Submission Terms & Conditions

These Submission Terms & Conditions ("Submission Terms") govern Concept Grading's grading submission service, from the point we accept your submission until your Submitted Items are collected or returned to you. They explain how the submission process works and the responsibilities of both you and Concept Grading at each stage.

These Submission Terms form part of your agreement with Concept Grading and should be read together with our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Refund & Withdrawal Policy and Compensation Policy. These Submission Terms apply specifically to grading submissions.

By making a Submission to Concept Grading, you agree to these Submission Terms. If you do not agree, you should not use our grading submission service.

Concept Grading acts as an authorised submission intermediary. We receive, prepare and submit your Submitted Items to the Grading Company on your behalf, handle them with reasonable care and in accordance with our standard operational and security procedures while they are in our possession, and provide status updates as they become available.

Concept Grading does not grade or authenticate Submitted Items. Grading, authentication and the final outcome of a Submission are decided solely by the Grading Company, as set out under Third-Party Grading Decisions, and we do not guarantee any grading outcome.

Depending on the Grading Service selected, our services may include consultation and intake, submission to the Grading Company, tracking, and the Collection of your Submitted Items. The specific services available may vary between Submissions and are provided subject to these Submission Terms.

When you make a Submission, you confirm that you own the Submitted Items or are authorised to submit them for grading.

You are responsible for providing accurate information about each Submitted Item and confirming the Grading Service selected for your Submission.

Concept Grading may provide guidance or a second opinion on the available Grading Services, but the final selection remains yours. Different Grading Services may have different fees, service features, Upcharge thresholds and maximum compensation coverage. The compensation coverage that applies to your Submission depends on the Grading Service you select, as set out under Loss, Damage & Claims.

We may photograph, scan or otherwise record your Submitted Items at any stage of the submission process for operational, security, quality assurance, record-keeping and claims-investigation purposes. We handle these records in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

When you make a Submission, you must give us the information we ask for about each Submitted Item and make sure it is in a condition suitable for submission. We may decline a Submission that does not meet our requirements or those of the Grading Company.

Before logging is completed, you are responsible for checking and confirming that the recorded details of your Submission are correct, including the description of each Submitted Item, any value you have stated, the Grading Service selected and the number of Submitted Items. Once we accept and log your Submission into our system, it is confirmed, recorded and locked for processing, and we are entitled to rely on those confirmed details. We are not responsible for errors in details that you did not correct before logging.

Once your Submission has been logged, it cannot be changed, cancelled or withdrawn. Withdrawals before logging and any related refunds are dealt with in the Refund & Withdrawal Policy.

Submissions must generally be made in person. Where Concept Grading has approved a wholesale or partner Submission by courier, the submitting party is responsible for packaging the Submitted Items securely before delivery to us. Detailed wholesale or partner liability and commercial arrangements remain governed by the applicable partner agreement.

You are responsible for ensuring that each Submitted Item is genuine and for disclosing any known alteration, restoration, modification or tampering before submission. Concept Grading does not guarantee that it will identify counterfeit, altered or tampered items before they are submitted to the Grading Company. Our failure to identify such an issue before submission does not make Concept Grading responsible for the Grading Company's resulting decision or treatment of the Submitted Item.

Concept Grading may decline to process or submit any Submitted Item that we or the Grading Company reasonably suspect to be counterfeit, altered or otherwise inauthentic, and may take any action required by law or by the Grading Company's policies. Where a Submitted Item is subsequently identified by the Grading Company as counterfeit, altered or otherwise inauthentic, that determination and its consequences are the responsibility of the Grading Company, and Concept Grading is not responsible for that outcome or for any resulting treatment of the Submitted Item. A disclosed alteration, restoration, modification or tampering does not by itself make an item counterfeit.

Where Concept Grading has not undertaken the packaging of your Submitted Items, you are responsible for ensuring that they are appropriately and securely packaged before submission or delivery to us.

The grading fee for your Submission depends on the Grading Service you select. We confirm the fee with you before your Submission is logged.

