PSA Cert Lookup: How to Verify a PSA Slab Is Real

A PSA cert lookup means entering the 8 to 10 digit certification number from the slab label at psacard.com/cert, or scanning the label's QR code, and comparing the returned record to the card in hand. The lookup confirms the number exists; the label, the holder and the SecureScan images confirm that this slab is the one the number belongs to.

How do you do a PSA cert lookup?

Go to PSA's Cert Verification page, type the certification number exactly as printed on the label, and submit. The record loads in a second or two. On a modern slab you can skip the typing by scanning the QR code on the back of the label with any phone camera, which opens the same page for that cert.

The cert number sits on the front of the label under the barcode, right-aligned, and appears again beside the QR code on the back. Copy every digit; a single wrong character returns a different card or nothing. PSA also builds the lookup into its own app, listed on the App Store as PSA: Card Scanner and Grading, which scans the label and opens the record alongside recent sale prices.

Three outcomes are possible. A record that matches the card, grade and label in front of you is the expected case. No record, or a record for a different card, means the slab is counterfeit or the label has been swapped, and you should walk away. A record that matches on paper but whose images show a different copy of the same card is the case the rest of this post is about.

What does the PSA cert record show?

The record shows the card's description as PSA labeled it (year, set, card number, player or character, any variation), the grade, any qualifier, and for most cards graded since 2019 a front and back scan of the exact card PSA sealed. Some records also carry a population figure for that card at that grade and higher.

The scans come from PSA's SecureScan program, launched in June 2019 for Super Express orders and above and since extended to Regular and higher tiers. PSA images the card in-house before encapsulation and will not accept customer photos, which is what makes the picture worth something: it is the card as it existed inside PSA's building. Cards graded before 2019, and many that went through the cheaper Value tiers, have no image, and a record without an image is not suspicious by itself.

What the record does not show is a serial number for the holder, the submitter's name, the grading date on older certs, or whether the card has changed hands. It is a description, a grade and, where available, a picture. Every other check in this post exists because a description and a grade can be copied onto a fake label in an afternoon.

What is the PSA Lighthouse label?

The Lighthouse label is the label design PSA introduced in June 2017, and every card PSA has graded since carries it. Its four security features are a hologram that switches on and off as the slab is tilted, a background printed in fugitive ink, a QR code on the back that opens the cert record, and a PSA logo on the back that reveals a pattern of smaller logos under ultraviolet light.

PSA described the launch as the largest security upgrade in its history at the time, in an announcement carried by Blowout Cards. The features, and what each one is for, are:

A slab with a pre-2017 label is not fake for that reason; millions of older PSA holders are still in circulation with flat holograms and no QR code. But an old-style label on a card that the cert record says was graded recently is a contradiction, and GameStop, for one, only buys slabs carrying the Lighthouse label.

Does PSA use NFC?

No. As of September 2026 PSA card holders do not contain an NFC chip, and no PSA slab can be verified by tapping a phone to it. The only verification channels PSA provides are the cert number, the QR code and the app's label scan. Anyone selling a "tap to verify" PSA slab is describing a third-party sticker or a different company's product.

The confusion comes from two places. PCGS, PSA's sister company for coins under the Collectors umbrella, has embedded NFC chips in its coin holders since 2020, and a 2019 forum rumor said cards would follow; they have not. Separately, a company called NFC Authenticators announced a chip-based verification platform for graded cards in May 2026, reported by Sports Card Radio, and PSA is not part of it. If PSA adds NFC, the cert page will say so; until then treat any chip on a PSA slab as an add-on with no PSA standing.

What are the tells of a fake PSA slab?

A fake PSA slab usually fails on the holder before it fails on the label, because label printing has become good and ultrasonic welding has not. Check the plastic first, then the label, then the card against the images, in that order. Guides from Slabfy and Figoca converge on the same list:

