Research & Identification / Label Creation Turnaround Time Impact

Research & Identification/ Label Creation Turnaround Time Impact

General Service Impact

Ace Gradings general service currently has minimal to no impact against expected turnaround times.

What does this mean?

If your submission consists of cards already researched and identified on our systems and the card/s has had an Ace Label created previously, our current expectations are that submissions are being returned within estimated turnaround time.

Research & Identification

On receipt of submissions, if submissions consist of cards that are not currently databased our research team need to confirm legitimacy of general release and confirm card details against our name formatting standards.

Research & Identification current demand impact

What is a new card? This is a card that has not been received by Ace grading before and requires researching and adding to our database by our research team.
How will I know? If you complete a Classic submission and you cannot find your card on our dropdown, this is usually a good indicator that we have not received it before. More obscure cards, stickers or newly released sets will often need to be added to our database. Sports cards have large releases and often have unique characteristics such as parallels & have generally large variation that will require research.

Ace Label Request current demand impact

What is an Ace label request? If the card you have sent in has never received an Ace label before, then our artists will need to create the artwork for this. Most cards which need to be added to our database will also need to have artwork made for an Ace label.
How will I know? You can find all existing Ace labels on the website here. You will also receive a pop up notification when you select the labels for your submission if your Ace label needs to be created.

Current Ace label request delay (as advised on selection of Ace label)

Luxury - 1 business day delay

Ultra - 2 business day delay

Premier - 10 business day delay

Standard - 10 business day delay

Basic - 15 business day delay

Suggested Actions

Whilst we are working hard to ensure that all submissions are processed as quickly as possible, we have some helpful suggestions to guide customers who need to send in cards which potentially will face these delays.

If you have a mixed submission (cards which will not be delayed and new cards / cards with an Ace label request) we would strongly advise to split them into multiple submissions so that the cards we can process without delay are returned to you in line with the estimated turnaround time.
Consider the estimated delay timeframe into the turnaround time for your chosen service level ahead of completing the submission and avoid including cards that you need returned before this timeframe elapses with cards that will be delayed.
Opt to have a Colour Match or Standard label on your cards, instead of an Ace label, if you need the submission back within original turnaround time.

Any submitter who is submitting as a third party, we would strongly advise that you make your customers aware of the delay ahead of completing the submission as we cannot amend our turnaround times. Any submitters who are actively completing sales on the cards included in their submission, we would strongly advise that you make your customers aware of the delay ahead of completing the submission as we cannot amend our turnaround times.

Goodwill Considerations

Whilst we understand that delays can be a point of frustration and cause inconvenience for submitters, unfortunately, we are unable to offer goodwill to submitters for these particular delays.

We will endeavour to complete each submission as quickly as possible within the original estimated turnaround time or before any estimated delay timeframe elapses.

If you require an update on your submission at any point, you can contact Ace Customer Support for this who can advise whether your submission is delayed due to Research and/ or Label requests.

Should your submission not be completed by this extended deadline, customers are welcome to reach out to Ace Customer Support where our dedicated team will help and advise on a case by case basis.
Customers can access our Delayed Submission and Goodwill Policies on the website to review, ahead of reaching out to customer support, for further understanding & guidance on how we will approach these queries.

Ace Customer Support team cannot request for any submission that is waiting on Research & ID or Ace label creation to be processed any faster. Our Ingest and Illustration teams are working hard to complete the work required as quickly and efficiently as possible, whilst maintaining the high standards our customers know and love.

Ace Grading has already implemented priority lanes for affected submissions once submissions have moved forward from the impacted operational areas.

For example - If your submission has had the Ace label created & printed, the submission will progress as a priority throughout the rest of the process to completion.

Updated on: 02/02/2026

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