Cardboard Journal's Take
TGA (True Grade Authentication)
Competes on price and speed rather than reputation — the wrong trade if you ever intend to sell the card.
What Sets Them Apart
Canadian, founded 2021 in Surrey, British Columbia, competing on price and turnaround. Flat pricing with no declared-value tiers, and a published certification lookup so a buyer can confirm a slab is genuine. For Canadian submitters it removes cross-border shipping, customs and exchange from the equation entirely.
Tier
Our rating of how well the resale market actually recognises this grader.
Turnaround
5 days
on Express; Value and Standard not stated
Backlog
None published
What They Grade
- Sports Cards
- TCG
- Autographs
- Specialty Formats
Marketplace Acceptance
Certificate lookup:Verify a cert →
eBay
TGA does not appear on eBay's professional grader filter list and is not covered by the Authenticity Guarantee, so its slabs get neither grader searchability nor eBay buyer protection.
Auction houses
Not accepted as standard inventory at Goldin, Heritage or PWCC.
Card shops and general resale
Minimal recognition beyond a niche following, though the company does publish a certification lookup, which allows a buyer to at least confirm a slab is theirs.
Verification and acceptance are different things: being able to check a TGA slab is real does not make the market pay more for it.
Pricing
Priced on speed with no declared-value tiers, so what a card is worth never changes what grading costs. Value at $15 is the only tier with a minimum, at 15 cards; Standard at $19 has none, which makes it the practical entry for a small submission. Same-day service is $50. Operating out of Surrey, British Columbia, so this is a domestic option for Canadian submitters and a cross-border one for everyone else.
The Slab
An ordinary clear holder with a grey inner mat.
Example slab shown for reference — not a card I personally own.
The Label
SubgradesNone
A minimal label with the card description and an orange grade block, and no cert number visible on the front at all — which removes the one thing a second-hand buyer would want to check.
Grader Use Cases
- Personal Collection
- Protection & Preservation
- Authentication
Protection, personal collections and authentication where price and speed are the point. $15-19 a card.
Known Concerns
Price and turnaround are what TGA competes on, and neither affects what a graded card sells for. Secondary-market liquidity is minimal against the majors, and there is little independent coverage of its grading standards, so consistency has not been externally tested. On a card with real value the saving on submission is likely to cost more than it saves at resale.
On The Wire
What the hobby is saying about TGA (True Grade Authentication), with our read on what it changes for you.
TGA is building a Canadian alternative on turnaround speed
Cardboard Journal's TakeSaves Canadian submitters the border crossing; resale still expects a major label.
tgagrading.com2026-08-30
History
True Grade Authentication began grading in 2021 and operates out of Surrey, British Columbia, serving the Canadian market first.
It differentiates principally on price and turnaround rather than on methodology, technology or track record — a flat per-card rate with no declared-value tiering, ranging from a fifteen-dollar value tier up to same-day service, plus bulk rates on request.
It remains small, with brand recognition confined to a niche collector base, and it has not established authority in the sense the resale market recognises.