Grader scorecard
C3 Grading
A brand-new flat-rate grader with a distinctive horizontal slab — and nothing independent yet to judge it on.
Our score8/100TierDNo. 34 on the scorecards
Resale standingRaw valueOn a high-value card, expect a buyer to cut it out and regrade it.
Cheapest way in$9Flat rate
Typical turnaround2–3 weeksReader reports →
BacklogNone published
Cert lookupNone foundA buyer cannot verify this slab
Owned byIndependent
The short version
2 min to read it all, belowWhy it scores 8
The full breakdownWhere the slab sells
- eBay Authenticity GuaranteeNot verified
- Major US auction housesNot standard inventory
- Public cert lookupNone found
What to watch
Everything about this record is the company's own account of itself. C3 does not appear in the 160-plus company directory this site cross-checks against, no independent reviews or submitter reports could be found, and there is no visible secondary-market presence — so none of the claims about accuracy, consistency or turnaround can be checked.
All known concernsPricing
Official price listOne flat price: $9 a card, whatever the card's value, with no charge for faster service or subgrades and free shipping on orders of 50 cards or more.
| Tier | Price | Quoted turnaround | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat rate | $9per card | 2–3 weeks | Any value; no charge for speed or subgrades; free shipping at 50+ cards |
Prices as checked on 9 Oct 2026. They change often; the grader's own list is the final word.
C3 quotes one turnaround for everything, 2 to 3 weeks. Its pricing page describes the flat price without stating a figure; the $9 is the price on the company's only submission product.
The full file
What sets them apart
Flat-rate pricing regardless of declared value, which removes the value-tier upcharge that dominates PSA and Beckett pricing. Two graders review each card.
A QR-linked digital report carries the four subgrades and the reasoning. The slab is horizontal — unusual enough to be the first thing a buyer notices.
Where the slab sells
None established. No eBay Authenticity Guarantee coverage and no resale data found.
Turnaround
The company's own pages disagree: About Us gives an average of 3–5 weeks, while the pricing page promises 'one consistent turnaround time of 2–3 weeks for all submissions.' No independent submitter reports were found to check either against.
Price history
C3 Grading has not raised a listed price since Oct 2026.
Show the price history: 1 tier, 0 changes
These come from our own records. Small ticks are sightings where the price held. A line ends where the evidence ends.
Flat rate$9 unchanged since 26 Oct 2026
Every change
| Date | Tier | Change | Source |
|---|
An archived page shows the price on the day it was saved, so a change happened somewhere between that page and the one before it.
The slab and the label
Subgrades: Four, online only
A horizontal layout rather than the vertical holder almost everyone else uses, with colour-matched labels and a completion date stamped on the slab.
Example slab shown for reference, not a card the editor owns.
The horizontal format is the most visible thing about the company.
Every slab carries a QR code linking to a full digital grading report with subgrades for centering, corners, edges and surface. The subgrades live in that report rather than on the label.
What they grade
- Sports Cards
- TCG
Who it's for
- Personal Collection
- Condition Documentation
Only for a card you are keeping. The flat rate is genuinely cheaper than a value-tiered grader once a card is worth anything, and the QR report carries four subgrades with the reasoning — but nothing about the company has been checked by anyone outside it, and the horizontal slab is the least familiar holder in the hobby.
The D is the market, not the grading: there is no resale data on a C3 slab at all.
Known concerns
Everything about this record is the company's own account of itself. C3 does not appear in the 160-plus company directory this site cross-checks against, no independent reviews or submitter reports could be found, and there is no visible secondary-market presence — so none of the claims about accuracy, consistency or turnaround can be checked.
The registered address is a private mailbox rather than a facility, which is ordinary for a young LLC and means nothing on its own, but it does mean the physical operation is not locatable from public sources. Treat the whole entry as unverified until a real submission or a pop report says otherwise. A collector-guidance site advises using emerging graders like C3 only for cards you do not plan to sell, and one YouTube reviewer reported grades well below expectations; both are third-party opinion, not measurement.
History
C3 Grading LLC, registered at a Dania Beach, Florida mailing address. The site is a BigCommerce storefront on an off-the-shelf template, carrying a 2026 copyright, and positions the company as 'built by collectors, for collectors'.
No founding date is published.
Mantel shortlisted C3 as one of five nominees for Grading Company of the Year in its November 2025 Hobby Awards, alongside PSA, CGC, SGC and TAG, describing it as 'a new entrant in the grading space'.
Score breakdown
Five parts, each scored 0 to 100 and weighted. Market acceptance carries 60 of the 100, because the point of a slab is what the market pays for it.
Market acceptance 0 / 100 (weight 60). The other four parts together 20 / 100 (weight 40).
Market acceptance
0 / 100weight 60adds 0.0
Unverified, scored as zero: eBay Authenticity Guarantee; Sold-price parity with the leading label, same card and grade; Recognised in a major non-US market.
Trust and verifiability
0 / 100weight 15adds 0.0
−10 Everything on the record is the company's own account of itself: no independent reviews, no directory listing and no secondary-market presence, so no claim can be checked.
Unverified, scored as zero: Years operating; Public population report; Identifiable operator and disclosed ownership.
Holder and label
15 / 100weight 10adds 1.5
Unverified, scored as zero: Sealed, tamper-evident holder.
Turnaround and access
30 / 100weight 5adds 1.5
Unverified, scored as zero: Entry tier (open to all, narrowed, or closed); Backlog figure published.
Pricing
50 / 100weight 10adds 5.0
Unverified, scored as zero: No price rise over 25% in the last 12 months.
Weighted total 8.0, shown as 8 out of 100.
Scored on 5 Oct 2026. 10 inputs could not be verified and score zero. How we score
On the Wire
Nothing on the Wire about C3 Grading yet. It fills in as stories are reported.
Reader reports
Report yoursNo reader reports for C3 Grading yet.
Sent cards to C3 Grading? Tell us when they arrived and when they shipped back. Reports are checked and anonymous.