Buyer's guide
Buying graded cards on GenZ
A practical guide to choosing a pack: how to read the guarantees, what expected value tells you, and how to size your spend.
Read the three chips first
- Grade guarantee: the lowest grade in the pool. Higher tiers of pack carry higher guarantees.
- Guaranteed minimum value: the cheapest card you could possibly pull, priced from live market data.
- Buyback rate: the share of market value we credit instantly if you sell back.
Then the expected value
Expected value is the average market value of a pull, computed from the live pool and the current effective odds. It is below the price on every pack. The gap is how the vault, grading, fulfilment and buyback are funded. Treat it as the honest cost of the experience, not a target.
Choosing between packs
| Pack | Best for |
|---|---|
| Starter | First pulls, tight value band, low variance. |
| Silver | A deeper chase pool without a big jump in price. |
| Gold | Guaranteed 9.5 or better; the middle of the range. |
| Diamond | Heavy hitters in the top tiers. |
| Platinum | Gem mint only, six-figure top chase, highest buyback rate. |
Sizing your spend
Set a daily or weekly cap in your account before you open anything. The cap hard-blocks purchases when reached and cannot be bypassed mid-session. Buy up to ten packs at once if you want a longer reveal; each pull is still independent.