What Is a Trading Card Slab?

A slab is the tamper-evident, ultrasonically-sealed plastic case that a grading house (PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC) encapsulates a card in after assigning a grade. The slab carries the assigned grade, a unique certification number, and (in BGS and CGC's case) the subgrades. Once sealed, the card cannot be removed without destroying the slab, which is how authenticity transfers to resale buyers.

Detailed explanation

The slab is the commercial unit of graded card collecting. It is more than a holder — it is a contract between the grading house and the market. A PSA, BGS, CGC, or SGC slab states: this card was inspected, graded by this house, against this published rubric, and the assigned grade is permanently associated with the certification number on the label. Anyone can verify the cert on the grader's website to confirm authenticity and grade.

Slabs are constructed from two clear plastic shells ultrasonically welded together with a foam or rigid inner support. The card is held without adhesive, in a custom-shaped recess sized to its dimensions. Attempting to open a slab cracks the welds visibly, voiding the grade authority and the resale premium.

Common misconception: re-slabbing a card preserves the grade. It does not — once removed from its original slab, the card must be re-graded (a crossover or re-submit). The new grade may differ from the original.

Worked example

A 1999 Pokémon Charizard graded PSA 9 sits in a sealed PSA slab with cert number 12345678. A buyer scans the cert number on psacard.com, confirms it matches the photograph, and pays approximately $4,500 with confidence. The same Charizard raw might sell at $1,200-$1,800 with significant authentication discount.