• Weld seams. A genuine holder has an even, factory-consistent ultrasonic weld around the full perimeter. Frosting, gaps, glue residue, a seam that flexes or pops, or a seam wider on one edge means the holder was opened or never welded.
• Hologram behavior. The Lighthouse logo must switch on and off as you tilt it and stay sharp under a loupe. A hologram that is static, blurry or the wrong color temperature is the single most common giveaway.
• Embossed logo. The PSA logo molded into the plastic, lower right on the front, should be crisply raised and catch a fingernail. Fakes are shallow or printed flat.
• Label typography. Compare font weight, spacing and alignment to a slab you know is real. Soft text, a crooked label or a red that is slightly off are all reprint signs.
• Transparency. Hold the slab to a bright light. A real label lets the reverse text show faintly through; double-layered fake inserts look opaque.
• UV. A pocket UV torch should light up the hidden logo pattern on the back. No pattern, no label.
• Grade against the card. A PSA 10 with a visible corner tick is not a PSA 10. The gem mint requirements are public, and a slab that violates them is either a fake or a genuine slab PSA got wrong; either way, do not pay the 10 price.
• Price and seller. A slab 40 to 50 percent under recent sold comps, from a new account, with stock photos, is the pattern in almost every reported case.

The two frauds that beat a plain cert lookup are cert cloning and card swapping. In cloning, a scammer copies a real cert number from a completed auction photo and prints it on a fake label for the same card, so the lookup passes. In swapping, a genuine slab is cracked, a lower-grade or counterfeit copy is inserted, and the holder is glued shut, so the label and hologram are real. The SecureScan image defeats both: centering, print dots, a scratch on the holo or a nick on an edge are fingerprints, and the card in your hand must match them. For the underlying card, our guide to spotting fake sports cards covers stock, print and color tells that apply inside a holder as much as outside.

How do you check a reholdered card?

A reholdered PSA card keeps its original cert number and grade; PSA's reholder service moves the card into a current holder with a current label, and nothing on the record changes. So a Lighthouse label with a low, old-format cert number is normal, and a fresh-looking holder does not mean a fresh grade. What you cannot assume is that the card was regraded.

Two checks apply. First, run the cert and confirm the description and grade match the new label exactly; a reholder that changed the grade did not happen, so any mismatch is a swap. Second, look for a SecureScan image. PSA images cards during reholdering, so a reholdered card often has a picture where the original submission did not, and that picture should match your card. If the record has no image and the holder is new, ask the seller for the reholder paperwork or PSA order number; a legitimate reholder leaves a paper trail.

Older PSA services could also review a card for a possible grade change, which does issue a new cert. A seller claiming a card was "bumped on review" should be able to show a cert whose record matches the new grade, not the old number with a different label.

Checklist for buying graded cards online

Buying a slab online means verifying from photographs, so the checklist shifts toward what a seller can and cannot fake in a listing. Work through it before bidding, not after.

1. Ask for the cert number in the listing text and run it on PSA's page yourself. Do not rely on a screenshot of the lookup.
2. Compare the record images to the listing photos at full size: centering, holo scratches, print dots, edge nicks. If the record has no image, weight the remaining checks more heavily.
3. Require real photos of both sides of this slab, including the back of the label with the QR code, and an in-hand video for anything over a few hundred dollars. Stock images and cropped labels are declines.
4. Search the cert number on eBay and Google. A number that appears in two live listings, or in a sold listing for a different copy, is cloned.
5. Check the seller: feedback history in graded cards specifically, not consoles or shoes.
6. Check the price against recent sold results for that card in that grade. Our post on PSA vs BGS vs SGC covers why the same grade sells differently across holders, which matters when a listing quotes the wrong company's comps.
7. Pay with buyer protection and inspect the seams, hologram and UV logo the day it arrives, while a return is still open.

A scan of the slab with SnapCard reads the grade and cert number off PSA, BGS, SGC and CGC labels and puts the recent sale records for that card and grade next to it, which handles steps one and six in the time it takes to photograph the label. It does not replace the weld and hologram checks, and it does not tell you whether the card inside is the card PSA imaged; nothing but your eyes and the SecureScan picture do that.

Fees and turnarounds for getting a raw card into a slab are in our guides to PSA grading tiers and GameStop PSA grading, and GameStop's buyback counter runs the same cert check described here before it pays.

Bottom line

A PSA cert lookup at psacard.com/cert, or by scanning the label's QR code, confirms in seconds that a certification number exists and what card and grade PSA attached to it. It cannot confirm that the slab in front of you is that slab, because real cert numbers are cloned onto fake labels and genuine holders are cracked and reglued. Verify the number, match the SecureScan image to the card, tilt the Lighthouse hologram, check the weld seams and the UV logo, and buy only from listings that show every one of those.