Valuation terms

A valuation is for people who need to know what a collection is worth before deciding anything - an inherited collection, a collection you have not looked at in twenty years, or one you are about to break up. You keep everything. You get a report, written for you and for your own decision rather than for anyone else to rely on.

What we do

A valuation is done in person, by appointment, and produces a written report with:

• An itemized inventory of the cards worth itemizing, and bulk described as lots.
• The condition we recorded for each itemized card.
• An estimated market range per itemized card and for the collection as a whole.
• A short summary of what is in the collection and what drives its value.
• A first page naming who the report was written for, and saying that no one else may rely on it.

Bulk is valued as bulk. Itemizing a shoebox of common cards one by one would cost you more than the box is worth, and we will tell you that rather than bill for it.

The fee

The prices are published on the Value page: flat fees by collection size, a one-page written opinion at a flat price whatever the size, and an hourly rate with a four-hour minimum and an agreed ceiling for anything larger than the biggest collection size on that table. The first look is free, is made from the photographs you send with your submission, and carries no obligation.

Which price applies is quoted from your photographs and confirmed in person, with the collection in front of us, before any work starts - not chosen off the website. The collection size we quote is a ceiling and not a minimum: if the closet turns out to be a shoebox you pay the shoebox price. If it is genuinely larger than we both thought, we say so before opening the first box and you can agree the larger price, walk away, or have us do only the part you care about at the price you were quoted.

The fee is payable at the appointment, and we tell you with the quote how it can be paid. Every card we estimate at twenty dollars or more gets its own line with its condition and a market range; below that cards are counted and valued in lots, because a line of its own would be a number you could not act on anyway.

The credit if you sell or consign

If you sell your collection to us, or sign a consignment agreement with us, within 30 days of paying the valuation fee, we credit the fee back. Against a sale it comes off the offer; against a consignment it comes off your first payout.

The window is measured to the day you accept an offer or sign the agreement, not to the day a consigned card eventually sells. A consigned card can take months, and measuring to the sale would mean the credit almost never applied.

The credit applies once, to one collection, and it is not paid out as cash.

Turnaround

We give you the turnaround in writing with your quote, before you pay anything. It depends almost entirely on how many cards need itemizing.

We reply to every submission within 2 business days, including the ones we decline. That reply carries the free first look and, if you want the work in writing, the quote: the collection size, the fee and the turnaround. None of it is final until it is confirmed in person, before any work starts.

Where the numbers come from

Estimated ranges come from recent completed sales for the same card in comparable condition, adjusted for what is actually selling right now. Every figure in the report carries the date it was researched.

That date matters. Card prices move, sometimes sharply, and a range researched in March is a March number. A valuation is a snapshot, not a standing figure.

What a valuation is not

This is not an appraisal for insurance, estate, probate, tax or legal purposes, and no wording of ours makes it one. If you need one of those, tell us before you book: you need an accredited independent appraiser, and we would rather say so than take your money. We name nobody - a name from us would be a recommendation we are not in a position to make - but these three bodies each publish a directory you can search: the International Society of Appraisers, the American Society of Appraisers and the Appraisers Association of America.

It is not an offer to buy, and it is not a guarantee that anything will sell at the range shown. It is our informed estimate on the day it was made.

It is not a grading service. Condition in the report is our own assessment on the five-point scale published on the condition page, not a certified grade.

No obligation

Paying for a valuation does not commit you to selling or consigning anything to us. You are welcome to take the report and do whatever you like with it, including sell the collection somewhere else. These terms are governed by the law of the State of Florida. If we cannot settle something between us, it goes to a court in Palm Beach County, Florida: the state courts sitting in that county, or the federal court that covers it, and nowhere else. That binds us too.

Confidentiality, and what we are answerable for

We do not publish your name, your report or photographs of your collection. If we ever want to write about or film a collection we have handled, we ask first and you can say no. Photographs you send with a submission are handled under the privacy policy.

What we are answerable for is what we write for you, whether that is the itemized report or the one-page written opinion. It is an opinion of a market range on the dates it carries, written for you to decide from, and an estimate can read high or low. Everything we write for you carries on its first page who it was written for and the fact that no one else may rely on it, so anyone shown a copy can see that. Do not hand it to anyone as though it were an appraisal. Where someone other than you relies on it, we owe that person nothing, whoever gave them the copy.

The free first look is a reply to your photographs, not a report. It is there so you can decide whether the written work is worth paying for, and nothing in it is a valuation. Treat it as an impression rather than a researched figure - and a weaker one than a conversation across a table, because we are reading pictures of a collection rather than handling it. Condition, and anything a photograph flattens or hides, we cannot judge from a photo and will not pretend to. It is not a number to divide a collection by, and it is not a number to repeat to anyone else. That is what the written work is for.

If you think we have a figure wrong, tell us which part of it is wrong and why. We will look at that part again once, and where we got it wrong we correct it at no charge, because that is the part we can actually put right. That is a second look at something you can point to, not a re-run of the work. Tell us within 90 days of getting the report: after that the market has overtaken the dates it carries and there is nothing left to correct, because what you are asking for by then is a fresh valuation, and it is priced as one.

Beyond that, the most we can owe you over anything we write for you is the fee we charged for it, whether or not we later credited that fee back against a sale or a consignment. That limit is about what we wrote and the figures in it. Your cards stay with you throughout. It covers:

• An estimate that later looks too high or too low.
• A card that sold for less than the range we gave, or did not sell at all.
• What you decided to do, or not do, after reading it.
• What anyone else did with a copy of it.

It is no shield for dishonesty. If we have deliberately misled you the limit does not apply, and nothing here signs away a right Florida law does not let you sign away.