Hidden Collectables LLC is an up and coming grading card company that really cares about their customers. They take the time to really pay attention to details that have been missed by some of the bigger companies.
HCGS starts off by prepping the grading area by cleaning the area down and making sure there is plenty of lighting. They then turn both microscopes on plus a handheld LED magnifying glass.
Once all the systems are started up, they open their database with all Certification numbers and card name. They then add each new card in correspondence with how they will be entered in the system. Once this is complete, they start with the first card.
With nitrile gloves on they carefully remove the cards from the top loader and penny sleeve. They make sure to handle every card with extreme care.
Their grading process beginning with using a tool that measures how centered the card is. If the card is evened all the way around 50/50 top to bottom and 50/50 left to right the centering grade would be determined as a 10. But if the card is 60/40 and 50/50 the subgrade would be determined as a 9.5 60/40 and 60/40 would be Determined as a 9 and so on.
Once measurements of the centering is complete they move on to the grading of the surface. They put the card under a 50x microscope and look for any blemish, flaw, damage, whitening, creases, rips etc. Creases will automatically call for a Grade of a 6 to the corresponding subgrade. Rips will call for a 3 to the corresponding subgrade. .5 of a subgrade will be taken off for every 2 heavy spots of whitening that can be counted without running off into another whitening area on corners or edges. Front and back of surface will then be groomed through carefully under the microscope. Severity of scratches would depend on how many points would be taken off. Superficial scratches will have less determination on grades then deep scratches. Once all subgrades are accounted for final grade would be lowest subgrade +.5 or +1 depending on higher subgrades
IE 9 + 7 + 9 + 10 would be a 8
8 + 8 + 8 + 9 would be 8.5.
Once all grading is complete they then put all the cards data into their editing program. After that they input every graded card into their database which can be check via their website. A QR code is also made for each and every graded card and put on the back of the label. The labels are then printed out and either cut on our cricut or hand cut with a paper cutter. Once all labels are printed and cut, we align the label correctly in the Label area and Carefully Align the card in the trading card area. After that we seal the slab together and that is the process!
Clikc here or any of the images to check out thier site.
