Refund policy

Return & Refund Policy

Collectibles are a high-value market, and card substitution is a known problem. Everything below exists so that honest customers are looked after properly and nobody else gets anywhere. Please read it before you order.

Every Item is Recorded Before it Leaves Us

This is the part that matters most, so it goes first. Before dispatch, every order is documented in detail:

Single Cards: Every single card is photographed front and back in high resolution, capturing centering, edges, corners, surface, and print pattern.
Graded Slabs: Certification numbers are photographed and recorded directly against your order.
Orders Above £200: Packed under camera and sealed with numbered, tamper-evident security tape. The seal number is recorded against your order.
Sealed Product: Photographed from all sides, including the factory seal, prior to dispatch.

These records are kept for six years. Any item returned to us is checked against them. If a returned item is not the item we dispatched, no refund is due because the goods we supplied have not been returned. We will keep the item, report the matter to the police and your payment provider, and share our records with both. We have never had to do this and we would rather never have to.

Changed Your Mind? (14-Day Online Returns)

Online orders can be cancelled within 14 days of delivery. Here is how to handle your return:

Get an Authorisation Number: Email hamilton.collect@gmail.com within that window to request a return authorisation number. Returns sent without a number cannot be matched to our dispatch records and your refund will be held until we can verify the contents. Get the number first — it takes one email.
Return Postage: Return postage for a change of mind is yours to cover. Send it tracked and insured. Until the parcel reaches us it remains your responsibility, and an uninsured parcel that goes missing is not something we can refund.
Send Promptly: The statutory return period runs for 14 days from the date you notify us, but we ask that you don't sit on it. The sooner a card is back, the sooner it's checked and refunded.

Condition of Returns

You're entitled to examine an item the way you could in a shop. You are not entitled to use it, open it, or reduce its value. Where an item comes back worth less than it went out, we will reduce the refund by the difference. This is what the regulations allow, and in this market the differences are large.

Category	Condition Requirements & Terms
Sealed Product Boxes, ETBs, Packs	The seal is the product. A sealed booster box, ETB, or pack has its value precisely because it has never been opened. Sealed items must be returned with the factory seal fully intact and undamaged. If returned opened, damaged, resealed, or tampered with, the refund will be reduced to what the item is actually worth to us in that state (which for an opened box is a small fraction of the price paid and may be nothing at all). If you are buying sealed product to open it, open it knowing you own it.
Graded Cards Slabs	Graded slabs must come back with the case unopened and undamaged, the label intact, and the certification number matching the one recorded against your order. A cracked, damaged, or tampered slab cannot be returned because the grade no longer travels with the card. Unmatched certification numbers will be handled as fraudulent returns.
Single Cards Raw Singles	Raw singles must be returned in the sleeve and toploader or semi-rigid they arrived in, in the same condition, and must match our dispatch photographs. Where a returned card shows damage not present in our records, the refund will be reduced accordingly or declined.

Something's Genuinely Wrong With It

Separately from all of the above, if an item is faulty, damaged in transit, or not as we described it, you have 30 days to reject it for a full refund, and we cover return postage.

Before returning anything, email hamilton.collect@gmail.com with photographs of the item and the packaging as it arrived. Most issues are resolved from the photographs alone without you posting anything back.

"Not as described" includes condition. If we graded a card Near Mint and you believe it is Lightly Played, that is a legitimate claim and we want to hear it. We grade conservatively and we'd rather correct a mistake than defend one. We assess these claims against our dispatch records, in good faith and quickly.

Returns We Cannot Accept

Any item that does not match our dispatch photographs or recorded certification number.
Sealed product with a broken, damaged, or tampered seal, except at reduced value as set out above.
Slabs that have been cracked, opened, or damaged.
Items returned after the 14-day window without a fault.
Items returned without a return authorisation number where we cannot verify the contents.

Bought In The Shop

In-person purchases carry no automatic right to change your mind — that right applies to distance selling only. Your rights on faulty or misdescribed goods are identical. We encourage you to examine anything you're buying at the counter before you pay. Take your time, use the light, ask for the loupe. That's what it's there for.

Card Services

Restoration, screening, and assessment are services rather than physical goods and work differently. Please see our separate Terms of Service for full details on service work.

Refunds Processing

Once a return has been received and checked against our records, refunds are issued to the original payment method within 14 days. Checking a high-value return properly takes time and we won't rush it.

Original delivery charges are refunded at our standard rate. If you paid extra for express delivery, the difference is not refundable.