Marketplace Tenets

PWCC Marketplace Mission Statement

Empower trading card investors and collectors with the finest suite of tools and services.

PWCC as a Marketplace Facilitator Commitment

1. To provide an honest, safe, and appropriately transparent marketplace for all users.
2. To minimize friction of sale, maintaining a highly-efficient selling and buying platform.
3. To remain accountable for the accuracy of our marketplace listings and to address issues and questions in a timely manner, consistent with what’s appropriate for an investment-minded marketplace.
4. To enforce both investor and seller responsibilities and actively police the marketplace to ensure participants are educated on our expectations of behavior and to hold accountable those who don’t uphold their responsibilities.
5. To uphold the Third-Party Authenticator policies and acknowledge their technical assessments.
6. To remove altered assets from our active marketplace and, when altered assets are graded, to assist the Third-Party Authenticator in removal of altered assets from circulation, and to protect investors.

Submitter Responsibilities

1. To provide merchandise in good faith, free of any restrictions or known issues which could undermine the sale process or hurt the marketplace in present time or at any point into the future. This includes restrictions related to legal frictions, including any liens from Third-Party lenders, known UCC filings, fraud, theft, alterations, or other condition issues known to be in violation of our policies on Third-Party Authentication.
2. To avoid participation in any marketplace listing for which they are the seller, or to encourage any participation of a Third-Party to participate in the marketplace on their behalf as a proxy.
3. To respond to any questions in a manner consistent with the needs of the marketplace listing thereby ensuring that PWCC can cater to the needs of prospective investors.

Investor/Buyer Responsibilities

1. To participate in the marketplace in an honest and sincere manner and to place bids/offers which are honored in the event of a sale. Sales are not conditional, and all sales are final. No exceptions.
2. To forgo placing bids on a single marketplace item from different owned accounts.
3. To never retract or cancel bids/offers/purchases without the prior approval of PWCC. Approval is exceedingly rare and will only be granted on a case-by-case basis.
4. To provide payment for items purchased on the marketplace in a timely manner, consistent with the stated rules of the marketplace.

PWCC's Stance on Professional Third-Party Authentication

1. Third-Party Authentication is a critical component of the marketplace as it provides trust through a neutral, unbiased assessment and quality control.
2. PWCC only recognizes reputable Third-Party Authenticators on the PWCC Marketplaces. These authentication companies include PSA, PSA/DNA, SGC, BGS, BVG, BAS, UDA, Steiner, BBCE, NGC, PCGS, and CGC. Assets assessed by other companies are treated as ungraded on the PWCC Marketplaces.
3. All Third-Party Authenticators are required to maintain a consistent level of quality control, consistent with their respective brands and to ensure the marketplace is a safe and trusted venue for both sellers and investors/collectors alike.
4. PWCC will not work with clients whom a Third-Party Authenticator has prohibited from submitting assets for grading.

Conservation vs. Alteration

1. Conservation. PWCC believes conservation of trading cards, as defined below, to be healthy, sustainable, and supportive of the marketplace and the investors and collectors who participate. Assets that have been conserved can be sold on the PWCC Marketplaces.

   Conservation is defined by PWCC as an act which returns an asset closer to its as-manufactured condition but does not otherwise enhance or artificially distance the asset beyond the as-manufactured status. Conservation leaves no identifiable impact to the asset, and generally leaves no evidence of the conservation having occurred. An act which removes a foreign substance from an asset and does so in a way which doesn’t otherwise alter the condition of the as-manufactured product is usually considered acceptable. Dirt, glue, writing, wax and other foreign substances can be removed from an asset and the result is considered acceptable conservation, so long as the professional Third-Party Authenticators agree the asset is void of unnatural aspects induced as a result of the conservation. Lying flat a warped or bent region of a trading card so long as it doesn’t disrupt the card’s natural properties is generally considered acceptable conservation, whereas pressing a card and thereby changing its as-manufactured properties (i.e. thickness of the card stock) is generally not acceptable and may render the card altered. For example, laying flat a nonplanar corner, crease, or edge, so long as the card stock is not pressed to a state of artificial thickness (i.e. in a screw down holder), is typically acceptable so long as no other unnatural change to the as-manufactured card stock is discernable.

   When PWCC has proof that an asset was conserved as we prepare the listing (either through direct knowledge from the submitter, validated physical evidence in the presence of the card, or otherwise) PWCC will include in the listing a description of the conservation acts as they were described to us, or as they appear.

2. Alteration. PWCC believes alteration of trading cards, as defined below, is damaging to the marketplace. Altered assets cannot be sold on the PWCC Marketplaces unless this detail is disclosed during the sale.

   Alteration of trading cards, as defined by PWCC, is the presence of physical evidence of a change to the as-manufactured qualities of the asset, outside of the normal wear and deterioration inherent to circulation. Any purposeful material addition or material removal to or from the as-manufactured asset, outside of normal wear or environmental degradation, is generally considered alteration. Furthermore, trimming, recoloring, autograph retracing, rebuilding of corners or other surfaces, swapping of patches, cleaning which leaves a detectable impact on the asset, or any other action which distances a card from its as-manufactured attributes is generally considered alteration. Altered cards which are stated as such in a transparent nature are permitted for sale on the PWCC Marketplaces.

   Alteration is only officially determined by the presence of physical evidence in support of that designation. Speculation is not considered evidence. Evidence of alteration can only be determined in technical review by a reputable Third-Party Authenticator. Important to note that the presence of digital content (i.e. before and after photos eluding to trimming, recoloring, etc) may assist the professional graders in reviewing their work more accurately and as such is a powerful tool, but this alone is not evidence. Physical evidence is only ever determined in the hands of a Third-Party Authenticator.

PWCC Marketplace Guarantee

When you purchase professionally-graded trading cards from a reputable Third-Party Authenticator on the PWCC Marketplaces, you can trust that the items you purchase are in accordance with the standards of the Third-Party Authenticators who rendered the assessment. Should any information arise challenging that assessment by the Third-Party Authenticator, it will be the responsibility of PWCC to manage the matter on behalf of our buyer.

Active Sale Guarantee

Any professionally-graded card which is determined to be altered while in possession of PWCC will not be sold. PWCC will work with the Third-Party Authenticators to have the item removed from the market.

Past Sale Guarantee

Should a professionally-graded card previously sold by PWCC be determined to be altered, that sale becomes null and void and the buyer is entitled to a full refund of the purchase price. This guarantee applies to sales dating back to January 1, 2015, which marks the start of PWCC’s complete sales record database.

Alteration will be determined using the following procedure

• Should PWCC become aware of suspicion of possible alteration of an asset previously sold by PWCC, PWCC will contact the original buyer, share with him or her the details, and ask for him or her to return the asset to PWCC.
• Upon receiving the asset, PWCC will review the asset and if the suspicion is shared, PWCC will send the asset back to the original Third-Party Authenticator for their official assessment.
• If the original Third-Party Authenticator agrees that alteration has indeed occurred, the following will happen:
  • PWCC will issue a full refund of the purchase price to the buyer.
  • PWCC will work with the Third-Party Authenticator to remove the asset from their serial database, remove it from circulation, or re-grade the asset with the appropriate qualifier.
  • PWCC will not work with any submitter who behaves in a way detrimental to the marketplace, including a pattern of submitting altered assets to either PWCC or the Third-Party Authenticator.