GradePrep Terms
GradePrep Terms
The terms under which Rippex Card Vault cleans, inspects and assesses cards, and issues a Rippex Grade Recommendation, before those cards are submitted for third-party grading.
1.Definitions
For these Terms:
- RCV means Rippex Card Vault Ltd, trading as Rippex.
- GradePrep means the RCV service described in section 2, marketed as Rippex GradePrep.
- Customer means the person or business who books GradePrep and sends cards to RCV under these Terms.
- Card means each individual trading card the Customer sends to RCV for GradePrep.
- GradePrep Fee means the amount payable for GradePrep, calculated from the per-card price band applicable to the number of Cards booked, plus any add-on the Customer selects.
- Grade Recommendation means RCV's written opinion on the likely grading range of a Card and what is most likely to hold that Card back, as described in section 9.
- Grading Company means any third-party card grading service, such as PSA, BGS, SGC or another grader, to which the Customer may afterwards submit their Cards. RCV is not a Grading Company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting as agent for any of them.
- Evidenced Fair Market Value means the value of a Card at the time of the loss or damage, established by evidence the Customer provides, such as recent completed public sales of the same Card in the same condition, a professional valuation, or a purchase receipt of a reasonable age.
- Working Day means Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in England.
2.What GradePrep Is
GradePrep is a preparation and assessment service. RCV inspects each Card under proper lighting and magnification, carries out a safe surface clean, inspects it again, and issues a Grade Recommendation together with a marked-up diagram of the Card showing where each defect sits, front and back, with photographs of the defects worth seeing.
GradePrep is a service RCV performs on the Customer's own Cards. RCV does not buy, sell or take ownership of the Cards at any point, and nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of any Card to RCV.
RCV does not grade Cards, does not submit Cards to a Grading Company on the Customer's behalf, and has no influence over what any Grading Company decides.
3.Booking and Payment
GradePrep is booked online. The Customer states how many Cards they are sending and selects any add-on, and the GradePrep Fee for that booking is shown before payment. The GradePrep Fee is payable in full at the time of booking through RCV's payment provider, and the booking is confirmed when that payment completes.
The per-card price depends on the number of Cards booked. If the number of Cards RCV actually receives differs from the number booked, RCV will contact the Customer before starting work. Where fewer Cards arrive, RCV refunds the difference. Where more arrive, RCV will either invoice the difference or return the extra Cards unworked, as the Customer prefers; where the Customer chooses to be invoiced, RCV does not begin work on the order until that invoice has been paid, and the Cards are held securely in the meantime.
The GradePrep Fee covers the work described in section 7 only. Return postage and any insurance the Customer chooses for the return leg are charged separately, at cost, as set out in section 12.
RCV is registered for VAT. Every price shown includes VAT at the rate in force, and this applies equally to the GradePrep Fee, to return postage and insurance, and to any charge for Cards received over the number booked. A VAT invoice for each payment is available in the Customer's hub at rippex.co.uk/myhub as soon as the payment completes.
4.Ownership and Authority
The Customer confirms that they are the legal owner of every Card they send, or that they have the owner's authority to send it and to agree these Terms on the owner's behalf.
RCV may refuse to work on, and may decline to return other than to the sender, any Card it has reasonable grounds to believe is stolen, counterfeit or subject to a dispute over ownership.
5.Sending Your Cards
The Customer sends their Cards to RCV at their own cost and by whatever means they choose. RCV recommends a tracked, insured service, but does not require one. Each Card should be sent in a penny sleeve and a semi-rigid holder or equivalent protection.
Risk in the Customer's Cards remains with the Customer until RCV has logged them as received. Completing a booking does not constitute confirmation that RCV has received anything.
The Customer should include their booking reference with the parcel. Cards that arrive with no reference and no way to identify the sender are held securely while RCV tries to trace them, and RCV cannot begin work on them until it can match them to a booking.
6.Receipt and Inspection
RCV logs each Card in on arrival, records its condition as received, and confirms receipt to the Customer. That confirmation is the point at which risk passes to RCV, subject to sections 14 and 15.
RCV inspects each Card before any cleaning takes place and records any defect it finds at that stage. A defect present when a Card arrives is a pre-existing defect, whether or not the Customer was aware of it, and section 15 excludes RCV's liability for pre-existing defects.
