TAG's submission process is designed to be among the most intuitive and customer-friendly in the hobby - with TAG's my.taggrading.com customer portal designed to provide an accurate order status for customers at all times. This guide serves to illustrate the steps of TAG's process, from start to finish.
PURCHASE AND SUBMISSION
After purchase, the order begins as INCOMPLETE in the TAG Grading portal. The customer then inputs their card ID information into the TAG Grading portal by clicking “Start New Submission” in their account at my.taggrading.com.
For orders which have purchased TAG's Submission Kit service, the Submission Kit is approved for assembly assembly (SUB KIT ASSEMBLY) and then shipping (SUB KIT SHIPPING) within two business days, provided there are no issues with card eligibility within the order. TAG’s currently accepted cards can be viewed at: https://taggrading.com/pages/currently-grading
The TAG Grading Submission Kit, containing TAG Grading shields, easy-pull sleeves and a deck box for further protection in transit within the TAG SafeCase is dispatched to the customer with a prepaid FedEx label for return to the TAG facility.
Unique ID numbers are assigned to both the cards and the order in this step.
If a customer did not purchase the Submission Kit service, e-mail instructions on packaging and shipping their cards to TAG directly are e-mailed following Card ID entry.
PENDING RECEIPT
An order will remain in PENDING RECEIPT following Card ID entry until the order containing the cards arrives to TAG's facility and is processed by our Receiving Team.
RECEIVING and CARD ID
Upon receipt of the order, the customer’s cards are confirmed under security cameras by the Receiving team, who then approve the order for the Card ID department. TAG's Card ID team reviews the order against the customer's Card ID input and changes are made if necessary to identify parallels and variations and to correct input errors in the Submission process. Additionally, cards receive an initial review for authenticity. The processing time for every TAG Grading order begins upon receipt to the facility and approval to move forward by the Receiving Team.
IMAGE PROCESSING
At the Image Processing stage, cards are graded using TAG’s machine-learning software in conjunction with our patented image capture technology. TAG’s photometric stereo imaging details the card’s measurements, surface, corners and edges while the TAG Grading system applies algorithms to identified defects to generate scores for defects, summary scores for scoring categories, and overall scores for the card on a 1000-point TAG score scale.
This information, along with the card’s raw image, which can be viewed in depth by the customer, is recorded within the card’s Digital Imaging and Grading (DIG) Report.
VERIFICATION
The data collected by the TAG Grading system in Image Processing is analyzed and confirmed by the Verification team. Authenticity of cards is reviewed and confirmed. Cards with questionable authenticity are returned ungraded.
SLAB ASSEMBLY
At Slab Assembly, TAG’s slab, which features UV-cured text inside the slab, as well as the QR code to access the card’s DIG report and Proof Authentication features for authenticity verification, is prepared and then sonically-welded to encapsulate the card.
QA (QUALITY ASSURANCE)
At QA, the final encapsulated card is inspected by the Quality Assurance team. All identifying details on the slab are reviewed for accuracy and all holders are inspected for defects and debris.
SLAB IMAGING
At the Slab Imaging stage, the TAG Graded card is photographed front and back for high-resolution images in formats optimized for Social Media as well as auction sites - these images are accessible for viewing and download through the card’s DIG report.
ORDER COMPLETE and SHIPMENT
At Order Completion, the customer’s order is activated within the TAG Grading population report, cataloged for chronology and rankings, and the full DIG report is made available to the customer.
When the order is shipped, the customer receives an e-mail from FedEx directly containing tracking information if the order is shipping directly from TAG. In the case of affiliate partner submissions and submissions handled on behalf of the customer by bulk submitters, SHIPPING status indicates that the order has been shipped to the bulk submitter or affiliate partner with final distribution to follow afterwards.