checkpoint Grading Station pre-grades trading cards against PSA, BGS and CGC standards, shows what the card is worth raw and graded, and tells you in dollars whether submitting makes sense.
The problem
Sending a card to a grading company means fees, shipping and a long wait, and you only learn the grade at the end. The phone apps that try to help often give a different answer every time you scan the same card.
Checkpoint was built to give the same answer every time: the same card, captured the same way, gets the same result.
What makes it different
Price-check apps tell you what a card sells for. Nothing holds the card or the camera steady, so the same card can come back different from one scan to the next.
The scanning stands sold online hold a phone over a card, and that is where they stop. A holder by itself doesn't grade anything.
Checkpoint pairs a purpose-built, modular station with a top-tier grading app designed alongside it. The station adapts to your camera and your setup, and the two work as one.
Use the app on its own with your phone and your setup, or add the station for the most consistent results. Your setup, your choice.
What it does
Predicted grades for PSA, BGS and CGC side by side, with centering, corners, edges and surface called out.
Raw and graded market prices next to your predicted grade, so the decision comes down to a number.
Every report gets a QR label for your top-loader or box. Scan it to pull up the card's report, like a vehicle history report for your card.
A condition mode for sellers and shops: NM, LP, MP, HP or DMG, with batch labels and prices by condition.
The station
Consistent results start with consistent photos. The Checkpoint station is a compact, purpose-built stand that holds each card and camera in a repeatable position under controlled light. It works with a webcam, a phone or a digital camera, and results improve as the camera does.
The station is patent pending. The app also works without it, with results marked as handheld.
Who it's for
Starting with Magic: The Gathering, then Pokémon, One Piece and more. Sports cards come later. Why Magic first?
Why Magic first
Before Pokémon and before Yu-Gi-Oh!, there was Magic: The Gathering. Designed by Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast on August 5, 1993, MTG is recognized by Guinness World Records as the first modern trading card game. Its first 10 million cards sold out within months.
A lot of players and collectors, especially the under-30 crowd, assume Pokémon came first because it's the better-known name. It didn't. Magic invented the idea of collecting cards to build a deck and play, and nearly every trading card game since has followed the trail it blazed.
"Magic created a whole new genre of product that changed our industry forever."
Jordan Weisman, game designerWithout Magic's success, the trading card game hobby as we know it today might not exist.
Why we start here. Today's pre-grading apps aim mainly at the Pokémon community, which leaves Magic collectors, the hobby's original audience, under-served. Our founder has collected Magic since 1994, and his own collection is mostly MTG. So Checkpoint starts where the hobby started. Pokémon, One Piece and other games come next, followed by sports cards.
Look for the founder in the "Ask me about Checkpoint" polo. Say hello and ask your questions.
Founder
Checkpoint Grading Station is veteran-owned and based in Ohio. It was founded by Jimi Cobb, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has collected Magic: The Gathering since Revised Edition in 1994.