7.What GradePrep Includes
For each Card, the GradePrep Fee covers inspection under proper lighting and magnification across surface, corners, edges and centering; a safe surface clean lifting dust, fingerprints and appropriate contaminants, with light preparation and polish where it helps; a further inspection after preparation, so the assessment reflects the Card as it will be submitted; a Grade Recommendation; a marked-up diagram of the Card showing where each defect sits, front and back, with photographs of the defects that matter; and a new penny sleeve and semi-rigid holder for the journey home.
The results are published to the Customer's hub on rippex.co.uk and the Customer is emailed when they are ready.
Slab removal add-on. Where the Customer selects the slab removal add-on for a Card that arrives in a Grading Company's sealed holder, RCV carefully breaks that holder open and removes the Card before the work above begins. Breaking a sealed holder permanently destroys the holder and any grade attached to it, and it cannot be reversed; by selecting the add-on the Customer accepts this. RCV uses the care and method it considers safest for the Card, and section 15 applies to the Card itself as it does to every other Card; RCV accepts no liability for the holder, the label, or the loss of the previously assigned grade, all of which the add-on necessarily destroys.
Slab Rehab add-on. Where the Customer selects the Slab Rehab add-on for a Card in a Grading Company's sealed holder, RCV polishes the outside of that holder to reduce scratches and scuffs on its surfaces. The holder stays sealed and the Card inside it is never touched. Slab Rehab is charged per holder for the work carried out; how far a holder improves depends on the depth and nature of its marks, most improve substantially, some barely at all, and deep gouges, cracks and marks inside the holder cannot be polished out. RCV does not guarantee any particular result, records the outcome honestly with before and after photographs, and the fee is not refunded where a holder does not improve. RCV may decline to work on a holder it judges unsuitable, in which case that holder's Slab Rehab fee is refunded and the holder is returned as it arrived.
Slab work on its own. Slab removal and Slab Rehab may each be booked without any Card being booked for GradePrep. A booking must include at least one Card for GradePrep, one slab removal or one Slab Rehab. Where slab work is booked on its own, the GradePrep Fee is the charge for that work, sections 7 to 9 apply only so far as they describe that work, and no Grade Recommendation or report of the Card's condition is provided.
8.What GradePrep Does Not Include
GradePrep does not remove dents or creases, does not flatten Cards, and does not carry out aggressive scratch removal, trimming, recolouring, resurfacing or any other form of restoration or alteration. RCV carries out only the preparation it considers safe and appropriate for the Card in front of it.
GradePrep does not include submission to a Grading Company, any grading fee, or any dealing with a Grading Company on the Customer's behalf. Submitting Cards for grading afterwards, and paying for it, is a matter for the Customer.
GradePrep does not include valuation of a Card, an opinion on authenticity, or advice on whether to buy or sell.
9.The Grade Recommendation
A Grade Recommendation is RCV's professional opinion of the likely grading range of a Card based on its visible condition at the time RCV assessed it, together with a clear call on what to do next, which is one of Grade or Not Recommended. Where a Card is Not Recommended, the Customer may choose to have it fitted into a MADE. protective piece before it is returned; that purchase is made under the MADE. Terms.
A Grade Recommendation is not a grade, is not a guarantee of any grade, and does not bind any Grading Company. Final grades are determined solely by the Grading Company, on its own criteria, at its own discretion, and may differ from RCV's opinion. RCV is not liable for the outcome of any grading submission, for any grading fee the Customer pays, or for any difference between a Grade Recommendation and the grade a Card is later given.
A Card's condition can change after it leaves RCV. A Grade Recommendation describes the Card as RCV assessed it and nothing more.
10.Cards RCV May Decline
RCV may decline to work on any Card. In practice this applies to Cards already sealed in a grading holder, Cards which appear to have been trimmed, recoloured or otherwise altered, and Cards where cleaning carries an obvious risk of making the Card worse, such as heavy residue, flaking or lifting ink, water damage or an existing crease along a printed edge.
Where RCV declines a Card, RCV tells the Customer why, refunds that Card's share of the GradePrep Fee, and returns the Card with the rest of the order. RCV would rather return a Card untouched than risk damaging it.
11.Turnaround
RCV aims to complete GradePrep within 10 Working Days of logging the Customer's Cards as received, and will tell the Customer if an order is going to take longer than that.
