I came in as a kid with a shoebox

I did not come into this industry as a businessman. I came in as a kid with a shoebox.

Growing up, money was tight. I was lucky to get to two games a year, and I remember every one of them — the walk up the ramp, the first look at the field, the card I saved up for on the way home. I could not buy much, but I could love it completely. That love never left, and it is the only reason HSA Grading exists.

As I got older and started submitting cards of my own, something did not sit right with me. The work of grading a card does not change with the card's value — the same eyes, the same lights, the same measurements. Yet collectors were being priced by declared value, pushed into tiers, and quietly charged more for caring about something more. Good, honest collectors were being left out of their own hobby.

So I built the company I wished existed when I was that kid. One flat fee. No tiers. No declared-value upcharges. Every card treated with the same care, whether it came out of a vault or out of a shoebox under a bed.

HSA Grading runs on zero tolerance when it comes to transparency and honesty. Every card is inspected with AI-assisted imaging and confirmed by experienced human graders. Every grade is documented. Every slab is sealed and serialized so anyone, anywhere, can trace it. If we are ever wrong, we say so and we make it right. There is no version of this business where we shade the truth to protect a sale.

I care more about this industry than I do about what I take out of it. If a collector can afford to grade the cards they love, if an investor can trust the number on the label, and if a kid with a shoebox can hold a slab that says their card mattered — then we are doing the job right. That is the standard I hold this company to, and I hold myself to it first.

Thank you for trusting us with your cards. We know exactly what they mean, because they mean the same thing to us.