Payment is due at the time of submission, unless Concept Grading has approved separate billing arrangements in writing. Partner billing terms remain governed by the applicable partner agreement. Where any payment or Upcharge remains outstanding, Concept Grading may suspend or decline logging, processing or shipping your Submission, delay shipment, withhold the release or Collection of your Submitted Items, and take any other reasonable operational steps until the outstanding amount is settled. Any such delay may correspondingly affect the estimated turnaround time.

Additional amounts that become payable on your Submission, including any Upcharge, are explained under Upcharges.

You remain responsible for any amount due on your Submission until it is paid. Outstanding amounts must be settled before Collection, as set out under Collection.

Turnaround times are estimates based on the information available at the time of submission and are not guaranteed service levels or contractual commitments.

We are not responsible for delays outside our reasonable control, including grading backlogs, Grading Company processing times, shipping, courier and logistics delays, customs, and public holidays, and other events or circumstances beyond our reasonable control. Such delays do not entitle you to any refund or compensation.

We will provide status updates as information becomes available from the Grading Company. Some stages may remain unchanged for an extended period while the Grading Company is processing or has paused that stage. This does not necessarily mean that the Submission is inactive, and we may not be able to provide a further update until the Grading Company records additional progress.

Where a Pre-Grading Assessment is provided, a difference between that assessment and the final grade assigned by the Grading Company does not entitle you to any refund or compensation.

Concept Grading is not responsible for changes in the market value of Submitted Items during the submission or grading period. A change in market value alone does not create any entitlement to a refund or compensation.

The grade assigned, authentication, encapsulation, label descriptions and any rejection are determined solely by the Grading Company. Concept Grading does not make these decisions and does not guarantee any outcome.

Encapsulation, holders and labels are produced and controlled by the Grading Company, including any process for correcting or reviewing a mechanical error such as a holder defect or a labelling error. Where a mechanical error affects your graded Submitted Item and the Grading Company offers a correction or review process, we will facilitate your request under that process. The Grading Company controls the decision, process and timeline, and no outcome or completion time is guaranteed. Where a mechanical error results in actual loss of, or physical damage to, a Submitted Item, any claim is dealt with under Loss, Damage & Claims and the Compensation Policy.

Where a Grading Company returns a Submitted Item without assigning a grade, the absence of a grade does not automatically entitle you to a refund. Any refund or Store Credit (GEMs) will depend on the outcome recorded by the Grading Company and will be dealt with under the Refund & Withdrawal Policy.

We will use commercially reasonable efforts to accommodate handling requests where operationally possible, including requests to submit Submitted Items together, keep submissions separate, group Submitted Items, or obtain sequential certification numbers or a specific order. Such outcomes depend on the Grading Company's internal processes and cannot be guaranteed.

A failure to achieve a requested handling outcome does not by itself constitute an error by Concept Grading and does not give rise to any refund, compensation or claim for loss of market value.

The Grading Company may re-tier a Submitted Item or apply an Upcharge in accordance with its policies. An Upcharge becomes payable once it is applied by the Grading Company, and is your responsibility. Concept Grading will notify you of the Upcharge and may ask you to acknowledge the revised pricing, but your obligation to pay does not depend on that acknowledgement. Where an Upcharge remains unpaid, it is treated as an outstanding balance under Payment Terms: we may withhold the release or Collection of the affected Submitted Items until it is settled, as set out under Collection.

We will notify you when your Submitted Items are ready for collection or return.

All outstanding balances on your Submission, including grading fees and any Upcharges, must be settled before your Submitted Items are released or returned.

Where you authorise another person to collect your Submitted Items on your behalf, the authorisation and risk-allocation terms in the User Accounts section of our Terms of Use apply.

Third-party courier collection (for example by a courier service you arrange) is not a standard delivery service. Where you request it and Concept Grading approves, you are responsible for the courier charges. Once your Submitted Items are correctly released to the authorised courier in accordance with your instructions, Concept Grading's responsibility for them ends and all risk in the Submitted Items passes to you from the point of release, except to the extent that any loss or damage is caused by Concept Grading's negligence or misconduct in releasing them.