Guide
How WaxRoom picks and ships real graded cards
Every WaxRoom pack holds one real, professionally graded trading card. This page explains which cards go into packs, how the card in your pack is decided, and what happens when you ask for it to be shipped.
WaxRoom is not open yet and nothing is for sale. This is how it is being built to work, and details may change before launch.
Only cards that are already graded
WaxRoom does not grade cards. Every card in a WaxRoom pack has already been graded by a professional grading company and sealed in its slab. The packs being built today use cards graded by PSA, the largest grading company for trading cards. If PSA grades are new to you, start with PSA graded Pokémon cards explained.
A card in a pack is a specific card in a specific grade: for example, one particular Pokémon card in PSA 9. That card and grade is what you receive if you ship it.
How cards are chosen for a pack
Not every graded card makes it into a pack. A card is used only when:
- It sells often enough to price. There have to be enough recent completed sales of the same card in the same grade to estimate what it is worth today. Cards that rarely sell, or whose sale prices jump around too much to read, are left out.
- It fits the pack's theme. Packs are built around a theme, such as one Pokémon, one era or one sport, and each pack has its own checklist.
- It can be shown properly. The app shows a picture of every card. That picture may be an example image of the card in that grade rather than a photo of the exact slab you receive.
A card's value is estimated from recent completed sales of that card in that grade, with newer sales counting for more than older ones, because card prices move over time.
How the card in your pack is decided
- Before you open anything, the pack shows the cards it can hold.
- When you open the pack, WaxRoom's servers draw one card from that pack's list and assign it to you.
- Only then does the opening animation start. The animation is a presentation of a result that is already fixed: skipping it or watching it again never changes the card.
What happens after you open a pack
Your card is saved to My Vault in the app. There is no rush to decide. You have three choices:
Keep it
Leave the card in My Vault with its grade and picture, and come back to it whenever you like.
Ship it
Ask for the real card to be mailed to you in its grading slab:
- Choose Ship it and enter your address. The shipping cost is shown before you confirm.
- WaxRoom prepares the card and sends it in packaging meant to protect the slab. The app shows the shipment's progress, with tracking.
- Higher-value cards may need a signature on delivery.
When the card arrives, look up the certification number printed on the slab's label on PSA's website. The listing should match the card and grade you pulled.
Trade it in
Trade the card back to WaxRoom for WaxRoom credit, which you can use toward another pack. The credit you would get is shown before you confirm. Trade-ins give credit, not cash.
Who is behind WaxRoom
WaxRoom is made by the team behind CardGrader.AI, the AI app for grading and pricing trading cards, and LobbyLab, where you make multiplayer games with AI. WaxRoom is planned for adults 18 and over in the United States. Some packs may not be available in every state.
New to the idea of opening packs in an app? Read what a digital card pack is.