This is a target and not a guarantee. RCV will not rush an assessment to meet it, because a hurried assessment is worth less than a late one.
12.Returning Your Cards
Once the results are ready, RCV weighs the actual parcel to be returned and contacts the Customer with the return shipping options and their cost. The Customer chooses the service and, if they wish, additional insurance, and pays for that shipping and any insurance separately from the GradePrep Fee, at cost, before dispatch. RCV will not apply any hidden markup to these costs.
Each shipping service carries its own built-in level of compensation, shown to the Customer when they choose it. A Customer who does not add insurance is covered only to that service's own limit, not to the Card's full value.
Once a parcel has left RCV's possession, responsibility for loss, theft or damage in transit rests with the shipping service used and any insurance the Customer chose, not with RCV. This does not affect RCV's own responsibility for anything that happens to a Card while it remains in RCV's possession, which is addressed in sections 14 and 15.
RCV may charge reasonable storage fees where Cards remain uncollected, or where a Customer has not chosen a return service, after reasonable notice.
13.Cancellation and Refunds
The Customer may cancel a GradePrep booking at any time before RCV has begun work on it, and the GradePrep Fee is refunded in full. This applies whether or not the Cards have arrived: what matters is whether work has started.
Once RCV has begun work on an order, the GradePrep Fee is not refundable, except where these Terms or the law provide otherwise. Sections 3 and 10 already provide for refunds where fewer Cards arrive than were booked and where RCV declines a Card, and those refunds are made whether or not work has begun on the rest of the order.
Separately from the above, the Customer has a statutory right to cancel a service contract booked online within 14 days of the day the booking is made, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Where the Customer cancels within that 14 day period, RCV refunds the GradePrep Fee in full, whether or not work has begun, within 14 days of being told. After that period, the rule above applies.
Nothing in these Terms affects the Customer's statutory rights.
14.Care of Cards
RCV will exercise reasonable care while Cards remain in its possession. Cards are handled individually, stored securely between stages, and photographed on arrival and after preparation, so the condition of a Card at each stage is recorded rather than remembered.
Cleaning a Card carries an inherent risk, which is why section 8 limits GradePrep to a safe surface clean and section 10 lets RCV decline a Card it is not comfortable working on. Where RCV judges that any cleaning would put a Card at risk, it will assess the Card without cleaning it and say so in the results, rather than proceed.
15.Limitation of Liability
Subject to applicable law, RCV's liability for loss of or damage to a Card while it is in RCV's custody shall not exceed the Card's Evidenced Fair Market Value at the time of the loss or damage.
RCV shall not be liable for pre-existing defects in a Card as described in section 6, for grading outcomes as described in section 9, for market fluctuations, for indirect, consequential or economic losses, or for events beyond its reasonable control, except where liability cannot lawfully be excluded.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes RCV's liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
16.Making a Claim
A Customer who believes a Card has been lost or damaged while in RCV's custody should email support@rippex.co.uk quoting their booking reference, within 14 days of receiving the returned parcel or, where a Card has not arrived back, within 14 days of the date RCV said it was dispatched.
RCV will acknowledge the claim within 2 Working Days and respond substantively within 10 Working Days. RCV will compare the Card against its own arrival and post-preparation photographs, which is the evidence a claim is assessed on, and will share those photographs with the Customer whatever the outcome.
Where RCV accepts a claim, it asks the Customer for evidence of the Card's Evidenced Fair Market Value and pays the amount set out in section 15 within 14 days of agreeing it. Where RCV does not accept a claim, it explains why, in writing, against those photographs.
17.Data Protection
RCV processes personal information in accordance with its Privacy Notice and applicable UK data protection legislation.
18.Electronic Signature
Ticking the acceptance statements and completing a booking constitutes the Customer's acceptance of these Terms for that booking.
RCV records the accepted terms version, the timestamp, and related audit information.
19.Amendments
RCV may update these Terms from time to time. The version accepted at the time a booking is made applies to that booking.
20.Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Contact
Rippex Card Vault Ltd
Registered in England and Wales, Company No. 16884256
VAT No. GB508441110
Registered office: 19 Orchard Street, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1RG
Consignments & correspondence: 25 Trussell Road, Bracknell, RG42 6DS
Website: rippex.co.uk
Email: support@rippex.co.uk