The Process
From your kitchen table to a certified grade, in four steps.
No shipping. No waiting list. No black-box scoring. Here's exactly what happens when you submit a card to Niagara.
Capture the card
Lay the card flat on a non-reflective surface in natural, even light. Shoot the full front and full back, edge-to-edge, with no shadows or glare. Keep the camera parallel to the card.
Tip: avoid sleeves and toploaders during capture — plastic glare confuses any vision model, ours included.
AI condition analysis
We hand both images to a vision model trained on grading principles. It scores four pillars on a 1.0–10.0 scale: centering, corners, edges, and surface — then rolls them into a final grade.
Decimal grades give you real signal: a 9.5 and a 9.0 are meaningfully different, and we never round the difference away.
Identification & valuation
The same pass identifies the card (set, year, number when possible) and produces a USD low–high market estimate keyed to the grade we just gave it.
The estimate is a market read, not an appraisal. Use it as a starting point, not a price tag.
Certificate & verification
You get an editorial slab-style certificate with both images, the grade breakdown, the value range, and a unique NCG scan ID. Print it, share it, or hand it to a buyer — anyone can look it up.
Public verification is the whole point. If a buyer can't confirm the grade independently, the grade isn't worth much.